there's something very scary about the way we argue and entertain discourse on israel or on settler colonialism when, on the ground, israel has totally isolated northern gaza and is currently systemically liquidating jabalia (a refugee camp in northern gaza) just as they have, from the very beginning, said they would do. just as large swathes of israel came to be in 1948, to 1967, to the west bank today. there's something scary about watching indigenous people undergo a genocide in real-time in 2024 like they're squatters on some prime property while nobody moves except to argue about semantics. there's something scary about people being trapped and killed like fish in a barrel while you can text them and follow them on social media and watch their pleas in video as soldiers and tanks come closer. what the hell is this
jabalia in northern gaza has been under siege for over a week. no food aid in. constant bombing. journalists being openly targeted. the bbc describes israel's plan to use medieval siege tactics to ethnically cleanse and settle the north of gaza as a "controversial plan" while acknowledging that not only does israel not allow people enough time to use the humanitarian corridor to evacuate, they also shoot at people evacuating and are still targeting the south. they have also made it clear that whoever leaves will not be returning.
i don't really understand how the news can describe the process of genocide in such stark terms and call it a "controversial plan" instead of what it is: a horrifying crime against humanity.
i see they changed the headline after widespread condemnation with no apology or editor's note as usual. the BBC has done this multiple times over the past year:
everyone (including kamala harris) has acknowledged that aid isn't going into gaza and aid trucks are at the lowest they've been since the genocide began (and of the aid that enters, NONE reaches jabalia camp, currently under siege).
the biden admin issued a "thirty day notice" for israel to start letting aid in—people in jabalia have had no drinking water for ten days already. like rafah, the humanitarian pier, and all of biden's other "red lines" this is political theatre. the people of jabalia are being exterminated and have been for over a week.
as a side note, which many have forgotten: this happened with al-shifa hospital and the surrounding area. when israeli forces retreated (which will not happen if the general's plan is carried out) they found mass graves at the site, with nearly 500 people buried (some buried and bulldozed while still alive) in the courtyard.
the israeli army has currently surrounded all three barely functioning hospitals in the north of gaza and attacked two of them. there is nowhere for injured people to go. horrifying videos have been coming out of the aftermath of bombings (including one of a child being bombed, then the people gathering to gather the child being bombed). there are reports of idf rigging neighborhoods up to blow while people are still there, and bulldozing a house with the residents inside. several families have succumbed to starvation inside their homes.
israel is systemically destroying entire families, home by home. people from north of gaza are losing their families who have withstood over a year of genocide:
people in jabalia are literally being exterminated. this is not an exaggeration in the slightest. israel has declared that it will exterminate the people of the north of gaza, and it is doing it, and the united states has given them 30 days to finish the job. this is genocide in every sense.
you are watching an extermination campaign.