Hi Justin,
Another particularly extremely thoughtful piece on the issue.
Avram
Famine Expert: Israels Starvation of Gaza Most Minutely Designed and
Controlled Since WWII | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/famine-expert-israel-s-starvation-of-gaza-most-minutely-designed-and-controlled-since-wwii
On Mon, Aug 4, 2025 at 12:58 PM Aram James
wrote:
> Hey Justin,
>
> Here is a bit more
> Information on the
> Genocide.
>
> Avram
>
> Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing
> genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
>
> Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude
> that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against
> Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a
> landmark new report published today.
>
> The report, *‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against
> Palestinians in Gaza
> *, documents
> how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly
> Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has
> unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly,
> continuously and with total impunity.
>
> “Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out
> acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to
> destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious
> bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza
> conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction.
> Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman
> group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to
> physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of
> Amnesty International.
>
> “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international
> community: this is genocide. It must stop now.
>
> “States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know
> they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of
> becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel,
> particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU
> member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities
> against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”
>
> Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the
> North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation,
> displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating
> restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.
>
> “Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing
> genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on
> Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless
> warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally
> binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ)
> ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of
> humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard.
>
> “Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can
> be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent
> can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole
> intent.”
>
> Amnesty International examined Israel’s acts in Gaza closely and in their
> totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence,
> and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually
> reinforcing consequences. The organization considered the scale and
> severity of the casualties and destruction over time. It also analysed
> public statements by officials, finding that prohibited acts were often
> announced or called for in the first place by high-level officials in
> charge of the war efforts.
>
> “Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid
> and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed,
> we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the
> physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or
> as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” said Agnès
> Callamard.
>
> “The atrocity crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed
> groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including
> deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel’s
> genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
>
> International jurisprudence recognizes that the perpetrator does not need
> to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in
> whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed. The commission of
> prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, is
> sufficient.
>
> Amnesty International’s report examines in detail Israel’s violations in
> Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. The
> organization interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and
> witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, healthcare workers, conducted
> fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence,
> including satellite imagery. It also analysed statements by senior Israeli
> government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies. On multiple
> occasions, the organization shared its findings with the Israeli
> authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of
> publication.
> *Unprecedented scale and magnitude*
>
> Israel’s actions following Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October 2023 have
> brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse. Its brutal military
> offensive had killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300
> children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in
> direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire
> multigenerational families. It has caused unprecedented destruction, which
> experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in
> the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical
> infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites. It
> thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.
>
> Mohammed, who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah in March 2024
> and was displaced again in May 2024, described their struggle to survive in
> horrifying conditions:
>
> “Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your
> children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no
> toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman
> here.”
>
> Israel imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of
> malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow,
> calculated death. Israel also subjected hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza
> to incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.
>
> Viewed in isolation, some of the acts investigated by Amnesty
> International constitute serious violations of international humanitarian
> law or international human rights law. But in looking at the broader
> picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its
> policies and acts, genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion.
> *Intent to destroy*
>
> To establish Israel’s specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians
> in Gaza, as such, Amnesty International analysed the overall pattern of
> Israel’s conduct in Gaza, reviewed dehumanizing and genocidal statements by
> Israeli government and military officials, particularly those at the
> highest levels, and considered the context of Israel’s system of apartheid,
> its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military
> occupation of the Palestinian territory.
>
> Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s
> claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups
> throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and
> denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed
> groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the
> diversion of aid. The organization concluded these claims are not credible.
> The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does
> not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to
> spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. Its
> research found Israel repeatedly failed to do so, committing multiple
> crimes under international law for which there can be no justification
> based on Hamas’s actions. Amnesty International also found no evidence that
> the diversion of aid could explain Israel’s extreme and deliberate
> restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.
>
> In its analysis, the organization also considered alternative arguments
> such as ones that Israel was acting recklessly or that it simply wanted to
> destroy Hamas and did not care if it needed to destroy Palestinians in the
> process, demonstrating a callous disregard for their lives rather than
> genocidal intent.
>
> Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international
> community: this is genocide. It must stop now.
> Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International
>
> However, regardless of whether Israel sees the destruction of Palestinians
> as instrumental to destroying Hamas or as an acceptable by-product of this
> goal, this view of Palestinians as disposable and not worthy of
> consideration is in itself evidence of genocidal intent.
>
> Many of the unlawful acts documented by Amnesty International were
> preceded by officials urging their implementation. The organization
> reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military
> officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 and
> dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other
> crimes against them.
>
> Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior
> officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or
> justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent.
> This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on
> the ground, as evidenced by audiovisual content verified by Amnesty
> International showing soldiers making calls to “erase” Gaza or to make it
> uninhabitable, and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes,
> mosques, schools and universities.
> *Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm*
>
> Amnesty International documented the genocidal acts of killing and causing
> serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the
> results of investigations it conducted into 15 air strikes between 7
> October 2023 and 20 April 2024 that killed at least 334 civilians,
> including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of others. Amnesty
> International found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at
> a military objective.
>
> In one illustrative case, on 20 April 2024, an Israeli air strike
> destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al-Jneinah neighbourhood in
> eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16
> children, while they were sleeping.
>
> While these represent just a fraction of Israel’s aerial attacks, they are
> indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and
> civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. The attacks were
> also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities
> and injuries among the civilian population.
> *Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical
> destruction*
>
> The report documents how Israel deliberately inflicted conditions of life
> on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction.
> These conditions were imposed through three simultaneous patterns that
> repeatedly compounded the effect of each other’s devastating impacts:
> damage to and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure and other
> objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; the
> repeated use of sweeping, arbitrary and confusing mass “evacuation” orders
> to forcibly displace almost all of Gaza’s population; and the denial and
> obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance
> and other life-saving supplies into and within Gaza.
>
> After 7 October 2023, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza cutting off
> electricity, water and fuel. In the nine months reviewed for this report,
> Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled
> access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian
> access within Gaza, and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving
> goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza. They
> thereby exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis. This, combined
> with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation
> facilities and agricultural land, and mass forced displacement, caused
> catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming
> rates. The impact was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or
> breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their
> health.
>
> The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to
> press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a
> ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on
> our collective conscience.
> Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International
>
> Time and again, Israel had the chance to improve the humanitarian
> situation in Gaza, yet for over a year it has repeatedly refused to take
> steps blatantly within its power to do so, such as opening sufficient
> access points to Gaza or lifting tight restrictions on what could enter the
> Strip or their obstruction of aid deliveries within Gaza while the
> situation has grown progressively worse.
>
> Through its repeated “evacuation” orders Israel displaced nearly 1.9
> million Palestinians – 90% of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking,
> unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions, some of them up to 10
> times. These multiple waves of forced displacement left many jobless and
> deeply traumatized, especially since some 70% of Gaza’s residents are
> refugees or descendants of refugees whose towns and villages were
> ethnically cleansed by Israel during the 1948 Nakba.
>
> Despite conditions quickly becoming unfit for human life, Israeli
> authorities refused to consider measures that would have protected
> displaced civilians and ensured their basic needs were met, showing that
> their actions were deliberate.
>
> They refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern
> Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian
> Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to
> return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948
> .
> They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to
> flee to.
> *Accountability for genocide*
>
> “The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year
> to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for
> a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain
> on our collective conscience,” said Agnès Callamard.
>
> “Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide,
> which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of
> international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or
> dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however
> uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.
>
> “The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Prime
> Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for
> war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month offer real hope of
> long-overdue justice for victims. States must demonstrate their respect for
> the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by
> arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.
>
> “We are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International
> Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of
> crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to
> bring perpetrators to justice. No one should be allowed to commit genocide
> and remain unpunished.”
>
> Amnesty International is also calling for all civilian hostages to be
> released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups
> responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account.
>
> The organization is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose
> targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in
> crimes under international law.
> *Background *
>
> On 7 October 2023 Hamas and other armed groups indiscriminately fired
> rockets into southern Israel and carried out deliberate mass killings and
> hostage-taking there
> ,
> killing 1,200 people, including over 800 civilians, and abducted 223
> civilians and captured 27 soldiers. The crimes perpetrated by Hamas and
> other armed groups during this attack will be the focus of a forthcoming
> Amnesty International report.
>
> Since October 2023, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth
> investigations into the multiple violations and crimes under international
> law committed by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians and
> civilian objects and deliberately indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds
> of civilians, as well as other unlawful attacks on and collective
> punishment of the civilian population. The organization has called on the
> Office of the ICC Prosecutor to expedite its investigation into the
> situation in the State of Palestine and is campaigning for an immediate
> ceasefire.
>
> *For the Hebrew translation of this press release, click here.
> *
>
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2025 at 12:29 PM Martin Wasserman
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Justin,
>>
>>
>> Israel declaring a unilateral cease-fire and leaving Hamas in power would
>> be a potential long-term disaster not only for Israel, but for the entire
>> civilized world. Hamas is just one branch of a larger movement called the
>> Muslim Brotherhood, which exists in various forms in many different
>> countries, including the US and most of Europe, and whose stated goal is
>> Islamic world domination. Hamas couldnt care less about the Gazans. In
>> fact, they see dead and starving Gazans as beneficial to their cause,
>> because it undermines international support for Israel, which they regard
>> as one of the chief impediments to their goal of world domination.
>>
>>
>> The MB knows it doesnt have the military strength to conquer the world
>> right now, so theyre very sharp-eyed for psychological weaknesses on the
>> part of their enemies. For Israel to allow Hamas to survive because of
>> humanitarian concern for Gazan civilians would be seen as a critical
>> psychological weakness which could be further exploited, not only of
>> Israel, but also of Western civilization itself which is pressuring Israel
>> in this regard. This would greatly embolden the MB worldwide and add to
>> their confidence that they’re on the right path.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Martin Wasserman
>>
>>
>> On Aug 4, 2025, at 9:14 AM, Justin Zalkin wrote:
>>
>> Hello —
>>
>> I see some exceptionally bright people on this thread who have differing
>> perspectives. For the folks who think Israel should immediately declare a
>> ceasefire, what are your perspectives on Hamas? And what do you anticipate
>> Hamas would most likely do with a ceasefire period?
>>
>> Hopefully everyone views famine among Gazans as horrible (regardless of
>> who is to blame). My fear is that a cessation of hostilities that leaves
>> Hamas governing would not lead to a good long term outcome for Gazans (or
>> Israelis). I am curious what others who have studied the conflict in more
>> detail think would most likely happen if Hamas were to continue governing.
>>
>>
>> All the Best,
>> Justin
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 1, 2025, at 10:56 AM, Aram James wrote:
>>
>> Subject: Your Stand on the Ceasefire
>>
>> Hi Henry,
>>
>> You were truly the only candidate for the Palo Alto City Council in 2024,
>> out of nine total candidates, who had the courage to unequivocally call for
>> a ceasefire. I attended the council meeting that night and remember your
>> speech very well.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Avram “ One State Solution” Finkelstein
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 1, 2025 at 10:31 AM, Henry Etzkowitz
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Marty
>>>
>>> Marty,
>>>
>>> Express away but the killing and starvation policy must stop, under UN
>>> armed supervision, of course. Who is to be the Ike who said, I will go to
>>> Korea during he 1952 election campaign, achieved a cease fire, that holds
>>> to this day, despite lack of a formal peace treaty.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Henry
>>>
>>> > On Aug 1, 2025, at 10:19 AM, Martin Wasserman
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Henry,
>>> >
>>> > One of my objections to “ceasefire now” is that it places all of the
>>> onus on Israel and demands nothing of Hamas, and gives Hamas breathing
>>> space to regroup and rearm so they can continue their policy of killing
>>> Jews.
>>> >
>>> > Marty
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >> On Aug 1, 2025, at 10:01 AM, Henry Etzkowitz
>>> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Dear Marty
>>> >>
>>> >> I have expressed my agreement in heron to Council on their general
>>> policy of excluding foreign policy issues However, like the attorney for
>>> the holocaust victim who successfully asked the US Supreme for a narrow
>>> exception to the statute of limitations, I argued to Council that there are
>>> certain issues that it behooves as as Palo Alto citizens to take a stand:
>>> Gaza cease fire now, is one! See council video of several months ago for my
>>> full statement.
>>> >>
>>> >> Best,
>>> >> Hillel
>>> >>> On Aug 1, 2025, at 9:43 AM, Martin Wasserman
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Theres no legitimate reason for city government to weigh in on
>>> foreign policy issues, especially in highly volatile areas like the Middle
>>> East. Such controversial resolutions change nothing in the Middle East and
>>> only promote conflict at home. Unless of course the goal is precisely to
>>> create conflict at home.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> Martin Wasserman
>>> >>>
>>> >>>
>>> >>>> On Aug 1, 2025, at 2:14 AM, Henry Etzkowitz
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>> Ps
>>> >>>> Upon reflection, accept your critique: cease fire requires
>>> repetition , will include in writings this topic until achieved
>>> >>>> www.triplehelix.net
>>> >>>>
>>> >>>>> On Jul 31, 2025, at 11:45 PM, Roberta Ahlquist <
>>> finnroberta@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Ok!🌷🦋
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> >>>>>
>>> >>>>>> On Jul 31, 2025, at 10:20 PM, Henry Etzkowitz
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> Agree with cease fire, and permanent treaty above and beyond.
>>> Aram, who was present, can assure you that I requested each council member
>>> individually and publicly to commit Palo Alto to call for cease fire.
>>> Video supposed to be available at city website.
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> Best
>>> >>>>>> Henry
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> >>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>>> On Jul 31, 2025, at 8:49 PM, Roberta Ahlquist <
>>> finnroberta@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Yes- and how about a ceasefire? Less abstract, more
>>> concrete...?🐸🦋
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> >>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>>> On Jul 31, 2025, at 1:08 PM, Henry Etzkowitz
>>> wrote:
>>> >>>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>>> Somewhere in Israel’s Governmental bureaucracy under an
>>> innocuous title, a “collective Eichmann” is at work meticulously designing
>>> the “crime of the new century” the systematic destruction the civil
>>> institutional environment of universities, businesses, and housing, with
>>> the intent and objective of atomizing the citizens of GAZA Palestine into a
>>> controllable mass. Attendant nutrition deprivation is an overlay on
>>> institutional and organizational deprivation, conducted in Mediterranean
>>> sunlight and international, if not Israeli, full media gaze. Rather than
>>> the inside pages of the New York Times where v Germany’s 20th century
>>> holocaust was relegated, this rolling, escalating genocide is on the front
>>> pages of the newspaper of record where all news that fits is published,
>>> sometimes ironically overshadowed by food recipes in the Internet Edition.
>>> The international community, led by Europe where the Holocaust was
>>> originated, collaborated, condoned and only sometimes resisted in the last
>>> century, must mitigate its indelible moral stain by heading off the
>>> Netenyahu regime’s scheme. Only a Jewish state founded on the ashes of the
>>> holocaust could have been given such leeway, not to forget Pol Pot’s
>>> Cambodia. Who will be the future Hannah Arendt to chronicle the ubiquity
>>> of evil?
>>> >>>>>>>>
>>> >>>>>>>> Sincerely
>>> >>>>>>>> Henry Etzkowitz
>>> >>>>>>>> Distinguished Fellow
>>> >>>>>>>> University of London, Birkbeck College, Centre for Innovation
>>> Management Research
>>> >>>>>>>> Co-founder, Neighbors for Environmental and Social Justice, 644
>>> Menlo Avenue, Menlo Park CA 94025
>>> >>>>>>>> RE Henry Etzkowitz et al vs Elon Musk et al Case number
>>> 24CV450485 Superior Court of California County of California, Downtown
>>> Courthouse 191 Notth First Street, San Jose CA 95113 civil division
>>> >>>>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>> >>>
>>> >>
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>
>>