Dorothy Shea, the acting U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, recently vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.” This veto was issued despite the resolution’s description of the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “catastrophic,” and in the face of unanimous support from the council’s other 14 members.
Ironically, in a speech on Holocaust Remembrance day, Shea stated that “hatred, dehumanization and apathy can lead to genocide…Atrocities like the Holocaust don’t just happen’; they’re allowed to happen. It is up to us to stop them.”
Yes, it is. In fact, the U.N. Genocide Convention, ratified by the United States in 1988, requires nations to prevent and punish genocide, and to avoid complicity in its commission.
Moreover, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the United States’ official memorial to the Holocaust, teaches genocide prevention. It emphasizes that heeding warning signs and taking early action can save lives.
Notably, on October 13, 2023, less than one week after the start of Israel’s intensive bombing campaign in Gaza, Israeli Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Raz Segal wrote:
“Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza is quite explicit, open, and unashamed….Israel’s goal is to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza. And those of us watching around the world are derelict in our responsibility to prevent them from doing so.”
And just a few days later, nearly 800 scholars and international lawyers working in the fields of conflict and genocide issued a public statement titled, “Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza.” They cite the dehumanization and mass displacement of Palestinians, statements by Israeli officials, as well as the high casualty rate and “obliteration” of neighborhoods and families.
Airwars is a nonprofit, watchdog organization that investigates harm to civilians during armed conflict. In its study on the Israel-Gaza war titled, ‘Patterns of harm analysis’, the organization concludes:
“By almost every metric, the harm to civilians from the first month of the Israeli campaign in Gaza is incomparable with any 21st century air campaign. It is by far the most intense, destructive, and fatal conflict for civilians that Airwars has ever documented.”
It’s crucial to recognize that there is a duty to prevent genocide. In fact, the convention’s full name is the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
Yet the U.S. has repeatedly dismissed evidence of genocide in Gaza. College protesters have been deemed brainwashed and ignorant of history, and the charge of genocide against Israel has been called a ‘blood libel’.
Despite U.S. denials, allegations of genocide have intensified. Human rights organizations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have published reports accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, and these organizations are not alone in reaching this determination.
Amos Goldberg, a Holocaust and genocide researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has also concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide. Goldberg asserts:
“What is happening in Gaza is genocide because the level and pace of indiscriminate killing, destruction, mass expulsions, displacement, famine, executions, the wiping out of cultural and religious institutions…and the sweeping dehumanization of the Palestinians — create an overall picture of genocide, of a deliberate conscious crushing of Palestinian existence in Gaza.”
Goldberg explains that, historically, most perpetrators of genocide have claimed they were acting in self-defense.
To fulfill its obligations under the Genocide Convention, the U.S. should acknowledge these findings and halt military aid to Israel that could be used to commit genocide.
Moreover, the U.S. must advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza, while ensuring that food, water and medicine can reach civilians without restriction. In addition, the U.S. should support international investigations, including the work of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
If not, history will judge this moment, and the record will be clear: the duty to prevent genocide was willfully ignored.