Amnesty International: “Gaza is a genocide!”

Dear all,

Things can never be the same again!

This Thursday, 5 December, should mark a historic turning point in the way the international community observes and takes into account acts of war and the conduct of the State of Israel in the occupied territory.

Today Amnesty International is publishing a report of several hundred pages (link in the postscript) whose conclusions are unequivocal: under the UN Convention of 9 December 1948 on the “crime of genocide”, the State of Israel has, since 7 October 2023, been committing genocide against Palestinian women and men in the Gaza Strip.

Genocide is no longer a fear, a risk, an opinion…: it is a fact!

This is the first time in its 64 years of existence that the international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights and international law has produced a report of this scale, so thoroughly documented and legally substantiated, reaching such a severe conclusion so convincingly.

This damning report for the State of Israel is far from neutral for a country like ours, which is among its traditional partners and allies. And we cannot help noting either that this is also the first time in modern history that a proven genocide has been carried out by the regular armed forces of a country regarded as democratic.

Under international law, the finding of an ongoing genocide places a historic responsibility on all countries – and particularly on Israel’s traditional allies – to work to end the genocidal acts. It also gives each of us individually, as Belgian citizens, the moral responsibility to do what we reasonably can to ensure that our country acts in this direction and, in particular, that our government follows up on the measures ordered by the International Court of Justice since 26 January 2024.

Thank you for talking about it,

Thank you for writing,

Thank you for taking action.

Kind regards,