Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

[The_Yoda]

SvennoJ said:

Zkuq said:

I have very much to criticize Israel about, but genocide is not among my critique. Yes, there are terrible atrocities against the Palestinians by Israel, but nothing I've seen - although admittedly, I haven't followed the situation all that closely - even hints at a genocide. I expect other definitions to roughly match Wikipedia's description, but in short, here's what Wikipedia has to say about genocide: "Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part." I'm not seeing any of that at play here (on a systematic level). And again, I'm not trying to defend the atrocities commited by Israel by any means, but genocide doesn't seem like the correct term to me (at least at the moment - not saying genocide couldn't come into play at some point).

The court can decide but many experts have already weighed in

https://time.com/6334409/is-whats-happening-gaza-genocide-experts/

Scholars add, however, that many social scientists define genocide in a broader way. “[The current legal definition] identifies a very narrow set of categories of victims: ethnic, racial, national, religious, but it doesn't take into account people being targeted because of their socioeconomic status, or their political identity, or whatnot,” Verdeja says.

Hinton adds that the more colloquial definition for genocide focuses on the idea of “large scale destruction and acts perpetrated against a population.” Many may point to the Holocaust as the best example of this, though genocide, based on this broader definition, has happened many times over since, in places like Rwanda and Guatemala.


https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/israel-clearly-committing-three-of-five-acts-defined-as-genocide-palestinian-american-lawyer/3073787

She said Israel’s actions fit the legal definition of genocide under the Rome Statute and also the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, also known as the Genocide Convention.

“Genocide requires intent and action. Not only have there been over 100 statements of genocidal intent expressed at the highest levels of Israeli military and government since Oct. 7, but they are also clearly committing three of the five genocidal acts under the international treaties,” said Elborno.

The convention defines genocide as five acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

As Elborno explained, Israel is guilty of three of the five acts: “Killing members of the group,” “Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” and “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“This is not my opinion. This is the opinion of over 800 genocide scholars, 47 state crime scholars and numerous scholars of genocide who have come out in this moment and said that Israel is committing genocide. Not only that, but the annihilation phase of genocide,” she said.

My definition of genocide is intent to wipe a people from the face of the earth. What you've presented is a broader definition of genocide than the one that resides in my head.  By these broader criteria was Hamas somehow not committing genocide on the 7th of October?  If I am not mistaken isn't Israel surrounded by peoples that have genocidal intent for the Jewish people and their state (the type of genocide that even fits my old school definition of genocide)? 

Edit - I FEEL as if the definition of Genocide is being stretched here to push an agenda just like the current definition of Racism, Nazi, Communist, ect has been stretched to serve various agendas. They use the shock value of the words to attempt, often successfully, to elicit an emotional response not a logical one.

Last edited by The_Yoda - on 04 January 2024