AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION CONCLUDES ISRAEL
IS COMMITTING GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA
5 DECEMBER 2024
Amnesty International’s research has found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip, the organization said in a landmark new report published today.
The report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, documents how, during its military offensive launched in the wake of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel has unleashed hell and destruction on Palestinians in Gaza brazenly, continuously and with total impunity.
“Amnesty International’s report demonstrates that Israel has carried out acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention, with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include killings, causing serious bodily or mental harm and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel has treated Palestinians in Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intent to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
“Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.
“States that continue to transfer arms to Israel at this time must know they are violating their obligation to prevent genocide and are at risk of becoming complicit in genocide. All states with influence over Israel, particularly key arms suppliers like the USA and Germany, but also other EU member states, the UK and others, must act now to bring Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza to an immediate end.”
Over the past two months the crisis has grown particularly acute in the North Gaza governorate, where a besieged population is facing starvation, displacement and annihilation amid relentless bombardment and suffocating restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.
“Our research reveals that, for months, Israel has persisted in committing genocidal acts, fully aware of the irreparable harm it was inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza. It continued to do so in defiance of countless warnings about the catastrophic humanitarian situation and of legally binding decisions from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordering Israel to take immediate measures to enable the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Israel has repeatedly argued that its actions in Gaza are lawful and can be justified by its military goal to eradicate Hamas. But genocidal intent can co-exist alongside military goals and does not need to be Israel’s sole intent.”
Amnesty International examined Israel’s acts in Gaza closely and in their totality, taking into account their recurrence and simultaneous occurrence, and both their immediate impact and their cumulative and mutually reinforcing consequences. The organization considered the scale and severity of the casualties and destruction over time. It also analysed public statements by officials, finding that prohibited acts were often announced or called for in the first place by high-level officials in charge of the war efforts.
“Taking into account the pre-existing context of dispossession, apartheid and unlawful military occupation in which these acts have been committed, we could find only one reasonable conclusion: Israel’s intent is the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, whether in parallel with, or as a means to achieve, its military goal of destroying Hamas,” said Agnès Callamard.
“The atrocity crimes committed on 7 October 2023 by Hamas and other armed groups against Israelis and victims of other nationalities, including deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking, can never justify Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.”
International jurisprudence recognizes that the perpetrator does not need to succeed in their attempts to destroy the protected group, either in whole or in part, for genocide to have been committed. The commission of prohibited acts with the intent to destroy the group, as such, is sufficient.
Amnesty International’s report examines in detail Israel’s violations in Gaza over nine months between 7 October 2023 and early July 2024. The organization interviewed 212 people, including Palestinian victims and witnesses, local authorities in Gaza, healthcare workers, conducted fieldwork and analysed an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery. It also analysed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials, and official Israeli bodies. On multiple occasions, the organization shared its findings with the Israeli authorities but had received no substantive response at the time of publication.
Unprecedented scale and magnitude
Israel’s actions following Hamas’s deadly attacks on 7 October 2023 have brought Gaza’s population to the brink of collapse. Its brutal military offensive had killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, including over 13,300 children, and injured over 97,000 more, by 7 October 2024, many of them in direct or deliberately indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families. It has caused unprecedented destruction, which experts say occurred at a level and speed not seen in any other conflict in the 21st century, levelling entire cities and destroying critical infrastructure, agricultural land and cultural and religious sites. It thereby rendered large swathes of Gaza uninhabitable.
Mohammed, who fled with his family from Gaza City to Rafah in March 2024 and was displaced again in May 2024, described their struggle to survive in horrifying conditions:
“Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.”
Israel imposed conditions of life in Gaza that created a deadly mixture of malnutrition, hunger and diseases, and exposed Palestinians to a slow, calculated death. Israel also subjected hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza to incommunicado detention, torture and other ill-treatment.
Viewed in isolation, some of the acts investigated by Amnesty International constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law. But in looking at the broader picture of Israel’s military campaign and the cumulative impact of its policies and acts, genocidal intent is the only reasonable conclusion.
Intent to destroy
To establish Israel’s specific intent to physically destroy Palestinians in Gaza, as such, Amnesty International analysed the overall pattern of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, reviewed dehumanizing and genocidal statements by Israeli government and military officials, particularly those at the highest levels, and considered the context of Israel’s system of apartheid, its inhumane blockade of Gaza and the unlawful 57-year-old military occupation of the Palestinian territory.
Before reaching its conclusion, Amnesty International examined Israel’s claims that its military lawfully targeted Hamas and other armed groups throughout Gaza, and that the resulting unprecedented destruction and denial of aid were the outcome of unlawful conduct by Hamas and other armed groups, such as locating fighters among the civilian population or the diversion of aid. The organization concluded these claims are not credible. The presence of Hamas fighters near or within a densely populated area does not absolve Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks. Its research found Israel repeatedly failed to do so, committing multiple crimes under international law for which there can be no justification based on Hamas’s actions. Amnesty International also found no evidence that the diversion of aid could explain Israel’s extreme and deliberate restrictions on life-saving humanitarian aid.
In its analysis, the organization also considered alternative arguments such as ones that Israel was acting recklessly or that it simply wanted to destroy Hamas and did not care if it needed to destroy Palestinians in the process, demonstrating a callous disregard for their lives rather than genocidal intent.
However, regardless of whether Israel sees the destruction of Palestinians as instrumental to destroying Hamas or as an acceptable by-product of this goal, this view of Palestinians as disposable and not worthy of consideration is in itself evidence of genocidal intent.
Many of the unlawful acts documented by Amnesty International were preceded by officials urging their implementation. The organization reviewed 102 statements that were issued by Israeli government and military officials and others between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024 and dehumanized Palestinians, called for or justified genocidal acts or other crimes against them.
Of these, Amnesty International identified 22 statements made by senior officials in charge of managing the offensive that appeared to call for, or justify, genocidal acts, providing direct evidence of genocidal intent. This language was frequently replicated, including by Israeli soldiers on the ground, as evidenced by audiovisual content verified by Amnesty International showing soldiers making calls to “erase” Gaza or to make it uninhabitable, and celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities.
Killing and causing serious bodily or mental harm
Amnesty International documented the genocidal acts of killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinians in Gaza by reviewing the results of investigations it conducted into 15 air strikes between 7 October 2023 and 20 April 2024 that killed at least 334 civilians, including 141 children, and wounded hundreds of others. Amnesty International found no evidence that any of these strikes were directed at a military objective.
In one illustrative case, on 20 April 2024, an Israeli air strike destroyed the Abdelal family house in the Al-Jneinah neighbourhood in eastern Rafah, killing three generations of Palestinians, including 16 children, while they were sleeping.
While these represent just a fraction of Israel’s aerial attacks, they are indicative of a broader pattern of repeated direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects or deliberately indiscriminate attacks. The attacks were also conducted in ways designed to cause a very high number of fatalities and injuries among the civilian population.
Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction
The report documents how Israel deliberately inflicted conditions of life on Palestinians in Gaza intended to lead, over time, to their destruction. These conditions were imposed through three simultaneous patterns that repeatedly compounded the effect of each other’s devastating impacts: damage to and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure and other objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population; the repeated use of sweeping, arbitrary and confusing mass “evacuation” orders to forcibly displace almost all of Gaza’s population; and the denial and obstruction of the delivery of essential services, humanitarian assistance and other life-saving supplies into and within Gaza.
After 7 October 2023, Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza cutting off electricity, water and fuel. In the nine months reviewed for this report, Israel maintained a suffocating, unlawful blockade, tightly controlled access to energy sources, failed to facilitate meaningful humanitarian access within Gaza, and obstructed the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, particularly to areas north of Wadi Gaza. They thereby exacerbated an already existing humanitarian crisis. This, combined with the extensive damage to Gaza’s homes, hospitals, water and sanitation facilities and agricultural land, and mass forced displacement, caused catastrophic levels of hunger and led to the spread of diseases at alarming rates. The impact was especially harsh on young children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, with anticipated long-term consequences for their health.
Time and again, Israel had the chance to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, yet for over a year it has repeatedly refused to take steps blatantly within its power to do so, such as opening sufficient access points to Gaza or lifting tight restrictions on what could enter the Strip or their obstruction of aid deliveries within Gaza while the situation has grown progressively worse.
Through its repeated “evacuation” orders Israel displaced nearly 1.9 million Palestinians – 90% of Gaza’s population – into ever-shrinking, unsafe pockets of land under inhumane conditions, some of them up to 10 times. These multiple waves of forced displacement left many jobless and deeply traumatized, especially since some 70% of Gaza’s residents are refugees or descendants of refugees whose towns and villages were ethnically cleansed by Israel during the 1948 Nakba.
Despite conditions quickly becoming unfit for human life, Israeli authorities refused to consider measures that would have protected displaced civilians and ensured their basic needs were met, showing that their actions were deliberate.
They refused to allow those displaced to return to their homes in northern Gaza or relocate temporarily to other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory or Israel, continuing to deny many Palestinians their right to return under international law to areas they were displaced from in 1948. They did so knowing that there was nowhere safe for Palestinians in Gaza to flee to.
Accountability for genocide
“The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience,” said Agnès Callamard.
“Governments must stop pretending they are powerless to end this genocide, which was enabled by decades of impunity for Israel’s violations of international law. States need to move beyond mere expressions of regret or dismay and take strong and sustained international action, however uncomfortable a finding of genocide may be for some of Israel’s allies.
“The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity issued last month offer real hope of long-overdue justice for victims. States must demonstrate their respect for the court’s decision and for universal international law principles by arresting and handing over those wanted by the ICC.
“We are calling on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to urgently consider adding genocide to the list of crimes it is investigating and for all states to use every legal avenue to bring perpetrators to justice. No one should be allowed to commit genocide and remain unpunished.”
Amnesty International is also calling for all civilian hostages to be released unconditionally and for Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups responsible for the crimes committed on 7 October to be held to account.
The organization is also calling for the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions against Israeli and Hamas officials most implicated in crimes under international law.
Background
On 7 October 2023 Hamas and other armed groups indiscriminately fired rockets into southern Israel and carried out deliberate mass killings and hostage-taking there, killing 1,200 people, including over 800 civilians, and abducted 223 civilians and captured 27 soldiers. The crimes perpetrated by Hamas and other armed groups during this attack will be the focus of a forthcoming Amnesty International report.
Since October 2023, Amnesty International has conducted in-depth investigations into the multiple violations and crimes under international law committed by Israeli forces, including direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects and deliberately indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds of civilians, as well as other unlawful attacks on and collective punishment of the civilian population. The organization has called on the Office of the ICC Prosecutor to expedite its investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine and is campaigning for an immediate ceasefire.
END
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
ISRAEL/OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY:
”YOU FEEL YOU ARE SUBHUMAN”:
ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA
5 DECEMBER 2024
https://www.amnesty.org/en/
This report documents Israel’s actions during its offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip from 7 October 2023. It examines the killing of civilians, damage to and destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcible displacement, the obstruction or denial of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid, and the restriction of power supplies. It analyses Israel’s intent through this pattern of conduct and statements by Israeli decision-makers. It concludes that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
A stand-alone executive summary is available in English and other languages: ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza: Executive Summary (Index: MDE 15/8744/2024).
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
YOU FEEL YOU ARE SUBHUMAN
ISRAEL’S GENOCIDE AGAINST PALESTINIANS IN GAZA
DECEMBER 2024
file:///C:/Users/Eigenaar/
Western governments have come under pressure to halt arms sales to Israel over how it is waging the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel is a major weapons exporter, but its military has been heavily reliant on imported aircraft, guided bombs and missiles to conduct what experts have described as one of the most intense and destructive aerial campaigns in recent history.
Campaign groups and some politicians among Israel’s Western allies say arms exports should be suspended because, they say, Israel is failing to do enough to protect the lives of civilians and ensure enough humanitarian aid reaches them.
On Monday, the UK said it was suspending about 30 export licences for military equipment to Israel for use in military operations in Gaza following a review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.
UK arms exports to Israel are relatively small compared to Israel’s total, but Israel’s prime minister denounced the UK’s decision as “shameful”.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Israel insists that its forces are working to avoid civilian casualties, accuses Hamas of deliberately putting civilians in the line of fire, and says there are no limits on aid deliveries.
United States
The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US accounted for 69% of Israel’s imports of major conventional arms between 2019 and 2023.
The US provides Israel with $3.8bn (£2.9bn) in annual military aid under a 10-year agreement that is intended to allow its ally to maintain what it calls a “qualitative military edge” over neighbouring countries.
Part of the aid – $500m annually – is set aside to fund missile defence programmes, including the jointly developed Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling systems. Israel has relied on them during the war to defend itself against rocket, missile and drone attacks by Palestinian armed groups in Gaza, as well as other Iran-backed armed groups based in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
In the days after Hamas’s 7 October attack, President Joe Biden said the US was “surging additional military assistance” to Israel.
SIPRI said the US rapidly delivered thousands of guided bombs and missies to Israel at the end of 2023, but that the total volume of Israeli arms imports from the US that year was almost the same as in 2022.
Last December, the Biden administration made public two urgent sales to Israel after using emergency authority to skip congressional review. One sale was for 14,000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $106m, while the other was for $147m of components to make 155mm artillery shells.
US media reported in March that the administration had also quietly made more than 100 other military sales to Israel since the start of the war, most falling below the dollar amount that would require Congress to be formally notified. They were said to have included thousands of precision-guided munitions, small-diameter bombs, bunker busters and small arms.
In May, the US paused a shipment of weapons to Israel for the first time, as representatives of Mr Biden’s Democratic Party in Congress and supporters became increasingly concerned by Israel’s plan for a ground offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
US officials said 1,800 2,000lb (907kg) bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs would be held back over concerns that civilians could be killed if they were used on densely populated urban areas. In July, US officials said the delivery of the 500lb bombs would be authorised, but that the 2,000lb bombs would continue to be withheld out of continued concern over civilian casualties.
Then last month, the Biden administration notified Congress that it had approved $20bn of weapons sales to Israel. They comprised an $18.8bn package for up to 50 F-15IA jets and upgrade kits for 25 F-15I aircraft that Israel already has; an unspecified number of 8-tonne cargo trucks worth $583m; 30 medium-range, air-to-air missiles for $102m; and 50,000 120mm mortar rounds for $61m. However, those weapons are not expected be delivered to Israel until 2026 at the earliest.
Germany
Germany is the next biggest arms exporter to Israel, accounting for 30% of imports between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI.
In 2022, Israel signed a €3bn ($3.3bn; £2.5bn) deal with Germany to buy three advanced, Dakar-class diesel submarines, which were expected to be delivered from 2031 onwards. They will replace the German-build Dolphin-class submarines currently operated by the Israeli Navy.
Last year, the European nation’s weapons sales to Israel were worth €326.5m ($361m; £274m) – a 10-fold increase compared with 2022 – with the majority of those export licences granted after the 7 October attacks.
The German government said in January that the sales comprised €306.4m worth of military equipment and €20.1m of “war weapons”.
According to the DPA news agency, the latter included 3,000 portable anti-tank weapons and 500,000 rounds of ammunition for automatic or semi-automatic firearms. It also said that most of the export licences were granted for land vehicles and technology for the development, assembly, maintenance and repair of weapons.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been a staunch supporter of Israel’s right to self-defence throughout the war and, although his tone on Israeli actions in Gaza has shifted in recent weeks and there has been some debate in Germany, the arms sales do not appear to be at risk of suspension.
Italy
Italy is the third-biggest arms exporter to Israel, but it accounted for only 0.9% of Israeli imports between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI. They have reportedly included helicopters and naval artillery.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), a UK-based pressure group, says exports and licences of military goods by Italy to Israel were worth €17m ($18.8m; £14.3m) in 2022.
In 2023, sales of “arms and munitions” amounted to €13.7m, the magazine Altreconomia has cited national statistics bureau ISTAT as saying.
Some €2.1m of exports were approved between October and December 2023, despite the government’s assurances that it was blocking them under a law banning weapons sales to countries that are waging war or are deemed to be violating human rights.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told parliament in March that Italy had honoured existing contracts after checking them on a case-by-case basis and ensuring “they did not concern materials that could be used against civilians”.
United Kingdom
In December 2023, the UK government said British exports of military goods to Israel were “relatively small”, amounting to £42m ($55m) in 2022.
That figure fell to £18.2m in 2023, according to the Department for Business and Trade’s records.
Between 7 October 2023 and 31 May 2024, 42 export licences were issued for military goods while there were 345 extant licences. The Department for Business and Trade said the military equipment covered under the licences included components for military aircraft, military vehicles and combat naval vessels.
CAAT says the UK has granted arms export licences to Israel worth £576m in total since 2008. Much of those have been for components used in US-made warplanes that end up in Israel.
In September 2024, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced the immediate suspension of about 30 export licences for items used in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
He said he had received an assessment that had concluded there was a “clear risk” that certain military exports “might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law”.
“The UK continues to support Israel’s right to self-defence in accordance with international law,” he stressed.
The licences cover components for military aircraft, including fighter jets, helicopters and drones, as well as items that facilitate ground targeting.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the UK’s decision as “shameful” and “misguided”. He warned that the arms ban would embolden Hamas and insisted Israel was pursuing a just war by just means.
Israeli defence industry
Israel has also built up its own defence industry with US help and now ranks as the ninth-largest arms exporter in the world, with a focus on advanced technological products rather than large-scale hardware.
It held a 2.3% share of global sales between 2019 and 2023, according to SIPRI, with India (37%), the Philippines (12%) and the US (8.7%) the three main recipients.
Israel’s defence exports were worth more than $13bn in 2023, according to the Israeli defence ministry.
Air defence systems made up 36% of those exports, followed by radar and electronic warfare systems (11%), fire and launch equipment (11%), and drones and avionics (9%).
In September 2023, just before the war began, Germany agreed a $3.5bn deal with Israel to buy the sophisticated Arrow 3 missile defence system, which intercepts long-range ballistic missiles. It was Israel’s largest ever defence deal and had to be approved by the US because it jointly developed the system.
US military stockpile in Israel
Israel is also home to a vast US arms depot set up in 1984 to pre-position supplies for its troops in case of a regional conflict, as well as to give Israel quick access to weapons in emergencies.
The Pentagon shipped about 300,000 155mm artillery shells from the War Reserve Stockpile Ammunition-Israel to Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Stockpiled munitions at the depot have also reportedly been supplied to Israel since the start of the Gaza war.
END
With Israel attacking Gaza for a second week, United States President Joe Biden and his administration are sticking to a long-established script in Washington, expressing unequivocal support for Israel and its “legitimate right to defend itself” from Hamas rocket attacks.
That narrative fails to acknowledge the profound advantages the state of Israel enjoys over the Palestinians when it comes to military prowess, wealth and resources. It also turns a deaf ear to growing cries from progressive Democrats in Congress to take a harder line with Israel over its military assault on Gaza.
This latest escalation in violence has killed at least 213 Palestinians, including 61 children, while ten Israelis have died, including two children,
So why is the US so unwavering in its support for Israel?
When did the US start supporting Israel?
From the beginning. Former US President Harry Truman was the first world leader to recognise Israel when it was created in 1948.
Why was Truman so quick to do that?
In part because of personal ties. Truman’s former business partner, Edward Jacobson, played a pivotal role in laying the groundwork for the US in recognising Israel as a state. But there were also strategic considerations driving the decision.
What were the strategic stakes at the time?
This was right after World War II, when the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union was taking shape.
The Middle East, with its oil reserves and strategic waterways (think the Suez Canal) was a key battleground for superpower hegemonic influence. The US was taking over from severely weakened European powers as the primary western power broker in the Middle East.
But even then, support for Israel was not unequivocal.
So when did it become unequivocal?
That is partly rooted in the aftermath 1967 war in which Israel defeated the poorly led armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan and occupied the rest of historical Palestine – as well as some territory from Syria and Egypt.
Since then, the US has acted unequivocally to support Israel’s military superiority in the region and to prevent hostile acts against it by Arab nations.
Were there other developments that played a role?
There was also the 1973 war that ended with Israel defeating Egyptian and Syrian forces.
Partly to drive a wedge between Egypt and Syria and thwart Soviet influence, the US used the aftermath of the 1973 war to lay the groundwork for a peace deal between Israel and Egypt that was eventually cemented in 1979.
Has that influenced US aid to Israel?
You bet. Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid in the post-World War II era.
In 2016, then-President Barack Obama signed a defence agreement with Israel providing $38bn in US military support over 10 years including funding for the Iron Dome missile defence system.
Bear in mind, Israel is not exactly in need of aid. It is a high-income country with a thriving high-tech sector.
Is this all just about practical geostrategic stuff?
Like all things foreign policy-related, public opinion, money – and the influence money buys in politics – have also played a role in US policy towards Israel and the Palestinians.
What role has public opinion played?
American public opinion has long tilted in favour of Israel and against the Palestinians, in part because Israel had a superior PR machine. But headline-grabbing, violent actions by pro-Palestinian groups such as the 1972 Munich Massacre in which 11 Israeli Olympic athletes were killed also generated sympathy for Israel.
Has that sympathy wavered at all?
More Americans are warming to the Palestinian cause, according to an annual survey conducted by Gallup.
The February poll found that 25 percent of Americans sympathise more with Palestinians – a 2-percentage-point increase over the previous year and a full six percentage points higher than 2018.
Favourable ratings for the Palestinian Authority also hit a new high of 30 percent – a 7-percentage-point improvement over 2020.
But Israel still holds far more sway in the court of US public opinion.
That same Gallup poll found that 58 percent of Americans sympathise more with Israel, while 75 percent of Americans rate Israel favourably.
What about pro-Israeli political influence?
There are a number of organisations in the US that advocate for US support of Israel. The largest and most politically powerful is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Members of the organisation wield influence through grassroots organising, advocacy and fundraising among American Jews in the US as well as Christian evangelical churches.
How powerful is AIPAC?
AIPAC holds an annual conference in Washington, DC, with about 20,000 attendees that feature personal appearances by top US politicians. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have made appearances. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also a regular attendee.
Is there a rival to AIPAC?
A smaller, pro-Israel group called J Street organised by Democrats has sought to build a constituency in US politics that is supportive of Israel and Palestinian rights.
What about influence in dollar terms?
Pro-Israel interest groups donate millions to US federal political candidates. During the 2020 campaign, pro-Israel groups donated $30.95m, with 63 percent going to Democrats, 36 percent to Republicans. That is about twice as much as they donated during the 2016 campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Who are some of the US political heavyweights in Israel’s corner?
Former President Trump, driven by support for Israel from evangelical Christians and a like-minded leader in Netanyahu, was a staunch defender of Israel during his four years in office.
Large majorities of the US Congress in the Democratic and Republican parties are avowedly pro-Israel.
House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer – all Democrats – have long track records of supporting Israel and can be counted on to voice strong support for Israel’s right to self-defence in moments of conflict.
When asked last week whether more needed to be done to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza, Pelosi responded: “The fact is that we have a very close relationship with Israel, and Israel’s security is a national security issue for us, as our friend, a democratic country in the region.”
“Hamas is threatening the security of people in Israel. Israel has a right to defend itself,” Pelosi said.
Who is in the Palestinians’ corner?
The Palestinian point of view has long been represented by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), founded in 1980 and the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, an activist network founded in 2001, among others. But pro-Palestinian groups are not nearly as active in US federal campaign spending.
Are there any heavyweights in Washington backing Palestinians?
Within the US Democratic Party, a growing faction of progressives who support the Palestinians has gained prominence on the national stage.
Lead among them are Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both former contenders for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Sanders and Warren have called for conditioning US military aid to Israel on Palestinian human rights.
In the House of Representatives, new progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib – the first Palestinian American elected to Congress – have emerged as leading voices for Palestinians.
These younger newcomers are not as reliant on the traditional fundraising structures of US politics and are more motivated by concern about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and in Israel.
Former President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, had paved the way for today’s progressives with a 2006 best-selling book titled Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.
END
ALJAZEERA
HOW THE US FUNDED ISRAEL’S WARS ON
GAZA, LIBANON, IRAN
7 OCTOBER 2025
Twin reports from the Costs of War Project find the US has backed Israel with more than $21bn since October 2023.
Israel would not have been able to sustain its wars across the Middle East without the United States’s significant financial backing of more than $21bn since October 2023, according to a pair of new reports.
The reports, which were released by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, found that: without US weapons and money, Israel wouldn’t have been able to sustain its genocidal war on Gaza, start a war with Iran, or repeatedly bomb Yemen.
The report’s findings are also backed up by analysts who said Israel’s wars in Gaza and in the wider region could not have continued without US financial and diplomatic support.
“US support for Israel at all levels is indispensable to the prosecution of Israel’s war both in Gaza and across the region,” Omar H Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s war on Gaza alone has killed at least 67,160 people and wounded another 169,679 since October 2023.
Thousands are still believed to be under the Gaza Strip’s ruins, while Israel has killed dozens in strikes on Yemen and killed more than 1,000 people when it attacked Iran in June.
Israel needs US financing for war
Two years ago, 1,139 people died during a Hamas-led attack on Israel, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Israel’s response was to devastate Gaza and to wage a wider war against any group it considered hostile in the region.
It increased raids in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem; killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon while eviscerating swaths of villages; invaded and occupied Lebanese and Syrian
But Israel couldn’t have maintained these wars without constant US support, researchers found.
“Given the scale of current and future spending, it is clear the [Israeli army] could not have done the damage they have done in Gaza or escalated their military activities throughout the region without US financing, weapons, and political support,” read the report – US Military Aid and Arms Transfers to Israel, October 2023–September 2025 – by William D Hartung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
Hartung’s report was jointly released by the Costs of War and the Quincy Institute, which describes itself as promoting “ideas that move US foreign policy away from endless war, toward military restraint and diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace”.
Hartung’s findings and a companion report by Linda J Bilmes, an expert on budgeting and public finance at the Harvard Kennedy School, found that the US spent “a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion and counting” since October 7, 2023 in military aid to Israel and in “US military operations in the region”.
They show how US support for Israel has helped it continue to wage war on multiple fronts for two years, and analysts backed up the reports’ conclusions.
“Israel needs US arms in order to do what it is doing,” Rahman said.
“It has dropped an excessive amount of ordinance on Gaza and elsewhere. It produces certain weapons and technology, but it doesn’t manufacture the bombs, so without the US, it couldn’t drop those bombs.”
Bipartisan support
The US has long been Israel’s most fervent backer. When it comes to US foreign aid, Israel is the largest annual recipient (at around $3.3bn yearly) and the largest cumulative one (more than $150bn until 2022).
Over decades and despite the changing of administrations, US support for Israel was constant.
Hartung’s report specifically mentions that the administrations of both US President Joe Biden and his successor, Donald Trump, committed tens of billions of dollars in arms sales agreements, including services and weapons that will be paid for in the coming years.
“[This] bipartisan support … allowed a serial violator of international law for pretty much its entire existence with the support of the democratic West without being questioned in a significant way in the political and social mainstream,” Rahman said.
However, many Americans have started to move away from the mainstream position on Israel. In recent months, as scholars declared Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, public perception of Israel in the US has severely degraded.
This drop is also true among American Jews. According to a recent Washington Post poll, four in 10 US Jews believe Israel is committing genocide, while more than 60 percent say Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.
US always finds billions to assist Israel
And analysts believe that could have a big impact going forward for anyone in US politics.
“Some former Biden administration officials may hope that they won’t have to deal with this, but they are living in a fantasy world,” Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think any Democrat can win a primary in 2028 without acknowledging the Biden administration inflicted and helped perpetrate a genocide,” he said.
In addition to US public criticism of Israel’s actions in the Middle East, analysts say figures like the ones shown by the Costs of War Project’s reports may also draw ire from Americans frustrated by where their tax dollars are going.
“Budgets are about priorities, but even though Americans have the thinnest social safety net of any modern country, somehow we always seem to find billions upon billions of dollars to assist Israel in its various wars,” Duss said.
“Anyone who has ever tried to do a household budget can see how absurd it is, but it is also reflective of the broader corruption of American politics.
“It’s not just Israeli interests, it’s also the US industrial complex, who are making money hand over fist, because so much of this aid and assistance is not just arms sales but granting of assistance that’s going to a lot of US companies.”
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