John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, denies that Israel’s army is committing genocide in the enclave by killing civilians because they are Palestinians, despite numerous reports to the contrary.
One day after claiming that a genocide was occurring in Sudan, the White House has dismissed various organizations’ subsequent determinations that Israel’s slaughter of besieged Gaza amounts to genocide.
“The Israeli side is not committing genocide on the Palestinian people. As the secretary of state stated, it is obvious that what we are witnessing in Sudan is genocide. John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters on Wednesday that what is happening is genocide—the wanton, systematic, direct, deliberate killing, rape, murder, and torture of individuals because of their ethnicity or religion.
“We simply aren’t witnessing that in Gaza. ‘Hey, we’re going to go kill some innocent people because they happen to be Palestinian,’ this is not how the Israeli army, or IDF, gets out of bed every morning. In reference to the Israeli military, he continued, “Now, that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been too many civilian casualties in this conflict, absolutely too many.”
Several organizations have come to different conclusions, including rights group Amnesty International and a UN special committee that looked at Israeli activities in Gaza.
“Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated UN appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice and resolutions of the (UN) Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population,” the committee said.
The Biden administration declared Tuesday that a genocide is occurring in Sudan, claiming that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and affiliated forces are guilty of “systematic atrocities committed against the Sudanese people.” This decision was made just one day before the government denied any genocide in Gaza.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the RSF and affiliated militias have “systematically” killed men and boys based on their ethnicity, carried out “direct attacks” against civilians, and specifically targeted women and girls from particular ethnic groups for rape and other severe forms of sexual violence.
The genocide in Israel
Israel has so far slaughtered around 46,000 Palestinians in the blockaded enclave, the majority of whom were women and children.
In addition to removing nearly the whole population, Tel Aviv’s genocide resulted in a severe lack of essentials like food, water, power, and medication.
In November, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were the targets of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Because of its war on the enclave, Israel is also facing a genocide prosecution at the International Court of Justice.
