A Palestinian poet novelist and activist, Susan Abdulhawa, living in Cairo, who's just returned from two weeks in Gaza described what has happened there is a holocaust. She was reluctant to use that word and did not use it lightly but she says that "it is absolutely that".
“What I witnessed personally in Rafah and some of the middle areas is incomprehensible, and I will call it a holocaust — and I don’t use that word lightly. But it is absolutely that.”
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| Gaza mass destruction is like a holocaust as per the definition of the word. Image: Wikipedia. |
Definition of 'holocaust'
So what is the definition of the word "holocaust"? Here it is: "destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war", according to a Google search.
Destruction of buildings and infrastructure
It can't be denied that Israel has destroyed large parts of Gaza and I'm talking about the buildings including homes, hospitals and other administrative buildings and of course roads and other infrastructure. The pictures confirm that there has been mass destruction.
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| Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Damage_in_Gaza_Strip_during_the_October_2023_-_28.jpg#/media/File:Damage_in_Gaza_Strip_during_the_October_2023_-_28.jpg |
Destruction of innocent people
The information from the Palestinian authorities tell us that about 30,000 people have died in Gaza as a result of the Israeli bombardments. Nearly all of these are innocent men women and children.
Obviously some of them are Hamas terrorists, the target of Israel's invasion and bombardment of the Gaza Strip but I would suggest that the terrorists are a tiny proportion of the overall number of Gazans guilt in this war.
Conclusion
It is difficult to avoid coming to the same conclusion as this poet and novelist. You make up your own mind but to me it does look like a holocaust and if that is true it is shatteringly ironic that the Israelis are causing holocaust when in the history of the Jewish race they were, as the world knows, the victims of the ultimate holocaust, the Holocaust, perpetrated by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II between 1941 and 1945 when 6 million Jews were systematically murdered.
Obviously nothing can match that horror but even if we can discuss the possibility that what is going on in Gaza has some resemblance to a holocaust it is very sad and shocking bearing in mind this history.
Animals of Gaza
And I want to briefly mention the animals of Gaza. The news media talk about the innocent women and children being killed in their homes but we must remember the animals, the domestic animals killed with their owners or if they survived, left starving on the streets.
They have nowhere to go, no one to look after them, no one cares except the odd and very fine individual who is engaged in animal rescue. Yes, there are still people in Gaza engaged in animal rescue despite the most horrific conditions.
There are still some veterinarians operating in Gaza as I understand it but I'm sure their medications are running out or have run out. I feel for the animals terribly. It is depressing to think about them. They are entirely innocent as are the children.
Domestic animals live in the human world. When the human world is destroyed by humans in the most violent of ways, domestic animals are either violently killed or they slowly die. Humankind should be ashamed of itself. Thoroughly ashamed.
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