David Grossman discovers the Israel genocide in Gaza. David Grossman descubre el genocidio en Gaza. ENG ESP

1 August 2025

ENGLISH

An Israeli “discovers” that he lives in an occupying and terrorist country... it's never too late...

David Grossman, widely considered to be Israel’s most prominent novelist, has described his country’s campaign in Gaza as a genocide.

Speaking to Italian daily La Repubblica, in an interview published earlier today, the award-winning author and recipient of the 2018 Israel Prize for literature said that, after years of resistance to the term, he now “can’t help” but use it:

But now I can’t help myself—not after what I’ve read in the papers, not after the images I’ve seen, not after speaking with people who’ve been there.

Grossman’s comments come just days after two major Israeli rights groups—B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights—said Israel was committing genocide in Gaza, amid growing global condemnation of the enforced starvation that has brought the strip to the brink of famine. Israel’s 22-month assault on the besieged enclave has claimed the lives of more than 60,000 people, at least 18,500 of them children (though leading authorities such as The Lancet consider these figures to be a significant undercount). B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights join Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and dozens of other human rights organizations in classifying Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide.

“The occupation has corrupted us,” Grossman—an outspoken peace activist who was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2017 for his novel A Horse Walks Into a Bar—went on to say. “I am absolutely convinced that Israel’s curse began with the occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967. Maybe people are tired of hearing about it, but that’s the truth. We’ve become militarily powerful, and we’ve fallen into the temptation born of our absolute power, and the idea that we can do anything.”

Grossman’s comments are welcome, and will hopefully encourage other prominent cultural figures to finally speak up, but one wonders what took him so long. As is the case with the dozens of western politicians, journalists, and assorted public figures who have concluded that this is the opportune week to become a vertebrate, I can’t help but think about the thousands—the tens of thousands—of innocent lives that would have been saved had those with clout decided, at any point during the last year and a half, that stopping the indiscriminate slaughter of caged civilians was more important than protecting Israeli and American Zionists from terminology they find distasteful.

ESPAÑOL

1 de agosto de 2025

Un israelí "descubre" que vive en un país ocupante y terrorista...nunca es tarde...

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UN GRITO DESDE DENTRO

David Grossman, una de las voces literarias más respetadas de Israel y ganador del Premio Booker, ha dicho lo que millones llevan meses gritando: “Israel está cometiendo genocidio en Gaza”.

Lo dice con el corazón roto, tras ver imágenes imposibles de olvidar y escuchar testimonios de horror que ni la ficción podría narrar. “Durante años evité esa palabra. Ahora ya no puedo”, declaró a La Republica.

Grossman se estremece al unir dos conceptos que deberían ser incompatibles: Israel y hambruna, Israel y genocidio, especialmente a la luz de una historia que prometía no repetir nunca el horror contra ningún pueblo.

Mientras Gaza sufre el “peor escenario posible de hambruna” según organismos de la ONU, el escritor lamenta que su país haya cruzado una línea que ninguna justificación puede borrar.

Este no es un activista ni un político radical. Es uno de los escritores más premiados de Israel, cuyas obras se leen en más de 30 idiomas, admitiendo públicamente que lo que se está haciendo en Gaza no tiene otro nombre que genocidio.