The banality of violence in Gaza

Theorist of political evil and genocide provides insight into the man-made catastrophe.

- By Mark Potterton

A total of 61 million tonnes of debris, some of it poisoned with asbestos and chemicals, stands where neighbourhoods once stood, where children walked to school, where families gathered for iftar (breaking of the fast) or where merchants called out their prices.

From the air, drone footage reveals the truth that those on the ground already know deep in their bones: 78% of everything has been destroyed. Entire city blocks have been erased, as if a giant hand reached down and wiped them out of existence.

The numbers pile up like the rubble: 66,000 Palestinians will never return. They will never rebuild. They will never tell their stories. Among them are 20,179 children.

Another 170,105 carry wounds in their flesh, missing limbs, shattered bones, burns, and shrapnel embedded in organs. These numbers don't account for the trauma that will echo through generations.

The infrastructure of life itself has been dismantled. Thirty-four of the 36 hospitals were destroyed or damaged. Ninety-two percent of schools require complete reconstruction; an entire generation’s education reduced to rubble. Eighty-three percent of mosques were damaged or destroyed.

More than 1.9 million people have been displaced, many repeatedly. They carry what they can: a photograph, a child's toy, a cooking pot, keys to a house that no longer exists.

Making sense of all this destruction is impossible. This is a testament to what humanity can destroy when it sets its mind to it.

It is a genocide

It wasn’t acceptable at the start of the war in Gaza to refer to what was happening as genocide. There was extensive criticism of South Africa when it presented its case at the International Court of Justice. However, in the aftermath of such terrible injury, death and destruction, many more people, including the largest professional organisation of scholars studying genocide, have said that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza.