WASHINGTON, DC – Yuri Novak, executive director of Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, is issuing a warning to politicians in the United States and around the world: The Israeli-Palestinian situation is “dire.”
Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire and a reduction in Israeli attacks on Gaza, Novak told Al Jazeera this week that the situation is more dangerous than ever.
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“What we want to warn you is that we have not seen the worst yet,” she said, stressing that Israel must take responsibility for human rights violations in the Gaza Strip.
Over the past two years, numerous human rights groups have published reports accusing Israel of carrying out genocide, an operation of destruction against the Palestinian people, in Gaza.
For example, UN investigators have determined that Israel’s actions in the area meet the definition of genocide under international law.
But B’Tselem provided another layer of analysis in July with a landmark report called “Our Genocide.”
This book dissects the decades-long history of Israeli policies that laid the foundations for the genocide in Gaza, including the apartheid system, demographic engineering, the systematic dehumanization of Palestinians, and a culture of impunity for abuse.
According to Novak, this situation has become even more entrenched since the war began.
“We are very concerned that as long as these measures remain in place, the violence we have seen is not ending,” she said.
the murders continue
Since the start of the ceasefire, Israel has killed at least 360 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 32 of them in a wave of airstrikes across the strip earlier this week.
The Israeli government also continues to impose restrictions on humanitarian aid to the enclave, including temporary shelters needed to replace tents for tens of thousands of Palestinians who were flooded earlier this month.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 69,000 Palestinians and reduced much of Gaza to rubble.
In the occupied West Bank, the situation has worsened due to intensified settlement expansion and deadly Israeli military raids.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting that Israeli forces have forcibly evicted 32,000 Palestinians from their homes in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams.
Israeli settlers have also stepped up their attacks, regularly descending on Palestinian villages, torching homes and vehicles, and sometimes killing civilians, often with Israeli military protection.
Mr. Novak emphasized that attacks on settlers are a form of violence by the Israeli state.
“They are Israeli civilians who live in the West Bank and receive weapons from the state. Many of them are sometimes in (military) uniforms, and sometimes they are reservists on leave,” she said.
Some Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have condemned settler violence, but Novak dismissed the move as a ploy to criticize Israel’s policies against “a few crazy settlers.”
Novak also emphasized that most of the killing and destruction in the West Bank is carried out by official Israeli forces, not settlers. “So this is another means of violence that Israel is inflicting on Palestinians,” she said.
Meeting with US Congressmen
Novak and his B’Tselem colleague Kareem Jubran traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with Democrats Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley, Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Novak said the group wanted to emphasize the need for accountability for the massacre in Gaza.
“We are talking about a system of government, the Israeli system, that committed genocide for two years – war crimes on a daily basis – with impunity,” she said.
“The current situation is probably the most dangerous we have ever experienced, because not only has this violence and criminality happened, but it has become the norm and could start again at any time and return to the same magnitude.”
US President Donald Trump has falsely claimed that peace has come to the Middle East for the first time in 3,000 years thanks to his help brokering a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
And earlier this week, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution endorsing the U.S. president’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which calls for a cessation of fighting, a gradual Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of international forces to the region.
The plan also calls for Hamas to disarm and hand over control of Gaza to an international commission known as the Peace Commission.
There is no accountability or reparation mechanism for the terror Israel has unleashed on Gaza for two years.
Novak said President Trump’s plan is out of touch with reality on the ground.
“Rather than just addressing this situation and holding Israel accountable and demanding an end to this kind of systematic oppression of Palestinians, it just allows us all to move forward,” she said.
trump’s plan
Since the Security Council accepted the ceasefire agreement, Israel has faced less international pressure. Movements calling for measures such as banning the country from participating in the Eurovision singing contest and European soccer have also lost momentum.
Germany announced on Monday that it would lift restrictions on arms exports to Israel, citing the ceasefire agreement.
“That’s probably what scares us the most because we’re seeing setbacks here,” Novak said.
Jubran, B’Tselem’s head of field research, also stressed the need for accountability, saying the previous war in Gaza since 2006 enabled genocide.
“That is what has allowed the genocidal regime to become more brazen in committing crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” he told Al Jazeera.
Novak praised the international community’s growing awareness of Israel’s atrocities despite the lack of political or legal accountability, saying politicians are choosing to ignore them.
“If there is anything that gives us hope in this really, really horrifying moment, it is the fact that so many people around the world are able to see through Israeli propaganda and understand what they see with their own eyes, and that some of the voices of the victims are coming from Gaza and the West Bank,” she said.
“That’s why people understand. We’re at a time now where people need to hold leaders and politicians accountable for Israel.”
