A Threshold Crossed: On Genocidal Intent and the Duty to Prevent Genocide in Palestine

Abstract

By any measure, Israel's onslaught on Gaza is unprecedented.Israel claims that the killing of civilians is typical of warfare.Yet by the end of November 2023 it was clear that "even a conservative reading of the casualty figures" showed that "the pace of death during Israel's campaign has few precedents in this century." 1 It also showed that the proportion of civilian deaths is higher than all other conflicts in the twentieth century. 2 After the first three months of Israeli attacks, a military historian maintained that "Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history" that surpassed Allied bombings of Germany during World War II in a much shorter period of time.3 Doctors who entered Gaza said that it is not a "normal war," that it is worse than war zones they witnessed, 4 that the war's aim is "the destruction of all the components of modern life," 5 and is thus better described as an "annihilation."6 What these descriptions convey is that the military logic of defeating an enemy in war has been crossed into the genocidal logic of elimination.This logic of elimination is evident in many expressions of genocidal intent by Israeli officials and soldiers that South Africa's December 2023 application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) enumerates.7 These include statements by Israeli army generals who were leading troops in Beit Lahia and who told Israeli TV on 4 November 2023 that Gaza will

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