Israel

"The friendship between Israel and the United States is a great asset to our country. And AIPAC is a great advocate for this vital relationship."

"Congress is 'terrorized' by AIPAC... In practice, the lobby groups function as an informal extension of the Israeli government."

"Perhaps the most apt description of the power of AIPAC has been provided by , who argues: Without a doubt, AIPAC is the most powerful ethnic lobby to emerge in recent American history."

"Thank you for being here. AIPAC's work on behalf of America and Israel is valuable and important. With friends like you, Israel, and American interests in the Middle East, are well served. Thank you."

"AIPAC has a long and commendable record of promoting the unique relationship that exists between the United States and Israel. Both countries are better for your efforts, and so I thank and congratulate you for all you have done over the years."

"The American Israeli [sic] Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) exists for the purpose of lobbying Congress to support Israeli governmental policies and actions. These oligarchies have persistently reduced Israel to their ideological preferences by ignoring its critical opposition."

"I feel Israel should have the arms it needs, but the long-range solution for peace is in direct negotiations with the Arabs. Period.""

"If you talk about violence, let's talk about 4000 Palestinians killed during the last five years while from the Israeli side a few hundreds were killed. So, if you want to talk about the violence and you called this violence "terrorism," Israel kills more Palestinians than Palestinian kills on Israel. Second, You have to see both sides. You talk about Hamas, what they did in Israel but don't talk about Israel and what they did in Palestinian Territories. They commit assassinations from time to time and in public. They said, "We're going to kill.""

"I myself tell people that Israel is the only place that Jews can live where they don't have always to be thinking about being Jewish. For, as you are aware, the practice of Judaism is, in practice, impractical for many of us Jews."

"I am opposed to our keeping all of the West Bank. It's plain that the time has not yet come for Arabs and Jews to be together. All that I really want is to live in a Jewish State. It's a remarkable paradox: the Left is now for policies which would separate the communities while the very far Right, living right there in the occupied territories, are in reality working for integration. Left and Right have exchanged positions, turned completely around. A true paradox! But you know, all such abstractions are relative...(HC: Do you ever ponder what seems to have gone wrong here in Israel?) YA: Oh, I don't like to complain. We now have our Jewish State. The reality is far from the ideal. The Jewish people have married Israel, this land. But as in a real marriage, things have cooled down. Complaining about it sounds like an old man complaining about his age. An old couple should just live together. That's all. It is, after all, perfectly normal. We have, after all, passed the honeymoon stage, passed the romance, but this is, nonetheless, a true marriage. Such is my Zionism. I am, you see, beyond illusions. In America people, without the slightest intention of doing so, every year repeat "Next year in Jerusalem." Now that is what I call true cynicism."

"Some of the students that come to me who are pro-Palestine – I say… don’t demonize Israelis and don’t demonize the Jewish people."

"No more wars, no more bloodshed. Peace unto you. Shalom, salaam, forever."

"We will stand up for our friends in the world. And one of the most important friends is the State of Israel. My administration will be steadfast in support Israel against terrorism and violence, and in seeking the peace for which all Israelis pray."

"Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world – the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism."

"After I visited Israel, I understood the theology of Judaism and its mythology-better than I had before. I understood the great blackmail which has been imposed on the world not by the Jew but by the Christian. We fell for it, and the Jews fell for it. Let me put it this way. When I was in Israel I thought I liked Israel. I liked the people. But to me it was obvious why the Western world created the state of Israel, which is not really a Jewish state. The West needed a handle in the Middle East. And they created the state as a European pawn. It is tragic that the Jews should allow themselves to be used in this fashion, because no one cares what happens to the Jews. No one cares what is happening to the Arabs. But they do care about the oil. That part of the world is a crucial matter if you intend to rule the world. I'm not anti-Semitic at all, but I am anti-Zionist. I don't believe they had the right, after 3,000 years, to reclaim the land with Western bombs and guns on biblical injunction. When I was in Israel it was as though I was in the middle of The Fire Next Time."

"If the Jewish state becomes a fact, and this is realized by the Arab peoples, they will drive the Jews who live in their midst into the sea."

"It doesn't matter what the world says about Israel; it doesn't matter what they say about us anywhere else. The only thing that matters is that we can exist here on the land of our forefathers. And unless we show the Arabs that there is a high price to pay for murdering Jews, we won't survive."

"This life as a simple citizen and laborer has its benefits not only for the person himself but perhaps also for his country. After all, there is room for only one Prime Minister, but for those who make the desert bloom there is room for hundreds, thousands and even millions. And the destiny of the state is in the hands of the many rather than of a single individual. There are times when an individual feels he should do those things which only can and should be done by the many."

"In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles."

"When we returned to Palestine, the decisive question was: Do you want to come here as a friend, a brother, a member of the community of people of the Middle East or as the representatives of colonialism and of imperialism?"

"Israel is in an existential crisis. It can wall itself off and annex what it wants on the West Bank, and leave Palestinians in tiny truncated, nonviable bantustans that will become the spawning pools of terror. Or it can give the Palestinians what Oslo, Camp David, Taba and the 'roadmap' promised; a homeland, a nation and a state of their own. Israel is free to choose."

"It is a country in which a clear majority of the population, battered by wars and terrorism and heartbreak and frustration, still wants to see negotiations leading to a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and an end to occupation."

"Israel is wrongly described as the Middle East’s only democracy — for whom? Diana Buttu, a Palestinian-Canadian attorney and citizen of Israel, spoke to “Democracy Now!” from Haifa, explaining, “About 16% of the people who are eligible to vote are Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. Look at the vast remainder of people that Israel controls … in the West Bank, in the Gaza Strip or in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Close to 6 million individuals who are ineligible to vote in Israeli elections, and yet are being governed by Israel”."

"America and Israel share a special bond. Our relationship is unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted."

"You mess with Israel, you are messing with the United States of America. It's that simple."

"Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighbors’ land and to permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights... The current policies are leading toward an immoral outcome that is undermining Israel’s standing in the world and is not bringing security to the people of Israel.... These same premises, of recognizing Israel, acceptance of all past agreements, and the rejection of violence, will have to be accepted by Hamas and any government that represents the Palestinians. The long-term prospects are not discouraging... an overwhelming majority of Palestinians and Israelis support peace for Israel based on the acceptance of Israel of its international borders with some modifications, with justice and peace for the Palestinians. An early exchange of the three Israeli soldiers for some of the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners will expedite the peace process."

"And Israel is not only our ally; it is a beacon of what democracy can and should mean… If the people of the Middle East are not sure what democracy means, let them look to Israel."

"In defeating terror, Israel’s cause is our cause."

"It is outrageous that the state of Israel uses the carceral technologies developed in relation to US prisons not only to control the more than eight thousand Palestinian political prisoners in Israel but also to control the broader Palestinian population. These carceral technologies, for example, the separation wall, which reminds us of the US-Mexico border wall, and other carceral technologies are the material constructs of Israeli apartheid."

"We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that is a Jewish state here. In considerable areas of the country we bought lands from the Arabs. Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exist; not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gevat — in the place of Jibta, Sarid — in the place of Haneifs and Kefar Yehoshua — in the place of Tell Shaman. There is no one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population."

"If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions."

"Our forces saved the remnants of the Jewish people of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn land of Israel. Along with all men of good will, I salute the young state and wish it well."

"In my opinion, it would be more reasonable to reach an agreement with the Arabs based on sharing life peacefully together, rather than to create a Jewish State with borders, an army and a project of temporal power, no matter how modest it is. I fear the internal damage that Judaism will sustain due to the development, in our ranks, of a narrow nationalism. We are not anymore the Jews of the Maccabees period. To become again a nation in the political sense of the world will be equivalent to turning away from the spiritualization of our community that we owe to the generosity of our prophets."

"My commitment to the security and future of Israel is based upon basic morality as well as enlightened self-interest. Our role in supporting Israel honors our own heritage."

"It would have seemed more sensible to me to establish a Jewish homeland on a less historically-burdened land….I can raise no sympathy at all for the misdirected piety which transforms a piece of a Herodian wall into a national relic, thereby offending the feelings of the natives."

"The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values."

"Israel is a colonialist-imperialist phenomenon. There is no such thing as an Israeli people. Before 1948, world geography knew of no state such as Israel. Israel is the result of an invasion, of aggression."

"It is not even a state. From an international law viewpoint, the existence of the so-called Israel is illegal. Israelis and Palestinians live on the same piece of land namely; Palestine that is located between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean. This is a disputed land."

"I urge Israel to cease demolitions and evictions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, in line with its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law. All settlement activities, including evictions and demolitions, are illegal under international law. A revitalized peace process is the only route to a just and lasting solution...Only through renewing our commitment and redoubling our efforts towards a negotiated solution can we bring this cruel violence and hatred to a definitive end."

"The only thing chicken about Israel is their soup."

"Israeli society has always been very practical, very goal-oriented. A certain kind of egotism, self-centeredness goes with this a lack of empathy. The first of the new settlers who came here came voluntarily, like yourself. People tend to forget the difference between this and the postwar, more practical aliya. In order to start again in this land, the idealists wanted to forget, to obliterate their past. But when you amputate your past, you pay a price. Part of that is the failure of empathy."

"Israel isn't 'Jewish' in the sense that Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are 'Muslim'... Israel is actually less religious than the U.S., and it guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens. Israel is not a theocracy, and one could easily argue that its Jewish identity is more cultural than religious. However, if we ask why the Jews wouldn’t move to British Columbia if offered a home there, we can see the role that religion still plays in their thinking."

"Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion. The Society will determine both these points. Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The present infiltration of Jews has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement. Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvelous potency. If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake to regulate the whole finances of Turkey. We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should as a neutral State remain in contact with all Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence. The sanctuaries of Christendom would be safeguarded by assigning to them an extra-territorial status such as is well-known to the law of nations. We should form a guard of honor about these sanctuaries, answering for the fulfillment of this duty with our existence. This guard of honor would be the great symbol of the solution of the Jewish question after eighteen centuries of Jewish suffering."

"WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15th May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than the 1st October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel"."

"THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations."

"Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life."

"It had a great and lofty wall and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names were inscribed which are those of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel."

"Like prosperous and peaceful Japan on the one hand, and war-torn and poverty-wracked Armenia on the other, Israel is a classic national-ethnic organism."

"I've been to Palestine. It exists, right next to Israel. The problem is not that Palestine threatens or erases Israel. The problem is that there are Israeli soldiers all over Palestine."

"We must remember: what is beautiful is the resistance, and that people can-and must-resist from their own authentic place in the world. we must reach out to Israelis fighting for peace, civil rights, and feminism without secretly feeling the Palestinians are more beautiful, because more besieged. One of the hardest acts of self-love for American radical Jews is to identify in this with Israelis, and I have come to believe it is a crucial stretch, for the alternative is denial of the Jewish connection. It is from this solid, self-knowing place that we can work towards peace and justice in the Middle East."

"Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom."

"I think for the ultimate peace and security of the situation it will probably be necessary for Israel to give up this conquered territory because to hold on to it will only exacerbate the tensions and deepen the bitterness of the Arabs."

"Peace for Israel means security, and we must stand with all our might to protect its right to exist, its territorial integrity. I see Israel as one of the great outposts of democracy in the world, and a marvelous example of what can be done, how desert land can be transformed into an oasis of brotherhood and democracy. Peace for Israel means security and that security must be a reality."

"The security of Israel is a moral imperative for all free peoples."

"Jews outside and inside Israel might be a little safer if there was a campaign to distinguish between diverse Jewish positions and the actions of the Israeli state. This is where an international movement can play a crucial role. Already, alliances are being made between globalization activists and Israeli "refuseniks," soldiers who refuse to serve their mandatory duty in the occupied territories. And the most powerful images from Saturday’s protests were rabbis walking alongside Palestinians. But more needs to be done. It’s easy for social justice activists to tell themselves that since Jews already have such powerful defenders in Washington and Jerusalem, anti-Semitism is one battle they don’t need to fight. This is a deadly error. It is precisely because anti-Semitism is used by the likes of Mr. Sharon that the fight against it must be reclaimed. When anti-Semitism is no longer treated as Jewish business, to be taken care of by Israel and the Zionist lobby, Mr. Sharon is robbed of his most effective weapon in the indefensible and increasingly brutal occupation. And as an extra bonus, whenever hatred of Jews diminishes, the likes of Jean-Marie Le Pen shrink right down with it."

"As in all colonial projects, Israel's settlers needed to engage in various kinds of active unseeing. The legendary U.S. investigative journalist I. F. Stone supported the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, even embedding himself on one of the clandestine boats, crowded with Holocaust survivors, that eventually made it to safety in "stucco-colored Haifa" in 1946. But after the 1967 war, he conceded, "For the Zionists, the Arab was the Invisible Man. Psychologically he was not there." Or as the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir put it, "There was no such thing as Palestinians... They did not exist." The great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish maps this spectral status-of being a "present-absentee"-in his book In the Presence of Absence."

"One of the things that scares me is the global rise of right-wing movements in the United States, Europe and Israel. The American alt-right is in dialogue with similar movements in Israel, and this might pose a danger to both Israelis and Americans."

"For some, the symbolic gesture of unequivocally supporting Israel (morally and/or financially) has been the core and sole expression of Jewish identity. As they begin-with great resistance and probably in secrecy-to question that support, they find themselves unable to define their Jewishness, particularly if they are not observant. Other Jews, active for the first time on a "Jewish" issue by opposing Israeli government policies, are also struggling to define their Jewishness and explain their emotional involvement with a country which, until now, they never identified with. The "far away" crisis is triggering the recognition of an emptiness in the Jewish self."

"[P]eople misunderstand Israel, and see it now in colonial, imperialist terms is because it’s a unique event in human history. The British colonization of North America, New Zealand, Australia, the Dutch in South Africa, they came to places that they had never been to. That’s colonialism. You put your people in there. You takeover. You marginalize the natives if you can. You may not succeed. In South Africa, that’s colonialism. So they see the Jews arriving in what’s called Palestine, and that’s the parallel, the only one they understand. They can’t put their heads around the fact that this is a people returning to their home. That they never gave up title to. They never gave up their longing for. It was repeated in their rituals three times a day, it wasn’t like once a year, let’s remember the homeland."

"What dishonors my relatives is the fact of checkpoints in their names, of mass arrests, collective punishment, home demolitions, the theft of territory and resources, to rid the land of Palestinian people, so it can be farmed and built on by Israeli Jewish settlers. I am one of many Jews who believe only justice will bring peace, and who face tremendous pressure and personal attacks for saying so. Today, my Jewish kin who believe repression is the price of survival are acting on old fears of standing alone against terrible threats."

"I want to see a flowering of Arab and Jewish cultures in a country without racism or anti-Semitism, without rich or poor or spat-upon: everyone beneath the vine and fig tree living in peace and unafraid. A homeland for each and every one of us between the mountains and the sea. A multilingual, multireligious, many-colored and peopled land where the orange tree blooms for all. I will not surrender this vision for any lesser compromise. No separate-but-equal armed camps turning their backs on each other across a pitted buffer zone. No Palestinian exile burning with dreams of return, injustice embittering generations of children who yearn always for the place of their ancestors: next year in the Galilee. No graveyard the size of a nation, Palestinian blood burning the ground and steaming up each morning, reeking of death. No fortress-state of Jews against all the rest of the world, generations of children growing up soldiers, believing themselves holy, believing there is no one outside the walls, believing fear is the only force that binds people together. I will accept nothing less than freedom."

"Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us"

"The Balkans have had, in Winston Churchill’s marvellous phrase, more history than they can consume. New nations have worried that they do not have enough. When Israel came into existence in 1948, it was, despite the long connection of Jews with Palestine, a new state. With immigrants from all over Europe, and, increasingly, by the 1950s from the Middle East, building a strong national identity was essential if Israel itself were to survive. It was difficult to identify shared customs and culture. What did a Jew from Egypt have in common with one from Poland? Nor was religion a sufficient basis; many Zionists were resolutely non-religious. Although Hebrew was reviving, it had not yet produced a national literature. That gave history particular significance as a glue. In its declaration of independence, Israel called on the past to justify its existence. The land was the historic birthplace of the Jewish people: “After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration of their political freedom.” More recent history became part of the story, too. The Jews had managed to return in great numbers: “They made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community, controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country’s inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.”"

"In 1953, the Israeli Knesset passed a law to commemorate the Holocaust (Yad Vashem) and the State Education Law. Their author was the minister of education and culture, Ben-Zion Dinur, who had been active as a Zionist educator and politician long before Israel’s independence. His view of history was rooted in the need to build an Israeli consciousness. “The ego of a nation,” he declared in the Knesset, “exists only to the extent that it has a memory, to the extent that the nation knows how to combine its past experiences into a single entity.” For Dinur and those who supported him (and many both on the left and the right did not), that meant teaching Israelis that there was and always had been an Israeli nation, that it had survived the long centuries of exile, and that it had always been focused on getting back to its lost lands. Israel therefore was the heir and the culmination of a long historical process. Dinur’s view has been much criticized for leaving out religion, for example, in the definition of Jewishness and for presenting an oversimplified view of Jewish history, but it has been very influential in Israeli schools. A study of textbooks used between 1900 and 1984 found that, increasingly as time went on, Jewish history was presented in terms of the establishment of Israel, that, among Jews in exile, the Zionist dream of a Jewish state was “the strongest and oldest” movement."

"We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon — no alternative. The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight."

"Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!"

"I was born in 1949, into a war, and started school in 1956, the year of the Suez War. I finished high school in 1967 during the Six-Day War, married in 1973, the year of the Yom Kippur War. My first child was born in the middle of the 1970s, when war was raging in Lebanon; my second child was born in 1982, when Israel annihilated Beirut with bombs, and my father died during the Gulf War. My whole life is mapped out by wars. When I talk to my Israeli peers, they say, 'It's the same with me.' And I say, 'But is that a good thing? Or should we do something about it?' I'm trying to fight against all this, so that my children's lives and the lives of my grandchildren are not always described by wars.'"

"We are awaiting aggression by Israel and any supporters of Israel. We will make it a decisive battle and get rid of Israel once and for all… This is the dream of every Arab."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the people of Israel have come home never to be uprooted again."

"I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount."

"Especially from the 1920s onward, women's poetry in Israel has become increasingly a force to be reckoned with."

"I think the word is intractable. I blame the lack of live and let live. And which side is it coming from more than the other side? I think it is coming from people who call other people infidels. That's how it strikes me." Was she moved the first time she went to Israel? "Yes. Probably not like my father, who was simply swept away. He couldn't get over that he had ascended Mount Zion. I don't see any solution here. I'm despairing. That's where I stand."

"The way the people in Nicaragua can separate the people of the US from the government. And that is partly a result of a decision by the Left. It's not just a strategy decision, it's true. It's a decision which the Left made in Vietnam, which was to divide the country. A very sensible, simple thing to do, to see us as opposed to the government. True too. It did not weaken the people of Nicaragua or Vietnam. So, I've never understood why my sisters and brothers on the Left haven't been able to do the same in relation to Israel. And if they'd done it a long time ago. I think things could have been different. If they had pointed out again and again: the people and the government, I mean, the difference at that time. A big majority of the American people were not yet against the war in Vietnam when the Vietnamese said, "We know you're not the government." There were maybe nine people on assorted street corners in '62, '63, '64 and the Vietnamese were already talking like that, right? So it's not as if you would have had to say the majority of the people in Israel are against this. Enough of them were in opposition. Why it wasn't done I-I know why it wasn't done. (Why?) Anti-Semitism. [all laugh knowingly]"

"Israel's collective consciousness, which was the cornerstone of the foundation of the Zionist state 53 years ago and which bound the immigrants from all parts of the world into a people, into a nation, is no longer our consciousness. This is the archaic, too idealistic outlook on life of our parents that arouses in us a concealed snigger at the Sabbath-eve family dinners. According to it, the individual has to sacrifice his own good, his freedom, his life, for the common good. This outlook has not succeeded in upgrading itself to a modern, sophisticated version."

"Judaism is not something I practice, but something that I carry inside. Being Israeli gives you the privilege of including Jewishness as part of a package, part of yourself. You don't ask any questions unless you want to. I have grown up in a Jewish country and I appreciate that."

"Neither Israeli nor Palestinian society is a seamless, monochrome garment: hope as well as difficulty lies in this recognition."

"Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel’s existence."

"Israel’s staunchest political and military ally is and always has been the U.S. The U.S. government has blocked, along with Israel, almost every U.N. resolution that sought a peaceful, equitable solution to the conflict. When Israel attacks Palestine, it is American missiles that smash through Palestinian homes. And every year Israel receives several billion dollars from the United States – taxpayers money."

"September 11th has a tragic resonance in the Middle East, too. On the 11th of September 1922, ignoring Arab outrage, the British government proclaimed a mandate in Palestine, a follow-up to the 1917 Balfour Declaration which imperial Britain issued, with its army massed outside the gates of Gaza. The Balfour Declaration promised European Zionists a national home for Jewish people. (At the time, the Empire on which the Sun Never Set was free to snatch and bequeath national homes like a school bully distributes marbles.)"

"In 1937, Winston Churchill said of the Palestinians, I quote, “I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.” That set the trend for the Israeli State’s attitude towards the Palestinians. In 1969, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said, “Palestinians do not exist.” Her successor, Prime Minister Levi Eschol said, “What are Palestinians? When I came here (to Palestine), there were 250,000 non-Jews, mainly Arabs and Bedouins. It was a desert, more than underdeveloped. Nothing.” Prime Minister Menachem Begin called Palestinians “two-legged beasts.” Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir called them “grasshoppers” who could be crushed. This is the language of Heads of State, not the words of ordinary people."

"In 1947, the U.N. formally partitioned Palestine and allotted 55 per cent of Palestine’s land to the Zionists. Within a year, they had captured 76 per cent. On the 14th of May 1948 the State of Israel was declared. Minutes after the declaration, the United States recognized Israel."

"I had faith in Israel before it was established, I have in it now. I believe it has a glorious future before it – not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization."

"Harry S. Truman. Quoted in A Revolution Is Coming, p. 63."

"Israel has killed the two-state solution. That is why we must adopt a new strategy, and find a new partner for that strategy in Israeli society. We must kill the occupation and the [sense of] separation in the Israeli consciousness: The separation of people from one another is a question of consciousness. We must never return to this failed pattern of thinking. The future will not change if we continue to think with the same concepts of the past. The solution is a single state. If we believe we have a right to this land and the Israelis believe they are the ones who have a right to this land, we must build a new model. If both of us believe that God gave us this land, we must put history aside and begin to think about the future in different terms."

"Israel is a very small place, as you know, there’s something that can feel very familial about it, which is both positive and not so positive at different times and different instances."

"The sea is such a big part of life in Israel, of Israeli culture. You can actually taste it in the air."

"For a long time I didn’t write about Israel at all. It’s such a volatile place and people have such strong opinions and everything you write about Israel is perceived as political..."

"Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude... they took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state."

"If it is proper to ’reconstitute’ a Jewish State which has not existed for two thousand years, why not go back another thousand years and reconstitute the Canaanite state? The Canaanites, unlike the Jews, are still there."

"Israel is a Western democracy … The so-called 'Middle East conflict' is not about land at all. It is not a territorial conflict. It's a conflict about ideologies; it's a battle between Islam and freedom."

"The "revisionist" strain of Zionism, with its roots in Deir Yassin and its followers in Lebanon, has propelled Israel toward disaster."

"Israel has given Jews something whose lack cost millions of lives: a place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. These days, however, the Israeli government seems to believe that, far from the state's existing to insure the survival of Jews, Jews exist to insure the survival of the state…Of course, if Israel is to survive it needs people. But if it can't motivate enough Jews to go because they want to be there, its problem goes much deeper than a lack of bodies. And the fact is that the social and economic consequences of the occupation and the Lebanon war have not only made Israel a place fewer Jews want to go, but a place more and more want to leave. At the same time, despite the government's professed desire for more immigration from the Soviet Union and the U.S., it is doing its best to make life in Israel unattractive to the educated, secular-minded Jews of those countries by rewarding the militant nationalism of the religious right with increasing deference to its theocratic agenda. For Orthodox fundamentalists intent on getting religious law enforced by the state and imposing traditional religious values on a predominantly secular culture, their secularist opponents are in some sense not really Jews. Rather, they are carriers of alien and subversive modern values. The worm, as it were, in the apple of the Jewish nation. The right-wing religious parties have instigated the most serious challenge yet to the concept of Israel as a haven for Jews-their campaign to amend the Law of Return, which grants Jewish immigrants automatic citizenship, to include a religious definition of who is a Jew."

"The tide of history canonizes the fait accompli, harnessing the diplomatic niceties of the law of nations to the maverick rapine of the squatters’ posse within a cohesive project that implicates individual and nation-state, official and unofficial alike. Over the Green Line today, Ammana, the settler advance-guard of the fundamentalist Gush Emunim movement, hastens apace with the construction of its facts on the ground. In this regard, the settlers are maintaining a tried and tested Zionist strategy—Israel’s 1949 campaign to seize the Negev before the impending armistice was codenamed Uvda, Hebrew for “fact.”"

"The founding of the state of Israel and its startling rise to military dominance unsettled the Arab identity. In the low condition the Arabs found themselves in, they looked upon Israel and recalled the time when the Prophet Mohammed had subjugated the Jews of Medina. They thought about the great wave of Muslim expansion at the point of Arab spears and swords, and they were humbled by the contrast of their proud martial past and their miserable present. History was reversing itself; the Arabs were as fractious and disorganized and marginal as they had been during the jahiliyyah times. Even the Jews dominated them. The voice in the mosque said that the Arabs had let go of the one weapon that gave them real power: faith. Restore the fervor and purity of the religion that had made the Arabs great, and God would once again take their side."

"Imperialism fears China and the Arabs. Israel and Taiwan are bases of operation for Imperialism in Asia. They created Israel for the Arabs and Taiwan for us. They both have the same objective."

"the foundation of the State of Israel which creates all sorts of contradictions and mixed emotions among a lot of longtime anarchists, who in many cases saw no alternative for Jewish survival as much as they were anti-statist, and hoped that somehow this experiment might move in that direction, that the kibbutzim in particular might help steer this new Jewish territory in a non-statist direction. Of course, that did not ultimately happen."

"considered the principle of equality and the pursuit of peace as the bedrock of the society they were building. What happened? ... I still believe that despite all the objective and subjective difficulties, the future of Israel and its position in the family of enlightened nations will depend on our ability to realize the promise of the founding fathers as they canonized it in the The Declaration of Independence. Yet, nothing has really changed since 2004. Instead, we now have a law that confirms the Arab population as . It therefore is a very clear form of apartheid. I don’t think the Jewish people survived for 20 centuries, mostly through persecution and enduring endless cruelties, in order to now become the oppressors, inflicting cruelty on others. This new law does exactly that. That is why I am ashamed of being an Israeli today."

"Its only purpose is to send a message to the Arab community, the LGBT community and other minorities in Israel, that they are not and never will be equal citizens."

"This is a law that encourages not only discrimination, but racism as well. ... The result of this legislation will be to perpetuate the inferior status of the Arabs in Israel."

"If passed, it will create a dangerous precedent for democracy in Israel, it is a 180-degree turn from Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which enshrines freedom and democracy for all Israelis. This bill would instead upend democratic norms and create an Israel that is unequal. It is a grave threat to Israeli democracy."

"The coalition’s insistence on not adopting compromise versions keeping Arabic as an prove that the nation-state law wants to base the Jewish character of the State of Israel on deepening the exclusion of the Arab populace."

"The real score we need to settle is with those elected by the public [Knesset members] who know deep inside how much the nation-state bill is going to tarnish the Israeli law book – and remain silent nonetheless."

"While the earlier wording pretended to be neutral, stating that separate communities were possible for each group, now the cat is out of the bag and it’s stating explicitly that only Jewish communities will get priority. This is a model of undisguised racism, suited only to corrupt rulers who have lost all shame."

"In the Israeli democracy, we will continue to protect the rights of both the individual and the group, this is guaranteed. But the majority have rights too, and the s, the vast majority of people want to preserve the Jewish character of our country for generations to come, this combination of individual rights and group rights are the definition of a Jewish and democratic state."

"Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, which honors the individual rights of all its citizens, I repeat this is our state. The Jewish state. Lately, there are people who are trying to destabilize this and therefore destabilize the foundations of our existence and our rights, so today we have made a law in stone. This is our country. This is our language. This is our anthem and this is our flag. Long live the state of Israel."

"You are weak people, only a country that isn’t normal acts this way. No apartheid law will erase the fact that in this homeland there are two nations."

"This is an evil law, a black flag hovers over it."

"Today, I will have to tell my children, along with all the children of Palestinian Arab towns in the country, that the state has declared that it does not want us here. ... It has passed a law of and told us that we will always be second-class citizens."

"Those who claim this law is racist is like someone who claims Zionism is racism — no less."

"The wording of the current bill and the way it was passed is harmful because it does not include the basic tenets and the basic components of the Jewish state as they have been defined over the past 70 years, a commitment to Israel as a Jewish and a democratic state, based on the values of the Declaration of independence, this commitment, this phrase does not appear in the legislation."

"The State of Israel is a national home for the entire Jewish people and it is clear to me that there is no dispute between any party or Zionist movement, while the nation-state law was originally intended to reinforce this principle, the most recent amendments to it are of great concern because they drive a wedge between Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora."

"This is at its worst. Beginning with Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the Jewish value of human dignity and the principle of the equality of all people have formed the democratic foundation of the state. This law is completely incompatible with those values. It is a slap in the face to Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel and provides a legal basis to discriminate based on religion, race, and sex. Legislation that identifies first- and has no place in a democracy. should define the fundamental values of the state. If racism, sexism, and are to be protected in Israel’s basic laws, it should be no surprise when the country embodies those values. This bill and the government that supported it are a danger to Israel’s future."

"The that advanced today is not a basic law on nationality but a basic law of racism. This is a law that was born in sin and advanced through arm-twisting among the extremist and nationalist elements in the coalition."

"Today, we see what happens when the government doesn't have a solution facing Gaza – all it can offer are racist laws."

"The terms used for this metal are either ba'aẓ or avaẓ, kassitera, kassiteron, and gassiteron (Gr. κασσίτερος). Both ba'aẓ and kassitera are used in the same passages (Men. 28b and elsewhere), which implies that they were two different metals or kinds of the same metal. The Temple menorah was not to be made of them, but when the Hasmoneans cleansed the Temple and needed a new menorah (the golden one having been carried off by Antiochus IV), they made it of seven spears plated with tin. It was forbidden to make weights out of metal – tin and lead being mentioned specially – because metal wears away. The traveler Pethahiah of Regensburg (12th century) reports that in Babylonia people were summoned to synagogue by a tin instrument. In the later Middle Ages up to modern times tin was used extensively for artistic ritual objects such as Ḥanukkah menorot, seder, Kiddush, and Havdalah plates, etc."

"Just as Hanukkah candles are lighted one by one from a single flame, so the tale of the miracle is passed from one man to another, from one house to another, and to the whole House of Israel throughout the generations."

"The four species are all plants that need an abundance of water, and at the end of Sukkot, prayers for rain will be said."

"The preferred Shofar of Redemption is the Divine call that awakens and inspires the people with holy motivations, through faith in God and the unique mission of the people of Israel. This elevated awakening corresponds to the ram's horn, a horn that recalls Abraham's supreme love of God and dedication in Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac."

"According to one theory, the six-pointed "shield of David" which adorns the modern Israeli flag, started to become a national symbol with David al-Roy's crusade. "Ever since," writes Baron, "it has been suggested, the six-cornered 'shield of David', theretofore mainly a decorative motif or a magical emblem, began its career toward becoming the chief national-religious symbol of Judaism. Long used interchangeably with the pentagram or the 'Seal of Solomon', it was attributed to David in mystic and ethical German writings from the thirteenth century on, and appeared on the Jewish flag in Prague in 1527.""

"It is a common custom to write [God's name,] Shaddai, on the outside of a mezuzah opposite the empty space left between the two passages."

"When a man pronounces the Tetragrammaton, write the Cabalists, the nine heavens are shaken, and all the spirits cry out to each other: "Who thus disturbs the kingdom of heaven?" And then the earth reveals to the first heaven the sins of the foolhardy person who took the eternal one's name in vain, and the accusing Verb is transmitted from circle to circle, from star to star, and from hierarchy to hierarchy."

"The children of Israel received without idealisation the statements of their great lawgiver. To them the tables of the law were true tablets of stone, prepared, engraved, broken, and re-engraved; while the graving tool which thus inscribed the law was held undoubtingly to be the finger of God."

"In brief, the Tree of Life is a compendium of science, psychology, philosophy and theology."

"The object of the theoretical (as separate from the practical) Qabalah, insofar as this thesis is concerned, is to enable the student to do three main things: First, to analyze every idea in terms of the Tree of Life. Second, to trace a necessary connection and relation between every and any class of ideas by referring them to this standard of comparison. Third, to translate any unknown system of symbolism into terms of any known one by its means."

"Hearing that the woman will bear children, the only good news in God's grim prophecy of the dismal human future (sorrow, sweat, toil, and death), he grasps at this straw of hope, renaming the woman Eve (Chavah), because she is the mother of all living (chai). From Adam's hopefulness, Eve gets the first genuinely proper name in the Bible."

"The light blue Star of David lies in a sea of white, between a single light blue stripe on top, another on the bottom. This elegant design is the Flag of the State of Israel."

"...in 1648, .. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II gave the Jews of Prague permission to fly a "Jewish flag" over their synagogue, in recognition of their part in saving the city from the Swedish invaders, who besieged the city as part of the 30 Years War. This "Jewish flag" was red with a yellow Star of David at its center."

"Everyone recognizes the blue stripes and Magen David of the State of Israel's flag. Likewise, the LGBTQ Jewish flag – a Magen David centered on the rainbow flag – is commonplace and self-explanatory."

"And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not."

"Also he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells: for he had much cattle, both in the low country, and in the plains: husbandmen also, and vine dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel: for he loved husbandry."

"Thine head upon thee is like Carmel,"

"The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits."

"The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God."

"I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger."

"As I live, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come."

"And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and Gilead."

"He immediately embarked for Egypt, through the means of some Egyptian sailors, who very opportunely at that time landed on the Phœnician coast under mount Carmelus, in whose temple Pythagoras, separated from all society, for the most part dwelt. But the sailors gladly received him, foreseeing that they should acquire great gain by exposing him to sale. But when, during the voyage, they perceived with what continence and venerable gravity he conducted himself, in conformity to the mode of living he had adopted, they were more benevolently disposed towards him. Observing, likewise, that there was something greater than what pertains to human nature in the modesty of the youth, they called to mind how unexpectedly he had appeared to them on their landing, when from the summit of mount Carmelus, which they knew was more sacred than other mountains, and inaccessible to the vulgar, he leisurely descended without looking back, or suffering any delay from precipices or opposing stones; and that when he came to the boat, he said nothing more than, “Are you bound for Egypt?”"

"From Carmel’s almond-shaded steep We feel the cheering fragrance creep:"

"На Кармиле иудейские пророка метали самые ярые проклятия язычеству. На Кармиле в одной из пещер троглодитов, жил Илия, лютейший враг Ваала."

"Carmel is really not a single mountain, but a mountain chain. The first foothills begin right after Zichron Ya’acov, and my traveling companion who, although he has never been in Russia, speaks Russian but occasionally makes amusing mistakes, warned me: “Now there will begin insane beauty.”"

"Hunched and humped the rusty slopes As if great camels lay at rest there."

"And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people."

"In the days of Caesar Augustus There went forth this decree: Si quid rectus et justus Liveth in Galilee, Let him go up to Jerusalem And pay his scot to me.There are passed one after the other Christmases fifty-three, Since I sat here with my mother And heard the great decree: How they went up to Jerusalem Out of Galilee."

"But now in beauty and in light we see The hills and vales of far-famed Galilee. Though man may walk no more, as in old time, With step of freedom, and with brow sublime; Though on the Jew the Moslem pours disdain, And thinks him less than reptile of the plain; Though Rapine, mocking law, may prowl the land, And Murder daily rear her blood-stained hand,— Still Nature smiles, and Galilee appears Fair as a bride, although a bride in tears. In Jezreel’s vale the corn is waving deep, Fir, larch, and myrtle grace high Tabor’s steep; In warm Sepphoris’ beds the tulip’s streak Rivals red Morn when soft her blushes break; Ten thousand pansies breathe their odorous breath, And orchards bloom round holy Nazareth; While birds with song, as cooler eve comes on, Fill the green groves of bowery Zebulon."

"Fierce was the wild billow; dark was the night; Oars labour’d heavily; foam glimmer’d white; Trembled the mariners; peril was nigh; Then said the God of God, “Peace! it is I!”Ridge of the mountain-wave, lower thy crest! Wail of Euroclydon, be thou at rest! Peril can none be,—sorrow must fly,— Where saith the Light of Light, “Peace! it is I!”Jesus, deliverer! come thou to me! Soothe Thou my voyaging over Life’s sea! Thou, when the storm of Death roars, sweeping by, Whisper, O Truth of Truth! “Peace! it is I!”"

"We arrived at the scene very quickly and joined a 51-year-old woman who was in the parking lot while she was fully conscious and suffering from a shrapnel injury in her lower body. We gave her initial medical treatment in the field and then evacuated her in an MDA ambulance to the hospital as she was in a minor condition"

"Following the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023, Israel launched an intensive military campaign in the Gaza Strip... is still underway... Israel's onslaught on Gaza includes mass killing... in direct attacks and through creating catastrophic living conditions that... raise the massive death toll; serious bodily or mental harm to the entire population... large-scale destruction of infrastructure; destruction of the social fabric, including educational institutions and... cultural sites; mass arrests and abuse of detainees in Israeli prisons, which have... become torture camps for thousands of Palestinians held without trial; mass forced displacement, including attempts at and making the latter an official war goal; and an assault on Palestinian identity through the deliberate destruction of refugee camps and attempts to undermine the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (). The outcome... is severe, and at least in part, irreparable, harm to more than 2 million people..."

"...Israel's policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes... with statements by senior... politicians and... commanders about the goals... leads to the... conclusion that Israel is taking... action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip."

"Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."

"Since the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide... genocide has... been recognized as one of the gravest crimes in international law, involving acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group."

"Both morally and legally, genocide cannot be justified... including as an act of self-defense."

"[G]enocidal acts are various actions intended to bring... destruction of a distinct group, as part of a deliberate, coordinated effort by a ruling authority."

"The current onslaught on the Palestinian people, including... Gaza... [is] in the context of... [>]seventy years in which Israel has imposed a violent and discriminatory regime on... Palestinians... its most extreme form... in the Gaza Strip."

"As part of broader... settler-colonialism... from the early stages of Zionist settlement, the Israeli regime works to ensure Jewish supremacy over Palestinians — economically, politically, socially, and culturally."

"[T]he apartheid and occupation regime has institutionalized mechanisms of violent control, demographic engineering, discrimination, and fragmentation of the Palestinian collective."

"These foundations... made it possible to launch a genocidal attack on the Palestinians... after the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023."

"The atrocious attack, aimed mostly at civilians, included many war crimes and likely... crimes against humanity."

"For Israelis, the... attack... generated a degree of anxiety and feeling of existential threat that led to profound social and political changes... These instigated a shift in... policy... from repression and control to destruction and annihilation."

"The Israeli genocide... in the Gaza Strip... [is] violence... implemented in its most extreme and lethal form. Yet the assault... cannot be separated from... escalating violence... inflicted... on Palestinians in the , including , and within Israel."

"[T]roops are operating... in the other areas, under the same commanders and political leadership. The practices... often reflect the... logic applied in Gaza: total disregard for human life, severe harm to innocents, widespread destruction of residential areas and living conditions, ... flouting... moral obligations and international law. ...[M]any senior military and political figures are threatening... the level of force... used in Gaza against Palestinians in other areas. In these areas..., lethal crimes are... committed... with no accountability... The violence and destruction... is intensifying... with no effective domestic or international mechanism acting to halt them. As a result... crimes are becoming normalized in the eyes of soldiers, commanders, politicians, media figures and Israelis..."

"Given the... escalation in... violence against Palestinians in all these areas — which... includes... grave crimes — we must call for an immediate end to the Israeli genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and warn of clear and imminent danger that... genocide will not remain confined to Gaza."

"means "in the image [of God]"... from... "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him" (Genesis 1:27). It reflects the principle of the inherent value of all human life. This moral foundation has guided the organization's work..."

"Based on the information we collect and the resulting conclusions, we are committed to presenting unequivocal positions and demands regarding the state of human rights violations and the actions required to protect these rights."

"In 2021, joined many others, first and foremost Palestinian organizations and activists, who for decades... identified the Israeli regime as... apartheid... We wrote: ...the Israeli regime implements laws, practices and state violence designed to cement the supremacy of one group — Jews — over another — Palestinians. A key method... is engineering space differently for each group."

"[W]hen the State of Israel was established... [i]t... had a clear objective... to cement the supremacy of the Jewish group across... territory under Israeli control. The main tool... the establishment of an apartheid regime (one that, unlike... South Africa, has never been formally declared as such and... has been consistently denied...) This regime is designed to cement... supremacy... through demographic engineering, separation, shaping public discourse, indoctrination, militarism, and... use of force and violence."

"[T]he core objective... The... Israeli system — political, military, public, and legal — is structured to uphold Jewish supremacy, relying on a false pretense of... rule of law while... rights of... Palestinian subjects are... unprotected."

"As a human rights organization... our duty [is] to analyze human rights violations... in context, taking into account the regime... and its guiding political logic."

"[S]ince October 2023... we have gathered eyewitness testimonies and documented hundreds of incidents involving unprecedented and extreme violence... throughout the territory Israel controls, while key politicians and... commanders... openly declared the policies... Countless evidence... reflects the horrifying transformation of the... Israeli system in its treatment of Palestinians."

"At , Jewish-Israelis and Palestinians... work side by side, guided by... defending human rights... [as] a basic human and moral obligation. ...[A] discriminatory apartheid regime ...classifies some ...as privileged ...because we are Jewish, and others as undeserving of ...protection ...because we are Palestinian. Together, we fight for the right we all have to live... without discrimination, violent repression and annihilation."

"Israel is intensifying its brutal, merciless assault... [I]t is our duty to bear witness to... [what] we and many others have documented and investigated. It is our duty to name the reality... to recount it, and to stand with... victims."

"We call on the Israeli public and... the international community to... to put an immediate stop to Israel's assault on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and across all areas under Israeli control, using every means available under international law."

"Genocide can rarely be carried out without consent, support, and legitimization from within the perpetrating group. Yet... societies that perpetrate genocide often do not recognize themselves as such."

"Usually, the genocidal campaign is perceived by its direct perpetrators, and understood by the broader public, as a legitimate act of self-defense in response to... existential threat."

"[R]ecognizing that genocide is taking place against part of a group or in a specific location is... a grave warning: it signals the potential expansion of similar patterns of violence to other segments of the group or... other areas."

"The 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (which came into force in 1951) defines... acts... considered genocidal if committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group: killing members... causing serious bodily or mental harm... deliberately inflicting conditions... calculated to bring about the group's... destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births... and forcibly transferring children... to another group. ...[I]nternational tribunals that adjudicated... Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia... included acts of widespread sexual and gender-based violence. Thus... the intentional destruction... may, and... tends to occur through multiple forms of action, with direct killing being only one..."

"[T]he centrality of intent to destroy... is often framed in terms of ' — the mental... intent to destroy the group in whole or in part — and ' — the physical acts... as... in the Convention. Genocide requires a specific intent (dolus specialis) to destroy the group in whole or in part..."

"There is an inherent gap between the legal and the historical analysis of genocide. The legal definition is narrow... shaped in large part by... interests of the states whose representatives drafted it. From a historical perspective, violent destruction of groups... has occurred... many of which do not align with the stringent legal definition. The high threshold... and... dominant interpretations... by international tribunals have led to... genocide... typically recognized only after a significant portion of the... group has... been destroyed and... suffered irreparable harm."

"[W]hile the legal debate over whether Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip is... important and necessary, there is a critical gap between the amount of time it will take the formal legal institutions deliberating... chiefly the International Court of Justice, to issue binding decisions, and the reality of society in Gaza being destroyed before our eyes."

"[T]he international community either remains passive or actively supports Israel's crimes."

"This report relies on the legal definition of genocide as outlined in the UN Convention, but adopts a broader analytical framework, drawing on 's original conception as well as historical and sociological research..."

"...Israel has imposed unprecedented restrictions on access to Gaza by organizations and media outlets, deepening its isolation from the world. B'Tselem's field researchers in the Gaza Strip, who managed to escape... continued collecting testimonies from hundreds of residents... despite the ongoing challenge..."

"[D]ata... not directly investigated and verified by B'Tselem was drawn from... publications and reports by human rights organizations, humanitarian agencies, UN offices and bodies, investigations and reports by reputable media outlets committed to journalistic ethics and data verification standards, expert... internationally recognized professionals, and primary sources... as testimonies and verified documentation from the field. In addition, we drew on... scholarly literature that has examined... genocide... throughout history.., as well as... researchers who have documented widespread practices... in the... war in Gaza and published... in recognized academic journals."

"With regard to the number of Palestinians killed and injured in the Gaza Strip, this report relies on figures published by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. These figures are widely considered reliable... Moreover, they are generally regarded as conservative..."

"[T]his section reflects only a partial picture of the scale of harm to... Palestinian life... under Israeli control. We estimate that years of documentation and research will be required to fully assess the scope of destruction that continues... and the long-term consequences... Palestinians... are expected to face in the future."

"Nearly two years of... onslaught has left most of the Gaza Strip in ruins. As of mid-July 2025, estimated... 58,026 fatalities, the overwhelming majority... civilians... not participating in... hostilities. The... wounded... approximately 138,520. All hospitals... destroyed or... partially functioning... the same is true of the vast majority of civilian infrastructure. ...Since ...early March 2025, hundreds ...have been killed or wounded every day: from airstrikes, shooting and shelling... malnutrition or a lethal combination of hunger, diseases.., contaminated water and a devastated healthcare system."

"This reality... cannot be justified or explained as an attempt to destroy the rule of Hamas or its military capabilities in Gaza."

"Statements by senior Israeli decision-makers... have expressed genocidal intent throughout."

"Genocidal intent was also expressed in numerous statements made by Israeli military officers... soldiers... military and security experts, and... Israeli media and cultural figures. These voices articulated a worldview... according to which... most... Gaza[ns] are... responsible for [October 7] crimes... or... support them."

"Accordingly, for many... the aspiration to destroy... Hamas and... to prevent future attacks... were translated into targeting the entire population of the Gaza Strip."

"The total dehumanization of Gaza's residents has led to a perception, still widely held among Jewish-Israelis, that their lives are of negligible value compared to Israel's national goals, if not worthless altogether."

"Israel's conduct... in the Gaza Strip... has included... massive, indiscriminate bombardment of population centers; starvation of more than two million... as a method of warfare; attempts at ethnic cleansing and formally including the ethnic cleansing... in the war aims; systematic destruction of hospitals and other medical facilities... entitled to... protection under international law... [and] the vast majority of civilian infrastructure... unprecedented killing of medical personnel, aid workers, persons in charge of... public order, and journalists. Israel's claim that Hamas fighters or members of... armed Palestinian groups were... in medical or civilian facilities, often... without... evidence, cannot justify or explain such widespread, systematic destruction."

"[T]his policy has been supported, legitimized and normalized by most of Jewish-Israeli and its institutions, including the Israeli legal system."

"The... intent... component in the definition of genocide, emerges unequivocally in... Israeli leadership's awareness of the... consequences of its open-fire and starvation policies; ...systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure..; the decision to continue, and... escalate, the assault despite... its impact on the civilian population..; and numerous statements by policymakers... indicating... Israel is targeting the entire population..."

"A... legal examination... appears in Amnesty International's December 2024... "You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel's Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza"; in the work of , currently being published; in the submissions by South Africa's legal team... filed with the International Court of Justice (ICJ); and in reports by United Nations experts."

"Israel's genocide against the Palestinians... in the Gaza Strip... cannot be separated from the sharp escalation of Israel's violence against Palestinians... in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and within Israel... [E]scalation of Israeli violence in Gaza is gradually extending to other areas... [A]... society that legitimizes genocide in Gaza — through participation, support, denial, or indifference—naturally legitimizes increasing violence against Palestinians as a whole."

"The sections below... focus on... killings, physical destruction, forcible displacement, and the destruction of political, cultural, and social life... address how Israel's genocide... targets Palestinian identity, particularly through attacks on refugees... [and] analyze key expressions of dehumanization and incitement against Palestinians..."

"[T]he Ministry of Health in Gaza.... [fatalities] breakdown released in July 2025 shows 15%... women, 29%... minors and 7% are elderly."

"A study... estimated that during the first 12 months of the Israeli assault, the life expectancy of men in Gaza dropped by 51.6%, to 40.5 years, a loss of 34.9 years compared to prewar... For women... 38.6%, to... 47.5 years, a loss of 29.9 years."

"Several studies... suggest... casualties... much higher. The duration... the... scale of infrastructure destruction, and... restriction of humanitarian and rescue organizations' access... are... some... factors..."

"Israel's... open-fire policy... systematically violates fundamental principles of international law, such as distinction and proportionality. Israel... policy... permits unprecedented levels of harm to uninvolved civilians when striking at what it considers military targets. ...These practices enable... increase... frequency of strikes and [to] reduce risk to soldiers at the expense of precautions... to reduce injury to innocents."

"[A]fter ordering residents to leave their homes, Israel repeatedly bombed... "safe corridors" that... s (IDPs) were to use to travel to "humanitarian zones"."

""[H]umanitarian zones"... meant to provide IDPs safety, offered unlivable conditions and were... systematically bombed."

"After breaking the ceasefire in March 2025, Israel resumed... aggressive... indiscriminate attacks... including... designated humanitarian zones and other areas densely populated by tens of thousands of destitute IDPs. As of 14 July 2025, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported more than 7,450 people killed and over 26,000 wounded since the ceasefire was violated."

"The mass killing of civilians in Gaza has been carried out... through permissive... at times deliberate, live fire by Israeli soldiers... Soldiers' testimonies reveal that... Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip defined "kill zones"... with arbitrary boundaries, sometimes unclear even to the soldiers... where permission was given to open fire at anyone... within them."

"Soldiers and officers... reported... absence of... , or... rules... at the discretion of commanders... or based on arbitrary criteria. Isolated incidents such as the killing of 15 paramedics in April 2025, or the December 2023 shooting of three Israeli hostages who had escaped captivity and were waving a white flag, illustrate that the open-fire regulations were... discarded. These practices were reinforced by statements from commanders... and by... volunteer doctors... including visual evidence of deliberate sniper shootings of children."

"Until 14 July 2025... 138,520 people were injured... Approximately 25%... life-altering injuries that require... rehabilitative care, including limb amputations, spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and severe burns. ...[R]ecords ...refer only to ...treatment at an official medical facility. ... As with the death toll, it appears... official figures... understate... the... number."

"According to data provided by the Ministry of Health in Gaza to (PHRI), more than 4,700... have undergone amputations since October 2023, including over 940 children and... 370 women. ...[W]here basic medications ...as s were unavailable, doctors were forced to amputate ...though under normal circumstances ... not ...necessary. ...Tens of thousands of wounded ...and amputees were left without adequate care."

"[T]he UN warned that people with disabilities... are "at higher risks of dying, becoming injured and acquiring further impairments" as a result of the ongoing Israeli offensive."

"[E]stimates range from thousands to tens of thousands of deaths, in addition to the direct fatalities caused by the Israeli assault. ...[R]esearchers broadly agree that... figures released by the Ministry of Health in Gaza significantly understate... victims."

"[C]auses of indirect deaths are injuries, infectious diseases, , maternal and neonatal mortality, and complications from untreated chronic illnesses. All... a... result of... destruction of living conditions... restrictions on the entry of , and... assault on the healthcare system that has rendered it unable to cope with... casualties. Experts warn... along with the starvation... indirect deaths will rise further."

"In... October 2024... 100 American medical professionals who had volunteered in the Gaza Strip published a letter stating that almost every person they encountered... was ... sick or wounded, and... nearly every child under... five was suffering from ing and . ...[M]any of the surgeries ...resulted in s due to ..., poor sanitary conditions, and ...lack of . They ...stated that malnutrition and ...shortage of clean ...led to widespread ...low and post-partum women unable to breastfeed, often resulting in the infants' deaths. ...[P]regnant women and fetuses ...had died as a result of the decimation of the healthcare system."

"Gaza's residents have endured countless traumatic events... with... psychological consequences... [W]ithin a reality of omnipresent death, relentless displacement, and ongoing hunger and disease, many are suffering psychological distress after witnessing horrific events, including the violent deaths of... loved ones."

"[I]ncidence of mental health problems has increased significantly, particularly trauma-related disorders, depression, and anxiety, in a population already exhibiting high rates of mental illness due to prolonged exposure to occupation, blockade, and recurring military violence."

"[N]early all of Gaza's 1.2 million children were in need of mental health and support due to symptoms of depression, anxiety, , and more."

"6% of children in Gaza felt... death was imminent, and nearly half expressed a desire to die as a result of... trauma..."

"[B]efore the... offensive... 64%... in the Gaza Strip were classified as food insecure, and... 80% relied on... humanitarian aid. Immediately after launching its assault... Israel declared a complete blockade... which quickly led to... shortages of food..."

"In September 2024, 15 aid organizations published an analysis showing that Israel had blocked 83% of food assistance to the Strip."

"Israel attacked convoys... distributing humanitarian aid, as well as the Palestinian police officers tasked... with securing them. The [food] shortage... led to sharp price hikes... further limiting access... for most of the population."

"[W]e have witnessed relentless human suffering and loss of life on a scale unimaginable..."

"Entire cities bombed and razed, with scarcely a house left standing; hundreds of thousands torn from their lives... with what little they could take on their backs, searching for temporary shelter; adults and children... in endless lines for... little food, risking life and limb... to feed their starving families; and... death looming everywhere."

"Genocide... is an assault on humanity... on the fundamental belief that every life is precious, and the core principle that every human being is entitled to basic rights affording protection from arbitrary violence. ...[A]ttempting to eradicate a group of human beings is a crime... that every person has the duty to oppose and act to stop immediately. This is a moral, legal, and human imperative: to acknowledge the facts... stand with the victims, and demand an end to destruction and extermination..."

"[S]ince October 2023, the Israeli regime has been responsible for carrying out genocide..."

"Killing tens of thousands... causing bodily or mental harm to hundreds of thousands more; destroying homes and civilian infrastructure on a massive scale; starvation, displacement, and denying humanitarian aid... perpetrated systematically... aimed at annihilating... life in the Gaza Strip."

"Israel's decision to continue.... despite countless warnings and... evidence of its deadly consequences... with repeated public clarifications by... policymakers that the target is the entire population of Gaza, demonstrate the intent of... leadership to... destroy Palestinian life in the Gaza Strip."

"[T]he Israeli regime is leading an assault on the Palestinian population in the West Bank and a policy of egregious rights violations against Palestinian citizens of Israel. The form and extent of these actions... are rooted in the... denial of Palestinian humanity. ...[T]he lives and dignity of Palestinians have come to be regarded as disposable... and violence against them normalized."

"The routine killing and destruction in the Gaza Strip and the forced displacement of tens of thousands in the would not have been possible without international inaction in the face of the unfathomable scale and severity of these crimes."

"[M]any state leaders, particularly in Europe and the United States, have not only refrained from effective action to stop the genocide but enabled it — through statements affirming Israel's "right to self-defense" or active support, including the shipment of weapons and ammunition."

"[A]fter the International Court of Justice ruled... plausible risk that Israel's actions amount to genocidal acts, and... the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Gallant on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the international community failed..."

"The genocidal nature of Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip and the international community's failure to prevent them will... likely to reshape norms of conduct in international relations and the protection of human rights around the world."

"Trampling fundamental principles... and blatantly disregarding the moral norms that shaped the post-WWII world order, may turn... indiscriminate lethal force and deliberate targeting of civilians into... conduct of future violent conflicts."

"Confronting the... destruction and moral disintegration requires... acknowledging the crimes... [and] commitment to action and... accountability... international and domestic."

"[R]ebuilding after such devastation will be... long and arduous... [and] require a fundamental shift in the foundations of the Israeli regime."

"[T]he Israeli regime... stripped [of] every moral value and obligation of meaning, is a danger to all people under its rule. ...[E]verything must be done to prevent it from claiming more victims."

"[R]ecognition that the Israeli regime is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip and the deep concern that it may expand to other areas... demand urgent... unequivocal action from both Israeli society and the international community."

"This is the time to save those who have not yet been lost forever, and use every means... under international law to stop Israel's genocide of the Palestinians."

"With the publication of these two reports, and become the first... Israeli organizations to state... based on meticulous documentation and research: Israel is committing genocide... This is another milestone in the human rights community’s efforts to hold Israeli authorities accountable for their crimes... Amid... efforts by the Israeli government to crack down on... human rights organizations, such publications demanded courage and unyielding commitment... Their findings must be heeded... and translated into action to... dismantle... apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights Israel controls. ...B’Tselem’s report builds on... work undertaken for decades to document Israel’s crimes... and demonstrate the cloak of that has sheltered Israeli authorities from accountability. The report’s findings... are... damning and illustrate the importance... to stop Israel’s genocide with... demands to end its unlawful occupation... and dismantle its system of apartheid. ...The publication... coincides with... the UN conference on Palestine in New York. Their... findings add to the... call for... states to recognize Israel’s action... for what it is: genocide. States... must take urgent and effective measures to end Israel’s impunity for its human rights violations against Palestinians and stop its genocide, apartheid and unlawful occupation. Palestinians have... suffered irreversible harm; the horrors... will require generations to recover... States must not miss yet another opportunity to change course, restore... faith in international law and enable Palestinians to begin their recovery..."

"Israel's military campaign in Gaza since October 2023... constitutes genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention."

"The evidence shows a deliberate and systematic dismantling of Gaza's health and life-sustaining systems—through targeted attacks on hospitals, obstruction of medical aid and evacuations, and the killing and detention of healthcare personnel."

"...Israel's actions have destroyed Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in a manner that is both calculated and systematic."

"Gaza's health system has been systematically dismantled—its hospitals rendered non-functional, medical evacuations blocked, and essential services like trauma care, surgery, dialysis, and eliminated."

"[K]illing and detention of over 1,800 healthcare workers... has decimated Gaza's medical capacity and rendered recovery nearly impossible."

"Humanitarian relief has been deliberately restricted, forcing civilians to approach militarized distribution points that have often become sites of s."

"This... assault has produced a... failure of health and humanitarian infrastructure, compounded by policies leading to starvation, disease, and the breakdown of , housing, and education systems."

"As of mid-2025, over 57,000 Palestinians - primarily women and children - have been confirmed killed, with estimates nearing 100,000 when indirect deaths are included."

"Gaza residents... detained and held in Israeli facilities report systematic torture, medical neglect, and degrading treatment..."

"Children face... trauma, while women endure... miscarriages, s, and maternal mortality amid famine and lack of reproductive healthcare services."

"[T]hese acts... part of a deliberate policy targeting Palestinians... fulfill... core acts defined in Article II of the : (a) killing members of the group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its destruction in whole or in part."

"Despite international legal rulings, Israel has not complied... and global enforcement remains weak."

"PHRI urges international bodies and states to fulfill their duty under Article I of the to stop the Gaza genocide."

"[D]estruction of Gaza's health system is not only a legal violation but a humanitarian catastrophe demanding urgent global solidarity and response."

"Understanding... requires following key events at least since the 1948 war—the Palestinian Nakba ("Catastrophe"). Israel forcibly displaced over 80% of the indigenous Palestinian population through mass deportations, internment of civilians, massacres, and the systematic destruction of Palestinian infrastructure. More than 200,000 of the 751,000 Palestinians recorded as refugees fled to the Gaza Strip, tripling its prewar population."

"In 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank... and the Gaza Strip, displacing over 400,000..."

"Since 2007, Israel has imposed a comprehensive blockade on the Gaza Strip."

"Repeated Israeli military escalations between 2008 and 2021 severely damaged healthcare infrastructure and exhausted its emergency response capacity."

"Following Hamas' attack, Israel launched a sustained and far-reaching military offensive against the Gaza Strip."

"Today's rampant starvation and in the Gaza Strip carry critical long-term effects, particularly for children."

"The dismantling of long-term critical care, as well as preventative and diagnostic medicine, will have lasting consequences for the treatment of infectious, cardiac, oncological, and other diseases..."

"Mass displacement and the destruction of buildings... rendered the education system... inoperable, while also destroying family and community structures..."

"Collapsed water and systems have led to detrimental environmental effects."

"These issues are deeply interwoven with... categories... in the definition of genocide under Article II of the ..."

"[T]he destruction of healthcare infrastructure may constitute both the infliction of conditions of life (Article II(c)) and serious bodily or mental harm (Article II(b))."

"[A]cts of killing (Article II(a)) may also contribute to broader patterns of deprivation."

"The deliberate infliction of life-destroying conditions, where undertaken with the intent to eliminate a protected group, constitutes genocide under Article II(c) of the . The deprivation of basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, and medical care can thus fulfill the material element..."

"Through sustained military attacks, siege policies, and the obstruction of humanitarian access, including medical supplies, Israel has dismantled the institutions and services essential to health and survival."

"Hospitals, clinics, ambulances, and medical personnel have been systematically targeted, rendered non-functional, or killed. Diagnostic and treatment capacities have been eliminated, resulting in deaths due to acute and chronic life-threatening conditions, including infectious, cardiac, and oncologic diseases."

"The prolonged famine will have severe long-term effects, particularly on children. ...[[Psychological trauma|[M]ental effects]] of the atrocities will persist..."

"Very early into the war, all major hospitals in northern Gaza... were shelled, besieged, or forcibly evacuated."

"By late December 2023, only nine of the Gaza Strip's 36 hospitals remained partially functional - all located in the south."

"Repeated direct attacks on hospitals... obstruction of supply flows and aid, and the decimation of medical personnel through killings and detentions made recovery impossible."

"By early June, the health system had reached a state of near-total collapse. With only 14 out of 36 hospitals only partially functional, and most major facilities in Rafah and central Gaza either shuttered or overwhelmed, medical staff faced impossible conditions."

"From October 2024, Israel executed a military campaign aimed at physically and functionally erasing northern Gaza."

"[[w:Kamal Adwan Hospital sieges|[D]estruction of Kamal Adwan]] marked dealt a decisive blow to northern Gaza's healthcare system. With no remaining medical facilities, no operational ambulances, and no rescue infrastructure, northern Gaza's health system was erased."

"On March 2 [2025], Israel imposed a second total siege on the Gaza Strip—the longest yet... cutting off all humanitarian and medical access. The World Food Programme (WFP), WHO, and other UN agencies reported... bakeries ran out of flour and fuel, food stocks... depleted, and hospitals... unable to operate... In May alone, 5,000 children in Gaza were diagnosed with ..."

"On March 23, Israeli forces opened fire on marked ambulances and a fire-fighting vehicle, killing 15 Palestinian medics... attempting to assist wounded civilians after an airstrike. They were buried in an apparent attempt to eliminate evidence. The International Federation of the Red Cross called it "the most deadly attack on medical workers in a decade." (Jun 19, 2025)"

"As of May 23, over 90% of Gaza's 531 health service points were either entirely or partially out of service, with many of the last remaining sites located inside declared evacuation zones, inaccessible to civilians and medics alike."

"[A]ttacks on Gaza's hospitals... blocked medical evacuations, prevented patients from entering or leaving... and killed or detained... patients and medical staff. The raids caused significant damage... while denying... critical resources, including electricity, water, and medical supplies. These... endangered... lives... [and] severely undermined the hospitals' ability to function."

"Taking a health-focused approach to identify genocidal intent and policy, the report documents the systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system, destruction of medical facilities, blocking of drugs, and killings and arrests of health workers. ...[T]hey implore health and humanitarian communities worldwide to confront the destruction of Gaza’s medical system, attacks on its infrastructure and environment, and deliberate targeting of the conditions needed for human survival in Gaza. ...[T]hird parties, PHRI argues, have a duty to terminate this genocidal campaign and protect the health, lives, and dignity of Palestinians."

"PHRI... ... documents.. a deliberate, cumulative dismantling of Gaza’s health system, and... its people’s ability to survive. This amounts to genocide. Israel’s bombing of hospitals, destruction of medical equipment, and depletion of medications have made medical care... impossible. ...Each day, dozens die of malnutrition. Ninety-two percent of infants aged six months to two years don’t get enough to eat. ...85 children have ...starved to death. Israel has displaced 9 in 10 Gazans, destroyed or damaged 92% of homes, and left... half a million children without schools or stability. It has wiped out essential health services... [A]ctions are critical—and must be taken immediately—to prevent further loss of life."