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Top UN legal investigators conclude Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza

• gerash 1y ago
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  • mslm 1y ago
    A one state solution means Palestinians can vote out the Zionists from power. They know that, so they'd rather prevent it while simultaneously genociding their population.
  • raxxorraxor 1y ago
    If that is true the simplest explanation is that members of the US congress do indeed have an advantage over you.
• Rakshith 1y ago
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• zipzapzip 1y ago
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• deleted 1y ago
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• raxxorraxor 1y ago
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  • Qem 1y ago
    > The attack on Gaza’s largest fertility clinic destroyed thousands of embryos, sperm samples, and eggs. More info on that particular attack: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15npnzpd08o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15npnzpd08o
    • dotancohen 1y ago
      According to the article, nobody actually knows when the attack took place. And the BBC is assuming that it was an Israel attack, even though 1/3 to 1/6 of Hamas rockets fall back into Gaza - that is disingenuous. Furthermore, the single photograph of the clinic shows absolutely zero kinetic damage. How does an Israeli shell or bomb leave no kinetic damage? The Hamas rockets leave little to no kinetic damage as they are fuel-air bombs, not HE.
  • a_paddy 1y ago
    They have repeatedly hampered the entry of baby formula, a clear pattern of actions to stunt childhood development, increase childhood mortality and dissuade the population from having more children. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-hampering-entry-of-baby-formula-into-gaza-as-child-malnutrition-climbs/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-said-hampering-entry-of... https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/01/israel-limits-entry-of-baby-formula-in-gaza-as-infants-die-of-hunger_6742899_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/07/01/i... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/22/gaza-israel-deliberate-starvation-ceasefire-aid https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/22/gaza-i...
    • philipallstar 1y ago
      Why can't it come in through Egypt?
      • tdeck 1y ago
        Because Israel controls that border crossing: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/7/israel-takes-control-of-rafah-crossing-gazas-lifeline-whats-going-on https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/7/israel-takes-control... Even before this they had effective control of all goods moving through since 2007.
    • raxxorraxor 1y ago
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      • piva00 1y ago
        I suspect you haven't heard that Gaza is under a blockade for decades?
        • tome 1y ago
          Why's it under blockade?
      • tdeck 1y ago
  • tdeck 1y ago
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  • bjourne 1y ago
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    • raxxorraxor 1y ago
      You can read up about the members of the Pillay commission, the "Top UN legal investigators", yourself. It is just ridiculous. Reminder that thousands of rockets rained on Israel on October 7th. Crying genocide after such an attack when your enemy retaliates and retaliates very harshly in the context of middle eastern politics will never be reasonable. Hamas is free to surrender and everything would stop tomorrow. I quoted from the report, you can make up your mind yourself. But you already did anyway. Pillay is from the Apartheid crew, that just ignores a side of this conflict. A side that is very much not tolerant of everyone else. Bad and unconvincing report.
      • tovej 1y ago
        Reminder that Israel razed hundreds of Palestinian villages to the ground in 1948, and expelled half the Palestinian population from their homeland. Israel has always wanted to ethnically cleanse Palestine of the indigenous population. It has resisted any diplomatic route to a two-state solution, going as far as financing Hamas because Fatah was moving towards a peaceful resolution, and Hamas was seen as an adversary against whom ethnic cleansing would be easier to justify. Israel is quite literally built on top of the ruins of Palestinian villages. The zionist project has always required an ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, because the project's goal is to build an ethnostate. This is just culminating in the current genocide.
        • raxxorraxor 1y ago
          Yeah, almost as many people as Jews were driven out of surrounding countries. I don't think headcounts do serve any sensible argument. There is a lot of fiction in your post and I am not surprised that you have a problem with the existence of Israel.
          • adhamsalama 1y ago
• jenders 1y ago
  This is not tech related and does not belong on hacker news
  • a_paddy 1y ago
    This is a genocide.
    • Qem 1y ago
      A tech-enabled one.
  • tchbnl 1y ago
    Sure it does, if enough users find this interesting to them. I for one find this interesting.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  • omnicognate 1y ago
    This is politics and therefore probably off-topic for hn. It not being tech-related is irrelevant. An argument could be made that it is an "interesting new phenomenon", but the post is most likely to result in tedious flamewars regardless and so should probably be killed. From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
  • Theodores 1y ago
    I would agree with you if we were in 1994 and this was about Rwanda. Those tower blocks in Gaza that were felled on the anniversary of 9/11 were not taken down with machetes. We have got AI assisted targeting going on, with all of your favourite cloud service providers delivering value to their shareholders thanks to sales to the IDF. The corporation that once had 'don't be evil' as their mission statement are suckling on the IDF teat along with Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco.
• yieldcrv 1y ago
  Useless except if the following done on the US side: Remove exception to AIPAC political status Reevaluate AIPAC non profit status entirely Replicate EO 14046 for Israel which adds the entire ruling party and head of state and spouses and military and affiliated business to the OFAC list all of this is easy and doesn’t require Congress but nobody is close to considering those actions with regard to Israel. Notably, other nation’s organizations do not enjoy this courtesy (Don’t sorry guys, Hamas is already on these lists too)
  • therobots927 1y ago
    Voters can take a stand and refuse to vote for anyone complicit in this atrocity.
    • mrguyorama 1y ago
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      • netsharc 1y ago
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    • imglorp 1y ago
      In the US, both parties were supportive in the last election. Not many choices.
      • actionfromafar 1y ago
        One party had a long leash. The other cut the leash and yelled attaboy. Now acting mildly concerned when the neighbour downstreet (Qatar) got their chickens bombed.
        • mschuster91 1y ago
          > Now acting mildly concerned when the neighbour downstreet (Qatar) got their chickens bombed. Thing is, what was bombed there was Hamas leadership, not some rank-and-file goons.
• worldsavior 1y ago
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  • a_paddy 1y ago
    The UN secretary general condemned it the day it happened. https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21981.doc.htm https://press.un.org/en/2023/sgsm21981.doc.htm
  • Anonbrit 1y ago
    Given the Israeli military are defacto state sponsored terrorists (see e.g. their active support of settler violence on the West Bank if you want to avoid Gaza related complaints). That means every single company in Israel is employing terrorists.
    • worldsavior 1y ago
      Sure. The Israel military rapes, kills, slaughter, and rob Gaza and West bank. The IDF is exactly like Hamas sure. /s if you didn't understand. The Israelis live in the West Bank. The IDF is there to protect them. There is no violence whatsoever from the settlers. It's pure propaganda. There were a few rare times of some violence, but it's nothing compared to what the Palestinians do. Last week, two Palestinians crossed the border and murdered 6 people and 20+ injured on a bus shooting in Jerusalem. They even kill each other. Each time the IDF comes into Palestinians "cities" to catch terrorists, they throw rocks on them.
      • a_paddy 1y ago
        > no violence whatsoever The UN reported that, in the West Bank, Palestinians killed 6 Israeli settlers and 16 soldiers, while Israelis killed 719 Palestinians, from October 7, 2023, to October 7, 2024" https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-update-225-west-bank https://www.ochaopt.org/content/humanitarian-situation-updat... International journalists can't access Gaza, but they have witnessed first hand settler violence. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewy88jle0eo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewy88jle0eo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0pHcC0HMiQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0pHcC0HMiQ
• clot27 1y ago
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• asdefghyk 1y ago
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  • mfru 1y ago
    that sounds like IDF propaganda and their credibility is basically non-existent
    • asdefghyk 1y ago
      My claims have been widely reported in the media
      • mfru 1y ago
        The media used to (some still do) widely report IDF propaganda verbatim, so that is not a good measure
        • asdefghyk 1y ago
          BOTH sides would be releasing propaganda. Also Hamas has killed people who criticise it ( or I should say thats whats been reported )
    • asdefghyk 1y ago
      In at least one case ... UN released statement saying they had sacked several people ..... ie not from IDF
• _l7dh 1y ago
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  • tdeck 1y ago
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    • _l7dh 1y ago
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  • bjourne 1y ago
    It's part of a broader phenomena: feelings over facts. Doesn't matter how many commissions say it's genocide and how much evidence is presented, people don't "feel" it is true, therefore it is not true. Zero difference between these people, climate change deniers, and anti-vaxers.
  • flyinglizard 1y ago
    The UN discredits itself: UNGA 2015-2023, 154 resolutions against Israel, 71 against all other countries _combined_. Of course it stems from the anti-Israeli bias of its members: a single Jewish state against 57 Muslim states.
    • hashbig 1y ago
      Or it stems from Israel committing more war crimes than other nations
      • flyinglizard 1y ago
        Does it seem plausible to you that during the years of the Syrian civil war, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Tigray war in Ethiopia, the war in South Sudan and countless others (conflicts which, in total, claimed the lives of millions), Israel would commit war crimes at a ratio of 2:1 against the entire world, combined? In contrast, the number of deaths from both Israeli and Palestinian sides in the same time period was several hundreds.
• incomingpain 1y ago
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  • mfru 1y ago
    Cited from the full report: 255. The Commission concludes that the State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
    • incomingpain 1y ago
      The reality is that it would take a court to find guilt and it's not their place to conclude guilt on someone not even subject to their accusation.
      • tdeck 1y ago
        It literally says they bear responsibility for the commission of genocide. Did you fail to... read the one sentence you were responding to?
      • nahuel0x 1y ago
        You forgot to read the "commission of genocide" part.
        • tdeck 1y ago
          I see that the person we replied to edited their comment. It originally said something along the lines of "that just says they failed to prevent genocide."
• mfru 1y ago
  Conclusion: " 251. The Commission’s analysis in this report relates solely to the determination of genocide under the Genocide Convention as it relates to the responsibility of the State of Israel both for the failure to prevent genocide, for committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023 and for the failure to punish genocide. The Commission also notes that, while its analysis is limited to the Palestinians specifically in Gaza during the period since 7 October 2023, it nevertheless raises the serious concern that the specific intent to destroy the Palestinians as a whole has extended to the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, that is, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, based on Israeli authorities’ and Israeli security forces’ actions therein, and to the period before 7 October 2023. The events in Gaza since 7 October 2023 have not occurred in isolation, as the Commission has noted. They were preceded by decades of unlawful occupation and repression under an ideology requiring the removal of the Palestinian population from their lands and its replacement. 252. The Commission concludes on reasonable grounds that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit the following actus reus of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, namely (i) killing members of the group; (ii) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (iii) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (iv) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. 253. On incitement to genocide, the Commission concludes that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, have incited the commission of genocide and that Israeli authorities have failed to take action against them to punish this incitement. The Commission has not fully assessed statements by other Israeli political and military leaders, including Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Minister for Finance Bezalel Smotrich, and considers that they too should be assessed to determine whether they constitute incitement to commit genocide. 254. On the mens rea of genocide, the Commission concludes that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. In addition, the Commission concludes that the pattern of conduct is circumstantial evidence of genocidal intent and that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the totality of the evidence. Thus, the Commission concludes that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 255. The Commission concludes that the State of Israel bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
• _DeadFred_ 1y ago
  Seeing the number of flagged comments, and going from past discussions where any discussion seen as pushback was flagged, this discussion really doesn't belong on hacker news.
  • Gud 1y ago
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    • Ethee 1y ago
      The problem is there obviously isn't any discussion happening. People are so entrenched on one side or the other and that's pretty apparent by this comment section. Everyone wants to virtue signal without taking any responsibility. The unfortunate reality of this situation is that it's extremely complex and weaves in a lot of historical context. But nobody cares about nuance anymore it's all just "killing bad!" within the framework of whatever controversial event is on the inciters mind. Well duh, but how did we get here? If we can't stop and consider both sides constructively then clearly we're never going to get anywhere and shit like this will just continue.
      • xg15 1y ago
        That's essentially the pro-Israel argument for decades (Including the opinion that killing somehow weren't always bad). It hasn't prevented the current situation. But don't let that stop you. Feel free to make a nuanced and well-researched counterargument why the UN report is wrong.
        • Ethee 1y ago
          I'm not sure what you're pointing to in my response to attribute it to Israeli support. I was attempting to make light of the fact that 'discussion' requires two sides. Right now both sides live in a different reality. I am in no way condoning Israel's genocide against Palestinians. But to say Israel is the only one at fault for this situation and to only point fingers to one side betrays the historical facts of the situation. I in no way tried to downplay the situation or play sides so please don't twist my words as if I did.
• slt2021 1y ago
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  • rimunroe 1y ago
    What Israel is doing is reprehensible, but you're promoting a classic antisemetic myth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel
  • dang 1y ago
    Edit: since you've posted egregiously like this before and have ignored our requests to stop, I've banned the account. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44738555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44738555 (July 2025) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44362828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44362828 (June 2025) Bottom-of-the-barrel antisemitism ought to be the easiest thing in the world to avoid, regardless of your views or feelings about the ongoing situation. In any case, there's no place for it on Hacker News—never has been and never will. ---- original comment: ---- rimunroe is correct, you've repeated a classic antisemitic trope. We ban accounts that post like that, so please don't post like that again. It's entirely possible, and ought to be entirely easy, to make any substantive point you have without any of that.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
• therobots927 1y ago
  I for one will be holding my representatives responsible who continue to vote for the US to enable a genocide. The videos coming out of Gaza have turned me and many others into single issue voters.
  • sirbutters 1y ago
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    • breppp 1y ago
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      • barbazoo 1y ago
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        • tome 1y ago
          How about the allies in WWII? Were they on the wrong side of history?
          • jcranmer 1y ago
            When it comes to strategic bombing, honestly, yes. It boggles my mind that militaries keep attempting despite decades of experience showing that damn near every single time it's been attempted, it's been an abject failure in its aims and very often entirely counterproductive.
            • tome 1y ago
              How about when it comes to military actions that were not strategic bombing? FWIW the reason that Israeli troops are on the ground and not just razing the Strip from the air is to reduce risk to civilians.
• 4899641178855 1y ago
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• ipaddr 1y ago
  Wonder why this made the frontpage when other political articles die. Has the rules around political non technical articles changed? Can we get an Epstein thread for the frontpage sometime this week?
  • dang 1y ago
    No, the rules haven't changed—they've been the same for many years. Let me try to dig up some past explanations. Edit: here's one from a few months ago, which covers the principles: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43738815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43738815. Re how we approach political topics (or political overlap) on HN in general: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... Re how we deal with Major Ongoing Topics, i.e. topics where there are a ton of articles and submissions over time: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20major%20ongoing%20topic&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Re how we approach turning off flags: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20turn%20off%20flags&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Re the perception that "HN has been getting more political lately" (spoiler: it hasn't - though it does fluctuate): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869. If you or anyone will check out some of those links and still have a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
    • decayiscreation 1y ago
      [flagged]
      • dang 1y ago
        I've never discussed this topic with Garry and no one at YC has tried to influence how we moderate HN on this or any other political topic. You might want to check out the part of the HN FAQ which explains that the moderators are editorially independent: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
• MangoToupe 1y ago
  I'm afraid the latest spate of "recognizing the state of Palestine" is not, in fact, a sign of coming relief for the people there, but rather a spigot to relieve domestic pressure to engage in substantive actions (sanctions, pressuring the US and other suppliers of arms to engage in sanctions, let alone sending peacekeepers or no-fly zones). Regardless of how much you're personally invested in the topic, this should break the hearts of everyone who dreamed that the international community could hold each other legally accountable. Indeed, the US would rather sanction individuals at the ICJ than acknowledge any sort of legitimacy—even as our own politicians accuse Russia of engaging in "war crimes". I have no doubt that they are, in fact, I think that the evidence is quite damning. But the double standard is striking, as is the difference between the footage visible on social media and what is acknowledged when you turn on the TV or open the paper.
  • actionfromafar 1y ago
    The international community is a worthwhile endeavour. But all other countries play at the behest of the US and now, also China. Between them, the rest have only local influence.
  • toast0 1y ago
    > I'm afraid the latest spate of "recognizing the state of Palestine" is not, in fact, a sign of coming relief for the people there, but rather a spigot to relieve domestic pressure to engage in substantive actions (sanctions, pressuring the US and other suppliers of arms to engage in sanctions, let alone sending peacekeepers or no-fly zones). I don't think recognition as a State would really change anything. If at least one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council will veto everything that comes up, the UN won't effectively intervene in the situation. Military intervention in such a case is unlikely, unless at least one permanent member is willing to join an intervention coalition. Looking at conflicts the US has been involved in, it usually lines up around the lines with US maybe with their usual friends vs Locals or Locals and Russia and friends. The only one I found where the pattern was when France started sending arms to Nicaragua while the US was supporting the other side [1]. Unless Russia or China wants to support the Palestinians militarily, or the US decides not to no longer support Israel militarily, there's not much chance of outside intervention here. Given the outside countries can't effectively intervene, recognizing the state of Palestine at least sends a message, that maybe hopefully influences the US? [1] https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0715/071566.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1982/0715/071566.html
• eej71 1y ago
  It's always useful to balance these claims against their critics. Towards that end I offer up unwatch. https://unwatch.org/ https://unwatch.org/
  • random9749832 1y ago
    Nice critic. I remember on Reddit watching someone get blown up the other day while carrying water while it was still up. I think they were under 10. Not sure if they died or just lost all their limbs.
    • dotancohen 1y ago
      That was a young Gazan girl who tripped a Hamas IED that had been set for Israeli troops. That's why there was a camera pointed at it.
      • random9749832 1y ago
        >That was a young Gazan girl Are we sure we are talking about the same child who got blown up? There is quite a few.
        • dotancohen 1y ago
          [flagged]
          • ThrowMeAway1618 1y ago
            >It could have been another, unfortunately many children are dying right now. Yeah. It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural causes.[0] [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXvDGRvX70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOXvDGRvX70
  • bix6 1y ago
    Is there a specific report arguing that Israel is not committing genocide? I don’t see it on the home page.
• leonixyz 1y ago
  Hopefully we are at the beginning of a change, but I doubt this will come only from the UN. The UN is the only international democratic institution that - even with its many imperfections - prevents the world to fall into complete anarchy. It's quite telling that it gets ignored since so many years by the country that elevates itself as the world defender of democracy, the US. The UN has voted for decades for ending the embargo towards Cuba. Every year the outcome of the vote, which has always resulted in a great majority demanding the immediate end of the embargo, has been ignored by the US, resulting in millions of Cubans facing extreme economic consequences since many decades. The last time every country except Israel and US voted for ending the embargo (I might be wrong, maybe a single African state abstained). In all of this, the only seed of joy I see, was seeing the Cubans a couple of years ago, after decades and decades of seeing their economy strangled by the most powerful country on Earth, roll out their own Covid vaccine just at the same time of those of big Pharma - a vaccine that resulted excellent, effective, and cheap. Hats off for the Cubans. Hope to see some other seed like this also in the Palestinians.
  • zpeti 1y ago
    What people fail to understand about dynamics between countries, is ultimately there is no supreme court or arbiter of truth. The UN doesn't have authority over any powerful country (or non powerful country for that matter). People seem to have this concept that there is some supra national legal system, or even moral system that can hold a higher truth than what powerful countries want, but there isn't. When it comes to geopolitics, the biggest and most powerful sets the rules and lives by them (or not). The USA has zero motivation to do something the UN wants it to do, if it doesn't itself want to do it. No one is going to hold it to account. Ultimately - whoever controls the violence can set the rules. For the last 80 years that's been the US. Maybe that is changing, but not quite yet. The UN isn't an international democratic institution. For the last 20-30 years it's been a powerless theatre. And it didn't have much power before then either. Because ultimately, whoever has the most nukes and the biggest army rules the world.
    • const_cast 1y ago
      Its important to note that most of those "irrelevant" countries are only irrelevant because they're perpetually under the thumb of world powers. Hence why they petition the UN. And, hence why empires and somewhat-formally colonial nations ignore them. Ultimately, a lot of the wealth of the West comes from core countries siphoning wealth from the periphery and propping up psueodo governments to place their thumbs on the scale of world politics. Exhibit A: Israel.
• pojzon 1y ago
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  • shadowgovt 1y ago
    Not so much "lies" as "a people having a genocide committed against them does not make them constitutionally incapable of ever committing one themselves in the future." For several reasons, including that it was different people (only 7% of Holocaust survivors are still alive) and that 'nation,' as a conceptual construct, still carries the same weaknesses that it did when a relatively few voices in Germany used that construct to rally the masses to commit atrocities against their own citizens (and the people in their temporarily-conquered territory) for being 'the wrong kind' of people. "It's not wrong when we're doing it" is an old, old failing of human empathy and sense of justice.
    • actionfromafar 1y ago
      In fact, I think trauma often makes the victims more likely to perpetuate violence.
  • bsaul 1y ago
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    • jedimind 1y ago
      zionists still trying to deceive people with misleading analogies while pretending that their apartheid ethno-state can just start its origin story at october 7th [1]. I wonder what kind of individual still buys into these false and lazy zionist narratives. [1] https://web.archive.org/web/20231029055310/ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/jewish-zionist-terrorism-and-establishment-israel https://web.archive.org/web/20231029055310/ojp.gov/ncjrs/vir...
  • dang 1y ago
    That sounds like you're flirting with holocaust denial. We ban that sort of account, so no more of this please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
• random9749832 1y ago
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  • dotancohen 1y ago
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    • random9749832 1y ago
      Intentionally killing children will never be justified, everything else serves as a decoy from acknowledging this simple fact.
      • bsaul 1y ago
        Nobody in israel's army is aiming at children except maybe for some people turning crazy because of the war, which happens in every war. Pretending otherwise is just blatant propaganda.
      • dotancohen 1y ago
        Israel does not intentionally kill children. Hamas does. They state it clearly.
        • lentil_soup 1y ago
          Quite a few thousand killed by Israel, or are you claiming that's not true?
          • SilverElfin 1y ago
            I wouldn’t call those intentional. Collateral damage in a defensive war against terrorists who are hiding among civilians is different from intentionally seeking to kill children as your only objective.
          • dotancohen 1y ago
            I agree that thousands of children have been killed in Gaza - by both Israel and Hamas. Trying to pin all of them on Israel only encourages Hamas to kill more.
• user3939382 1y ago
  The UN’s teeth appear to be red white and blue.
• bix6 1y ago
  Combined with the other ongoing conflicts it really feels like we’re in a WW3 era
  • epolanski 1y ago
    Sadly history is a very poorly studied topic. I look at European leaders and they don't seem to remember it any better.
    • 7952 1y ago
      The best way to teach history would be to make politicians dig slit trenches and then shell them for a few days. Anything less than that people will always end up regurgitating ethno nationalist bullshit or "geopolitics".
      • suslik 1y ago
        > The best way to teach history would be to make politicians dig slit trenches and then shell them for a few days I don't see why you think that. That didn't work for Hitler, Göring, and the countless numbers of WW1 veterans in the SA and SS hungry for another try.
  • tick_tock_tick 1y ago
    [flagged]
  • wmeredith 1y ago
    I don't want to downplay the atrocities going on in the current conflicts, but this sort of comment deserves some perspective. About 70 million people were killed in WW2, as of the present day about 1 million have died in the war Russia is waging against Ukraine and about 70k people have died in the Israeli/Palestine conflict. The horrors are most certainly real. But WW3 this era is most certainly not, that's thankfully off by an order of magnitude.
    • darth_avocado 1y ago
• Invictus0 1y ago
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  • nemomarx 1y ago
    What stat are you using for current Palestinian population during this conflict? Any good estimate of the deaths to hunger over the next few years? I don't believe that the charges in the report require success either way, but it would help with your statistics.
    • machina_ex_deus 1y ago
      Even according to Hamas own numbers, 60,000 Palestinians died, 200 from starvation. That's very low compared to real genocides. That's very low considering Israel killed an estimated 10,000 of Hamas soldiers. That's pretty good accuracy in all modern standards of war.
      • bjourne 1y ago
        According to Wikipedia between 25 and 33 thousand Bosnians and Croats were killed in the Bosnian genocide. Thus your argument doesn't hold, unless you contend that there was no genocide in Bosnia either.
      • jcranmer 1y ago
        A 1:6 ratio for civilian deaths is not a good civilian casualty ratio by the standards of modern warfare. Russia in Ukraine is currently achieving a rate of about 1:3, and that's a country that's currently considered rather brutal as far as civilian casualty rates go. The US in the Iraq War managed urban operations with kill ratios better than 1:1.
        • Invictus0 1y ago
          Have you seen how small and remote the villages are where Russia and Ukraine are fighting? Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on earth and the fighters are not wearing uniforms and are directly embedded in civilian population centers.
• dotancohen 1y ago
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  • epolanski 1y ago
    While you do have points that these UN bodies do seem to sleep more often than not, one should never, under any circumstance attempt to suggest that what's happening in Gaza aren't crimes against humanity. A friend of mine is in the Red Cross staff, they had more than 20 casualties since 2021 in Palestine. Their staff was literally shot at because they were doctors. It's sickening.
    • dotancohen 1y ago
      Which side do you think has an interest in shooting doctors? I'll help you with that. It's not the side that would regularly take Gazan children into Israel for medical treatment before the Gazans started a war against Israeli children. Or do Israeli children mean nothing? Because I personally know two women whose children were burned to death on October 7th.
      • epolanski 1y ago
        > Which side do you think has an interest in shooting doctors? The one shooting doctors. What happened on October 7 has been a tragedy. 38 children died that day, and you know two of the mothers. I can't even relate with their suffering, in no way I can understand their pain like you do. But I don't know either any mothers of the 32'000 killed and wounded on the other side. "One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this."
        • dotancohen 1y ago
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• Atlas667 1y ago
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  • ktallett 1y ago
    Almost certainly
  • dotancohen 1y ago
    In what way has Israel bullied members on the HR council?
    • lupusreal 1y ago
      They use America to sanction the participants: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/09/us-sanctions-francesca-albanese-un-israel/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/07/09/us-sanctions... Just one example of many. Inb4 whining that it's just the American government being slavishly loyal to the Zionist cause and the Zionist government of Israel has nothing at all to do with this. I swear to god if I get any response like this I will literally go blind from my eyeballs doing full 360s in my skull.
    • ciconia 1y ago
      I couldn't find any info on intimidation of HR council members. Nevertheless there were reports of the Israeli Mossad chief intimidating the ICC chief prosecutor at the time Fatou Bensouda. [1] Her successor Karim Khan has also reported threats were made. He was later implicated in a sex scandal [2]. It would not surprise me if this was a Mossad sting operation. [1] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240528-israels-mossad-chief-threatened-icc-prosecutor-and-family-in-covert-intimidation-campaign/ https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240528-israels-mossad-ch... [2] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeg738rvdeo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgeg738rvdeo Edit: as the sibling comment states, the Americans have put in place sanctions against members of the HR council, along members of the ICC.
  • gosub100 1y ago
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• rustystump 1y ago
  There is no discussion only mass flagging for anyone who isnt in lockstep on this. This is why politics is usually a subject to be avoided. I am sure i will be flagged despite completely agreeing with the UN here but if any real change is to happen, minds must be changed which mass flagging does nothing to help. It only further entrenches people. But hey, at least it feels good right? Righteous and all that. For those who disagree with the UN here, id be happy to change your mind. The us should not be involved in any of this.
• cramcgrab 1y ago
  Why is this posted on a tech news site?
  • dotancohen 1y ago
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  • vFunct 1y ago
    I don't understand this complaint. Are you the editor of this site?
  • tomhow 1y ago
    From the guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics... unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    • ukblewis 1y ago
      Do you truly think that this news story is showing “some interesting new phenomenon”? I am not one to talk as an Israeli Jew who clearly disagrees with the entire bullshit premise of the article… but either way, the story is only saying things that people have been (incorrectly) claiming for months
      • tomhow 1y ago
        Obviously we moderators are not present in the region, nor are we experts on the topic. That applies to almost every story that appears on HN. The “some interesting new phenomenon” is that – according to the title – ”top UN legal investigators” have made this finding. That's what we call "significant new information" about this topic. It's not for us to judge whether this finding is accurate or not; as I said, we're not there, we're not experts. But the discussion thread allows abybody with any particular knowledge on the topic to share their perspective.
• mattmaroon 1y ago
  @dang isn’t this the exact kind of story HN isn’t supposed to have?
  • qingcharles 1y ago
    See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45267159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45267159
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  • gorgoiler 1y ago
    When a discussion like this happens on the front page then it at least provides some useful data for testing the software and moderation tactics for highly flammable subjects. My conspiratorial mind wonders if it’s done on purpose as a fire drill, but a kind of The Office sitcom fire drill where someone lights an actual fire. (That’s an example of irresponsible behaviour, but I don’t actual think an HN/Israel fire drill is equivalently irresponsible.)
• pxc 1y ago
  Comments on this post are disabled for new accounts, but in the era of anti-BDS regulation and other measures aimed specifically at curtailing practical freedom of speech surrounding this conflict, can we really comment freely on this without anonymity? The vast majority (38/50) of US states have passed some form of anti-BDS legislation. We can also expect corporate retaliation against employees who speak about this issue in a "wrong way".
  • prawn 1y ago
    For anyone else not familiar with "anti-BDS": "Anti-BDS laws are legislation that retaliate against those that engage in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. With regard to the Arab–Israeli conflict, many supporters of the State of Israel have often advocated or implemented anti-BDS laws, which effectively seek to retaliate against people and organizations engaged in boycotts of Israel-affiliated entities." From Wikipedia. Also: "Not to be confused with Anti-BDSM laws."
    • King-Aaron 1y ago
      From a historical, economic, social perspective... Why does Israel hold so much power over the world?
      • idle_zealot 1y ago
        The theory I've been operating under is that Israel was created as a pretty bad solution to displaced Jews post-WWII, and operates essentially as a vassal state of the US's commercial military interests as a totally intractable perma-war in the region to ensure that even in lieu of other conflict taxpayer money can continuously be laundered to them in the form of expended munitions. There's obviously a lot more going on from a social/religious perspective, but I'm prone to thinking of large-scale shifts and trends in terms of economic incentives.
        • gerash 1y ago
          I believe it's the other way around: The western governments, media and legislative bodies are under Israeli control. Have you seen how the US Congress, half of which boos the US presidents along party lines, suddenly all rise up and fall in line when Netanyahu visits the Congress? https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/ly/uploads/images/2024/07/28/thumbs/800x531/338788.jpg?v=1722160047 https://idsb.tmgrup.com.tr/ly/uploads/images/2024/07/28/thum... Have you see the strange photos of all US politicians with yamakas near this wall in Israel as if they're pledging allegiance to something? It's humiliating
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• cryptoegorophy 1y ago
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  • runarberg 1y ago
    I don’t believe questions like that are asked in good faith. Maybe you are the exception, but I have seen too many people begin with exactly this question, and then end up justifying the Gaza genocide. In case you are asking in good faith—and following the HN guidelines—I suggest you abandon this question and consider that maybe this is the wrong question to ask given the situation. If that is hard, then I ask you to consider that indigenous resistance against settler colonial violence has been a pretext for countless colonial oppression in the past, including many genocides.
    • _DeadFred_ 1y ago
      Calling someone directly out/impugning their motives instead of responding is actually a violation of the HN guidelines. You can respond to topics, not posters. You are the one in violation. This isn't the first time I've seem this 'you aren't in good faith' response on this topic, and is partly why again, HN just isn't a place where a real discussion can be had on this subject.
      • runarberg 1y ago
        I want to be clear that my first sentence was speaking generally and not accusing my parent directly of being in bad faith. And in keeping with the spirit of HN I responded to my parent assuming good faith. Otherwise you are right, I have accused others of being in bad faith on this topic, however when I do so, I tend to do it after many more interactions than what I have had with my parent above.
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        • _DeadFred_ 1y ago
          'Maybe you are the exception' isn't keeping in the spirit. You definitely called the person out lowkey without calling them out, then told them the question they asked was off limits instead of answering it, justifying violence in the process.
• buyucu 1y ago
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• dotancohen 1y ago
  Title: Top UN legal investigators conclude Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza Reality: The report was written by a 3 person UNHRC commission, which itself is seated by Ethiopia, Congo, Sudan, and Qatar.
  • cuillevel3 1y ago
    I had to look this up on Wikipedia and remembered this is the 19 year old UNHRC. They have never been objective in regards to the Middle East conflict.
    • dotancohen 1y ago
      It's easy to confuse them with the UNHCR, which I believe is a reputable body.
  • pyuser583 1y ago
    I'm sorry but Qatar is part of neutral commission? Israel just bombed them. It was a bad for Israel to do, but this isn't "third-party."
    • ngruhn 1y ago
      And Sudan is having a home grown genocide right now...
  • Palomides 1y ago
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  • SirSavary 1y ago
    > Reality: The report was written by a 3 person UNHRC commission, which itself is seated by Ethiopia, Congo, Sudan, and Qatar. Your framing that "3 people from Ethiopia/Congo/Sudan/Qatar wrote the report" is both incorrect and deeply racist. Edit: and to make it clear, the report was authored by the "Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel" which is made up of the following three members: - Ms. Navanethem Pillay (South Africa) - Mr. Miloon Kothari (India) - Mr. Chris Sidoti (Australia) You can read more about the commission here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-israel/index https://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/co-israel/index
• pif 1y ago
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• mkoubaa 1y ago
  May we remain condemned for our failure to stop this for all of time.
• xyzelement 1y ago
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  • kayodelycaon 1y ago
    Given all the hatred that is going around, I believe the genocide is real. And if it's not real yet, it will be if someone doesn't put a stop to this. But all the reporting does not add up. Half the pictures Hamas shows of starving children aren't legitimate. They're children with medical conditions, not in Gaza, or from a different conflict. The number of people starving to death each day are in the single or low double digits. If what was said was really true, there would be tens of thousands of people dead by now. And I don't believe a single thing Israel says either. How many tunnels were actually found under hospitals? Definitely at least one. Definitely not all of them. A little truth makes all the lies more believable.
    • latentcall 1y ago
      “Half the pictures Hamas shows of starving children aren't legitimate. They're children with medical conditions, not in Gaza, or from a different conflict.” This seems like a strong claim. Please back it up.
    • rand846633 1y ago
      > If what was said was really true, there would be tens of thousands of people dead by now. But that is exactly the claim. What is your argument here? You say there cannot be a genocide because genocide is too awful?
    • etc-hosts 1y ago
      I think starving children with medical conditions is even worse! I really do not understand the recent Free Press articles about how news reporting about how children in Gaza are starving is not legitimate because the starving children in question had a medical condition. How does that matter? What audience is this news for? It makes everyone involved look like ghouls.
      • 1y ago
• FridayoLeary 1y ago
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  • protocolture 1y ago
    >The problem is the only alternative solution the pro palestinian crowd is suggesting is basically that israel should lie down and die. IIRC theres a plan among arab states that would call for a DMZ between Israel and Palestine, theres just no way that Israel would accept their troops manning that DMZ. So it would have to be the US or UN troops manning that border and they dont want to. >It's one of the most dehumanising things ever. "stay here and become a casualty statistic because that is the most convenient way to fulfill our political agenda." IIRC Israel tried to pay them to leave and they wouldnt. They want to be returned to their land. Your complaint here is basically "Why wont they let Israel finish their ethnic cleansing" which is more disgusting than your implication. > Also don't deal with israel consistently in bad faith and then expect them and their supporters to care about what you think. I have never once, in my entire life discussing this issue, going back 10-15 years seen an Israeli government supporter argue anything in good faith. Would love to see that change. >Just for the record i think this report is a fabrication and for those that say plenty of Israelis oppose what's going on in gaza i will respond that none of them can suggest any better alternative. Is there a single alternative to "We will slowly take their land" that Israel would accept? They certainly wouldnt be happy if a neighbor absorbed palestine. They wont ever accept Arab League soldiers manning a DMZ. They will refuse to hand back parts of the West Bank and Golan Heights that they have occupied "For Security". That means the only viable solution is a Single State. They should rehome the refugees, return them to their land, and get over it. Deal with Hamas as the internal matter it is.
    • FridayoLeary 1y ago
      >That means the only viable solution is a Single State. They should rehome the refugees, return them to their land, and get over it. Deal with Hamas as the internal matter it is. I'm sorry but that's insane. Did you not hear about what happened on October 7? And the reaction on the palestinian street? If Israel would do as you suggest then the world would find out what real genocide is. A good solution that should satisfy everyone would be to offer a couple million palestinians a new life in any of the dozen arab states that exist and are much bigger then israel. They will get enough money to set themselves up and a pathway to citizenship in their adopted country. In short treating them like every other refugee in history, just much better. I've done the calculations, if 2 million palestinian get offered 50k dollars each, including children plus whatever they can get for selling their house this scheme would cost $100 billion dollars, which actually kind of makes sense seeing how much this war is costing. It might cost something in that ballpark to rebuild gaza anyway. You can call that whatever you want, but i'd say that is the path to an optimal outcome for all sides. (actually i like that idea so much i think it deserves the Nobel prizes in the peace and economic categories.) Or you can get hung up about ethnic cleansing and gaza stays a hellhole for the next 20 years and increasingly overpopulated.
• EchoReflection 1y ago
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  • mellosouls 1y ago
    Addressed by dang here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45267159 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45267159
• l2silver 1y ago
  I see a lot of comments here are about how other countries should react to this designation, rightfully so. I wonder also though, how Israel will react. Is this anything new for them?
  • yieldcrv 1y ago
    Here is how they reacted, by preparing for isolation https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/15/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-isolation-intl?cid=ios_app https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/15/middleeast/netanyahu-israel-i... https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-israel-to-get-ready-for-isolation-netanyahu/live-74000248 https://www.dw.com/en/middle-east-israel-to-get-ready-for-is... https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-admits-israel-is-economically-isolated-will-need-to-become-self-reliant/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-admits-israel-is-eco... pick whichever source you respect the most
    • l2silver 1y ago
      What about the rest of Israel?
      • yieldcrv 1y ago
        Until Israeli citizens do to the coalition what they're [ostensibly] hoping Gaza citizens do to Hamas then what about the rest of Israel?
      • fakedang 1y ago
        Israeli citizens, the vast majority of them, have not taken meaningful effort in overthrowing the government of a corrupt prime minister doing everything in his ability to stay in power, else Israeli citizens ought to learn from Nepal and call for a concrete transition of power. At this point, they are complicit in the genocide, like it or not - simply protesting in Tel Aviv and their local kibbutzim won't cut it. And I say this as someone who's view has shifted massively on this topic since October 7, 2023 - from a vocal supporter of Israeli action (as a Muslim nonetheless!) to a vocal opponent now. Until Israeli citizens overthrow their corrupt government of their own will, they are all part of the genocide and must be rightfully ostracized. Especially given that Netanyahu has outed himself as a one-Jewish-state proponent, and has no interest in a peaceful resolution - or in regional peace. What's to say Israel's next plans aren't for Greater Israel next? Stealing parts of the Egyptian Sinai, Lebanon, Syria (which they already have done) and Jordan? And then Saudi Arabia and Iraq?
• nakamoto_damacy 1y ago
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    • masijo 1y ago
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      • revlolz 1y ago
        Pride? That’s your projection. There’s no pride in grief. Only despair at people excusing terrorism with sloppy false equivalences.
      • throwaway3060 1y ago
        Those who believe that there is any comparison between then and now generally should learn more about what happened then - and would do well to learn the history of war in general.
    • TheFreim 1y ago
      The Holocaust does not justify committing a genocide against another population. Some people having inaccurate, or even immoral, views about what occurred on October 7th does not justify genocide. The fact that Hamas engages in evil acts does not justify genocide perpetrated against innocents. In short: Two wrongs do not make a right. It is also worth noting that you are not portraying the matter fairly. You are transposing certain radical elements, i.e. those who actively defend Hamas, on to people who simply oppose the ethnic cleansing and genocide being perpetrated by Israel. I don't support Hamas, and I also don't support Israel. Furthermore, you falsely assume that people are generally ignoring the evil actions perpetrated by Hamas, which is not the case. It is a false dichotomy to present the issue as supporting either Israel or Hamas. Hamas undeniably has engaged in terrorism, but that has no bearing on whether or not Israel is acting properly in response. The fact of the matter is that Israel hasn't merely been attacking Hamas targets that happen to also have civilians present, but rather that Israel is going beyond that to willfully engage in a near-indiscriminate extermination campaign against unjustifiable targets.
• boxerab 1y ago
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  • const_cast 1y ago
    Yeah you know, the UN, notoriously hostile towards Israel. Despite, you know, literally creating it.
• toomim 1y ago
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  • the_origami_fox 1y ago
    There are many issues raised with the report, including it omits the invasion by the government of Gaza, Hamas, on 7 October 2023 entirely, and it omits that the Israeli army is fighting the army of Gaza, the Qasam brigades, who had 40,000 salaried fighters (pre-war), have fired thousands of missiles, developed hundreds of kilometres of tunnels specifically for urban warfare, and subverted public and private infrastructure for urban warfare. For such a serious allegation, it is important to consider and address all aspects and not simply omit them. I would like to add, I don't think this topic is appropriate for Hacker News.
    • Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe 1y ago
      Is it actually relevant? It's not about why israel fights but about how they fight. The report is not about the conflict at large but about how exactly israel is handling day to day operations.
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      • tguvot 1y ago
        the atlantic article from almost exactly year ago: https://archive.is/wKScw https://archive.is/wKScw ------------------- Brett McGurk would push back against the complaints, invoking his stint overseeing the siege of Mosul during the Obama administration, as the U.S. attempted to drive ISIS from northern Iraq: We flattened the city. There’s nothing left. What standard are you holding these Israelis to? It was an argument bolstered by a classified cable sent by the U.S. embassy in Israel in late fall. American officials had embedded in IDF operating centers, reviewing its procedures for ordering air strikes. The cable concluded that the Israeli standards for protecting civilians and calculating the risks of bombardment were not so different from those used by the U.S. military. When State Department officials chastised them over the mounting civilian deaths, Israeli officials liked to make the very same point. Herzl Halevi, the IDF chief of staff, brought up his own education at an American war college. He recalled asking a U.S. general how many civilian deaths would be acceptable in pursuit of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the jihadist leader of the anti-American insurgency in Iraq. The general replied, I don’t even understand the question. As Halevi now explained to the U.S. diplomats, Everything we do, we learned at your colleges. ------------------------- in other words Israel using same approach as NATO armies. And if any of NATO armies will be in same situation, the outcome will be same.
• WuxiFingerHold 1y ago
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  • mslm 1y ago
    This specific political topic is on the top of everyone's mind. If the US president was assassinated, would you say the same? If your child was killed for political reasons, would you continue your blissful mornings aloof?
• isuckatcoding 1y ago
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• dluan 1y ago
  Seeing PG slowly turn on this issue, from nothing into recognition and now into advocacy has been wild. Presumably because he has kids, and like many parents you understand with your eyes first, and then your heart. PG wields some amount of power in SV, but YC and others are still inextricably tied to what's happening. Thiel was just in Israel with elad gil, rabois, alex karp, joe lonsdale. It's just too much to list. I guess my point is when does recognition turn into action.
  • endorphine 1y ago
    Is he still vocal about it? Do you have any recent comments of his to share?
    • sporkxrocket 1y ago
      He is, he regularly posts about it on X. I really admire his commitment to ethics. It says a lot that even for him, it must be difficult.
      • crimsoneer 1y ago
        Random sidenote, but Brits in SF tend to give me unexpected civic pride.
        • Fluorescence 1y ago
          Huh - I didn't know he was a West Country boy. Barely though, moving to the states at age 4, but I guess he came back a decade ago. Not sure it warrants national pride unless his parents raised him on a strict diet of tea, scones and the BBC. I hope he turns up at YC having gained his birthright, a nice Dorset burr, "alreet moi luvlees, wart ideals be goin on ere?" I had assumed moving to the UK was a Madonna-esque escape from getting pitched every 5 minutes while trying to do family stuff in SV.
      • _factor 1y ago
        My best friend since childhood is Jewish and has a difficult time even acknowledging there is an issue. My other friend works for an Israeli company and the jokes are about what they’re going to do with the flattened Gaza land. I’m not sure which is worse. In one case ignoring it and pretending your morality is in tact, on the other being crass but knowing full well no one will stop this until it’s too late (as planned). Do we really need a “Human Lives Matter” movement? Are our leaders space lizards? How much blackmail has the Israeli intelligence community accumulated? How much blackmail has it generated by clandestinely helping foreign politicians? There is a reason the world is silent, and it’s rotten.
• insane_dreamer 1y ago
  Unfortunately, Trump’s support for Israel is still “unwavering “. So we’ll continue to aid and abet arguably the most horrific human atrocity outside Africa (Rwanda, Sudan etc) in very long time. You might have to go back to Pol Pot; even the suppression of the Rohingya by Myanmar isn’t at the scale of the complete destruction of Gaza by Israel.
• mpweiher 1y ago
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• rf15 1y ago
  It is incredibly interesting how the US (and Germany) have put so much into Israel and associated groups they really don't want it to fail (despite the Israeli gov doing their damnest to facilitate just that). In my understanding Israel, in the eyes of the US, is a convenient "wedge" in the Arab space that allows for easier power projection in the area, plus they have a healthy amount of zionists close to money and power at home. I imagine the political calculus of if and how to support it is ridiculously difficult.
  • grafmax 1y ago
    And then there’s genocide. Framing support for Israel as purely geopolitical misses what’s going on.
    • slt2021 1y ago
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    • dotancohen 1y ago
      If you really believe that this report indicates that there is a genocide against the people of Gaza, I highly suggest reading this: https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-against-israel-is-an-assault-on-critical-thinking/ https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-agains... People whose goal is to understand the situation will read it. People whose goal is to slander the Jews, will ignore it.
  • Cornbilly 1y ago
    The current US administration also derives a lot of its support from evangelical Christians, who have a belief that Israel must exist in order for Jesus to return to earth. Which I’m sure he’d be a fan of all the lying and killing that was done to make that happen…
    • brikym 1y ago
      It probably has more to do with soft power like dirt on policy makers than what the plebs think. What do you think Epstein was paid to do?
• andsoitis 1y ago
  For some reason, I don't see this news mentioned on any mainstream media across the political spectrum (Al Jazeera --> Guardian --> BBC --> CNN / NYT / NPR --> Fox News). Could be that I just missed it, but seems odd.
  • mikae1 1y ago
    https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-c...
  • mediumdeviation 1y ago
    The news cycle is moving fast enough that shockingly enough this news is already pushed off the frontpage of these news sites, but the article is there if you dig a little. - BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8641wv0n4go https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8641wv0n4go - The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/16/israel-committed-genocide-in-gaza-says-un-inquiry https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/16/israel-committ... - NPR: https://www.npr.org/2025/09/16/g-s1-89014/israel-gaza-genocide-un-inquiry https://www.npr.org/2025/09/16/g-s1-89014/israel-gaza-genoci...
  • dsab 1y ago
    Yes, this is ownership issue, nothing new :)
  • gerash 1y ago
    The mainstream media in the West is pro-Israel in a bizarre way. Social media however has not been captured but idk what's happening to TikTok now.
  • thefz 1y ago
    First news on all major outlets here (Europe)
  • michaelsshaw 1y ago
    This was top story yesterday on al Jazeera the moment it happened. I think you missed the windows.
• maxlin 1y ago
  What, they thought it might've actually been Egypt before this whole time?
• jokoon 1y ago
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  • kalberg6429 1y ago
    >That would be the first genocide that involves terrorism, hostages and human shields at the same time. No it wouldn't be, you're just spewing lazy Zionist propaganda. "Jewish-Zionist Terrorism and the establishment of Israel" - https://web.archive.org/web/20231029055310/ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/jewish-zionist-terrorism-and-establishment-israel https://web.archive.org/web/20231029055310/ojp.gov/ncjrs/vir... "Release of civilian hostages held in Gaza and arbitrarily detained [de facto hostages] Palestinians must be immediate and not hinge on ceasefire negotiations" - https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/02/release-of-civilian-hostages-held-in-gaza-and-arbitrarily-detained-palestinians-must-be-immediate-and-not-hinge-on-ceasefire-negotiations/ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/02/release-of-ci... "Why Does Israel Have So Many Palestinians in Detention [de facto hostages] and Available to Swap?" https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/29/why-does-israel-have-so-many-palestinians-detention-and-available-swap https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/29/why-does-israel-have-so-... "Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP" - https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-army-human-shields-80f358dd2c87a1123f26ffada159701c https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-arm... "The Israeli army’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been documented on a large scale" - https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6390/The-Israeli-army%E2%80%99s-use-of-Palestinian-civilians-as-human-shields-has-been-documented-on-a-large-scale https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6390/The-Israeli-army%... "The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say - https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/24/middleeast/palestinians-human-shields-israel-military-gaza-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/24/middleeast/palestinians-h... "A Brief History of Israel's Use of Human Shields This is a brief history of how the Zionist community in Palestine, and then the state of Israel, used its own civilians as shields in its conquest of the land. Zionist leaders realized early on that Zionism was a civilian and a military enterprise. In 1919, the first Zionist militia, HaShomer (which evolved into the Haganah, which evolved into the Israeli army) declared “the need to begin widespread settlement close to the existing boundary lines for the purpose of defending the country.” The idea was to establish new Zionist colonies in the border areas. The idea was to put civilians in harm’s way. But the problem ran much deeper. Zionist fighters soon realized they would need to embed themselves in civilian communities to establish a self-sustaining recruitment base and fund militia operations. The latter was achieved through combining agricultural and military training in civilian settlements. The financial support for military training was attained through the agricultural output of the settlement. By 1936, Jewish Agency Executive Committee Chairman, David Ben-Gurion, came to agree with HaShomer’s idea to establish settlements in border areas. HaShomer “once had a good idea,” he said, “creating … settlements along the country's borders. It appears necessary to establish settlements on every mountaintop in Palestine with crucial strategic importance.” The point became all the more obvious during the 1948 War. In April 1948, Ben Gurion told his government: “We must establish a string of settlements of a new type, different from the regular ones, that are not based on the sacred writ of the military academy but rather, constitute mixed battalions of settlers and warriors, farmers and fighters.” For Ben-Gurion, this was the only path to victory. In the aftermath of the War, Ben Gurion outlined the roadmap for how Israel should continue to settle the country: “Our conquest in the Negev and the Galilee will not be sustainable unless we quickly populate these portions of the country…[with]...the establishment of a long line of settlements on the frontier.” And so, in the 1950s, Israel built civilian centers in border areas to serve as a first line of military defense. 26 new settlements were established along the Lebanese border, the Jordan river and the Gilboa foothills; 13 on the eastern border, 8 in the Jerusalem corridor and 25 on the southern front. In total, some 108 such militant civilian settlements were built in Israel after 1948, including towns like Nahal Oz, short for Nahlayim Mul Aza, “Nahal soldiers across from Gaza,” which tragically ended up serving the purpose for which it was built. The point was to put Israeli civilians on the front lines as human shields. Agricultural work conducted under guard in Moshav Nitzanei Oz (“buds of strength”) in 1954. Founded in 1951 as a Nahal settlement, the moshav was located on the Jordanian border and the outskirts of Tulkarem source (p.72) Initially, the status of the citizens in the border towns was “identical to reserve soldiers,” according to Israeli historian Yoav Gelber. These “civil” communities were even organized in companies and platoons and integrated into the Israeli military’s command and control hierarchy. The Israeli military trained and equipped these civilians in classic civilian stuff like anti-tank and light arms instruction. After the 1967 War, Israel took a similar approach in the newly conquered territories. In July 1970, Israel confiscated land in Hebron by military order, ostensibly for “security purposes.” The first buildings on it would be falsely presented as a military facility, according to Israeli cabinet meeting notes. Shortly thereafter, Israel built 250 civilian housing units in Kiryat Arba within the perimeter of the area specified for the military unit’s use. Similarly, in 1971, Israel declared Palestinian village of Aqraba a military training zone. By 1975, the Jewish settlement of Gitit was established on its ruins. The idea in the 1970s was to enmesh Israel’s civilian and military presence in Palestine. Then Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres called for creating a strip of civilian settlements slicing across the West Bank “for defensive purposes” and another strip near Jerusalem to break the occupied territory into fragments. He added, “there’s a line of army bases in Samaria…I’d put a small civilian settlement next to each one.” By 1980, the World Zionist Organization had developed a “Master Plan” for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The plan called for settling the land between and among the Arab population to make it “hard for Palestinians to create territorial contiguity and political unity.” Civilian settlement in the service of military conquest! “From my perspective,” Avigdor Lierman said in 2017, “it's clear that the settlements in Judea and Samaria and those here in the area of Jericho and the Dead Sea are the State of Israel’s true defensive wall.” Israel’s military headquarters are located in the Tel Aviv city center, a few hundred meters from a large high school. All the major bus lines pass right by. Tel Aviv’s main hospital -- the Ichilov Hospital -- is just to the north and is connected to the base by emergency tunnels. The Israeli army radio station is located in a residential apartment building & its antennas are on the roof of that residential building. Then there’s Israel’s militant settlers, who often carry out pogroms and acts of violence against Palestinians together with the Israeli military. What’s more, the Israeli military has established settler militias, known as “territorial defense units,” which are civilian groups armed and trained by the army. All of this makes Israel’s claim that “Hamas uses human shields” deeply cynical. In its campaign of mass murder in Gaza, +972 reported Israel prefers to strike Hamas fighters in their homes, together with their families, so long as no more than 20 civilians are killed per strike (for higher level commanders, 300 civilians massacred is considered acceptable). Imagine if Hamas adopted this military doctrine. What percentage of Israeli households would be legitimate targets? How many Israeli households have an active-duty soldier or a reservist, or live within 100 feet of a household with a soldier or a reservist, and thus would equally be a target given Israel’s use of dumb bombs? [Note: Half the bombs Israel drops on Gaza are dumb bombs that often land 100 feet away from their target]. I’d venture to guess the overwhelming majority of Jewish Israeli civilians would be targets. Of course, targeting civilians is always a war crime, even if they are being used as human shields. That’s true no matter who is doing the targeting. Zionist leaders have embraced the use of Zionist, Jewish and Israeli human shields for more than a century. It’s time for this practice to end." - Zachary Foster, jewish historian, founder of palestinenexus.com, [https://palestine.beehiiv.com/p/brief-history-israels-use-israeli-human-shields https://palestine.beehiiv.com/p/brief-history-israels-use-is...]
• lstodd 1y ago
  Never ceases to amuse me how people tend to cling to a position unconsciosly, then try to rationalize this unconscios act. US and west are all about some perceived genocide, while inside Israel, half want to surrender to Hamas or whoever because hostages, and the other half had had enough (of almost 80-year war) and just want to be done with it, and the third half wants to study Tora and do nothing, but be fed by the other two halves. This is ridiculous and very bloody. Can we please just be rational?
• xyzal 1y ago
  What charity can one donate to? I just can't stand just doing nothing anymore.
  • cpach 1y ago
    Médecins sans frontières perhaps? https://www.msf.org/ https://www.msf.org/
  • ignoramous 1y ago
    Many. A few from the top of my head: PCRF (children relief fund): https://www.pcrf.net/ https://www.pcrf.net/ Heal Palestine (meals and patients): https://www.healpalestine.org/ https://www.healpalestine.org/ PRCS (first responders): https://x.com/PalestineRCS/status/1721839906605998526 https://x.com/PalestineRCS/status/1721839906605998526 The Sameer Project (camps & tents): https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject https://linktr.ee/thesameerproject --- Afaik, these organizations barely bring in £50m collectively. For context, FIDF, the largest non-governmental American donor to the Israeli military, has gift £1.5bn+ in the past decade (£500m+ in the last 3 years).
  • perfmode 1y ago
    If you live in the United States, your greatest point of leverage may be to influence your elected government representatives to take action. Israel cannot continue without the ongoing support of the US.
    • boppo1 1y ago
      >influence your elected government representatives good luck
  • EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 1y ago
    isis-online.org
  • etc-hosts 1y ago
    In 2009 the US sentenced the 5 leaders of the largest provider of humanitarian aid, The Holy Land Foundation, to 16 to 65 years in prison. The 2 guys sentenced to 65 years in prison are still in jail. I always worry the US will do it again.
• aussieguy1234 1y ago
  Both the Palestinian people and Jewish people are indigenous to Israel/Palestine. No one side has the right to commit genocide against the other. At some point, there will have to be a two state solution. The current Israeli government is indeed genocidal. Cabinet ministers have referred to the Palestinian people as a whole (not just Hamas) as an enemy and the IDF is carrying out the genocide. This also means that by proxy the US is funding the military of a genocidal regime. Just as providing Hamas with weapons is a terrible idea, giving them to Israel in its current state is an equally terrible idea.
• PicassoCTs 1y ago
  Lol, Qatar is currently in that council- Quatar aka the muslim brotherhood aka hamas.. Hamas concludes this and tells this..
• oncallthrow 1y ago
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• fx1994 1y ago
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  • baubino 1y ago
    Stop equating anti-war sentiment with pro-terror sympathies. It’s a bad faith argument.
    • dandanua 1y ago
      It is an extreme hypocrisy to call what is happening in Gaza a genocide while saying nothing about much more horrible things that happen, on a much larger scale. It tells you something about the "bad faith".
  • dandanua 1y ago
    Put two searches "Gaza genocide" and "Ukraine genocide" on this site and you will immediately understand what this is all about.
  • pjc50 1y ago
    You can be against both, it's OK. The UN has also identified a number of massacres of civilians in Ukraine as crimes against humanity.
• kharak 1y ago
  Every time I've looked into the arguments for this being a genocide, I saw, at best, a description of urban warfare. Maybe I am wrong. If anyone is still reading this thread, could you write what you believe will happen after Israel won the war?
  • brainwad 1y ago
    I more or less agree with you (if it were a _genocide_, you'd expect Israel to be equally targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel proper), but the report does have some specific examples of things that seem to go beyond "just" urban warfare. For example, Israel denied shipments of baby milk powder, which can serve no legitimate military purpose (except trying to prosecute the war via starvation of babies, which is illegal). When combined with the public statements from Israeli government officials that denigrate the Palestinians in Gaza as animals, I think there's definitely _some_ crimes against humanity being committed by Israel.
    • doom2 1y ago
      > you'd expect Israel to be equally targeting Palestinians in the West Bank The Israeli government doesn't have to. They let settlers take care of that for them without any repercussions.
    • tguvot 1y ago
      animals comment (iirc made by galant) is misused. it was refering to hamas/pji/pflp that raided Israel on Oct 7th and not to the whole population
    • grafmax 1y ago
      > if it were a _genocide_, you'd expect Israel to be equally targeting Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel proper Genocide means trying to killing the group in whole or in part. Trying to kill the group everywhere isn’t necessary for it to be genocide.
      • brainwad 1y ago
• Gareth321 1y ago
  The Chair of this "independent" inquiry is Navi Pillay of South Africa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_International_Commission_of_Inquiry_on_the_Occupied_Palestinian_Territory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_International_Comm...); the nation which accused Israel of genocide and referred it to the ICJ. The outcome of this inquiry was always going to be highly partisan. The report's definition rests upon statements by key Israeli officials in determining genocidal intent. While the statements are accurate, in a democracy, individual representatives do not constitute a single will. If the standard used here were applied to other international conflicts in which civilians were killed, as long as just one governing official were to have made genocidal remarks (and they used a fairly wide range), the entire conflict could be ruled to be genocide. Thus the standard used by Pillay and co-authors is so far removed from anything applied to any other nation and conflict that I find the entire exercise farcical. I await the ICJ ruling, as I regard that institution as reasonably impartial.
  • michaelsshaw 1y ago
    Amnesty International, The International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, numerous other human rights organizations and world governments all say the same thing: genocide. To deny this is to say that you believe all of those groups are wrong and it is actually Netanyahu, Trump, Biden and Harris, along with their cronies in congress are correct. It is a position that cannot be defended logically.
    • diordiderot 1y ago
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      • michaelsshaw 1y ago
        I do not support mass murder, that's correct. If that's what you call consensus morality then I'm not ashamed to be in the consensus.
        • diordiderot 1y ago
• ashoeafoot 1y ago
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• Jgoauh 1y ago
  i'm ashamed of how long it took, i don't even know what words to use to explain that life matters, that all lives have the same value, and that death is bad
  • Jgoauh 1y ago
    its crazy the number of people downvoting me for this, sadly i will not compromise on my beliefs
    • names_are_hard 1y ago
      I didn't downvote you but I can understand people who did - your comment doesn't add meaningfully to the conversation because it doesn't add any new ideas or food for thought that the reader doesn't already have. It just expresses your frustration with the state of affairs. While there is a place for that kind of comment in certain kinds of conversations, many people come to Hacker News to engage in curious and enlightening conversation instead of emotional echo chambers present elsewhere on the Internet. By contrast, check out this sub thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45259553#45273473 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45259553#45273473 I upvoted a number of comments there with opposing viewpoints because I appreciated that they made me think about things in a deeper way than I had previously, while avoiding anger or insults.
      • Jgoauh 1y ago
        Hello, thanks for your comment but i don't think there's anything bad in frustration, anger and sometimes insults, i think emotional intelligence is a meaningfull addition to these kind of conversations, particularly when empathy and other natural human emotions have been demonized to this point. I also think that some angers and frustrations are perfectly healthy, i even think that in some cases it is not sane to not feel. Anyways thanks to those who don't downvote, seeya
        • morserer 1y ago
          I think what the parent comment was trying to emphasize is that making comments that don't contribute towards a discussion is against the guidelines of HN. Comments like your original one, that only expresses your emotions, fall under this category, and are frowned upon. Not the opinion contained in your comment, but the comment itself. HN users also use the downvote+flag buttons to enforce these guidelines. The downvote button is not an indication of user disagreement here the way it is on other sites.
• deleted 1y ago
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• deleted 1y ago
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• eleveriven 1y ago
  The term "genocide" isn't tossed around lightly in international law. The fact that the UN commission is now saying they found "fully conclusive evidence" of genocidal intent by Israel's leadership is going to put massive pressure on other states, especially those who've been backing Israel diplomatically or militarily
• velcrohn 1y ago
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  • courseofaction 1y ago
    That is literally not what genocide is, it's a legal definition not a creative writing exercise. 'The legal term “genocide” refers to certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. ' [1] Israel is functionally commiting genocide, after being an apartheid state for decades. Arguably their goal is ethnic cleansing, and mass murder is a means to that end. [1] https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/what-is-genocide https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genoci...
    • velcrohn 1y ago
      In the legal definition, you ignore the ICJ requirement. Please address that.
  • courseofaction 1y ago
    This post is frankly embarrassing. For civilians, does being warned your life is going to be bombed to ashes soften the explosion?
    • johnisom2001 1y ago
      He's being legalistic about it, and I concede he may have a point there. Of course, it doesn't make what's happening all the less terrible. Both can be true, one doesn't take away from the other.
    • velcrohn 1y ago
      If I am going to attack a military installation under your house and I warn you to leave, that is not genocide. If I see your house, miles from any military installation, and I destroy it in order to kill you, and I do that over and over and over, that is genocide. In both cases, the house is destroyed. In one case, your life is saved.
• explore 1y ago
  UN Watch Rebuttal: Legal Analysis of Pillay Commission’s September 2025 Report to Human Rights Council "This rebuttal examines the central defects of the UN report (the “Report”) issued by the Commission of Inquiry (the “Commission”). It shows why the evidence presented cannot sustain a finding of genocide under international law. A summary of its main deficiencies are as follows: 1. Failure to prove dolus specialis: The specific intent to destroy a protected group is the central and extremely high bar in any genocide case. The Commission’s claim of genocidal intent fails on this threshold alone, relying on tortured parsing of statements, selective quotations, and conjecture rather than unambiguous evidence. 2. Erasure of Hamas as a belligerent: The report never acknowledges that the IDF is engaged in combat with an estimated 30,000-strong Hamas force in Gaza as well as thousands of fighters from other militant groups. A reader would come away believing the war has the IDF deployed against only women and children, with Hamas erased from the narrative. The Commission makes no attempt to analyze the war itself, because in its alternative version of reality, there is none. 3. Silence on Hamas’s military infrastructure: There is no mention of Hamas’s 17-year military buildup in Gaza, including its vast tunnel network, booby-trapped buildings, and massive arms buildup. By ignoring this reality, the report strips the conflict of its military context and recasts lawful military targets as evidence of genocide. 4. Erasure of Hamas’s use of civilian infrastructure: The Commission ignores Hamas’s openly acknowledged human shield strategy,[2] including its use of mosques, schools, residential buildings, and hospitals to conceal tunnels and weapons. Instead, damage to these sites is consistently portrayed as deliberate targeting of civilians by Israel. 5. No recognition of the hostage crisis: The report omits the fact that Hamas took Israeli hostages and continues to hold them, starve them,[3] and rape them.[4] This omission is consistent with the broader erasure of Hamas as an active actor in Gaza, removing essential context from the Commission’s narrative. 6. Reliance on Hamas-supplied fatality data: Despite Hamas’s long record of exaggerating civilian deaths and its status as a US and EU-designated terrorist organization, its figures are treated as fact while IDF data on combatants killed is ignored. 7. Civilian deaths distorted as evidence of genocide: The report presents civilian casualties as prima facie proof of genocidal intent rather than as tragic and unavoidable consequences of urban warfare, exacerbated by Hamas’s human shield strategy. The Report cites numerous incidents where civilians were killed as intentional and targeted acts by Israel without evidence. 8. Normal wartime consequences treated as crimes: Regular and expected wartime impacts on civilians, such as mental health impacts, difficulty accessing medical care and displacement, are depicted as evidence of genocide rather than inevitable outcomes of urban conflict. 9. Urban devastation portrayed as extermination: Large-scale damage is cited as proof of genocide, ignoring that urban combat inherently produces extensive destruction, particularly when military forces are embedded within civilian areas. The Commission also ignores the obvious: the suffering of Gazans could be significantly reduced or even ended if Hamas released all hostages and relinquished control of Gaza. The idea that the population experiencing the claimed genocide has the power to stop it but refuses to is unprecedented in the history of actual genocides and exposes a deliberate blind spot in the Report. This omission mirrors the Commission’s broader erasure of Hamas as an active party in the conflict, a group with agency and responsibility, leaving readers with the false impression that all suffering in Gaza is solely Israel’s responsibility." https://unwatch.org/un-watch-rebuttal-legal-analysis-of-pillay-commissions-september-2025-report-to-human-rights-council/ https://unwatch.org/un-watch-rebuttal-legal-analysis-of-pill...
• phba 1y ago
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• hereme888 1y ago
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• leoh 1y ago
  The trouble is, what is the right medium or long term solution. If Israel militarily fails as a state, which seems to me to be an implicit aim of a significant number of anti-Israel folks, the results will make the current Gaza conflict look like a joke.
  • bigyabai 1y ago
    Short-term, Israel should have pumped the breaks on disproportionate response. Dahiya doctrine never worked, and now Hamas has successfully leveraged it to win (undue!) international credibility. If a policy of de-escalation can be honored, you can lay the groundwork for a medium/long term solution that respects all sovereign parties.
    • velcrohn 1y ago
      What does de-escalation look like in Gaza? Allowing Hamas to regroup and re-arm, so they can repeat October 7 as they publicly promised to do?
      • zelphirkalt 1y ago
        A newly created throwaway account, repeating the prop of a genocidal military. Surely you can do better than this.
        • leoh 1y ago
          Actually it's quite a good point, because no one in this thread has suggested a sustainable long-term solution for this mutual madness. Hamas without question wishes for the total destruction of Israel.
          • amdivia 1y ago
            Define the destruction of Israel as Hamas sees it, because I think alot of details are getting lost there, and many assumptions are made within it
• Noumenon72 1y ago
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• boxerab 1y ago
  From John Spencer, a retired United States Army officer, researcher of urban warfare, and author. > The U.N. Genocide Report Against Israel Is an Assault on Critical Thinking https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-against-israel-is-an-assault-on-critical-thinking/ https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-agains...
  • eclat 1y ago
    It is indeed. The arguments are so poor and obviously ideological. To give one example, it would necessarily imply that every war is an example of genocide. Experts aren’t taking it seriously, but then again the UN has not been a serious organisation for as long as I can remember. Some serious scrutiny needs to be made of that organisation. Genocide is a very particular crime, I’m not sure what the obsession with it is. It’s evident that there are examples of war crimes.
• dotancohen 1y ago
  This is an excellent, well-sourced analysis of the genocide claim. https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-against-israel-is-an-assault-on-critical-thinking/ https://freebeacon.com/israel/the-u-n-genocide-report-agains...
  • archdang 1y ago
    It is very far from excellent. Did you read it? The Free Beacon piece feels like it’s arguing against a caricature of the UN report rather than the report itself. The Commission wasn’t trying to do a military balance sheet of Hamas vs. Israel. It was a legal analysis under the Genocide Convention. That means it asked: do Israel’s actions and official statements check the boxes for genocidal acts and intent? And on that front, the report isn’t just “repeating Hamas numbers.” It leans thoroughly on interviews, satellite imagery, verified video, medical testimony, etc. The ICJ already said there’s a plausible genocide case and ordered Israel to let in more aid months ago. Fast forward: famine is now confirmed in northern Gaza, which really undercuts claims of “unprecedented humanitarian relief.” The UN verdict is a very detailed legal case that can’t just be waved away with “what about Hamas tunnels.” Your "excellent" article doesn't budge the needle at all on this.
    • dotancohen 1y ago
      Genocide is judged on the merit of intention. The report ignores all context of intent.
• Aerbil313 1y ago
  Which other country can attack 6 countries in 72 hours and get away with it[1]? I very rarely expose myself to international news. When I do, it's strikingly obvious that Americans have a president who treats every other country as if they are children to be disciplined (cue Trump "I'm disappointed in Putin/Israel/Canada..."), and Israel is the favorite child who can disobey the father and bully whoever he wants without consequence. 1: https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/world-int/27890-israel-attacks-six-countries-in-the-past-72-hours-amid-global-condemnation.html https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/world-int/27890-israel-attacks-...
• webninja 1y ago
  What do they conclude about Russia?
• dplesh 1y ago
  Y'all smart hackers be discussing it like its your life on the line here, but this conflict is of 2 people - Israel vs Palestine, and its an existential conflict for both of us. This investigation raises concerns that are already voiced by some Israeli groups, but it fails to capture the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For example, did you know that about 20% of Israel's population are Palestinians, with many living in huge houses, built on their ancestral land, and drive fancy cars that I could never even afford as an Israeli with an average income. (BTW I'm not Jewish but it doesn't really matter for my point.) At the same time their impoverished brothers in Gaza employ warfare methods which were/are also used by ISIS, Taliban, Syria and Iraq. Methods that exploit standard war 'etiquette'. Seemingly, International Court and the UN fail to address such manipulations, which are disregarded by most, to the point its just frustrating to witness. Gaza has become a nest of extremism. Palestinians are far more united by hate to Israel and desire to revenge rather than nationalism. Its nothing new. Always been and most likely will stay this way. I know that the 2 state solution is the most proposed idea by foreigners for a 'middle east utopia', but this devastating pathos cannot be the foundation for a Palestinian country in a 2 state solution. I do not know what exactly is the solution. I am most certainly sure it does not include genocide of Palestinians. But what I do know is that they must turn back on extremism, hate and terrorism in order for us to progress towards real peace, healing, and a solution that will grant both people cooperation, trade, prosperity. Judea/Samaria and Gazan Palestinians must learn from their Israeli relatives, to understand that hate, revenge and terror will only lead to more suffering. I think most of Israelis understand it this way. I also think most Israelis are frustrated because of Palestinian ideology and pathos do not shift, but actually escalate with time. A curious person asked me: 'if they would not yield, can't you guys yield in order for this perpetual escalation to end?' I told him this is a nice idea but meanwhile Israel showed compromises for the Palestinian cause and it backfired each time, with Palestinians exploiting diplomatic attempts in order to incite hate, revenge and devastation: Gaza Disengagement (2005) - Unilateral withdrawal of all settlers and military from the Gaza Strip, dismantling 21 settlements. - Hamas claimed credit for "forcing Israel out", which boosted its popularity. - Within a year, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections (2006). - After the 2007 Hamas–Fatah split, Hamas took full control of Gaza, and rocket fire into southern Israel intensified. Oslo Accords (1993–1995) - Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people; withdrew from parts of the West Bank and Gaza; allowed the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA). What actually happened: Israel transferred control of cities like Jericho, Gaza, Ramallah to the PA. But the PA failed to prevent militant groups (Hamas, Islamic Jihad) from launching suicide bombings inside Israel during the 1990s. Hebron Protocol (1997) - Israel Withdrew from 80% of Hebron, leaving only a small enclave under Israeli military presence. But violence persisted, with shootings and clashes continuing. Hebron became a flashpoint, requiring heavy ongoing Israeli military presence despite partial withdrawal. Palestinians would argue the “backfire” narrative ignores that these concessions were partial, fragmented, and often unilateral. But actually what it is - a lack of ability to impose sovereignty and excess of corruption in the case of PA. Greed for power and will to exploit any 'gesture of good will' in the case of Hamas. This is not diplomacy. This is not the foundation for the 2 state solution I wish to see someday. They must change in order for it to happen. Death and bloodshed on both sides will only continue if we head this way. I am curious to hear your take and vision regarding the 2 state solution, and how do you think we can get there?
• ac130kz 1y ago
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• proshno 1y ago
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• jwe 1y ago
  The amount of neo-antisemitism, ignorance towards history of antisemitism, Oct 7 denial, WW2 perpetrator/victim reversal, among other perception errors in this thread (and of course all online threads about this) is staggering and breathtaking. At this point - except for this one message in this one thread on this one website - I have stopped all interaction with this topic online. I feel helpless, powerless and hope that this phase of human/news/information/power interaction is well past all of us within my lifetime.
• 5Qn8mNbc2FNCiVV 1y ago
  I'm wondering how history could have been if Hitler had access to nuclear weapons / empathy given by a super power. This is a step forward, but what's the way forward?
• cryptochick 1y ago
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• cryptochick 1y ago
  Shalom, everyone. My name is Luis Guillermo Mora Jr., and I stand here today not as a politician or a performer, but as someone who’s been profoundly shaped by the Jewish people and the unbreakable spirit of Israel. I’m a trans person who’s learned to navigate a world that often feels hostile, and I’ve got no love for the federal government’s overreach. But what I do have is unwavering respect for Israel a nation that’s more than a country. It’s a living testament to resilience, a fortress built on generations of struggle, innovation, and an unyielding will to survive. I owe so much of my own strength to Jewish mentors—people from Israel and the Jewish community who showed up when my life was falling apart. When betrayal and isolation hit me hard, they didn’t just offer words. They lived strength, compassion, and humanity in a way I’ll never forget. They taught me what it means to stand tall, to fight for who you are, no matter what the world throws at you. That’s the spirit I see in Israel every day a nation that’s faced unimaginable challenges yet remains a beacon of hope, ingenuity, and moral clarity. To me, Israel isn’t just America’s ally. it’s a partner in something deeper. Our shared values, rooted in freedom, faith, and the drive to protect what matters most, are the bedrock of why this alliance works. Those Judeo-Christian principles? They’re the engine of our way of life, the reason we can stand for something bigger than ourselves. If I ever heard Israel was drifting toward alliances that compromise those values—like cozying up to China—it’d break my heart. Because losing that bond wouldn’t just be a geopolitical loss; it’d be a loss for humanity itself. I look at Israel and see the ultimate survivors people who don’t just endure but thrive, who protect a legacy that’s vital to the world. You, as Israeli Americans, carry that legacy here, bridging two nations I love deeply. I’m not here to make promises I can’t keep or to tell you what you already know. I’m here to say I see you, I honor you, and I’ll always stand with you. God bless Israel, God bless America, and God bless the unbreakable bond between us. Thank you. Instagram.com/ninainnu
• ukblewis 1y ago
  https://www.instagram.com/p/DPCVnqrjJXS/?igsh=OGFkdTJyOGpqbHdu https://www.instagram.com/p/DPCVnqrjJXS/?igsh=OGFkdTJyOGpqbH... See the truth