‫غزة: بحث في استشهادها

by Norman G. Finkelstein, نورمان فنكلستاين, أيمن حداد (Translator)

The Gaza Strip is among the most densely populated places in the world. More than two-thirds of its inhabitants are refugees, and more than half are under eighteen years of age. Since 2004, Israel has launched eight devastating “operations” against Gaza’s largely defenseless population. Thousands have perished, and tens of thousands have been left homeless. In the meantime, Israel has subjected Gaza to a merciless illegal blockade.
 
What has befallen Gaza is a man-made humanitarian disaster.
 
Based on scores of human rights reports, Norman G. Finkelstein's new book presents a meticulously researched inquest into Gaza’s martyrdom. He shows that although Israel has justified its assaults in the name of self-defense, in fact these actions constituted flagrant violations of international law.
 
But Finkelstein also documents that the guardians of international law—from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to the UN Human Rights Council—ultimately failed Gaza. One of his most disturbing conclusions is that, after Judge Richard Goldstone's humiliating retraction of his UN report, human rights organizations succumbed to the Israeli juggernaut.

Finkelstein’s magnum opus is both a monument to Gaza’s martyrs and an act of resistance against the forgetfulness of history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Middle East, War, Israel, Social Justice

628 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 9, 2018

About the author

Norman Gary Finkelstein, is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Son of a holocaust survivor, Finkelstein is a fierce critic of Israeli policy, especially toward Palestinians. He has had a tense rivalry with his pro-Israel counterpart, Alan Dershowitz. In 2007 DePaul University denied his tenure, a decision for which Dershowitz lobbied. For his views and suspected connections to anti-Zionist groups, Israel has denied Finkelstein entry and banned him from the country for a decade.

Reviews

[Shaimaa شيماء · Rating 5 out of 5]

تحديث ٣: ٩ اكتوبر اتفاق إنهاء الحرب
يارب يكون آخر تحديث وربنا يفرج الكرب


تحديث ٢: اقتربنا من السابع من أكتوبر ٢٠٢٥... ونحن نشهد اسوأ لحظاتنا .. عامان من القتل والتدمير والإبادة الجماعية...

تحديث ١: يناير ٢٠٢٤
٤٧٠ يوم بعد السابع من اكتوبر ٢٠٢٣.. ياله من زمن طويل مرهق ومؤلم، شهدنا فيها أحداثا لا توفيها الكلمات حقها..
الآن انتهت الحرب الشنيعة التي ربما ستحتاج لمجلدات للكتابة عنها....
هذا الكتاب الذي قرأته بعد بداية الأحداث مباشرة، والذي سرد ما حدث لغزة منذ عام ٢٠٠٥ حتى ٢٠١٤.. تلك الاحداث التي كان الكاتب يصفها بالشناعة والفظاعة لا تقارن بأي صورة بما حدث بعد السابع من أكتوبر ٢٠٢٣..
فسلاما على غزة وعلى أهل غزة...
عوضكم الله ورحم شهداءكم وأثابكم وجزاكم خير الجزاء..

.....
يااااه كتاب مرهق جدا، لكن الواقع أشد إرهاقا وألما.

وتاني الواحد مكسوف يقول إنه فعلا مكنش يعرف حاجة عن الأحداث دي كلها اللي حصلت وإحنا عايشين وبناكل وبنشرب عادي، كنا فين والله ما اعرف  🥺🥺🥺

الكتاب ده صدر ٢٠١٨

طبعا الفظائع اللي حصلت قبل كده متجيش حاجة جنب اللي وصلناله دلوقتي في العملية الأشد وحشية في تاريخ العالم المعاصر واللي لسه مستمرة تحت أنظار العالم كله، بس الكلام هو هو والكذب والتضليل والعالم كله المتآمر، هو نفس الكلام مع اختلاف حجم التدمير بس واختلاف المدة.

يمكن برضه لو كنت قرأت الكتاب ده قبل أحداث طوفان الأقصى مكنتش هاندمج معاه اوي، لكن دلوقتي كل الكلام المكتوب ده والأماكن والأحداث دي قربنا منها جدا جدا وبقينا كأننا عايشين هناك في غزة ومع أهل غزة.

الكتاب بيتكلم عن حرب ٢٠٠٨ اللي كانوا بيسموها عملية الرصاص المصبوب واللي استمرت ٢٢ يوم وعن تقرير غولدستون اللي وصف الفظائع دي واللي اتهاجم بعد كده لدرجة إنه تراجع عن موقفه..

وبعدين بيتكلم عن الهجوم الخسيس على سفينة مافي مرمرة اللي كانت رايحة غزة بمساعدات انسانية، وهاجموهما وقتلوا ٧ من النشطاء وصادروا السفينة.

وبعدين اتكلم عن حرب ٢٠١٤ اللي سموها عملية الجرف الصامد اللي استمرت ٥٥ يوم واللي المؤلف كان شايف إنها سببت دمار مش معقول وقالوا ساعتها ان غزة محتاجة ١٧٠ سنة لإعادة الإعمار.
طبعا كان لسه مشفش اللي حصل في ٢٠٢٣.

 طبعا بنعرف من الكتاب إن هجوم اسرائيل على غزة ده لازم يحصل كل شوية وحكاية حماس وهجومها عليهم دي مجرد حجج لكن للأسف برضه بيعرفوا يقنعوا العالم كله إنهم مظلومين وبيدافعوا عن نفسهم.

كتاب مهم جدا بنعرف منه تفاصيل أعتقد أغلبنا ميعرفهاش، وكمان اسلوبه كويس وشيق.

من تعريف الكتاب على أبجد

"يسرد هذا الكتاب وقائع متداخلة لكفاح الشعب الفلسطيني عموماً، مع التركيز على غزة وما حل بها من مذابح متتالية وحصار خانق، وهو يصف كيف ظل الإسرائيليون ينبذون عروض السلام، ويمارسون الضغوط بمعونة الراعي الأمريكي على مختلف المحافل الدولية لإسكات الشهود، والنجاة من المساءلة والإفلات من أي عقاب.

يتألف الكتاب من أربعة أقسام وملحق، يتناول القسم الأول عملية الرصاص المصبوب، وتبعاتها
إضافة إلى سرد وافي لما ورد في تقارير منظمات حقوق الإنسان الدولية في شأنها ، والحجج التي أقامها المدافعون عن إسرائيل وتفنيد لها. ويتناول القسم الثاني بالتحليل تقرير غولد ستون ثم تراجعه لاحقاً عن النتائج التي توصلت إليها اللجنة التي ترأسها، أما القسم الثالث فيتناول حادثة الهجوم على قافلة سفن المساعدات الإنسانية وتبعاتها السياسية والقانونية. وأخيراً يتناول القسم الرابع عملية الجرف الصامد مع عرض مفصل للفظائع الإسرائيلية وخيانة منظمات حقوق الإنسان لشعب فلسطين عقب هذه الجريمة، وأخيراً يعرض الملحق مقارنة فريدة في نوعها بين الوضع القانوني لاحتلال نظام جنوب أفريقيا العنصري لدولة ناميبيا، وبين الوضع القانوني للاحتلال الإسرائيلي".

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Updated Nov 20 2023: Finkelstein documents through exemplary sourcing the many atrocities committed on Gazans, the exact situation in Gaza, and the history of Gaza back to the founding of Israel. Further as Finkelstein said in a recent interview it will infuriate you and can perhaps inspire all of us in further ways we can pressure those in power to stop this madness. Now that I've been watching this carnage for going on 7 weeks the events in this book couldn't possibly shock you further. However, it's unbelievable that so many in the West don't know that there's been a siege and complete control of utilities, food, water and basic essentials by Israel since Hamas assumed power in 2007. Obviously Israeli military occupation, harrassment and ethnic cleansing has gone on in various forms in Gaza for nearly a century. So nothing happening from October 7th on comes out of a vacuum. This fact has become all too painfully aware to many in recent weeks.

The current genocidal activities of the Israelis all have patterns admitted by IDF members in the past whereas terrorization of populations is a "legitimate military tactic" - i.e. collective punishment admitted by those in the IDF going back even before 1948 to the days of the Hagana, Irgun and Stern Gang. This is documented by soldier testimony in the book. Their playbook happens in front of our eyes, their words say another and it has been this way for decades. Finkelstein's book just serves as source material for all this with very specific cited instances and subsequent reporting and testimony

Further notably concerning is that settlers are never prosecuted for shooting Palestinians (of course not) but now we have record numbers of gun purchases and assaults in the West Bank. Neither are IDF soldiers of course. Also documented in the book through many many international sources.

I have a friend in Gaza who I check in with daily (when there is internet) to make sure he's alive. I have many Palestinian friends in Jordan where I lived who send me messages of friends or loved ones losing multiple family members in bombs or know of them it's all very close and very personal to me. I feel helpless, but I see more around me are becoming ever more aware and I'm seeing people asking questions I never would have imagined. It's encouraging from that aspect but why does it have to take a genocide for this to happen! Let's hope all the death and destruction has not been in vain and that there's a better future for all people in this land.

[Kaelan Ratcliffe ▪ كايِلان راتكِليف · Rating 5 out of 5]

Relentless, Uncompromising Truth

This book serves a duel purpose. On one hand, it is a meticulous, and unrelenting critique of Israels collective punishment of the Gazan people - specific focus on Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge - as well as the Palestinians as a whole. On the other hand, Gaza acts as an incredible example for anyone who wants to understand how propaganda can influence the views of multiple populations who are aware of an ongoing conflict.

Finkelstein is on an entirely different level in this magnum opus when it comes to the latter function previously mentioned. I felt myself tutored by a true scholar in this field. He opened my eyes not only to the thousand little lies that have been peddled regarding Gaza, but also to the almost missable phrasing of terms when discussing the hideous crimes enacted on Gaza (I'm looking at you Amnesty).

The reader may slow down during his breakdown of Amnesty Internationals report, as well as the UN councils report post-protective edge. However I cannot emphasise how important it is for the reader to stay with this book. It is without a doubt the most powerful, heart-wrenching and gobsmacking piece of text I have opened my eyes to about Israel and Palestine.

[Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein documents Israel's assaults on the Gaza strip since Israel "disengaged" from it in 2005, as well as Israel's cover-up operations, acting as a lawyer for the people of Gaza.

Israel, for all I admire about her talent and her accomplishments, has really. gone. bonkers. Yesterday the IDF just shot and killed two more Palestinians. During Cast Lead and its shooting down of the humanitarian aid flotilla (2008) and Protective Edge (2014), Israel killed 1,000 and 2,000 people each war, 80% of whom were civilians. They've dropped one-ton bombs on densely-populated civilian areas, shot at ambulances, aid workers, and journalists, and bombed a UN shelter. Its alibi has always been that Hamas is hiding among the population, although in the overwhelming number of cases, human rights organizations such as Amnesty, HRW, and B'Tselem (which is Israeli) wasn't able to identify any military targets or Hamas operatives. Testimonies from IDF soldiers involved in the conflicts show they often did not see a single Hamas fighter the whole war. They were also told to shoot anybody who looks over 15 or is moving, assuming civilians have all fled.

Israel has also blockaded Gaza in order to bring its economy to the brink of collapse, without starving it, in order to delegitimize Hamas.

When Richard Goldstone, the South African Jew and Zionist, concluded in his UN report that Israel's intent was to terrorize and humiliate the civilian population during Operation Cast Lead, Israel launched vicious PR campaign against him and forced him to recant. This offensive subdued Human Rights Watch into not saying anything after Protective Edge and and Amnesty into watering down its reports on the latest war.

Again acting as Gaza's attorney, Finkelstein has punched all of Israel's atrocities into the peer-reviewed record (UC Press), as a monument to its people's resilience.

Jews have an admirable human rights record and they lead, fund, and heavily staff reputable organizations like Amnesty and HRW. I'm confident they can turn the state of Israel around.

[Mostafa · Rating 5 out of 5]

يُقدم الكاتب نموذجًا عن الكتابة القانونية غير الجافة، فالكاتب يستعرض معاناة أهل غزة من خلال فض التقارير القانونية والحقوقية الدولية الجافة والتعامل معها بصفتها أحداثًا تاريخية يمكن سردها في نسق لا يصيب القراءة بالملل، ويعتمد فنكلستيّن لحبك ذلك الأسلوب بالأساس على أسلوبه اللاذع جدًا في التعليقات على ما جرى، فهو "يفرش الملاية ثم يقوم بالردح حرفيًا للأمم المتحدة ولمنظمة العفو الدولية وللفلاسفة ودعاة الموضوعية والإتزان في التعامل مع تلك القضية التي لا يجب أن تعرف تناسبية" ولنفاق المجتمع الدولي وقوانينه المائعة وانعكاساتها على أرض الواقع في غزة الشهيدة..... وطبعًا، بعيدًا عن ذلك الإطار لمنهجية الكتاب، فهو كتاب قاس جدًا على القلب احتماله، وأن يصدق أن هذا بالفعل حدث آنذاك، ولم تتحرك شعرة في ضمير العالم، بل هو يحدث الآن وبشكل أوسع نطاقًا وأكثر تنكيلًا، والمجازر تُبث في كل لحظة أمام أعيننا، ومازلنا لا نصدق لفرط ما نشعر به بالعجز.... لعل الله يحس بيكم يا شعب غزة أخيرًا ويبصلكم بعين الرحمة

[Rob Prince]

Finkelstein...a careful and serious researcher. He's the focus of many attacks from pro-Israeli ideologue types who try to paint him as some kind of extremist on the margins...This is silly. His work is about the best stuff out there - and this book is a masterpiece. Appreciated more outside the US of A than within it where he is essentially blackballed from the mainstream media. His work will endure. If you listen to what he has to say politically, by the way, he is a thoughtful moderate and realist. Personally a difficult person...but so what?

[Christopher Moltisanti's Windbreakers fan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finkelstein is a rare breed of historian and researcher whose books contain thousands of footnotes so that no one can twist his words or dispute his claims that Israel is a rogue ethonofascist state that has no boundaries of inflicting sufferings on Palestinians both living in Palestine and refugees outside of it. His mastery of using oppositional views and slowly dissecting the flaws and lies in them makes him one of the most beloved figures among Palestinian activists.

Not to get sappy here, my admiration of Palestinians have no limits. For decades with patience they took them upon themselves to save their dignity, protect their friends and families, educate the rest of the world about their sufferings. Yet, the so called civilized world not only doesn't look at them, they actually demonize and inflict more sufferings onto them. It's heartbreaking to see my Palestinian brother's and sister's sufferings for basic humanity. You can't claim to be anti-imperialist and do revisionist bullshit on the history and struggle of Palestine.

Long Live Intifada until Palestine is free. From river to the sea Palestine will be free.

[Sue Miz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book took me almost a year to finish
Not because its writing style is hard to read, but because every time I finish a chapter, I needed a lot of time to come back to myself.

On March 2018 to December 2019, every Arab news lit horrifically shows how Z!0nists IOF shot over 220 Plstn who were peacefully protesting their return to their lands which they were displaced from.

Seeing how a Holocaust survivor descendant standing up for Plstn rights makes me both restore my faith in humanity and feel sad that "Never Again" is happening again

Fck Z!0nism

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the first I read about the Israel/Palestine conflict, and while I can’t recommend it as a good starting place due to its density and focus only on recent history, I can wholeheartedly recommend it for its thoroughness and the author’s incredible commitment to the truth. Finkelstein carefully sifts through human rights report on recent “operations” inflicted by the Israel Defense Forces on Palestine and exposes in minute, even excruciating detail the places where these reports obfuscate, fall short, or even flat-out lie about the situation on the ground in Gaza.

Support for the state of Israel is a given in American politics; it’s one of the only issues that Democrats and Republicans can agree on. Donald Trump proudly upheld Israel in American foreign policy, and Joe Biden has promised to do the very same. But the fact is that Israel regularly and systemically commits crimes against humanity on the civilian population of Gaza with nearly zero criticism from Western media. And that’s what makes a book like Finkelstein’s so important: we are seeing atrocities, actively aided by the US government, committed right in front of our noses and most of us don’t even know it’s happening.

This book is dense, it’s packed full of numbers, statistics, and complicated legal analyses, but all of the work Finkelstein does here shows us the myriad ways the truth can be corrupted and distorted for political goals and the horrific human costs of these obfuscations. In the process, he teaches us to be better readers and better people in the pursuit of social justice. This is not an easy read, but I cannot recommend it enough. Five stars.

[Marwa Fathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

الغزّيّون، وفي الوقت الحرج الذي واجهوا فيه الاستشهاد، فقد اختاروا الموت وهم يقاومون بدلًا من الموت البطيء تحت الحصار اللاإنساني 💔

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I guess ‘meticulous’ is what comes to mind. Pro-Palestinian (‘blacklisted’) academic and activist Norman Finkelstein’s latest book ‘Gaza. An Inquest into its martyrdom’ (2018, UC Press) minutely documents the carnage of Israel’s 2008 ‘Operation Cast Lead’ and 2014 ‘Operation Protective Edge’ which, together with the now ten-year blockade, effectively rendered Gaza some kind of third world open air prison. The book, which includes north of 1,000 footnotes, analyses hundreds of human rights and humanitarian reports (Amnesty, HRW, UN Human Rights Council etc.) which clearly document Israel’s large scale and systematic war crimes and sheds light on the very well organized and funded political and propaganda machinery which continues to ensure that not only Israel gets away with these war crimes but also to systematically distort facts in a way that shift the focus on Hamas’ human rights violations (‘human shields’ ‘indiscriminate rocket attacks’). (It’s also no surprise that you won’t find a review of this book by the mainstream media). It’s an insightful read on the UN’s utter failure and betrayal to speak truth to power as it continues, sadly, to take its cues from the white house. So while we’ve become fairly desensitized to the plight of the Palestinians, especially since the post-2001 War On Terror and the post-2010 Arab Spring and the horrors that followed (thanks to, in so small part, Bush-Obama-Clinton), the book aims to demolish the colonial and international propaganda and ‘to refute that Big Lie by exposing each of the little lies.’

[إسراء · Rating 5 out of 5]

مهم جدا

[Randall Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaza’s First Occupation: In 1956, the UN states that “Israeli troops killed between 447 and 550 Arab civilians in the first three weeks of the occupation of the Strip”. In March 1957, Eisenhower forces Israel to withdraw from the Strip at which point more than 1,000 Gazans had been killed. 1967 is Israel coming back and reoccupying the Gaza (a war crime if anybody cares) and it hasn’t thought of leaving since.

“Ben Ami, one of Israel’s chief negotiators at Camp David (in 2000), later commented, ‘I would have rejected Camp David as well’.” He also wrote about “Israel’s disproportionate response” to the Second Intifada, and how the first suicide bombing by Hamas didn’t begin until five months after Israel began the bloodletting. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron called Gaza “an open-air prison.” Israel took the West Bank from Jordan, Gaza from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Gaza is more crowded than Tokyo. Norman says both Intifadas were “overwhelmingly non-violent.” Jimmy Carter said the 2006 election that brought Hamas to power was “completely honest and fair.” “Privately Hillary Clinton said privately of the election, “we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.” Hamas begins in 1988. In addition to the occupation, Palestinians are subject to sanctions which is the first time for an occupation to have them, says a UN special rapporteur who says as well that Israel is “in violation of major Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.” Hamas was originally targeted “to ensure Hamas’s failure so as to discredit it as a governing body.” Note Hamas being told to renounce violence but not Israel. Hamas had to jump through hoops, like recognize Oslo, while Israel had to do nothing.

Broken Ceasefire & Cast Lead: Israel intentionally violates a brokered ceasefire on November 4th, 2008 (which was exactly US election day Obama gets elected so that the violation is not well reported against the big election results the next day). This turns into Operation Cast Lead where “the Israeli air force flew nearly 3,000 sorties over Gaza and dropped one thousand tons of explosives.” During this time, “Hamas launched several hundred rudimentary rockets and mortar shells into Israel.” “Our modest homemade (non-guided) rockets are our cry of protest to the world”, wrote Hamas leader Khalid Mishal. Israel justified Operation Cast Lead because Hamas had fired rockets, but it’s easy to prove Hamas fired rockets ONLY after Israel violated the 2008 ceasefire.

Cast Lead: “Overwhelmingly, Israel targeted not Hamas strongholds but ‘decidedly non-terrorist, non-Hamas sites’.” One Israeli company commander told his soldiers, “I want aggressiveness – if there’s anyone suspicious on the upper floor of a house, we’ll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we’ll take it down …there will be no hesitation.” A member of a reconnaissance company said, “We shot at anything that moved.” One commander said, “if you are not sure, shoot.” Israel set an UNRWA installation ablaze with white phosphorus shells, leading UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to say, “I am just appalled …it is an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the Untied Nations.”

In Cast Lead, “Israelis attacks damaged or destroyed 29 ambulances, and almost half of Gaza’s 122 health facilities, including 15 hospitals.” The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a public rebuke of Israel when Israel kept a rescue team from medical access “to aid injured civilians, leaving them to die.” Israel’s “systematic obstruction of medical access during the invasion caused the deaths of at least 258 Gazans”, said the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights. Israel PR said Palestinians abused ambulances and hospitals but B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and the Goldstone Report all said Israel never provided evidence (p.53).

Cast Lead continues: The UNDP reported “over 4,000 cattle, sheep and goats, and more than one million birds and chicken were killed during Operation Cast lead, with evidence of livestock being the direct target of Israeli machine guns.” It takes such bravery to shoot a cow. Damage to Gazan infrastructure was $660-900 million, “while losses from the destruction and disruption were put at $3 to 35 billion”. Hey, who is going to clean all this up? Piggie vonPigstein Israel left behind 600,000 tons of rubble after its orgy of violence. The Goldstone Report also mentions Israel taking out the “only one of Gaza’s three flour mills still operating”, “nearly all of the cement factories” and “deliberately flattened a large chicken farm that supplied 10 percent of the Gaza egg market.” In one single strike during Cast Lead, “65,000 chickens were crushed to death or buried alive” wrote Amnesty international. I wonder if the strike was issued by a Colonel Sanders? Luckily, Israel is a rogue state joined at its nipple ring with its boytoy the US rogue state, so none of these war crimes on civilians already under occupation will wake the conscience of the US Congress, let alone their mistresses. But what about damages done to Israel by all those dirty Palestinian terrorists? “Total Israeli damages came to just $15 million.” “The IDF itself said that the ‘scale of destruction’ was legally indefensible.” UN officials said with Israeli restrictions in place, it would take 75 years to rebuild Gaza (Post Cast Lead). It needed 670,000 truckloads of construction material but only 715 truckloads get through per month.

Cast Lead Dead: “Cast Lead was, in reality, not a war but a massacre.” Three dead Israeli civilians and ten Israeli combatants died. Meanwhile 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 4/5 of them (1,200) were civilians and 350 children. Haaretz’s Gideon Levy said the feeling of Israelis after Cast Lead was “we didn’t kill enough.” While Amnesty International “found no evidence of Hamas using human shields, Amnesty did, however, find ample evidence that Israel used them.” “The post-invasion testimony of Israeli soldiers corroborated the IDF’s use of human shields.” The conclusion of the Goldstone Report was that the “Israeli armed forces repeatedly opened fire on civilians who were not taking part in the hostilities and posed no threat to them.”

Violence R’Us: Ariel Sharon referred to “our main weapon – the fear of us.” Could the SS or Auschwitz & Treblinka commandants have said it better? I picture them alive and visiting Gaza today exclaiming, “I just love what you’ve done to this place!” Let Reserve Colonel Gabriel Siboni tell you Israel’s formula: “With an outbreak of hostilities, Israel will need to act immediately, decisively, and with a force that is disproportionate.” In other words, like a cold calculating high-school bully, but one turned murderous and armed with the latest killing tech (those of us who still have morals, know how using disproportionate force and targeting civilians are clear war crimes). Not to be outdone, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai, “It [should be] possible to destroy Gaza, so they will understand not to mess with us.” Could the Nazis have said that any better? “The military correspondent for Israel’s Channel 10 News observed that Israel ‘isn’t trying to hide the fact that it reacts disproportionately’.” And Israel keeps stepping up its game: In Lebanon, Israel killed 55 Lebanese in the first 2 days of conflict (2006), but later on it killed 300 Gazans in under four minutes. Shooting fish in a barrel takes courage; especially when you imagine each fish is a terrorist. Veteran Israeli columnist B. Michael wrote of helicopter gunships and jet planes “over a giant prison and firing at its people.” “Just on the first day, Israel aerial strikes killed or fatally injured at least 16 children.” It’s common knowledge on both sides that in 2006 “Hezbollah targeted Israeli civilians only after Israel targeted Lebanese civilians.”

We all know how if you pull the string on a Zionist, he/she will repeatedly say, “Israel has a right to defend itself” - but funny how that largely means defend itself as occupier against the occupied who are trapped with nowhere to go - or it means defend itself against world opinion which is overwhelmingly against the occupation. For example, let’s look at how UN votes annually to end Israel’s occupation. 1997: 155 against 2 (Israel & the US), 1998: 154 against 2, 1999: 149 against 3, 2000: 149 against 2, From 2001 to 2008 it was basically the UN against Israel, US, but adding Australia, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and maybe Nauru. Let’s unpack this: Rhode Island is 1,214 sq miles, Nauru is 8 sq. miles, Palau is 189 sq. miles, Marshall Islands is 70 square miles, and largest of these is Micronesia (at 1,000 sq miles) which is 2,100 islands including Guam and all of it is smaller than Rhode Island – population 12,000. So, as you can see once you leave the strong orbit of the US mainstream media, almost the entire world has long been clearly opposed to Israel’s occupation since ’67.

“Israel …damaged or destroyed fully 55 mosques in Gaza between 2001 and 2008”. Alan Dershowitz alleged Hamas militants stored weapons in mosques but offered no evidence. One official said Israel had to “makes its enemies feel it was ‘crazy’.” Nixon Madman Theory redux. A former Israeli defense official said, “Israel decided to play the role of a mad dog for the sake of future deterrence.” Unemployment in Gaza is 39% and 80% of Gazans are dependent on international aid. Sending Rockets: If the shell lands within 46 meters of its target, it’s considered a hit by Israel.

IDF Testimonies: “If you sight it, shoot it”; “You are allowed to do anything you want…for no other reason than it’s cool.” Even firing white phosphorus “because it’s fun. Cool.” “Combat Victory? Shooting fish in a barrel is more like it.” “We were firing purposelessly all day long. Hamas was nowhere to be seen.”

Human Rights Watch reported that Israel “repeatedly exploded white phosphorus munitions in the air over-populated areas, killing and injuring civilians…” Get ready to wave your US flag: Human Rights Watch found that “ALL of the white phosphorus shells” it found in Gaza were manufactured in the US. [ed, note: white phosphorus burns to the bone – agonizing, especially for Gazan children] . Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan University declared that “Israel had the moral right to flatten all of Gaza.” Interesting use of the word: “moral”. “After Cast Lead and the ensuing lies and cover-ups by the military, fully 90 percent of Israeli Jews ranked the IDF as the state institution they most trusted.” …Yes, trusted to continue the ethnic cleansing until every Palestinian is dead or gone. Israel: Our occupation is occupation. Notice Alan Dershowitz’s straw man arguments on the Goldstone Report: he says it said Cast Leads 1st goal was to murder Palestinians. But the Goldstone Report doesn’t say that otherwise it would have to “charge Israel with genocide.” No detractor of the Goldstone was able to produce any evidence, and there is no evidence any detractor even read the report. Oops… Human Rights Watch attacked the US government for slamming the report but offering no evidence against the report. Goldstone himself felt detractors were “attacking the messenger, and not the message”. Goldstone later strangely recants entirely because of unverified information and couldn’t cite evidence for changing his mind, however that “renewed Israel’s license to kill.”

“In recent times, respected human rights organizations and Israeli historians have acknowledged that Israel routinely tortured Palestinians detainees from the onset of the occupation.”

A Haaretz columnist wrote that “what happened aboard the Mavi Marmara, was very similar to what Israel has been doing every week for the past four years in Bil’in – injuring and killing unarmed civilian protestors who are demanding their basic rights.” Amnesty International found no evidence that during Israel’s Protective Edge that Hamas ever used human shields. Sara Roy says that 95% of Gazan water is unfit for human consumption, so its children are being slowly poisoned to death. The UNRWA wrote, “When a place becomes unlivable, people move” – the settler-colonial intention. In Gaza you must live trapped in in 365 kilometers of territory. Gazans can’t seek education outside of Gaza (and in 10/23 they will even bomb colleges in Gaza). Pop Quiz: “Do Palestinians have the right to symbolically resist slow death punctuated by periodic massacres, or is it incumbent open them to lie down and die?” “The alternative is to do nothing, a course no occupied people in history has ever taken.” Let’s enjoy Israel’s sadistic kill ratio’s for Operation Protective Edge shall we? For every dead Israeli there were killed 270 Palestinians, (a ratio of 270 to 1) for Israeli children killed it was a ratio of 550 Palestinians to 1 Israeli, for homes severely damaged or destroyed it was 18,000 Palestinian homes to 1 Israeli home. Let’s look at Zionist Respect for other religions: “Israel destroyed 70 mosques and damaged 130 more during Protective Edge.” For those who care, targeting places of worship is a clear war crime.

This book shows many stories of how Amnesty international sometimes got it wrong on Israel’s occupation, betraying Gaza. Amnesty’s figures can’t be relied on, when according to its bookkeeping, every rocket or mortar sent up by Hamas is a war crime even if it hits neither civilian nor civilian object. Hamas launched 7,000 rockets therefore to A.I. those were 7,000 war crimes even though those 7,000 rockets killed only 6 civilians and only one Israeli house was destroyed. Wait! If evil Hamas sent 7,000 rockets into Israel, how many rockets did always perfect Israel send? Thank you for asking: It sent “20,000 unguided high-explosive artillery shells into Gaza, an estimated 95 percent into or near populated civilian areas.” But in Israel’s and Amnesty’s defense, I’ll bet those children in Gaza were asking for it.

The Hannibal Directive: This sanctions the killing of your own men if they are taken hostage. [look for evidence that it was employed by Israel on 10/7/23 on thegrayzone.com and electronicintifada.net]. What sick mind thought up the idea of INTENTIONAL friendly fire?

At the time of this book, if you lived in Gaza you had “power outages lasting 16-18 hours a day” and “piped water supplies for 6-8 hours ever 2 to 4 days” and that drinking water ain’t clean. Imagine how high those figures are today, post 10/23, post Israel’s invasion.

What a great book which I would highly recommend to anyone wanted a taste of what Israel has been doing to Gazans for a long time. After reading 10 Israel/Palestine books and 21 still to review, my working theory now is that Zionism’s religion is not Judaism. Zionism’s religion is unchecked settler-colonialism. It makes perfect sense, every moment since Zionism began it first demanded settler-colonialism to achieve all its major goals. Without settler-colonialism (and British empowerment pre-1948) there would be no occupation. What a great book! Bravo, Norman Finkelstein.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom is one of many books written on the needlessly long and painful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by Jewish scholar and son of two Holocaust survivors, Norman Finkelstein.

The so-called “defensive” operations launched by the Israeli government and its military against civilians in Gaza to supposedly “root out Hamas terrorists” is held to account by Finkelstein here, who explores Israel’s claims, along with expert findings rendered by unbiased nongovernmental commissions such as the United Nations and Amnesty International.

Published in 2018, this predates the most recent Israeli massacres in Gaza by anywhere from 5-6 years, depending on month of publication, focusing mainly on the humanitarian crises resulting from Operation Cast Lead (2008/2009) and Operation Protective Edge (2014).

The fact that Gaza is still occupied, still being terrorized at this very moment, is not only infuriating, but vehemently disconcerting when, as two reviews on this book state not only that:
”No one who ventures an opinion on Gaza… is entitled to do so without taking into account the evidence in this book,” along with the more plainly powerful assertion, ”The cumulative impact of Finkelstein’s meticulously documented 408-page chronicle is devastating, and it will leave the reader stunned that the worldwide reaction is so muted.”

One word, more than any, seems to be deployed by the general (western) public and media - at least the ones who, unbelievably so - still remain either willfully ignorant of Israel’s very obvious history of genocide, or completely oblivious. That word would be, “complicated.”

Strange, as I’ve never before seen such a straightforward issue of occupied vs. occupier, perpetrators vs. victims, the prosperous vs. desolate, continuously described as “a complicated mess” by those who have virtually no real knowledge on the subject. If people were to open their eyes and explore the issue beyond Israeli hasbara, from the side of the Palestinians, it would quickly become uncomplicated.

Operation Cast Lead, launched on December 28, 2008, was, after the dust finally settled, possibly proving to be the hope that Palestinians had dared not think too deeply about for too long, where Israel’s crimes against humanity were finally exposed to a horrified global audience, with the outrage of public opinion the only real means of stopping the illegal blockade and occupation of an oppressed population.

While the Israeli government and propaganda machine set to work blasting its critics in the United Nations and Amnesty International reports, doing their best to discredit any attempt by the neutral agencies to establish the unbiased, legitimate facts - calling anyone who spoke out against Israel’s violent methods “anti-Semitic”, “known liars”, “small-minded with no understanding of international law” - one man, however, stepped up to issue his own independent investigation.

This man would prove nearly impossible for Israel to discredit or bully into silence, the way it had done with near total success decade after decade. Why? Because the newly appointed independent investigator into Cast Lead, Richard Goldstone, was not only a distinguished jurist but a known, self-declared Zionist, who had let it be known he’d ”worked for Israel all of my adult life”, “fully supports Israel’s right to exist”, and was a ”firm believer in the absolute right of the Jewish people to have their home there.”

Unfortunately for Israel, which had time and again used ideologically-phrased criticism to destroy the credibility of individuals attempting to hold Israel accountable for its atrocious and increasingly illegal conduct (“anti-Semite”, “self-hating Jew, Holocaust denier” are some favorite go-to insults) - Goldstone had serious Jewish/Zionist bona fides which gave the government true feelings of fear and panic (as opposed to the misinformation about their “constant anxiety concerning Hamas and assaults on Israeli civilians, which was a non-issue).

Goldstone was the head of a Jewish organization which managed vocational schools in Israel, was on the board of governors for Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, and had cited the Holocaust of Europe’s Jews as the seminal inspiration for the international law and human rights movements in which he fully supported. The Zionist activism extended beyond Goldstone to his family as well - his mother was a member of the Zionist movement’s women’s branch, while his daughter, too, was an ardent Zionist who had emigrated to Israel under the Zionist agenda of resettlement.

What exactly was it that Goldstone found while investigating Israeli crimes against Palestine that made the top Israeli officials so nervous? Just some of the damning conclusions made (although I can’t emphasize enough how important it is one reads all these independent reports for oneself):

The Goldstone Report found that much of the devastation Israel inflicted during Cast Lead was premeditated. The operation was also found to be anchored in military doctrine that “views disproportionate destruction and creating maximum disruption to civilian lives as a legitimate means to achieve military and political goals.” It was also said to have been “designed to have inevitably dire consequences for the non-combatants in Gaza.”

Although Israel justified the attack on grounds of self-defense against Hamas rocket attacks, the Report noted a very different motive: “the primary purpose” of the Israeli blockade was to “bring about a life situation so intolerable to the civilian population that they would leave (if possible) or turn Hamas out of office, as well as collectively punish the civilian population.” Cast Lead itself was said to have been “aimed at punishing Gaza for its resilience, for apparent support of Hamas, and possibly with the intent of forcing a change in such support.”

In conclusion, the Goldstone Report reasoned that the Israeli assault “constituted a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate, and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”

Goldstone’s report did not back away from detailing the very real horrors cited above, and with them, came very solid legal determinations:

The Goldstone Report found that Israel had committed numerous violations of customary and conventional international law. It also detailed a considerable list of war crimes committed by Israel, including “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment,” “willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,” “extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly,” and “use of human shields.”

Further determinations were made that Israeli actions “deprived Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of sustenance, employment, housing and water, that deny their freedom of movement and their right to leave and enter their own country, that limit their access to courts of law and effective remedies…may justify a competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed.”

Even more profound was the Report’s refusal to limit itself strictly to Cast Lead, due to decades-long history of ill treatment by Israel to the Palestinians over the long and painful years of the occupation:

The Report condemned Israel’s fragmentation of the Palestinian people, its restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement, its “institutionalized discrimination” against Palestinians in both the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel, its violent repression of Palestinian demonstrators peacefully opposing the occupation, its wholesale detention, torture, and ill-treatment of Palestinians (including hundreds of children) and the utter lack of due process; its “silent transfer” of Palestinians in East Jerusalem in order to ethnically cleanse it; and its settlement expansion, land expropriation, and demolition of Palestinian homes and villages.

As for remedies in which to hold Israel accountable for its breaches of international law, it was recommended that individual states in the international community were to,

”start criminal investigations in national courts, using universal jurisdiction, where there is sufficient evidence of the commission of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. Where so warranted following investigation, alleged perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with internationally recognized standards of justice.” It was also recommended that “investigations were to be launched into the serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law.” It was proposed that Israel pay compensation for damages caused through a UN General Assembly escrow fund. Perhaps most importantly of all, Israel was called upon to “immediately terminate” its blockade of Gaza and subsequent strangulation of Gaza’s economy, as well as to “renounce violence against Palestinian civilians, affronts to human dignity, impingement on Palestinian political life and repression of political dissent, and its restrictions on freedom of movement.”

Had the findings of this Report finally come to be accepted worldwide, its recommendations enforced, this would no doubt have finally succeeded in ending Israel’s illegal occupation, and likely even ensuring the right of return, and reestablishment of pre-1967 borders/boundaries, with much of Palestine’s stolen land at last being returned to its rightful occupants. Yet sadly, had this been the case, this review never would have needed to be written. Or it, at least, could have ended here, with a very different outcome.

Yet Israel was still desperately seeking to find a way out of the growing controversy and human rights organizations’ condemnations in accordance with the Report. Its usual mobilization of the Israel hasbara to counter the claims by the Report were only moderately successful, leaving Israel still in a very vulnerable position, unable to proceed with their erasure of Palestinian identity, as the world would certainly not have tolerated a full-scale attack at this time.

For months, this was considered one of Israel’s “top headaches.” Everything they’d worked toward was now in jeopardy. Then, suddenly, their problem completely disappeared. Goldstone himself had sent an op-ed letter to the Washington Post, recanting the allegation that Israel “had not engaged in any war crimes” during Cast Lead. This volte-face by Goldstone was evidently justified by one simple, eerily vague, brisk quote: “We know a lot more today.”

It truly doesn’t get much more into depth for the why this happened than that, aside from Goldstone adding into the Report that one of Israel’s “deliberate attacks on civilians” was, rather, a “misread drone image” which had caused the twenty-one civilian deaths. Goldstone also merely gestured to the “findings by Israeli military investigations.”

Never mind the fact that any country investigating any instances of wrongdoing on the part of its military against what it sees as enemy forces is inherently biased: ”Israel supplied almost no information on which to independently assess the evidence presented or the proceedings’ fairness. It was not known how many were complete and how many were still ongoing. Even when they resulted in criminal indictments, the investigations were almost always inaccessible to the public.”

Today, Goldstone’s recantation remains a contentious argument among scholars, the main issue being: what the hell happened? What is known is that ever since its publication, Richard Goldstone had been the object of a relentless smear campaign. Despite the campaign’s best efforts, however, it did not appear as if they would have any negative impact on his career - with many even seeing the report as a boon to Goldstone’s reputation, as he had upheld the law despite the personal cost.

It was noticeably odd, as well, then, that someone like Goldstone who internalized the norms and rules of bureaucracies and lived his life in accordance with this protocol, would break with this bureaucratic protocol by issuing the recantation bombshell without first notifying and consulting with his three colleagues who served alongside him in the mission, or anyone at the UN, for that matter. That begged the question: ”if Goldstone did not confide in them beforehand, wasn’t it because he couldn’t credibly defend, but didn’t want to be shaken from, his resolve to recant?”

In questioning Goldstone’s longtime colleague and friend, South African jurist John Dugard, about what possibly could have led to the incredible recantation, Dugard could only speculate: ”There are no new facts that exonerate Israel and that could possibly have led Goldstone to change his mind. What made him change his mind therefore remains a closely guarded secret.”

Operation Cast Lead was very much a test by the Israeli government and military to see just how far they could go in destroying Gaza without justification. The answer? After the recantation by Goldstone, as far as they wanted, evidently. This would lead the way for the brutal Operation Protective Edge.

One only needs to observe the critical comparisons found by the UN to determine whether “both sides suffered immense fear, suffering and trauma”, as they (contradictorily) reported, despite an overwhelming imbalance between the two sides:
Civilians killed in Gaza: 1,600. Civilians killed in Israel: 6. Ratio: 270:1.

Children killed in Gaza: 550. Children killed in Israel: 1. Ratio: 550:1.

Homes severely damaged/destroyed in Gaza: 18,000. Homes severely damaged/destroyed in Israel: 1. Ratio: 18,000:1.

Houses of worship damaged or destroyed in Gaza: 203. Houses of worship damaged or destroyed in Israel: 2. Ratio: 100:1.

Kindergartens damaged or destroyed in Gaza: 285. Kindergartens damaged or destroyed in Israel: 1. Ratio: 285:1.

Medical facilities damaged or destroyed in Gaza: 73. Medical facilities damaged or destroyed in Israel: 0. Ratio: 73:0.

There’s much more damning evidence in reports issued by the UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, etc… yet it doesn’t seem worth the time to note these findings. Because while these commissions’ reports found concrete evidence of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian population, just like the Goldstone Report, they then backpedaled by stating that Israel bore no criminal responsibility. Despite the findings stating the contrary, it was concluded that Israel had conducted these operations in “pursuit of military objectives” and other obvious falsehoods.

So here we are in 2024, with an oppressed population still being punished for attempting to fight back against their occupiers. Still being punished for existing, evidently. I keep holding out hope that the Palestinians will get the justice they so rightfully deserve and need, but this hope continues to be extinguished by the continuation of the US - and all nations - of turning a blind eye, in failure to stand together, and put an end to this antiquated system of apartheid and oppression once and for all.

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic Finkelstein book demonstrating his tenacity to get at the minutiae and details of an issue through text. Much in the vein of his previous book "Beyond Chutzpah", Finkelstein delves into United Nations and Amnesty International reports about Gaza to illustrate the way that Israeli hasbara (propaganda) works to keep such international organisations in line with its Zionist agenda. An important read if you want to understand the Israeli blockade on Gaza and its last 4 wars on Gaza during the past decade. It's also a great instructor for students who want to understand how to analyse and critique a text.

[Ahmed Hussein Shaheen · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب "غزة: بحث في استشهادها" هو عمل يعكس عمقًا فكريًا وسياسيًا حول الصراع الفلسطيني الإسرائيلي، مركزًا على مدينة غزة كرمز للمقاومة والمعاناة الفلسطينية. المؤلف يتناول الموضوع من منظور شمولي، حيث يقدم تحليلاً دقيقاً لتاريخ غزة الحديث والمعاصر، مستعرضًا الأحداث السياسية والاجتماعية التي حولت هذه المدينة إلى مسرح دائم للعنف والاضطهاد.

[Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oct 2023. Reread given current horrific genocide taking place in Gaza... No other words to add to my original reflections below upon first reading.


2018 - This a dense, incredibly well researched and scrupulously footnoted/sourced analysis of the situation in Gaza with a focus on recent history. Less a book you read than one you are overwhelmed and absorbed by. My knowledge of the subject began over 25 years ago when I was woefully informed by Mr Friedmann's 'Beirut To Jerusalem' - thankfully my journey has taken me to the point where I have now been deeply informed by Mr Finkelstein's Herculean efforts and scholarship.

I will admit to having to take repeated breaks from this book as the subject was too upsetting and infuriating to dwell on for extended periods. If ever I need a reference book to help me back up my presentation regarding the recent history of the region this book shall be at the top of my pile.

[Denisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Do Palestinians have the right to symbolically resist slow death punctuated by periodic massacres, or is it incumbent upon them to lie down and die ? “

Thinking of you, dear Gaza and feeling totally helpless and frustrated, all I can say is Free Palestine.

Back in 2014, when Operation Protective Edge was brutally killing your children at the beach I thought, this is it, world is going to put an end to the siege and occupation. I was, of course, naive and wrong.
And now, in 2025, when Gaza has almost ceased to exist, when thousands upon thousands of babies have been butchered, I’m devastated and heartbroken and my faith in humanity is pretty much non existent. Dear Gaza, dear Palestine forgive us, we see your headless burned children and we cannot do anything but watch and witness, forgive us …

[Thebookiemonster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a 3.5 star for me but I'm giving it a 4 because I think more people should read it. I recommend it.

It focuses mostly on 2008-present and follows Israeli invasions of Gaza during that time (Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge). It also has a section on the Mari Marmara, the 2010 humanitarian flotilla to Palestine that Israel attacked. A feature I really enjoyed was painstaking analysis of what were revealed to be biased and timid investigations into those events.

It was thorough, sometimes to a fault for my taste. I was disappointed it only covered more recent history. It does a great job of showing the hypocrisy of some of the actors involved through their own public statements. Reading this sparks outrage and exhaustion.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible, detailed accounting of Israel’s recent crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza through a meticulous dissection of the most important documentary justifications for those crimes. Finkelstein critically reviews UN and Human Rights Reports along with Official Israeli “investigations” to reveal their contradictions, assumptions, double-standards, misinformation, misrepresentations, biases, fallacies, and apologia. He marshals hundreds of sources to refute the “thousand little” lies about Gaza which erroneously receive wide currency in the US. This makes it an invaluable resource for Pro-Palestinian allies, activists, and readers.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her book on the Vietnam War, Gloria Emerson wrote, “Let the books be written so when all of us are dead a long record will exist, at least in a few libraries.”

In "Gaza," Finkelstein writes, "Perhaps one day in the remote future, when the tenor of the times is more receptive, someone will stumble across this book collecting dust on a library shelf, blow off the cobwebs, and be stung by outrage at the lot of a people, if not forsaken by God then betrayed by the cupidity and corruption, careerism and cynicism, cravenness and cowardice of mortal man."

[Yolanda Benito · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do Jews deserve a place to call their own where they can feel safe? Not at the expense of Palestinians. You don’t have the right to steal someone else’s land to live in it because you don’t feel safe elsewhere. The struggle for liberation is righteous.

[Jeremy Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this book!

[بحر · Rating 5 out of 5]

“What has befallen Gaza is a human-made human disaster. In its protractedness and in its starkness, in its unfolding not in the fog of war or in the obscurity of remoteness but in broad daylight and in full sight, in the complicity of so many, not just via acts of commission but also, and especially, of omission, it is moreover a distinctively evil crime.”

If there is one book you should read to learn about the myriad injustices that have been committed against the people of Gaza, let it be this one.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have endured over half a century of a brutal military occupation, which is still in place despite Israel’s so-called “disengagement” in 2005 (redeployment is a more fitting term). The blockade that has been in place since 2007 has brought Gaza’s economy to the brink of collapse, making at least 80% of the population entirely dependent on humanitarian aid that does not even enter the Strip in sufficient quantities. When you consider the occupation and blockade (both being illegal according to international law), the numerous massacres committed against the civilian population (Operations Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, Protective Edge, etc.), the fact that Palestinians in Gaza have exhausted all possible means of nonviolent resistance, as well as their countless pleas for help that have fallen on the deaf ears of the outside world, it is nothing short of a miracle that October 7th did not happen any sooner than it did. For decades the people of Gaza have had to suffer unthinkable horrors at the hands of an occupying power that has absolutely no interest in negotiating or reaching a peaceful outcome. They have been betrayed by the entire world and especially by human rights organisations that continue to ascribe symmetry to this blatantly one-sided conflict and frame it as a tragedy on both sides.

Norman Finkelstein clarifies that according to international law, an occupying power cannot invoke the right to self-defence against a population it illegally occupies. On the other hand, Palestinians have every right, both morally and legally, to resort to armed resistance in order to obtain their right to self-determination. Furthermore, the high number of civilian casualties in each one of Israel’s military operations in Gaza can only lead to one conclusion: contrary to its claims that it only targets combatants or that it possesses “the most moral army in the world”, Israel knowingly and intentionally carries out massacres against civilians to terrorise, punish, and humiliate Gaza’s population. It is a deliberate state policy on Israel’s part, no matter how much they and their supporters choose to deny it. Anyone who continues to defend this or argue that the civilian casualties are simply collateral is willfully blind.

Lastly, if these two years have proven anything, it is that international law is a farce that was only put in place to keep weaker nations in check whilst the world’s superpowers remain free to act as they please. The International Court of Justice has already deemed Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories to be illegal, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and millions across the world have mobilised in support of Palestinians. In spite of all this, nothing on the ground has changed. If we continue to rely exclusively on international law for our rights, we will remain in this same position for centuries without end. What was taken by force can only be retrieved by force, and Palestine is no exception to this rule.

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the modern State of Israel can claim continuity with its Biblical namesake, then surely Norman Finkelstein may be rated among its latter-day prophets: an exile spurned according to the terrestrial urgings of national pride and ethnic chauvinism for holding fast to the dictates of truth and justice. Finkelstein, a descendant of Holocaust victims, has been barred from entering Israel and denied tenure for his professorship at DePaul University merely for telling the truth about the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian territories. Gaza is an exhaustive and demoralizing account of Israel’s brutalization of a defenseless and destitute population that has been trapped on a tiny strip of land between Israel, Egypt, and the Mediterranean since the imposition of an Israeli blockade in 2007.

There are more than two million people in Gaza. Half of them are under the age of eighteen, half of the adults are unemployed (including about 70 percent of young adults), and roughly three-quarters of the population relies on foreign aid to meet its most basic subsistence needs. Most of the drinking water is toxic, electricity is a rare commodity, homelessness is pervasive, the native food supply is nonexistent, the infrastructure is crumbling, and none of these conditions can be rectified because the necessary materials are not allowed through the blockade. The people are not allowed to leave—even for life-saving medical treatment—without the express permission of the Israeli government, which is often denied. If you try to leave Gaza on an airplane, Israel will shoot it down. If you try to leave on a ship, Israel will sink it. If outsiders attempt to deliver supplies through the blockade, as the Gaza Freedom Flotilla did in 2010, Israel will seize the ships with their cargo and imprison their crews. For the past fourteen years, Gaza has been the world’s largest open-air prison.

Compounding the misery of this beleaguered people, the IDF has launched a devastating series of military “operations” in Gaza—the largest being Operations Cast Lead (2008-09) and Protective Edge (2014)—that are little more than lopsided assaults by one of the world’s most sophisticated and technologically-advanced military apparatuses on a defenseless, indigent, and largely juvenile civilian population for the purpose of terrorizing them and systematically destroying their capacity to sustain themselves; or, in the lingo of Israeli policymakers, to restore Israel’s “deterrence capacity” after its confidence was shaken following a lackluster performance in its 2006 war with Hezbollah. Combined, these operations have killed about 3600 Gazans, including 800 children, destroyed roughly 24,000 homes, and crippled the strip’s food and energy supply.

Following Operation Cast Lead, Richard Goldstone, a Jewish and pro-Zionist judge from South Africa, was commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate war crimes alleged to have taken place during the conflict. When his 2009 report proved a damning indictment of the IDF’s conduct, Goldstone was subjected to an unprecedented public relations onslaught by Israel’s government and press organs, as well as by pro-Israeli commentators in the United States. Alan Dershowitz went so far as to brand Goldstone a traitor to the Jewish people. In the midst of this furor, Goldstone renounced his report, even though there was no substantial new information that could have invalidated his initial findings. Since then, the international community has paid little attention to Gaza, and its two million inmates have largely been left to fend for themselves.

Without an ending of the blockade and a dramatic reversal of Israeli policy, Gaza will soon be completely unlivable, and the Israeli project of demographic supremacy over the entirety of the former Palestinian Mandate will reach a ghastly culmination. This calamity could only be averted if substantial foreign pressure were placed on Israel to change course; and that pressure could only come from the United States. Unfortunately, because unconditional support for Israel is a deeply-embedded axiom of American foreign policy, such pressure is unlikely to materialize.

[Amid عميد · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book provides an overview of the historical context that shaped the current political and economic situation in Gaza. It discusses Israeli policies in the occupied territories and their impact on the peace process, highlighting the strategy of military deterrence described in the chapter "Deterring Arabs, Deterring Peace". Finkelstein then examines Israel's military actions in Gaza since 2008, including Operations Cast Lead, Pillar of Defense, and Protective Edge, along with an analysis of the Goldstone Report and its aftermath. He also details the raid on the Mavi Marmara, critiquing the Israeli Turkel report and the UN Panel of Inquiry report as inadequate. Finkelstein contends that Israel's policies contravene international law and critiques the effectiveness of international human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Human Rights Council in addressing the issues in Gaza.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely authoritative account. Exhaustively detailed, researched, and cited, a lot of Finkelstein’s argument is made through the discourse of international law and through an engagement with human rights reports released after various Israeli military actions. But even this discursive “low bar” (e.g., the standards of international law) is completely trampled upon the brutality that Finkelstein documents as well as the increasing cravenness of major human rights organizations and their reticence to speak the truth about IDF operations in Gaza: that at least in the past 25 years - including the massacres of the last several months, although the book doesn’t cover this - they consist of the intentional targeting of civilians in a program of state terror and colonial domination.

[Ian]

I read this earlier this year but stopped about 70% through. Copying the note I made for myself around where I ended: "I basically stopped reading here and just skimmed through the rest. It’s important to remember the victims of Israel’s crimes, but it’s clear at this point that the rest of the book isn’t going to fundamentally update my understanding of Gaza, which is that it’s under illegal/immoral occupation by Israel. I’m not sure that the war crimes described in the previous pages are relevant to that determination - even if Israel treated Palestinians in Gaza well, it wouldn’t change the fact that Israel has been denying them their right to self-determination".

[the.reading.snail · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastating but important read by the incredible and tireless Norman Finkelstein, especially with the Israeli state’s active and gutwrenching g.enocide unfolding in Gaza right now (which horrifyingly mirrors previous Israeli assaults on the strip across the 2000s). An absolute must read for anyone trying to understand how we got to what we are currently bearing witness to in Gaza. The exhaustive and meticulous nature of Finkelstein’s analysis and sourcing is astounding.

[Keelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rarely does one encounter a book so forcefully dedicated to reality, rigorously allied with Truth, passionately committed to the affirmation of human dignity, and capable of changing one’s perspective, as this one. It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that this is a 5-star book. In fact, it is the best book I have read since Thucydides and, accordingly, stands as an exemplary contribution to historical research.