CAIRO, July 16 — The Permanent Arab Committee for Human Rights (ACHR) called on Wednesday for the adoption of the Arabic term “Ahwal” (Horrors) and the foreign-language term “Wholocide” as designations for Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
According to Palestine News and Info Agency (WAFA), the ACHR made this call at the conclusion of its 58th session, as part of Arab efforts to preserve the collective Arab memory and raise awareness of the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe inflicted on the Palestinian people.
It also called for documenting Israel’s historical crimes, safeguarding victims’ rights to justice, redress, and remembrance, and ensuring that the perpetrators are not granted impunity.
The Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the League of Arab States, Mohannad Al-Aklouk, stated that the adoption of the designations reflects the ACHR members’ call for establishing an annual day of remembrance for the victims of the genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
He explained that the initiative had been pursued for two and a half years before culminating in the designation of Oct 17 as the annual day to commemorate the victims of the “Ahwal” and to pursue its perpetrators through all available national, regional, and international legal mechanisms.
He noted that the date marks the killing of more than 700 Palestinians within less than 24 hours, including victims of the massacre at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Baptist Hospital) in Gaza City, as well as other massacres in the city.
Al-Aklouk said the designations Ahwal and Wholocide were inspired by the words and suffering of genocide victims themselves, noting that many survivors and witnesses described what they endured as being like “the horrors of the Day of Judgment” as a result of the brutality of the Israeli occupation forces.
He said the designations were derived from that spontaneous human description to serve as a lasting testament to the magnitude and brutality of the crime and the inhumanity of its perpetrators.
He called on human rights organisations, educational institutions, universities, research and cultural centres, media outlets, artists, bloggers, social media users, and other public influencers to adopt the designations in their activities, publications, academic research, and cultural works.
He said this would help preserve the memory of the victims of the genocide, honour those who were killed, and safeguard the national and human memory of a crime that will not be erased by the passage of time.
