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When examining the Holocaust, a recurring and important question arises; when ordinary Germans knew what was occurring in the death camps, why did they do nothing?

The full horrors of the industrialised mass slaughter in the camps were Ìý²ú²â scholars, escapees, journalists and other anti-Nazi figures. Why did the masses remain complacent?

That question acquires contemporary importance and relevance when we examine the details of the Israeli government’s genocidal violence against the Palestinians of Gaza.

While the criteria of what constitutes genocide may be subject to debate, there is no question that Israeli actions amount to .

Amnesty International is just one of numerous human rights organisations that has used the description of  to reflect what West Jerusalem and its Zionist supporters are committing in Gaza.

Indeed, multiple statements by current Israeli government politicians reveal the genocidal intent of Zionism with regard to Gaza. Threatening to , food, electricity and medicine to the Palestinian population in Gaza is a very clear statement of genocidal intent.

The very suggestion that the Israeli military is carrying out a genocide in Gaza prompts a furious reaction from Zionist supporters across the world.

Indeed, Zionism’s partisans have become effective , excusing and rationalising the crimes of Israeli forces in a manner reminiscent of traditional Holocaust revisionists of old.

The late Raul Hilberg (1926 – 2007), the great Viennese-born historian and pioneering scholar in the field of Holocaust studies, examined this  in his 1996 memoir.

Denouncing those who persisted in Holocaust denial, he engaged in documenting the sophisticated bureaucratic machinery of mass killing in Nazi Germany.

Yet, Zionism’s fervent supporters, including their followers in Australia, respond with vitriolic fury at the mere comparison of Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza and the Holocaust.

Susan Abulhawa, a Palestinian American scholar and writer, travelled to Gaza to write an on-the-ground report about what was happening there.

She described Israel’s scorched earth tactics as comparable to the Holocaust of World War II. Her article, originally Ìý²ú²â The Guardian US, was denied .

The Guardian’s editors main objection was Abulhawa’s use of the Holocaust as a comparison with Israel’s ongoing attack against the Palestinians of Gaza.

Here is where I get a bit confused.

Hilberg made quite clear in his  on the Holocaust that the industrialised mass killing of people involved numerous and meticulous bureaucratic measures, without which mass murder of an ethnic group would be impossible.

In covering the issue of Beijing’s policies  the Uyghurs in China, the imperial governments of Washington, Ottawa and London quickly and forcefully made clear their contention that Beijing is guilty of genocide. Why? Beijing is accused of carrying out forcible sterilisation of Uyghur women.

Whether that is true, I do not know.

What I do know is that Washington, Ottawa and London immediately accused Beijing of genocide. No, Uyghurs are not being rounded up, stripped of their clothes, force-marched and shot, such as the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Yet, the imperialist trio had no hesitation in launching the politically- and emotionally-charged claim of genocide at Beijing.

It appears the charge of genocide is to be used as a  against governments deemed hostile to Washington’s interests.

However, the mere suggestion of a using the word genocide to describe Israel’s campaign in Gaza elicits a furious reaction from Zionists and their supporters.

Hilberg’s preeminent 1992 study, , provides useful and necessary categories of participation when examining genocide.

He elaborated on those communities and persons who, while not actually pulling the trigger in shooting people, carried out the policies and actions which facilitated the Holocaust and comparative genocides such as the Armenian mass killings of 1915.

Keep in mind the categories described by Hilberg, when considering the following news item. The Dutch government  of 425,000 Nazi collaborators during the German occupation of their nation.

These archives were released in early January. The Dutch authorities promised to release the relevant documents from the archives back in 2023. They kept their pledge in an effort to confront the distressing aspects of their own  in the genocide of European Jews.

We regard these collaborators as accomplices, helping to grease the wheels of the genocidal Nazi war machine.

What does it say about the governments of Washington, London and Ottawa who consistently and  and armaments to the Israeli authorities, enabling the latter to prosecute their  campaign in Gaza?

As United States President Joe Biden’s term in office comes to an end, it is important to reflect on his legacy — as an enabler of genocide. During his presidency, he never hesitated to send millions of dollars worth of armaments and ammunition to West Jerusalem, thus assisting Netanyahu’s government in its genocidal campaign in Gaza.

Last December, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSN), released a report highlighting the prospect of famine in northern Gaza. With the total blockade of food aid to northern Gaza, FEWSN  that 75,000 Palestinians were at risk of undergoing famine conditions, and all the diseases consequent of mass starvation. The FEWSN is funded by the US Agency for International Development.

Not only did the Israeli government of Netanyahu denounce the FEWSN report and its findings, it demanded — along with the US government — that the original report be retracted.

±õ³Ù²õÌý earlier this month. I thought only totalitarian dystopian regimes, such as Stalinist Russia, engage in famine denial?

It is incumbent on all of us to meticulously document and expose the genocidal policies of the Israeli state, and expose the deceitful rationalisations offered as excuses by Zionism’s mouthpieces.

We must condemn the governments that act as accomplices to genocide. Demolishing the entire conditions of life and  the ability of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza to live and sustain itself, qualifies as ethnic cleansing.

[Rupen Savoulian writes at , where this article was first published.]