Dear reader,
Finally we are releasing the recording of the lecture given by Prof. Omer Bartov in November 2024, entitled “Israel, Gaza and the Eternalization of War: Origins, Reality, and Future Scenarios”.
As always, the recording excludes the Q&A, but you can find a summary of audience interactions with Prof. Bartov below.
We will soon publish the recording of the lecture given by Amman Ali Jan, Petra Schöning, and come back with new lectures.
In the meantime, keep up the struggle against colonisation!
The Decolonization in Dialogue team.
Summary of the lecture and Q&A
Omer Bartov is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
The war in Gaza in international context
While Omer Bartov began in November 2023 by suggesting that Israel's military campaign in Gaza was a deliberate and consistent destruction of civil society and civilians, he is now convinced that Israel's campaign is no longer a war operation, but a genocidal campaign. With more than 44,000 people killed, more than 60% of them civilians, 100,000 people injured, and thousands of people disabled (e.g. by amputations), he sees a plan to make Gaza uninhabitable for its people that has been systematically carried out since May 2024.
Israel's actions are only possible because of the continuous supply of weapons by the US and Europe and their diplomatic cover, e.g. the US veto of almost all resolutions in the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire or an end to the war.
He sees the edifice of international and humanitarian law, as developed and established after World War II, eroding and collapsing. For more than a year, these laws have not been enforced, while the message is that you can get away with violating them. This can lead to international chaos and the dismantling of the international order, Bartov said.
Background of the conflict
Eighty percent of Gaza's population are refugees and descendants of refugees from 1948. Bartov then describes the political developments in Israel in recent years, which played a major role in leading to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. Since 2022, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has led a right-wing government. Netanyahu's two main coalition partners are Jewish Power, led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. The party dates back to Rabbi Meir Kahane (1932-1990), a Jewish-American supremacist and ultra-nationalist active in Israel in the 1970s and 1980s.
Netanyahu's second coalition party is Mafdal - HaTzionut HaDatit, a national-religious party led by Bezalel Smotrich. The party is based on a messianic concept that rejects democracy, claims that the land "from the Jordan to the sea" is given by God, and supports the settlement of "new pioneers" in the Palestinian West Bank.
From the start, Netanyahu's coalition government has sought to weaken democratic institutions, such as the powers of Israel's Supreme Court. Thousands of Israeli citizens took to the streets in months of protest marches and actions.
The protests did not address the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, nor the fact that the 2 million Palestinians living in Israel (out of a population of 7 million) are second-class citizens. Moreover, while Jewish Israelis have full legal and civil rights, Palestinians have none. There are many rules that apply only to Palestinians.
Bartov states that Palestinians in the West Bank live under an apartheid regime and are subject to arbitrary and military laws. In fact, Israel has controlled the West Bank since 1967.
The 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have been living under siege since 2007, with Israel controlling their borders and access by land, water and air. The last elections in Gaza in 2006 brought Hamas to power.
According to Bartov, the factors that led to the October 7 attack included:
- The social suffering of the Gazans.
- The increasing violence in the West Bank, imposed by the right-wing Israeli government by supporting and arming extremist settlers;
- The oppression of Palestinians by reducing their rights;
- Expanding the power of Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir by adding control of the police to his national security portfolio.
- The so-called Abraham Accords, pushed by the US, aimed at normalizing (mainly economic) relations between Arab countries (e.g. Saudi Arabia) and Israel. Palestine was sidelined/played no role in these agreements.
Bartov explains that on the one hand, Benjamin Netanyahu cannot let this government fail because he would face corruption charges as soon as he is no longer head of state.
On the other hand, Bartov sees Israel as an occupying force of Palestinian territory and people since its founding in 1948. The International Court of Justice has declared this occupation illegal. Most Israeli Jews do not see the situation as an occupation - and here begins the dehumanization of the Palestinians, who are seen as people with lesser rights to be controlled and policed. This in turn makes people frustrated and aggressive.
So this all led to the attack of October 7, 2023, which was undoubtedly atrocious, killing about 900 Jewish civilians. It was the worst attack on the Israeli people since the founding of the state in 1948. It was also extremely humiliating for Israel and its military.
But it was also the beginning of the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Q&A (selection):
Can't Israel deal with war crimes on its own?
The ICC law is complementary. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have promised to investigate crimes, but so far they have never done so. And as long as Israel is backed by Western powers, it gets away with most of its actions. Hamas' casualty figures have proven to be quite accurate. They say that two thirds of the victims are civilians. Killing them is a war crime. In addition, the IDF has used civilians as human shields and even killed Israeli hostages (speaking Hebrew and carrying a white flag). Women and children have been found dead with a bullet in their head after being executed by snipers.
What about Germany's historical responsibility to the Jews after the Holocaust?
The memorial culture of remembrance that Germany created in the 1980s after years of denial was impressive and important. But in the long run, it came at a price. Domestically, you cannot hold immigrants responsible for what the Nazi regime did. Germany now also has a problem with freedom of speech - as far as criticism of Israel is concerned. That is dangerous for a democracy. Bartov would be considered an anti-Semite in Germany. Internationally, it is difficult to explain why Germany strongly criticizes Russia for what it is doing in Ukraine, but remains silent about the atrocities committed by Israel. If Germany wants to help Israel, it should do so by fighting its own internal enemies (extremists).
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