“The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations.”
More than 300 writers and organizations, including Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi, Ben Okri and George Monbiot, have demanded that sanctions be imposed on Israel if it does not heed a call for the “immediate unrestricted distribution” of aid throughout Gaza.
“The government of Israel has renewed its assault on Gaza with unrestrained brutality,” the 380 signatories from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, wrote in a letter addressing “our nations” and the “peoples of the world.”
Proud to have joined so many wonderful writers in signing this letter calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza. https://t.co/NHMJ0x3Bel
— Sofka Zinovieff (@sofkazinovieff) May 28, 2025
They added that public statements by Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir “openly express genocidal intentions.”
“The use of the words ‘genocide’ or ‘acts of genocide’ to describe what is happening in Gaza is no longer debated by international legal experts or human rights organizations,” they said.
Experts’ Clear Stance
Amnesty International, Médecins Sans Frontières, Human Rights Watch, the International Federation for Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, “and many other specialists and historians have clearly identified genocide or acts of genocide in Gaza,” the letter noted, “enacted by the Israel Defence Force and directed by the government of Israel.”
Doctors, Lawyers, Witnesses: Gaza Genocide Put on Trial by Civil Society in Sarajevo
They also referenced over 40 UN Special Rapporteurs and independent experts who recently concluded that “While States debate terminology — is it or is it not genocide? — Israel continues its relentless destruction of life in Gaza, through attacks by land, air and sea, displacing and massacring the surviving population with impunity.”
Words and Terminologies
The writers stressed that Palestinians “are not the abstract victims of an abstract war.”
“Too often, words have been used to justify the unjustifiable, deny the undeniable, defend the indefensible. Too often, too, the right words — the ones that mattered — have been eradicated, along with those who might have written them,” they emphasized.
UNICEF: Over 50,000 Children Killed or Injured in Gaza since October 2023
They noted that the “term ‘genocide’ is not a slogan,” adding “It carries legal, political, and moral responsibilities.”
‘Bystander-Approvers’
Recently, they added, Alexis Deswaef, vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights and a lawyer at the International Criminal Court, recalled the concept of the “bystander-approver,” drawn from the special tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
“It refers to a senior official who looks on, remains silent, and whose silence is interpreted as a green light by the perpetrators,” the writers explained.
“We refuse to be a public of bystander-approvers. This is not only about our common humanity and all human rights; this is about our moral fitness as the writers of our time, which diminishes with every day we refuse to speak out and denounce this crime,” the letter continued.
The writers demanded “the immediate unrestricted distribution of food and medical aid throughout Gaza by the UN,” and that “sanctions be imposed on the State of Israel if the Israeli government does not heed this call, which is also the world’s call, for an immediate ceasefire.”
Poet Hiba Abu Nada
They also demanded “a ceasefire which guarantees safety and justice for all Palestinians, the release of all Israeli hostages, and the release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners arbitrarily held in Israeli jails.”
The writers paid tribute to Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada who was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza more than a year ago.
“And if one day, O Light / All the galaxies / Of the entire universe / Had no more room for us / You would say: ‘Enter my heart, / There you will finally be safe.’”
Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.https://t.co/65sjJBO1b8 pic.twitter.com/SecLCHc9Ur
— Badger (@Bertrom) May 28, 2025
They said in her poem, “A Star Said Yesterday,” she imagined for the “the people of Gaza a cosmic refuge — something utterly unlike the constant lethal danger they now face.”
“This genocide implicates us all. We bear witness to the crimes of genocide, and we refuse to approve them by our silence,” the letter concluded.
🇵🇸A poem by Hiba Abu Nada. She was murdered in her home in Gaza by an IOF airstrike on October 20, 2023, She was 32 years of age🌹
Yesterday, a star said
to the little light in my heart,
We are not just transients
passing.Do not die. Beneath this glow
some wanderers go on… pic.twitter.com/QhPIfcScJY— Brummy Art Collective (@BrummyTaz) May 25, 2025
Staggering Death Toll
Since Israel’s reneging on the ceasefire on March 18, it has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip through a bloody and ongoing aerial bombardment.
On October 7, 2023, following a Palestinian Resistance operation in southern Israel, the Israeli military launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians, killing over 54,000, wounding more than 123,000, with over 14,000 still missing.
At least 14 Palestinians were killed in Israeli shelling across the northern and central parts of the enclave since midnight.
Eight people were killed and several others injured when Israeli airstrikes targeted the home of journalist Osama al-Arbid’s family in the Saftawi… pic.twitter.com/QudtymNr9Y
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) May 28, 2025
Despite habitual condemnation by many countries around the world of the Israeli genocide, little has been done to hold Israel accountable.
Israel is currently under investigation for the crime of genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are now officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
The Israeli genocide has been largely defended, supported, and financed by Washington and a few other Western powers.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
US gave Netanyahu all the means for genocide.