The Anatomy of Incremental Genocide: Historical and Legal Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

This thesis investigates the Israeli–Palestinian conflict by addressing the question of whether the Palestinian people may be legally characterized as victims of genocide within the framework of international genocide law. Particular attention has been devoted to assessing whether the violence following 7 October 2023 constitutes the onset of a genocidal process or, rather, represents the latest and most intense phase of a long-term genocidal project. To this end, the present research adopts the concept of incremental genocide (or slow genocide), conceptualized as a cumulative and structural process of destruction directed against a protected group, rather than as a sudden and temporally limited event. The first chapter offers a comprehensive historical reconstruction of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, tracing its trajectory from the emergence of Zionism and the British Mandate in Palestine to the failure of successive peace processes and the contemporary conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories, with particular attention to the Gaza Strip. The second chapter elaborates the theoretical and legal framework by examining the definition of genocide under international law and its constitutive elements. Particular emphasis is placed on the primary international instrument governing genocide – the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide – along with a critical assessment of its principal strengths and its structural and interpretative limitations. This legal analysis will then be complemented by theoretical contributions on incremental genocide, which conceptualize genocide as a process, particularly in relation to settler colonial dynamics and eliminatory logics. The third chapter applies these analytical frameworks to the Palestinian case, critically examining the Israeli military response following 7 October 2023, the structural conditions underpinning the systematic destruction of Palestinian life, and the issue of genocidal intent, also in light of official statements and state practices. The thesis argues that the contemporary violence escalation, following the 7 October attacks, represents both a qualitative and quantitative intensification of an incremental genocidal process rooted in decades-long colonial dynamics, rather than an isolated or exceptional phenomenon. This interpretation underscores the continuity of structural violence and raises critical questions regarding the legal, political and moral responsibilities of the international community in preventing and addressing enduring patterns of genocidal conduct.