How To Cover Up A Genocide — Israel Destroys 10 Million Tons of Evidence

New column by Lee Camp

By Lee Camp, a human

Could you imagine living in a time when erasing 10 million tons of evidence of genocide is barely even newsworthy? Somehow we’re now in such a repulsive era.

There have been a select few articles detailing Israel’s efforts to clear literally millions of tons of evidence of its genocidal acts. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor recently reported on the carting away of 100 trucks per day of debris, pieces of destroyed lives, and human remains. Obviously, no small undertaking.

“This is occurring without any official record of the quantities removed or independent oversight, and before international and local investigative committees have had the chance to survey, examine, and document the sites.”

As Al Jazeera also reported this month,

“[The Euro-Med report] estimates that there are approximately 68 million tonnes of rubble across the Gaza Strip, much of it the result of Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on the enclave.”

This means that Israel has already removed/destroyed 15% of the evidence of its genocidal actions. Very exciting. Only 85% left to go.

Plus, they’ve already stolen 60 to 70% of Gaza. So there’s only 30 to 40% left to steal. Also very thrilling.

And there’s no doubt human remains are mixed within these materials. Many have pointed out that the official estimate of 73,387 murdered by Israel does not come anywhere close to the actual number. Besides not including “indirect deaths” (those killed by starvation, disease, or medical issues that could’ve been treated if not for the genocide), the official estimate only includes the bodies that have been identified. Many, if not most, of those killed have not been identified — either lost under collapsed buildings or blown into such small pieces that there’s hardly anything to identify. Famed lawyer Steven Donziger estimates the number of Gazans Israel has killed is closer to 500,000.

This massive cover-up job Israel carries out every single day has also been verified by Israeli propaganda outlets like Channel 12 and the Times of Israel:

“Channel 12 airs footage showing heavy engineering equipment used for the works, as well as satellite imagery revealing areas from which rubble has been cleared.”

“Rubble” makes it sound like clearing said debris is a reasonable activity, but obviously “rubble” is simply a term that includes pieces of homes, schools, hospitals, bodies, memories, and lives. It would be like murdering your neighbor and then describing disposing of his body, house, pets, and belongings as “simply clearing rubble.”

Why would even pro-Israel propaganda outlets admit to such heinous crimes? Well, seeing as 82% of Israelis actually want to complete the inhumane, immoral ethnic cleansing of Gaza, it’s politically popular to report on the continued efforts.

We should also bear in mind that Israel has a track record of working to cover up their genocides and massacres. After October 7, 2023, there were over 100 completely blown-up vehicles. Most of them were destroyed in a manner that would make no sense if perpetrated by Hamas fighters with small weaponry. So those vehicles were overwhelming evidence of the Hannibal Directive — the IDF’s strategy of murdering absolutely everyone, including countless innocent Israelis.

Israel therefore needed to dispose of such evidence. What did they do? They shredded and buried hundreds of blown-up vehicles with mountains of forensic evidence inside them. How did they justify doing that? Israeli officials claimed they were being environmentally conscious! (No, it is not possible to roll one’s eyes hard enough following that sentence. You’ll sprain your brain.)

Israel’s genocidal efforts are ongoing. Their destruction of Gaza is ongoing. Their erasing of the evidence is ongoing. The world must keep fighting back.