Israel: the making of a racist state – new edition

The third edition of ‘Israel: the making of a racist state’ is now available. To mark its publication we are reprinting author Neil Rogall’s preface to the new updated edition.

Order the pamphlet here.

More than two years have passed since the Israeli destruction of Gaza began. There is no longer any doubt that this is genocide. Alongside the destruction of the Palestinian people, there has been the destruction of the conditions that sustain life and life making in Gaza. The Israeli state has displayed a callous indifference to human life. But governments around the world that have provided Israel with weapons – most prominently the US, Britain and Germany – are themselves complicit in this genocide.

Let us consider the figures, bearing in mind that the numbers of deaths and casualties released by the Gaza health ministry underestimates the full figures since it does not include those that died of preventable disease, malnutrition and other consequences of war, nor does it include those buried under the rubble. The Lancet medical journal already back in January 2025 estimated that the Gaza Health ministry was underestimating trauma death alone by 41 per cent.

The official death toll in Gaza is now 70,000 with 70 per cent of those murdered by Israel being women and children. And despite the so-called ceasefire the killings continue. A devastating new study has found that more than 112,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel launched its assault in October 2023. This figure, drawn from the most extensive demographic analysis conducted to date, far exceeds the official death toll and reveals a pattern of killing that researchers say mirrors past genocides documented by the United Nations. The study, carried out by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany and the Centre for Demographic Studies Spain, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Population Health Metrics. The researchers estimate that between 99,997 and 125,915 Palestinians died in Gaza between 7 October 2023 and 6 October 2025, with a median estimate of 112,069. The findings are based on a wide range of data sources, including hospital records, household surveys and public death notices, and take into account the thousands of unregistered deaths caused by families being buried under rubble or unable to reach medical care.

 According to a retired Israeli military commander, there are more than 200,000 casualties. One in four children are suffering acute malnutrition, and more than 500 have died of starvation. Gaza has now the largest number of child amputees in the world. Israel has systematically targeted life making and supporting institutions: 125 hospitals and clinics have been damaged and destroyed; more than 1,700 health workers have been killed. Ninety per cent of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure has been obliterated, along with over 92 per cent of residential buildings and 88 per cent of commercial facilities. Ninety-two per cent of schools require complete reconstruction, while 2,300 educational facilities have been destroyed, including 63 university buildings.

Israel has clearly followed a policy that aims to make Gaza unliveable. According to figures from July 2025, only 1.5 per cent of Gaza’s agricultural land is accessible and undamaged. Fields, orchards, greenhouses and vegetable plots have been obliterated. This is deliberate ecocide.

Additionally, since Israel’s slaughter began, attacks on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank have accelerated, both by the military and settlers. Jewish mobs with support from the armed forces have been attacking Palestinian farmers. In October 2025 alone there have been 260 such attacks on Palestinian agriculture in the West Bank uprooting and burning olive trees and destroying the olive crops.

Whilst establishment media have valorised the Israeli hostages since 7 October 2023, there has been little mention of Palestinian hostages held by Israel. Over 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons, a third of whom have never been charged. These figures include more than 450 children. Palestinians inside Israeli prisons repeatedly face torture and rape using dogs and objects and over 100 have been murdered in custody in the last two years.

The Zionist movement and the Israeli state from the very beginning of settlement in the late nineteenth century have wished that the Palestinian population would disappear. The Nakba that began in late 1947 has been a continuous process. But what we have seen over the last two years has been an acceleration of this, now taking the form of genocide and cheered on by the majority of Jewish Israeli society. Tragically but predictably, throughout the last two years the Palestinian Authority has continued its collaboration with the Israeli state in repressing Palestinian dissent in the West Bank.

The last two years have also seen much of the world’s population look on with horror at the genocide live streamed on our screens despite the attempts of the Israelis and their supporters in governments and the media around the world to censor the news. We have seen an unprecedented mobilisation of people on the streets in support of the Palestinians, growing support for BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) and the beginnings of industrial action to stop weapons delivery. Whilst the governments of the world have done very little with a few exceptions, ordinary people everywhere – even in populations that were traditionally sympathetic to Israel – have been venting their anger at the continual slaughter. None of this would have happened without the continued resistance and steadfastness of the Palestinians across the whole of historic Palestine as well as in the refugee camps across the Middle East and in the global North and South where the Palestinian diaspora plays a crucial and central role in mobilising resistance. And amongst the Palestinian diaspora it has been young Palestinians, particularly young women, who have provided the most inspiring leadership.

What the long-term impact of the genocide will be is not clear yet. Western governments may well continue to provide support and cover for the genocidal state as suggested by the recent vote on the UN security council for Trump’s plan, given that Israel is so central to Western imperialist interests. But the isolation of Israel amongst the world’s people will surely continue to deepen and our job is to strengthen BDS in every aspect of life until the Israeli settler state collapses and a free Palestine from the river to the sea becomes a reality.