From Warsaw to Gaza
Yesterday, April 19, was the 82nd anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which involved more than 700 Jewish resistance fighters with handguns and grenades taking on 2,000 Nazi soldiers with tanks and other military equipment. The Uprising was an important event in the history of civilian resistance to fascism in Europe.
According to the definition of antisemitism promoted by the Zionist movement, the government, and the Israel lobby, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. The purpose of the charge is to prevent debate about Israeli policy.
Herein is a comparison of Israeli policy in Gaza to Nazi policy in the Warsaw Ghetto, insofar as the third act of the Genocide Convention is concerned.
Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
“The third form of violence … made its way into the [Genocide] Convention because of the Warsaw Ghetto siege policies — putting a population under siege, depriving them of food, of necessities for life, of clean water, and attacking them, which is exactly what Israel has done in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.” — Raz Segal
Warsaw Ghetto – Siege
An official order dated April 19, 1941, states that “the basic provisioning of the Jewish Residential District must be less than the minimum necessary for preserving life, regardless of the consequences.”
Ration cards entitled ghetto inhabitants to a scant number of items. According to Mary Berg, writing on December 15, 1940, in the Warsaw ghetto, “The official food ration cards entitle one to a quarter of a pound of bread a day, one egg a month, and two pounds of vegetable jam (sweetened with saccharine) a month…” In November 1941, [Adam] Czerniaków [the head of the Ghetto Jewish council] reported an increase in food rations per person, which included “10½ ounces of sugar per month, 3½ ounces of marmalade a month, 1 egg per month, 220 pounds of potatoes per year. The bread ration is to remain as before: not a chance of increasing it.”
Although Germans in Warsaw were allotted a daily ration of about 2,600 calories, physicians in the ghetto estimated that Jews were able to consume only about 800 calories a day on average through a combination of rations and smuggling.
Gaza – Siege
Times of Israel, October 9, 2023
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says he has ordered a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, as Israel fights the Hamas terror group.
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Gallant says following an assessment at the IDF Southern Command in Beersheba.
“We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he adds.
Warsaw Ghetto – Healthcare
When the Nazis designated the district of the Warsaw Ghetto, it enclosed two hospitals, one serving Jewish adults and another for Jewish children. The hospitals were allowed to continue to treat patients with whatever resources they could obtain… Then on July 22, 1942, Nazi forces entered the ghetto and destroyed the hospitals and other critical services. Patients and some of the doctors were killed outright or deported to be gassed, their laboratories, samples and some of their research destroyed.
Center for Holocaust Education
Proper hygiene was almost impossible, as many homes did not have running water and soap was an expensive commodity on the ghetto black market. Only five bath houses existed in the ghetto, and they served approximately 17,000 people a month. This [led] to rapid spread of dangerous diseases like typhus.
Between October 1940 and July 1942 around 92,000 of Jewish residents of the ghetto died of starvation, diseases and cold which accounted for nearly 20% of the entire population.
Gaza – Healthcare
Al Jazeera, April 13, 2025
An Israeli air raid has left the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza non-operational, forcing critically ill patients onto the streets… Al-Ahli Hospital is one of at least 36 hospitals that have been bombed and burned by the Israeli military since the start of the war.
Middle East Eye, September 17, 2024
Israeli forces have killed 1,151 Palestinians working in Gaza’s health sector during its onslaught on the enclave, the Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday.
A total of 986 were named in a new report published by the ministry, while personal data for the remaining 165 was still being verified.
The delay in the verification process was due to Israeli authorities withholding the victims' bodies or their remains being buried under rubble.
At least 165 of those killed were doctors, 260 nurses, 300 management and support personnel, 184 health associate professionals, 76 pharmacists and 12 other health workers.
Warsaw Ghetto – Water
The daily food rations allocated by the German occupiers initially were at 200 calories and increased to an average of 784 calories per day in December 1941 (1800 calories are considered as survival minimum). Water was scarce, and the majority of the public bathhouses were closed. [Emphasis added.]
Gaza – Water
Oxfam, July 17, 2024
Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.
The destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on entry of spare parts and fuel (on average a fifth of the required amount is allowed in) saw water production drop by 84% in Gaza. External supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78%.
Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories in Gaza, and restricted the entry of Oxfam water testing equipment.
Gaza City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed.
Warsaw Ghetto – Destruction of Living Spaces
Jacobin, April 19, 2025
The Nazis responded [to the Uprising] by razing the entire Warsaw Ghetto, destroying buildings block by block until there was nowhere left for fighters to coordinate their resistance. By May 16, 1943, with the bombing of the Great Synagogue, every building in the Jewish sector of Warsaw had been destroyed, and all captives were deported to death camps.
Gaza – Destruction of Living Spaces
The Guardian, January 18, 2025
Israel’s campaign of intense aerial bombing and mass demolitions has levelled swathes of Gaza, and left whole neighbourhoods barely habitable.
Nine in 10 homes in the territory have been destroyed or damaged, the latest UN figures show. Schools, hospitals, mosques, cemeteries, shops and offices have been repeatedly hit. Israel says strikes only target Hamas fighters and claims the fighters shelter in buildings and use civilians as human shields.