Ever since Israel began it’s assault in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Oct 7, 2023, the word genocide has been used by supporters of Palestine, human rights activists, and/or detractors of Israel’s government. Supporters of Israel’s actions have decried the use of the word, maintaining that using the word genocide was antisemitic. Now, can there be little doubt what Netanyahu’s government’s plan is for Gaza and the West Bank?

With U.S. President Donald Trump talking about removing all remaining people of Gaza while a grinning Netanyahu stood by his side; with Israel breaking a ceasefire, cutting off all electricity to Gaza, blocking all aid to Gaza and with the renewed bombing, killing hundreds more people and children: is there another word other than genocide that would be more fit for the occasion?

Meanwhile, in the West Bank, more and more residents are being thrown out of their homes which are then destroyed; wells are being cemented up; people have very restricted rights of movement; people are shot regularly by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers; and live in a constant state of fear and degradation by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The Gaza Strip’s water supply depends on three primary sources: groundwater, water supplied directly from Israel through the national water company (Mekorot), and central desalination plants that belong to the Coastal Municipality Water Utility in Gaza. The groundwater is contaminated with sewage; desalination requires energy, which is non-existent, and Mekorot has stopped supplying any water.

The U.S. cheers Israel on and continues to send billions of dollars in weapons. Gaza is now a giant open-air concentration camp. There are no buildings, only tents, very few medical facilities, little water, scarce food and no electricity. The “targets” that the U.S. press likes to say are being bombed by Israel, are civilians in tents. In Nazi Europe, Jews had to leave or die, but few had anywhere to go and eventually were killed in concentration camps and by firing squads. How different is this? What is the end point? Is there any doubt now? Leave or be deported, never to return; or die: by starvation; by dehydration; by disease or by bullets and bombs. Are we not now at the final solution of what Israel wants to do about Gaza and the West Bank and the people who live there? I, a Jew, call it genocide.

Gerald Weiss

Amherst