Gaza is not an aberration - Israel planned this genocide decades ago

I don’t usually repost the writings of others. But the article published yesterday (June 11, 2026) by British journalist Jonathan Cook tells the story of anti‑Palestinian hatred and Israeli brutality in a way I never could. It needs to be shared widely. Send it to your Member of Parliament, or to any politician whose eyes you want opened to the level of evil we are witnessing as Israel commits atrocities against Palestinians.

Cook lays out, with devastating precision, how the Gaza genocide was not spontaneous or accidental but planned by Israel decades ago. The horrors we see today—mass murder, rape, the killing of children and babies, the deliberate starvation of an entire population—are not exceptions. They are standard operating procedure for an Israeli military that has acted with impunity for generations, all in full view of world leaders and the global media.

Drawing on testimony from former Israeli soldiers, Cook describes a nation behaving with the same cold, dehumanizing cruelty that the Nazis once inflicted on Jews. His reporting exposes a political and military culture, and a society built on the systematic denial of Palestinian humanity. It reveals a leadership and an army whose goal is nothing less than the eradication of Palestinians from Gaza and from every territory under Israeli control.

If this is not the height of evil in the world today, then the word has lost all meaning. 

 

~ Fareed Khan 

Canada's complicity in Gaza genocide shows its leaders are morally bankrupt

The current crisis is rooted in decades of a brutal occupation, peace processes repeatedly sabotaged by Israel, and repeated incidents of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.

 

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

 

Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney issued a strong public condemnation following a social media post by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. The post included footage of activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla—who were attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza—being intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters. The video showed the activists bound and held in stress positions while Ben-Gvir taunted and insulted them. Carney stated: “The abominable treatment of civilians aboard the flotilla, including that which is documented in footage shared by Itamar Ben-Gvir, is unacceptable.”

This selective outrage exposes a glaring moral inconsistency at the heart of Carney’s foreign policy. While his government rightly condemns specific abuses against flotilla participants—including Canadian citizens—it continues to pursue policies that fuel a far broader conflict, enabling civilian suffering on a horrifying scale, including the sale of Canadian weapons to Israel. Critics rightly argue that this reveals a government that is both unacceptable and morally bankrupt—one that maintains normalized relations with a state accused of genocide, while turning a blind eye to Canadian-made weapons and components flowing to Israel as it brutalizes a helpless population.

The Gaza genocide, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks, has escalated into one of the deadliest episodes of mass violence in the region’s history since the Iraq War and the Syrian civil war. According to data released by Euromed Human Rights Monitor, the only organization providing independent death toll figures, it is estimated that more than 80,000 Palestinians have been killed as of the end of May 2026, with estimates that there may be anywhere from 377,000 to more than 680,000 buried under Gaza’s rubble, most of them women and children. Entire neighbourhoods have been devastated, infrastructure including hospitals, schools, and water systems lies in ruins, and mass displacement has occurred repeatedly creating a refugee population of approximately 1.9 million.

Multiple respected organizations have concluded that Israel’s actions meet the legal threshold for genocide--defined under the 1948 UN Genocide Convention as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. These include:

• Amnesty International: Documented “sufficient basis” for genocide, citing killings, serious harm, and conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction.
• Human Rights Watch: Accused Israel of genocidal acts, including deprivation of water and essential resources.
• B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel: Prominent Israeli organizations that examined policies, official statements, and outcomes, concluding coordinated action to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza.
• International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS): Declared Israel’s policies constitute genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing mass civilian casualties, destruction of life-sustaining systems, and targeting of children.
• United Nations bodies and experts: Various reports and special rapporteurs have highlighted patterns consistent with genocide characteristics, including starvation as a weapon and widespread destruction.

Noted Israeli Holocaust and genocide scholars, have added weight to these assessments by drawing on direct evidence from within Israeli society, including a poll published by Haaretz in May 2025 which reported that 47% of Israel Jews support the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, and 82% who support their ethnic cleansing, and 56% support ethnically cleansing all Palestinians from territories controlled by Israel. These are not fringe views but conclusions from rigorous documentation by human rights monitors, legal analysts, and scholars.

Canada’s Role: Arms Exports and Complicity

Despite these findings, Canada under Prime Minister Mark Carney (as well as former PM Justin Trudeau) has maintained elements of military cooperation with Israel. While direct export permits to Israel were paused, loopholes persist which allow components routed through the United States. Reports from civil society and parliamentarians indicate ongoing flows of Canadian-made weapons and technology, contradicting claims of a full embargo.

This is unacceptable. International law, including the Arms Trade Treaty and Canada’s own Export and Import Permits Act, imposes obligations to halt transfers where there is a clear risk of use in serious violations of international humanitarian law or genocide. Continuing such sales—directly or indirectly—implicates Canada in prolonging the suffering. Critics, including NDP voices and groups like Oxfam and Unifor, argue this breaches both domestic commitments and international duties.

Carney’s government singles out figures like Ben-Gvir for sanctions while sustaining the broader military relationship with Israel. Ben-Gvir is an extremist, but focusing solely on him distracts from systemic issues: the 19 year blockade of Gaza (deemed collective punishment by many), illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank (a violation under international law), and the human toll in the Gaza genocide. Official Israeli statements invoking “erasing” threats or total destruction, combined with operational outcomes, fuel the genocide determinations of international voices.

Historical Context and Moral Failure

The current crisis did not emerge in a vacuum. It is rooted in decades of a brutal occupation, peace processes repeatedly sabotaged by Israel which has voted against the creation of a Palestinian state, and repeated incidents of Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel’s right to security after October 7, 2023 is clear. However, international humanitarian law requires that any response respect the principles of proportionality, distinction between combatants and civilians, and the prohibition on collective punishment. Critics argue that Israel has disregarded these obligations. The immense scale of destruction in Gaza—death toll estimates of up to 30% of the population, the erasure of entire family lines, and the devastation of cultural and educational infrastructure—has prompted serious questions about whether the campaign goes beyond legitimate self-defence and reflects an intent to inflict indiscriminate harm on an entire society.

A morally coherent policy for Canada would be to impose a comprehensive two-way arms embargo, push for accountability for Israel at the ICC and ICJ, suspend the Canada-Israel free trade agreement, call for an end to the occupation, and support a viable political solution that pursues freedom and justice for Palestinians. Instead, Carney’s selective statements and dangerous comments about a “Zionist Palestinian state”, and continued arms exports project ignorance and hypocrisy. Condemning flotilla abuses while enabling the larger machinery of war undermines Canada’s claimed commitment to human rights and the so-called “rules-based international order.” This is not mere policy disagreement. It is moral bankruptcy. When a government prioritizes alliances and trade over halting contributions to alleged genocide—despite warnings from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Israeli NGOs, the UN, and genocide scholars—Canada forfeits ethical legitimacy. Canadians deserve better--a foreign policy grounded in consistent principles, not selective indignation.

The flotilla incident is abominable but not surprising given Israel’s criminal leadership. Far more so is the tolerance of policies enabling mass death and destruction. Prime Minister Carney must end all Canadian military support and cooperation with Israel, lead in international accountability efforts against a state committing genocide, and align pro-human rights rhetoric with actions that uphold universal human dignity. Anything less remains unacceptable.
  
© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

FOR LEADERS WITHOUT SOULS

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this can be found on Substack.

When injustice becomes law
resistance becomes a duty we draw
leaders who stand with the Israeli oppressor’s might
have shown their souls cloaked in darkest night.

When cruelty becomes normal and vile
compassion becomes radical, worth the while
national leaders who ally without shame
ignoring genocide, they play the devil’s game.

After more than two and a half years of Israel’s hell
in Gaza where innocents were murdered and fell
politicians refuse to criticize or break
their bond with Israel, for their own sake.

They remain its ally, steadfast they stand
refusing to condemn with blood on their hands
they’ve shown the world who has sold their soul
for a devil’s bargain, which they don’t control.

Gaza’s horrors still unfold, yet they look away
from the massacres that have darkened every day
their hearts are empty, their consciences sold
to embrace inhumanity, corruption and gold.

The evil in Gaza, they wilfully ignore
the cries of Palestinian kids dying, and the murderers’ roar
standing firmly with their Israeli ally they are proud
no souls within them, they are just a devil’s crowd.

These people are not horrified by these evil deeds
more than two and a half years later as Gaza still bleeds
for those with souls it is most horrifying to see
our so-called leaders complicit in genocidal atrocities.

They’ve shown the world who lacks a soul’s light
who has traded it all for the blackness of Lucifer’s night
for favours, alliances and trade they bend their knees
to a regime committing horrific evil, with complete impunity.

In halls of power our leaders are clear
they side with the devil’s acolytes, shedding no tears
the world now knows those who sold their souls
while deceit and injustice still take their deadly toll.

Yet some global leaders with moral compasses strong
have condemned Israel to the depths where they belong
they label its leaders as criminals to be convicted
who must burn in hell, and that assertion is not conflicted.

With righteous anger they raise their voices
against the Gaza genocide, making the choices
to stand for justice, for Palestinian rights
in the face of darkness and evil they bring the light.

These brave souls label the guilty ones clear
criminals who deserve to rot in eternal fear
to be condemned for the evil of their heinous crimes
while those who seek justice, advocating for better times.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.

Carney and Poilievre demonstrate galling hypocrisy on preventing genocide in Holocaust Remembrance Day speeches

Without acknowledging the Gaza genocide Carney and Poilievre diminish the humanity of Palestinians, further reinforcing Canadian complicity in Israeli atrocities.

 

By Fareed Khan 
A version of this article can be found on Substack.

 

Canada’s political leaders gathered at the National Holocaust Monument in Ottawa today (January 27) to pay solemn tribute to the victims of one of history’s darkest chapters. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stood before the stark memorial, intoning the sacred vow of “never again.” Their words echoed the memory of the Holocaust’s atrocities and acknowledged Canada’s own historical complicity in turning away Jewish refugees during World War II. Carney spoke of the consequences of ignorance and hatred, emphasizing vigilance so that “never again” remains true. Poilievre highlighted rising antisemitism and the need for Jews to feel safe in Canada, declaring that only then would the oath be fulfilled. It was a poignant ceremony, meant to reaffirm our collective commitment to preventing genocide.

However, this display rings profoundly hollow. As these politicians uttered “never again,” a genocide continues to unfold in real time in Gaza, broadcast live on social media for the world to witness. Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, ongoing since October 2023, has caused massive loss of life. While official figures put the death toll at more than 76,000 resulting from Israeli military assaults, independent analyses report hundreds of thousands of deaths (a third of them children) from famine, disease, infrastructure collapse, and malnutrition, pushing the total to more than 377,000 according to Ben Gurion University professor Yaakov Garb, and over 680,000 in an analysis by Australian academics Gideon Polya and Richard Hil. Emaciated children, bombed hospitals, destroyed neighbourhoods, and aid convoys turned into kill zones—these horrors are not concealed but streamed in high definition. Despite this visibility, Western leaders, including those in Canada, avert their eyes, offering political platitudes while enabling the violence through arms transfers and diplomatic cover.

This is the betrayal of “never again,” a phrase forged from the Holocaust’s ashes, meant to include all victims of genocide, but now selectively applied. The Gaza situation surpasses the Holocaust in visibility (live-streamed atrocities versus hidden camps), duration (spanning 78 years from the 1948 Nakba onward, including the 2007 blockade turning Gaza into an open-air concentration camp), inversion of victim and perpetrator (Israel invoking Holocaust narratives to justify genocide against Palestinians), and complicity (Western allies actively enabling Israel in its genocidal crimes). During the Holocaust, Nazis operated in secrecy and Allied forces uncovered the full horror only upon liberation. In Gaza, images and video of the genocide are widely shared on social media and perpetrators often share footage of destruction, yet no decisive intervention follows by the nations intoning “never again” in ceremonies today.

Canada’s complicity is particularly stark. Despite a 2024 pause on new military export permits to Israel, a major loophole persists. Canadian-made weapons components—aircraft parts, explosives, and armoured vehicle technology—are shipped to U.S. firms, then integrated into systems sent to Israel. Reports document dozens of such shipments since 2024, including aircraft components matched to Israeli imports between 2024 and 2025. Advocacy groups like Arms Embargo Now have exposed this “U.S. loophole,” which bypasses Canada’s permitting and human rights assessments. Bills like the No More Loopholes Act (C-233), introduced in 2025, seek to close it, but progress lags. Critics warn these exports make Canada complicit in Israeli war crimes. Meanwhile, Carney and Poilievre condemned antisemitism during today’s speeches, addressed the need to fight racism and hate, but made no reference to hate that has resulted in Gaza’s suffering or Canada’s role in sustaining it—transforming today’s remembrance ceremony into and exercise in national hypocrisy.

In his remarks Poilievre emphasized protection against antisemitism, yet his silence on Israeli atrocities in Gaza aligns with the unequivocal support the Conservatives have given Israel historically. Meanwhile, Carney’s government talks about its concern for the humanitarian situation in Gaza but sustains the arms pipeline to Israel indirectly. Today’s ceremony, which failed to acknowledge the Gaza genocide causes “never again” to mean “never again to us,” applying only to Jews, thereby diminishing the humanity and lives of Palestinians. This selective remembrance, placing the lives of Jewish Holocaust victims above all others, inverts roles, where Israel invokes historic trauma and plays the victim while inflicting atrocities on Palestinians that have been labelled genocide by respected international organizations, human rights experts, Holocaust scholars, Jewish intellectuals, and others, crimes that have widespread support among Israeli Jews, according to a March 2025 poll in Ha’aretz.

Gaza’s decades of suffering and oppression traces back to the 1948 Nakba, when over 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from over 500 towns and villages. The ongoing blockade of the enclave since 2007 has rationed essentials, inflicting generational despair. Bodies like the International Court of Justice, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have documented crimes that meet the definition of genocide, yet Canada provides political cover and tacit support via legal loopholes and continued diplomatic and economic relationships.

Compounding this is Holocaust Remembrance Day’s narrow framing. Statements from Carney, Poilievre, and other politicians focused almost exclusively on the six million Jewish victims. This omits a critical truth. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that Nazis murdered 11-17 million people total, including Roma, disabled individuals, Soviet POWs (millions starved), Slavic peoples (nearly two million killed), Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and dissidents. By erasing these 5-11 million non-Jewish victims from public discourse, we mock the observance and insult their memory. It reduces the Holocaust to a singular narrative serving political ends, not universal lessons against all genocides. This moral hierarchy—elevating some sufferings while sidelining others, like the Holodomor, Cambodian genocide or colonial atrocities, normalizes apathy towards atrocities still being committed in Gaza.

This is a scenario where Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” applies, one where bureaucratic loopholes, diplomatic silences, and selective remembrances enable horrors. Carney and Poilievre’s remarks today in front of a monument to one of the worst horrors of the 20th Century, neglecting to connect past to present, betrays the vow of “never again.”

To truly honour the memory of Holocaust victims would require closing arms loopholes, imposing broad sanctions, recognizing more than 75 years of Palestinian suffering, and expanding remembrance to all victims. Only then can “never again” mean never again for anyone, anywhere.

© 2026 The View From Here. © 2026 Fareed Khan. All Rights Reserved.