Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom by Norman G. Finkelstein

Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom Reviews

• 
  Kaelan Ratcliffe ▪ كايِلان راتكِليف

  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.
• 
  Tim

  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.
• 
  Nelson

  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.
  
  
  
  
• 
  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

  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.
• 
  Steffi

  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.’
• 
  Marcy

  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.
• 
  Sophia

  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.
• 
  Randall Wallace

  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.
  
• 
  Reading

  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.
• 
  Michael

  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.
• 
  إسراء

  مهم جدا
• 
  Scriptor Ignotus

  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 over 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.
  
• 
  Nicky

  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.
• 
  Mark

  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."
• 
  Kaitlyn Jackson

  not to be that person that's like ~everyone should read this book~~~. BUt everyone should really read this book
• 
  P

  Norman Finkelstein authors an absolutely devastating account of Israel's treatment of Gaza, and the epic and maddening failures of human rights organizations (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, etc.) to present an objective assessment of the Gaza situation. It alternates between heartbreaking and frustrating.
  
  The book is thoroughly and well written, with an enormous amount of source material (unlike anything Israel or human rights organizations have ever put forward on the Gaza situation).
  
  It would be impossible to read this book with an open mind and not come away thinking that Israel is simply another terrorist organization with no regard for international rules of law or any respect of human rights.
  
  Unfortunately, most people don't have open minds, so...
  
  9/10
• 
  Steven

  I thought this book was informative and eye opening. His search for facts are true and to the point. His arguments are valid and upheld with those facts. Sad to say nothing much has changed in Gaza since the book was written.
• 
  Christopher Brennan

  This book is a stark indictment of the world community and its ignorance of the genocide being conducted in Gaza.
• 
  Mark Crouch

  What Finkelstein presents here is an incredibly detailed look into two recent Israeli-Palestinian conflicts (Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and Operation Protective Edge in 2014). While he stays within the confounds of these two assaults his discoveries are universal to the history of the brutal occupation. Pouring over UN reports we get a frankly horrifying look into the standard operating procedure of the IDF. Indiscriminately blowing apart neighborhoods to avoid any sort of casualty loss on the Israeli side with little to no concern of the civilian death toll for Gazans. Many on-the-scene accounts recall never even seeing anyone at all or even receiving any sort of return fire during the assaults. The accounts of targeting hospitals, journalists, ambulances, places of worships, homes with little to no warning is all too similar to what we see everyday online. Finkelstein argues what Israel is doing is considered collective punishment against Palestinians (not only in Gaza but the West Bank as well) by routinely shelling their neighborhoods, holding civilians without due process, stealing their land, etc. This terror and humiliation is against international law, something Israel (and the US) are able to skirt whenever it is favorable for them to do so.
  
  The disappointing response by the UN and the Goldman report is covered in the final chapters aptly titled Whitewash. Here we get a breakdown to how commonly repeated phrases as "Hamas uses human shields" are used in scenarios where it is not provable to have even occurred. The report covers Hamas' bottle rocket launches as indiscriminate rocket launching; therefore making it a war crime in the eyes of the UN. On the other hand, Israel's precision rockets blowing a family to smithereens is a "gray area" due to the words of a senior official claiming there were "Hamas insurgents nearby" (something that was not proven). In the eyes of international law poorer people with lesser advanced weaponry are not allowed to defend themselves.
  
  Reading these final chapters is essential as it becomes crystal clear how this information is purposely used against the Gazan people and how that funnels into Western propaganda. Watching NBC News this past weekend I saw their "balanced" reading on the hostage exchange. The video footage was of family members holding up hostage pictures and pictures of the hostages themselves; this gets the front seat of the story. The Palestinian exchange gets the back seat. The reporter begins by noting that "many" of the Palestinians being exchanged are charged with "violent crimes" (already on Twitter it is being discovered how many of these people were never charged with any sort of crime to begin with). An afterthought is how some people were not charged with crimes. Shouldn't this be considered a bigger part of the story? Why is Israel holding so many people in confinement without due process?? The report also was cautious to not mention the majority of these Palestinians being held were children (or, sorry, "people under 18").
  
  To say my current outlook for politics as a whole is bleak is to put it mildly. That being said the recent events unfolding in Gaza has somehow manage to plummet my already lowered expectations for US geopolitics. Seeing the Biden administration unite with nearly all of the Dems and the Republicans with the backing of almost all major mainstream Western media to encourage this slaughter is unspeakably evil. I became radicalized on the Gazan issue last summer after the assassination by the IDF of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. This was followed by the now well known horrifying account of police beating the mourners carrying her casket. The shrug and tap on the wrist by the US and the rest of the western community spoke volumes. Their ability to overlook the crimes of Cast Lead and Progressive Edge makes sense how they can over look the now 8,000 some children (as of now) that have been blown apart with US-made and sold weaponry. What is happening now is a genocide and I will never deny this.
  
  Recently on Piers Morgan, Piers asked Dr. Finkelstein how his parents would have reacted to the terror inflicted by Hamas on Oct 7th (both of his parents survived the holocaust; many of his family did not). Finkelstein responded by bringing up a time he asked his mother what she thought of the carpet bombing of German cities targeting civilians during WW2. Her response was that "if they were going to die, we were going to take some of them with us." He notes while this is maybe not the most moral answer, but "based on life experiences, they have a right to hate the people that destroyed their lives; and the people of Gaza have the right to hate the people that destroyed their lives."
• 
  Michelle G.

  4.5 stars.
  
  I’ve learned a lot from Norman Finkelstein in the last few weeks because I’ve been watching his content on YouTube, trying to inform myself. This book on what the Israeli government has been doing in Gaza is very well documented. The extensive references are impressive, it's incredible how dedicated Mr. Finkelstein is to exposing this information.
  
  This is a horror book, but it's real life. It’s now even clearer to me that the people of Gaza (and Palestinians in general) have been living in hell for a long time. What’s happening today with this genocide against them has been happening for decades at a smaller scale (if you can even call it small), relentlessly, every few years.
  
  If you want to get more perspective on Gaza and the way the Israeli government has been systematically terrorizing these people, this is a very informative and comprehensive book. It’s not a light read, it's dense, but it wasn't challenging to follow and I got a lot of valuable context and information out of it. Quite an education.
• 
  Jasmine

  Been reading and re-reading books on Palestine for the past couple of weeks. All I can think about at almost all times is Palestine. It’s heavy on my heart and I think will be for the rest of my life.
  
  Norman Finkelstein is a treasure. I recommend reading his work as he’s dedicated his whole career to the cause of Palestinian liberation and he’s known for his thorough, meticulous research.
  
  Here he details Israel’s crimes, how the so-called watchdogs of international law and human rights have failed Gaza, and ultimately gives us a memorial for those who have been martyred and will continue to be martyred as long as Israel is allowed. The people who know this history should not forget, should not allow others to forget.
  
  Maybe I should write a more thoughtful and detailed review about such important work but this is what I have.
  
  If anyone reading this would like links to google drives amounting in about 3gb worth of books and articles, shoot me a message.
• 
  John

  It is hard to read this book and walk away without immediately thinking "have these people not suffered enough? Is their perpetual suffering not enough?? Why is this still happening??"
  
  Finkelstein makes the compelling argument as simply "the numbers don't add up."
  
  With the chasm between the power and capabilities of (Nuclear-Capable even though they are not part of the agreed nuclear armed treaty) Israel's Army/Navy/Secret Service versus the small unsophisticated and poorly funded armed wing of Hamas' political wing, there seems to be a dissonance in the manner in which Israel unleashes its what can be described as severely over-cautious military strikes on the nearly defenseless overwhelmingly refugee population of Gaza.
  
  The poor souls trapped in the world's largest open-air prison are being treated as though they are all without a doubt murderous terrorists and must be proven otherwise before they can be given the courtesy of being treated as human beings.
  
  With Gaza being Israel's punching-bag, and as Palestine has little political power or recognition (not even statehood), the world turns a blind-eye to the abuse to nearly 2 million people; 51% of which are children. This is shameful for us as Americans as politicians play with the idea (and in some cases create and enforce) unconstitutional laws which ban Americans and even threaten fines against those who out of good faith and moral grounds boycott Israel's economy and speak truth to power.
  
  Please support Finkelstein's works, purchase his books, see him lecture, and most importantly over all, support the Palestinian cause. There are many good people being unfairly targeted, injured and even executed with the support of the United States and other "Developed" nations.
• 
  Ann Campbell

  Great information and helpful, credible citations. Paints a damning view of Israel's actions in Gaza.