GLOSM/PARES

Welcome to the Gaza documentation project

Let us begin with something that everyone knows, or maybe not everyone, as current generations did not grow up in an era when there was no video but celluloid. And even then, when there were videos (VHS and Betamax), there was no YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo, TikTok, or Instagram. The first Internet video hosting site was ShareYourWorld.com, founded in 1997.

There are many definitions of history. However, the simplest way to explain it is to use the pictured images.

A celluloid film consists of a series of frames. Each frame is part of a scene, which, in return, may be part of a series of scenes. They all together form what is called a sequence. So, a movie is built up by a series of sequences.

If you watch the whole film, you will see a chronology of frames, scenes, and sequences. In today's video technology, you don't need to stretch the movie. It's already done while you load it into a video editor.

Visualizing history is similar to this, meaning that you can imagine history as a complete movie unless you cut it into pieces to remove frames, scenes, or even a whole sequence that you don't want people to watch.

Like every movie, any event must have a beginning, as nothing happens in a vacuum. There is always a main cause or root, which always lies in the very past.

And so it is about Gaza.

According to the online encyclopedia, the Arab countries were challenging each other: who would be THE Arab leader in the region?

The position would only be gained when any Arab leader has as much public support as possible. Nasser would do this by blocking all shipping lines from passing the Strait of Tiran to Eilat

The Israelis reacted by warning the Egyptian president that the blocking would indefinitely be a casus belli, while the waterway is part of Egypt's territory. The Israelis started the war in June 1967, which also included an offensive on Egyptian troops in Gaza.

When the enclave was seized, the Israelis colonized it, not occupied it, as there were at least 21 permanent settlements in the enclave. The West Bank has also been under colonization since 1967, as there are more than 100 permanent but illegal settlements.

On the right, a 4-minute video clip in which we put in chronological order how it all started to happen. We have given the clip the title "From the war in June to the First Gaza War", and it shows just the beginning of what is going to happen in 2025: the extermination of the existence of life in Gaza..

The existence of Hamas is by the Israelis themselves. The group didn't emerge out of the blue.

The Israeli crackdown of the First Intifada that inflamed the forming of Hamas, and the year in which the resistance group was formed in 1987, has been systematically silenced, as "Hamas is a terrorist organization" is delegitimizing the Law of Belligerent Occupation.

The United Nations has designated Hamas as a political movement while its armed wings are within the Law of Belligerent Occupation, which states that occupied people have the right to form armed groups to resist occupation. But Hamas is branded a "terrorist organization" on religionized and ideological grounds.

Members of Hamas have the full right to resist the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the annexation of the West Bank. If they take and use that right, they must distinguish themselves from the civilian population, or based on articles 43 & 44 of the Additional Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, at least carry their weapons openly during attacks and deployments.

Israelis are alien to the region as they descend from European migrants, settlers, and colonists, while the current population is from around the world living on a land surrounded by countries where people have been there for centuries.

What is genocide?

In the context of Gaza, genocide means the deliberate killing of a large number of people to destroy the population. The legal definition of genocide :

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Elements of the crime

The Genocide Convention establishes in Article I that the crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation. The latter is less common but still possible. The same article establishes the obligation of the contracting parties to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide.

The popular understanding of what constitutes genocide tends to be broader than the content of the norm under international law. Article II of the Genocide Convention contains a narrow definition of the crime of genocide, which includes two main elements:

A mental element: the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such"; and
A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:

1. Killing members of the group

2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.

Importantly, the victims of genocide are deliberately targeted, not randomly, because of their real or perceived membership of one of the four groups protected under the Convention (which excludes political groups, for example). This means that the target of destruction must be the group, as such, and not its members as individuals. Genocide can also be committed against only a part of the group, as long as that part is identifiable (including within a geographically limited area) and “substantial.”

Why do we use the term "genocide I"?

In the first year after the destruction of Gaza, we saw developments that pointed to genocide. These developments were related to actions that the Israelis planned to carry out, were carrying out, or had carried out.

At the same time, we saw another development that seemed closely related to this, such as incitement, encouragement, promotion, and support.

In December 2023, a third development emerged: facilitation and active support through implementation.

The question arose as to how to document these three developments.

The first development concerns the direct execution of plans. Information collected regarding this development is added to what we have called "genocide I."

The second development - incitement, incitement, encouragement, and promotion - concerns manifestations of genocide. Collected photos, videos, and other material related to this development are added to what we have called "genocide II."

The third development concerns the following:

Cooperation at the governmental level, such as that which has existed between the Americans and the Israelis since the 1960s (AIPAC) or between the British and the Israelis since the establishment of "Israel" by the British in 1917, is an active form of political complicity.

The supply of weapons and ammunition is the best-known example. British spy flights from Cyprus to collect data on Gaza and then share it with the Israelis are a lesser-known example.

In Europe, some countries support the Israelis based on the Second World War, such as the Netherlands and Germany. Both countries also provide military support, but to a much lesser extent than the Americans, Canadians, and the British. The involvement of such European countries is described as "collusion".

Collected reports, photos, and videos about the third development are added to "Collusion and Complicity".

What is information?

There are many answers to this question. The simplest answer is a text containing parts that attract the reader's attention.

But how do parts in a text attract a reader? Sets of words presenting a description of something. The more you collect, the more your knowledge grows. Because knowledge is understanding what a collection of descriptions stands for.

However, information can be used against information by manipulating it when you don't want others to know. Just leave parts out or replace parts with sets of words to describe something that can't be verified.

Information does not just appear as text. A photo and a video carry more information than one piece of paper. Here, manipulation is by erasing, cutting, cropping, or even creating by using artificial intelligence.

Checking whether written, photographic, or videographic information is true has been impossible since the occupying belligerent refuses journalists to report from Gaza, and the UN Special Group of Experts to conduct investigations.

Information has become a weapon. The Israeli occupying belligerent has army units that use information in this way.

As you may know, social media is full of messages and posts containing embedded visual material about Gaza. The context in which they are published varies from outright hate against the people in Gaza to claims with no evidence. The platforms lack efficient search methods.

The only way to find out what may or could have happened is to download and document photos, videos, social media posts, news reports, and other visual material. We read, watch, and view to find out what they are all about, so that they can be put in groups and related subgroups.

To do this, we have developed a database, but the purpose of the database is to determine a more accurate description that reflects Netanyahu's real intentions, as "October 7th" has no longer been the issue for at least a year.

Unfortunately, the database is not designed for internet use due to its multi-user capabilities. However, it has a feature to create reports that we publish as PDF documents here on this website.

GLOSM runs several projects.

PARES stands for Palestine Research and is its first and longest-running project. It was launched in November 2008 in response to the Israeli violation of a six-month ceasefire by defending the violation, which Hamas had fired rockets from Gaza. An investigation amid the war found out that the resistance fired no rockets over the border.

The project included a months-long study on biblical history to have a better understanding of issues like the claim that Israelis are Semitic people and that their language is Jewish.

PARES is launched in the context of the way GLOSM operates, namely, human research. It monitors, collects, and documents developments resulting from effects as a result of interference in the continuation of life and the existence of people. However, in Gaza and the West Bank, it is about attempts to end the continuation of the lives of people.

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Crime of extermination

Genocide I: Forced Starvation