[Intro – A Crater Where a Neighborhood Once Was]
There’s no poetry left in Gaza.
No metaphors.
Only numbers: 38,000 dead. Most of them women. Thousands of children.
And yet, Israel insists: this is not genocide.
Strange, isn’t it? How bombs can flatten entire neighborhoods, but a single word—genocide—feels too heavy to use.
But if this isn’t genocide, then what is?
The Power of Wordplay While People Die
Modern warfare doesn’t just bomb bodies. It bombs meaning.
You’ll hear it in every official statement: “We are targeting Hamas, not civilians.” “This is a defensive operation.” “We gave evacuation warnings.”
And always—always—the denial:
“We are not committing genocide.”
Because genocide is a crime. And crimes require accountability.
But if you change the language, you erase the crime.
They hide behind the word intent. As if warplanes that strike schools and refugee camps, again and again, are somehow directionless. As if the leaders saying things like…
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“We are fighting human animals.” — Defense Minister Yoav Gallant
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“An entire nation is responsible.” — President Isaac Herzog
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“Amalek” must be destroyed — Netanyahu’s biblical post
…don’t know exactly what they’re doing.
So Let’s Call It What It Is
Genocide is not only about gas chambers. It’s about intentional destruction of a people—in whole or in part.
The Genocide Convention is clear:
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Killing members of a group ✔
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Causing serious bodily or mental harm ✔
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Deliberately inflicting conditions of life to bring about destruction ✔
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Forcibly transferring children ✔
Gaza checks every box. And yet, the world hesitates.
Why?
Because calling it genocide means confronting what our silence has enabled. It means accountability—for the bombs, for the aid, for the vetoes in the UN.
It means admitting the truth:
That Israel isn’t just bombing Hamas.
It is erasing Gaza.
Whataboutism Is the New Denialism
Here’s the trick: every time we speak up, someone says, “But Hamas…”
As if that justifies everything.
But genocide is not a proportionate crime.
It doesn’t wait for balance. It doesn’t excuse itself with provocation.
When you trap 2 million people in a strip of land, starve them, bomb them, and say “this is justice”—you are not defending yourself.
You are dissolving the humanity of an entire people.
We’ve Heard This Before. And Stayed Quiet Before.
History is not blind. It’s watching.
And it will ask:
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Where were you when the mosques and churches were bombed?
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When the UN screamed warnings of a genocide in progress?
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When the last hospital fell and the incubators shut down?
We will say:
We debated terminology.
We weighed “context.”
We changed the channel.
But hey, what do I know. I just can’t unsee the rubble.
And the bodies.
And the lies.
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