Among Israeli officials, the state they represent is incapable of genocide. Over time, as Holocaust scholar Omer Bartov writes, “ethical concerns and moral qualms were brushed aside as either marginal or distracting in the face of the ultimate cataclysm that is the genocide of the Jews”.

This form of reasoning, known otherwise as “Holocaust-ism” or “Shoah-tiyut”, is a moral conceit left bare by the war of annihilation being waged against Palestinians in Gaza.

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The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has issued a new report, Our Genocide, which made this blunt assessment: “Israel’s policy in the Gaza Strip and its horrific outcomes, together with statements by senior Israeli politicians and military commanders about the goals of the attack, leads us to the unequivocal conclusion that Israel is taking coordinated action to intentionally destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip.

“In other words: Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

The infliction of genocide, the organisation acknowledges, is a matter of “multiple and parallel practices” applied over a period of time, with killing being merely one component.

Living conditions are destroyed, concentration camps and zones created, populations expelled and policies to systematically prevent reproduction enacted.

“Accordingly, genocidal acts are various........

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