Genocide in Gaza: Israel’s Long War on Palestine

by Avi Shlaim

In this book Avi Shlaim places Israel’s policy towards the Gaza Strip under an uncompromising lens. He argues that recurrent attacks – what Israeli generals chillingly call “mowing the lawn” – are the inevitable result of Zionist settler colonialism whose basic objective is the elimination of the native population. In this war, however, Israel has gone beyond land-grabbing and ethnic cleansing to commit the crime of all crimes – genocide.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Middle East, Politics

440 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2025

About the author

Avi Shlaim FBA (born October 31, 1945) is an Iraqi-born British/Israeli historian. He is emeritus professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the British Academy. Shlaim is considered one of Israel's New Historians, a group of Israeli scholars who put forward critical interpretations of the history of Zionism and Israel.

Reviews

[Fernando Pestana da Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects twelve articles by Avi Shlaim about the history of the conflict in Israel/Palestine, with particular emphasis on the Gaza Strip. It starts with a forward by Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and ending with a reproduction of the the intervention of the Counsel for the Republic of South Africa to the ICJ in the application South Africa made, in the beginning of 2024, against Israel related with the prevention and punishment of genocide in Gaza. In between there are a dozen harrowing articles, mainly written in 2023 and 2024 about the indescribably oppression, violence, and lately the genocidal fury, suffered by the Palestinians of Gaza essentially since they were dumped there from other parts of what is today Israel in the ethnic cleansing of parts of the south Palestine in 1948 in the violent colonial process of creation of Israel. The book includes three inserts, totalling 40 additional pages on top of the more than 400+ of the main book: one insert with colour maps, another with drawings by Peter Rhoades as a personal response to the shock of Israel's attack on Gaza in 2008-2009, and a last one with photographs about the current genocidal war (after the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas) whose subject is reflected in the title of the insert: "a bloody war against children". This edition of this important book was first published on 31 October 2024 on the occasion of Avi Shlaim's 79th birthday.

[Bas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book written by one of the most distinguished historians dealing with the Israeli-Palestine conflict, contains different articles and essays about different aspects of the conflict. Shlaim wants to portray the path of Israel to genocide and deals both with aspects of the current crisis as the foundations of Israeli violence and the precedents of his actions. It's a very compelling book and it utterly destroys the Israeli position with facts and moral outrage. The biggest downside of this book is that there is quite a bit of overlap between the different articles and that you end up reading the same statements or facts time and time again. After a bit that gets a bit tiring and this is why I don't give it a higher ranking. The strongest pieces in the book are imo: Benjamin Netanyahu's war against Palestinian Statehood, Israel's road to Genocide and Green Ligt to Genocide: Joe Biden and Israel's War in Gaza. Besides informative I was also often moved and horrified by the content of the book and the horror it describes. This is a very good book about such an important topic

[Randall Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The saddest irony is that a people once in need of protection from genocide is now committing it.” Avi says the problem is the “Jewish supremacist character of the State of Israel” so that the solution is not just ending its illegal occupation but the decolonization of Israel”. “This is not a conflict between two equal sides but between an occupying power and a subjugated population.” And no Zionist will tell you that “one does not have the right to self-defense against a territory that one occupies. Post-October 7th, the self-defense clause, Article 51 of the UN Charter, has no relevance (to Israel). It is the people under occupation who have the right under international law the right to resist, including the right to armed resistance.” Thus today, the Palestinian people “are the only people living under military occupation who are expected to ensure the security of their occupier.” The occupied Kashmiris in India and occupied Sahrawi of Western Sahara don’t have to, so why must the Palestinians? Avi calls Israel’s blockade of Gaza, “a form of collective punishment that is clearly proscribed by international law.” And he says Israel’s forced transfer of Palestinian civilians is “a war crime.”

Israel didn’t choose franchise colonialism “dependent of slave labor”, but settler-colonialism which is “premised on the elimination of native societies.” Noam said that “settler-colonialism (“the elimination of the native” - what Israeli is doing in Gaza, and what the US did to its Native Americans) is the most extreme and sadistic form of imperialism.” Avi says, “Israel has always been a settler-colonial state.” Israel euphemistically calls its settler-colonial actions “transfer” – intentionally as innocuous a term as a “bus transfer”. Settler-colonialism can’t achieve its objections through diplomacy or negotiations, but only through force. Would YOU freely give up your property and means of employment if disheveled settlers merely came to your house with strange haircuts, taunted you and told you to leave?

Did you know that “Saddam Hussein said Iraq would withdraw from Kuwait if Israel withdrew from all occupied Arab territories”? Regarding Palestine: “In 1917, the Jews owned two percent of the land; in 1947 they owned seven percent of the land, the UN allocated to the Jews 55 percent of Mandatory Palestine.” Israel committed the Nakba to bring that percentage to 78% in 1948, and “by the end of the June 1967 war they had effective control of 100% of mandatory Palestine.” “Netanyahu did not become Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by standing apart from Israeli Jewish society but by embodying it.”

Settlers: There are presently around 670,000 illegal Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank. Israel easily pulled out of Gaza in 2005 because it only had 8,000 illegal settlers there – but notice those mere 8,000 “settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the arable land and the lion’s share of the scarce water resources.” A simple fact check will show that the withdrawal of those settlers ALSO involved “destroying the houses and farms they had left behind.” The opposite of the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam. To compensate Zionism for the loss of the settler theft in Gaza, Israel quickly planted 12,000 more settlers into the West Bank. Avi thinks the 2005 Gaza exit was foremost “to safeguard and consolidate the more significant Israeli settlements in the West Bank.” Did Israel pulling out of Gaza mean less violence in Gaza? Well, in the first three years after the pull-out, only 11 Israelis died by rocket fire while “the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in Gaza, including 222 children.” T’was disproportionate violence by Dahiya Doctrine design. “The problem with Israel’s security is that it denies even the most basic security to the other community.” [Noam says in its ’67 War Israel intentionally chose expansion over security.]

Anyone with a dictionary can see that the US and Israel are both the definition of “rogue states” – Avi says, “A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practices terrorism.” During the 2018 March of Great Return (a non-violent Gandhi style protest by Palestinians that liberal Zionists like Noa Tishby say never happened) Israel wounded 20,000 Palestinians killing 260 civilians all for the crime of non-violently protesting a blatantly illegal occupation. How dare they? Such violence was condemned at the time by the UN General Assembly – but when you run a brazenly rogue state and fantasize that your white citizens are personally chosen by God – who cares?

Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009) “was Israel’s first major assault on the Gaza Strip after it’s unilateral withdrawal in 2005. Avi calls Israel’s Operation Cast Lead as “a one-sided massacre” – 13 dead Israelis against 1,417 dead Palestinians (83% civilians) and a loss of $2 billion in Gazan assets. It was a wholesale destruction of 4,000 houses, 24 mosques, 34 hospitals/health clinics and 600-700 factories. This was the result of Israel’s new IDF fueled Dahiya Doctrine – intentionally disproportionate force like Nixon’s Madman Theory only you psychotically follow through rather than just talk about it. Israel’s Cast Lead even had seven documented incidents where civilians were shot leaving their homes ‘waving white flags’. I can see the ad: “Come to Israel where you can even shoot civilians clearly surrendering, all while defiling the sacred Jewish tradition of justice.” Did you know that Israel’s intentionally one-sided Operation Cast Lead massacre was supported by “90 percent of the population which saw it as a necessary act of self-defense”? How dare non-whites legally resist brutal colonization and ethnic cleansing by racist whites? Don’t they know “WE” and not “they” are the victims? Then came more major military offensives against an illegally occupied people in 2012, 2014, 2021 and 2022 (not including 2018’s March of Great Return w/ its many martyrs) including Operation Protective Edge where Israel lost 67 soldiers and five civilians contrasted with 2,200 Palestinian civilians killed and 520,000 rendered displaced. If the world complained why does Israel target schools, hospitals, ambulances, fire stations rather than militants, the answer was either a variation of “What? I can’t hear you!” or “Every site attacked was compromised by Hamas or terrorists.” As Avi reminds us, if only US support of Israel were simply contingent on Israel following international law, versus offering Netanyahu unconditional aid until the last Palestinian is killed by US weaponry.

Avi loves the books of Sara Roy (I’m about to review her terrific “The Gaza Strip” book about Israel’s intentional “de-development” of Gaza). Gazan high birthrates led to Israel pulling out of Gaza in 2005 – thus in one stroke Israel removed “1.4 million Palestinians from the overall demographic equation.” Racial Purity Uber Alles. And “withdrawing from Gaza enabled the Israeli Air Force to bomb the territory at will, something they could not do when Israeli settlers lived there.” Imagine the sadness before 2005 of not being able to illegally bomb civilians in Gaza at will?

Israel has a documented history of weakening (or killing) moderate Palestinian leaders who want negotiations or Gandhi style non-violence resistance (p.237). Israel’s quandary is that “Military force can decimate an organization, but it cannot kill an idea.” This is why our colonists beat the Brits in 1776, why we lost to Vietnam, and why colonists around the globe lost their colonies to liberation movements and soon Israel will join their ranks by comically choosing to fight an idea. Our US War on Terrorism being equally stupid – how do you declare war on an idea? And how does the US and Israel declare war on a tactic both the US and Israel have historically relied on?

How to create more perceived anti-Semitism: By June 2024 Israel dropped more bombs on just Gaza than were dropped on London, Dresden and Hamburg during ALL of WWII. “By January 2024, more than one thousand (Gazan) children had undergone the amputation of one or both legs, many without anesthetic.” “UN agencies estimated it would take fifteen years just to clear the rubble (in Gaza).” “The Zionists want all the land, with no Palestinian people, and will stop at nothing to get it.” As for October 7th: it’s a long proven historical fact that “eventually the oppressed will rise against their oppressor.” Think of Capitol Hill, Washington DC as Israeli-occupied territory. The Abraham Accords were “most hurtful to the Palestinians” – think of them as transactions between “autocratic Arab rulers and the Israeli apartheid regime” that conceded nothing to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians. Does ANYONE think Israel’s over-the-top response to October 7th happened WITHIN the confines of international humanitarian law?

Avi shows his readers that “Israel in fact is the least safe place for Jews in the entire world.” This is why the vast majority of my friends and grantees who demand a ceasefire and end to the occupation are Jews and NOT anti-Semites. We should all follow these brave Jewish voices who STILL dare vocally believe in the sacred Jewish values of Tikkun Olam, like Gabor Mate, Noam Chomsky, Peter Beinart, Amira Hass, Aaron Mate, Norman Finkelstein, Antony Loewenstein, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, John Stewart, Gideon Levy, Omer Bartov, Katie Halper, Shlomo Sand, Medea Benjamin, Sara Roy, Max Blumenthal, Mondoweiss, and Jewish Voice for Peace. These courageous Jewish voices all know that the core Jewish values are altruism, truth justice and peace and that “the essence of Judaism is non-violence.” What is the difference between ordinary fascist thinking and that of the Zionist right with its historical motto “might makes right”? Yes, Netanyahu was elected, but so was the Nazi party in Germany and the fascist party in Italy.

Avi ends this terrific book with his solution of a single state – hey in the US we all have a single state with its equal rights and our police manage to refrain from targeting indigenous children with headshots or committing genocide – so why is it so insane for Israel to do the same? Imagine being in the US demanding the equal rights our country was founded on, but then schizophrenically demanding Israel continue to be the opposite – stay a racial supremacist state where equal rights are openly derided – stay brutally colonial in a post-colonial world that has moved on. I recommend this 2025 book of Avi’s to anyone who during a genocide still believes in the Golden Rule, the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes - or still has a functioning conscience. Kudos to Avi. Don’t forget – as Avi says – “Zionism is a secular political ideology; Judaism is a religion.”

[Moayad Hippo · Rating 4 out of 5]

في كتابه (العوالم الثلاثة؛ مذكرات يهودي - عربي)، اعتبر آفي شلايم أن تشبيه ممارسات الكيان الصهيوني رغم فداحتها بممارسات ألمانيا النازية ضد اليهود، مقارنة تفتقر الى الدقة التاريخية والأخلاقية، إذ أن الكيان المحتل لم ينخرط في إبادة جماعية على غرار المحرقة.
في هذا الكتاب يقدم شلايم شهادته على الإبادة الجماعية متكاملة الأركان التي مارسها الاحتلال ما بعد السابع من أكتوبر ٢٠٢٣، بل إنه يذهب للقول: ( ولأول مرة في التاريخ، تتحلى فظاعة الإبادة الجماعية على مرأى ومسمع العالم، تبث مباشرة عبر شاشات التلفاز يومًا بعد يوم). فيبدو وكأنه يقدم اعتذارًا عن دفاعه الذي قدمه في الكتاب السابق. ويختتم كتابه هذا بوصف ما تقوم به حكومة نتنياهو حيث تظهر ما يكفي من الصفات الفاشية خاصة في نزعتها العسكرية، وتغوّلها السياسي، وخطابها الإقصائي. وهي سمات تبرر، في ضوء المعايير التحليلية الحديثة، توصيفها بالفاشية. رغم تردده بداية في استخدام كلمة (فاشي).
كما قدم هذا الكتاب شهادة على كل أشكال الإبادة التي مارسها الاحتلال في حربه على غزة، التي شملت إلى جانب جرائم القتل المتعمد، والتطهير العرقي، جرائم الإبادة السكنية، الإبادة البيئية، الإبادة الإقتصادية، الإبادة الذاكرية، إضافة إلى الإبادة التعليمية أو ما يعرف بالإبادة المعرفية.
ورغم أن عددًا من التحليلات وذكر الشواهد التاريخية يتكرر في عدد من أحزاء هذه الكتاب (وهي مقالات للكاتب عدد منها نشر سابقًا) إلا أن هذا لا يفقد الكتاب أهميته.
وربما سنتختلف مع آفي شلايم في عدد من النقاط، مثل رؤيته لحل القضية الفلسطينية، أو استخدامه لمصطلحي(فظائع، مجازر) عند حديثه عن أحداث يوم السابع من اكتوبر، الأمر الذي يلزمه كمؤرخ الى الاستعانة بأدلة قطعية على وقوع ما يبرر استخدام أحد المصطلحين. إلا أن شلايم كواحد من المؤرخين الجدد يحسب له جل عمله في فضح زيف السردية الصهيونية، وتقديم عمل يفضح فيه جريمة بهذا الحجم، ودحض الرواية التي تتبناها المؤسسة الصهيونية، التي تدعي أن سبب هذه الحرب هو ما وقع يوم السابع من أكتوبر، إذ يذكر بأن سبب كل ما يحصل الى اليوم في فلسطين هو الاحتلال نفسه.

[Bafta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have learnt so much reading this book. The political process behind Israel’s politics against Palestine is comprehensively described. This is a collection of essays written between 2008 and 2024 so you can subtly see how Shlaims position develops over time. I would have given it 5 stars and it would have been justified but the essays contain some repetitions, which is fine because you can also see Shlaim describing the same events from different perspectives or at different times.