I’ll be very honest. This is not a donation email. This is me being straight up with you.
It is hard for me to watch. It is even harder to write.
Words feel too clean for what is being destroyed. Lights cut off, names erased, children turned into numbers. I didn’t want to write this like a list, because lists make things feel tidy. But what’s happening follows a pattern, step by step. It turns hate into rules, rules into control, and control into disappearance. Writing these steps down is not neat work. It’s witness.
Below are the steps on how a genocide is committed.
Read this as a warning. Read this as a mirror.
I. Classification
They divide people into “us” and “them.” Who lives, who doesn’t.
Nazis counted Jews on lists.
Armenians were assigned numbers for deportation.
Palestinians need permits just to drive; Israelis can move freely on the same roads.
II. Symbolization
They give people marks or labels. Something everyone can see.
Jews were forced to wear yellow stars.
Armenians wore red armbands.
Palestinians have different IDs and Number plates than Israelis
III. Discrimination
They take away rights and block opportunities.
Jews were banned from schools, jobs, and owning land in Nazi Germany.
Armenians were forbidden from owning businesses or property.
Palestinians in Gaza cannot travel freely, access many jobs, or import goods; Israeli settlers face no such limits.
IV. Dehumanization
They call people animals, pests, or terrorists.
Nazis called Jews “vermin.”
Rwandan radio called Tutsis “cockroaches.”
Palestinians are called “militants” or “terrorists” in media to justify bombing homes.
V. Organization
They train soldiers, arm groups, and make rules for violence.
Einsatzgruppen were trained to kill Jews in the Holocaust.
Armenian militias planned deportations and massacres.
In Gaza, the Israeli military coordinates airstrikes, blockades, checkpoints, and raids daily.
VI. Polarization
They silence moderates and turn neighbors against each other.
Jews were betrayed by neighbors in Nazi Germany.
Moderate Hutus were killed in Rwanda for refusing to participate.
Palestinian critics of the Israeli blockade are threatened; Israeli settlers are told Palestinian neighborhoods are “danger zones.”
VII. Preparation
They stock weapons, map targets, and close exits.
Concentration camps were built in secret.
Armenian deportation marches were planned for months.
In Gaza, bomb shelters are marked, roads blocked, and entry/exit points controlled; airstrikes are scheduled.
VIII. Persecution
They forcibly remove people, block necessities, and trap them.
Jews were forced into ghettos and deported to camps.
Armenians were marched without food or water.
Palestinians are trapped in neighborhoods, denied electricity, water, medicine, and food for weeks or months.
IX. Extermination
They kill systematically: bomb, shoot, starve, gas.
Holocaust gas chambers and mass shootings.
Armenian villages were burned and civilians killed.
Entire Palestinian neighborhoods are bombed; civilians are killed in shelters; blockades create starvation.
X. Denial
They destroy proof, lie, and blame victims.
Nazis burned evidence and blamed Jews.
Turkish authorities deny the Armenian genocide.
Israeli officials blame Palestinian deaths on “militant activity” while bombed homes vanish from maps.
These steps were once written as a warning. Now they are a mirror.
Look at Gaza. Look at Sudan. Look anywhere this pattern repeats. Tell me which step are we on now?
This is not a guide. It is a record. It is a refusal to stay quiet while people are being made small.
I can barely look. I can barely write. But I will name it. I will hold this mirror up until someone. Anyone can no longer look away. Naming slows the machine. Naming forces people to choose.
For the people still trapped inside these steps. You are seen. I will not let the world forget you.
For the people still caught inside the steps,
Hafsa
P.S. If your first reaction is disbelief, read this again. The plan depends on disbelief. Don’t be part of that silence.