A Cartography of Genocide
Introduction
Since the start of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Forensic Architecture has been collecting data related to attacks against civilians and the destruction of civilian infrastructure by the Israeli military. Our analysis of this conduct reveals the near-total destruction of civilian life in Gaza. We have also collected and analysed evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military directing Palestinian civilians to areas of Gaza designated as ‘safe’. These orders have resulted in the repeated, large-scale displacement of the Palestinian population across Gaza, often to areas which subsequently came under Israeli attack.
Our findings indicate that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza is organised, systematic, and intended to destroy conditions of life and life-sustaining infrastructure.
To this end, ‘A Cartography of Genocide’ platform and accompanying report develops a comprehensive mapping of military conduct in Gaza since 7 October 2023. It deploys a range of methods to observe the ways in which Israel’s military operations engendered widespread harm and suggests how these observations might inform broader assessments of Israel’s military conduct during this period.
We use here the term ‘genocide’ within the meaning developed by Raphael Lemkin, whose thinking behind this term was instrumental for the definition formulated in Article II of the Genocide Convention. Genocide, according to Lemkin, signifies a coordinated plan of actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.
The results of more than a year of FA’s monitoring and research are now published as:
- An interactive cartographic platform: ‘A Cartography of Genocide’
- An 827-page text report: ‘A spatial analysis of the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza since October 2023’
To identify patterns across thousands of data points, we developed an interactive cartographic platform. The platform turns rows of data into a navigable ‘map’ of Gaza, within which it is possible to define regions, periods in time, and select certain categories of events. This filtering enables not only the identification of trends within the data but of relationships between different datasets (for instance, between the military ground invasion and the destruction of medical infrastructure). We used the platform as the basis for a written report that details and analyses the spatial logic of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.
Our report seeks to identify patterns within this conduct between 7 October 2023 and 30 June 2024. It interrogates the scale and nature of attacks, the extent of damage and the number of victims, as well as the organised nature of the acts of violence and the improbability of their random occurrence.
In our analysis, we understand patterns to mean the order of repetition of same, similar or related incidents, at different times and places. Such patterns may indicate that these attacks are designed, formally or informally, rather than occurring at random.
Because military actions are multifaceted, patterns can exist across actions. The effect of military actions on the civilian population may not be fully captured by studying the repetition of a single type of action in isolation. The simultaneous, or proximate, application of different types of actions in the same territory may generate a cumulative and compounded effect, each action aggravating the effect of another. Establishing relations between different types of actions can consequently help to determine whether these acts have been organised. We explore these interrelations between different types of military actions in Chapter 8 of our report.
Areas of Analysis
We collected and analysed data across six categories:
- Spatial Control – the physical shaping of Gaza according by a strategic design;
- Displacement – the repeated, forced displacement of civilians and an assessment of Israel’s ‘humanitarian measures’;
- Destruction of Agriculture and Water Resources – the destruction of fields, orchards, greenhouses, agricultural and water infrastructure;
- Destruction of Medical Infrastructure – the systematic targeting of hospitals and healthcare workers;
- Destruction of Civilian Infrastructure – the targeting of public utilities, roads, schools including those acting as shelters, religious buildings, and government buildings;
- Targeting of Aid – the systematic targeting of infrastructure and personnel necessary for the transport and distribution of humanitarian aid and the preparation of food.
Within the report, each of the above sections is structured according to (1) quantitative findings and (2) pattern findings.
In addition to presenting the findings specific to each category of violence, we also cross-referenced patterns between categories to observe how, and the extent to which, different types of military conduct correspond in time and space. Through cartographic layering of different spatial data, our researchers could:
- analyse the compounded effects of different types of acts;
- determine whether relations between different types of acts repeat across time and space;
- determine whether these relations are random or display an organised design;
- and determine the relation between military acts and the natural characteristics of Gaza by layering the mapping of these acts over meteorological and soil-type maps.
> Read our summary of findings
> Read our methodology overview
The report, ‘A Spatial Analysis of the Israeli Military’s Conduct in Gaza since October 2023,’ is derived from Forensic Architecture’s ongoing research into the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and was provided to South Africa (SA) after being approached by SA to provide independent research and reporting for their ongoing submission in the case of Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel). For the provision of this report, Forensic Architecture received payment from South Africa.
posted by Satish Sharma at
07:56
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