Yesterday, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv demanding an end to the war and for a ceasefire in order to release the remaining hostages. Unsurprisingly, the Netanyahu regime accused them of participating in “Hamas support riots.” It has become a running joke that anyone who opposes Israel’s genocide in any way, big or small, is aligned with or supporters of “Hamas.” Ms. Rachel, Greta Thunberg, Piers Morgan, Marjorie Taylor Green, the entire country of Ireland. This paranoid delusional list gets longer every day.

To be sure, polls show that the majority of Israeli society is in the grip of genocidal mania. It is a social landscape drenched in the racist ideology of Zionism and its attendant infrastructure of apartheid, which has been meticulously constructed over decades. This, along with impunity for its litany of crimes, has created a society that is completely out of touch with its own character. Dehumanization of the Palestinians has been woven into the DNA of the Zionist state. And despite Holocaust scholars, prominent human rights organizations (including ones within Israel) and the ICJ correctly calling out Israel’s genocide, most Israelis continue to think of themselves as the victims.

But while it is easy to be cynical about Israelis, it is also important to recognize that human beings have agency. They can change. And this protest, while a minority in the country, is a sign that cracks are forming in the edifice of Israel’s mythological image of it being the “only democracy in the Middle-East.” These Israelis are finding out that they too are subject to the same smears. But the propaganda, or hasbara, isn’t having the same impact that it once had.

This summer, Israelis have been finding out that they are not welcome when they travel abroad. Protests and other forms of shunning have happened in Greece, Thailand, Bosnia and beyond. And this has nothing to do with antisemitism, as some apologists would have us believe, but entirely to do with Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.

While there is a long road to travel for these Israelis to understand this, it is not naive to hope that most eventually will. Of course, this is small comfort to the millions of Palestinians who are now facing annihilation at the hands of the Israeli state. They cannot wait for Israelis to have a change of heart, as they are bombed, burned, shot and starved.

Gaza has been utterly destroyed by the endless cruelty of Israeli bombardment. Tens of thousands of children have been slaughtered, with thousands more on the brink of death due to Israel’s policy of starvation. But the Palestinians who remain need our solidarity and commitment. We cannot afford the privilege of giving up when they continue to fight for survival. And when our own governments are the primary engine of this entire nightmare, it is our duty.

Therefore, the lion share of pressure must happen from outside Israel. It, along with the US (its primary benefactor) must be isolated. Cut off from all relations with democratic institutions. And other Western leaders must be pressured to immediately enact sanctions and implement divestment. Every tool must be used to stop Israel’s horrendous crimes, just as was done with apartheid South Africa. Only now, the stakes are much higher.

Genocide is the endgame for humanity. There is no greater crime. If it is allowed to continue or its enablers and the genocidaires who perpetrate it are allowed to get away without consequence, everything else will be rendered meaningless. Therefore, it must be opposed in every way possible. And people of conscience should demand nothing less than its complete demise.

Kenn Orfanos, August 2025