“You must remember what Amalek has done to you,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address to the nation. “Our hero troops, have one main goal, to completely defeat the murderous enemy.” Referring to Palestinians in Gaza as being like the Amalekites, who were an ancient people wiped out by the Israelites in the Hebrew Bible, Netanyahu’s statement was the latest in a line of both official and unofficial statements by Israeli politicians and media calling for the destruction of Gaza. But how do Israeli actions and rhetoric constitute a potential genocide?
MEMO speaks to Professor Raz Segal who believes Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza could lead to a genocide of Palestinians in the besieged enclave. Segal was the first to determine that Israel’s operation in Gaza amounted to genocide. In his conversation with MEMO, Raz explains why Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the UN definition of genocide and provides compelling evidence to make the case that what is unfolding in Gaza is “a textbook case of genocide”.
Raz Segal is an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and an endowed professor in the study of modern genocide.