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When Does It Become Genocide?

Nadia Hijab | 16.01.2010 00:14 | Anti-militarism | Palestine | Repression | World

During a visit to Ramallah a year ago while the Israeli bombardment of Gaza was underway, I shared my fears with a close Palestinian friend. "It may sound insane, but I think the Israelis' real objective is to see them all dead."



During a visit to Ramallah a year ago while the Israeli bombardment of Gaza was underway, I shared my fears with a close Palestinian friend. "It may sound insane, but I think the Israelis' real objective is to see them all dead."

My friend told me not to be silly, the assault was horrific, but it was not mass killing. I said that wasn't the issue: This was a population already very vulnerable to disease, ill-health, and malnutrition after years of siege, with its infrastructure rotted, its water and food contaminated. Israel's war would surely push the people over the brink, especially if the siege was maintained -- as it has been.

In other words, Israel would not directly kill tens of thousands of Palestinians, but it would create the conditions for tens of thousands to die. Any epidemic could finish the job. My friend fell silent at these words, but still shook his head in disbelief.

Two things have changed since last year: More people have started to apply the term "genocide" to what Israel is doing to Gaza. And not only is Israel being directly accused but also, increasingly, Egypt.

Is it genocide? "The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" -- a clear, concise document adopted by the United Nations in December 1948 -- states that genocide is any of five acts committed "with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

Three acts appear to apply to the situation in Gaza: "(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

Legal scholars disagree about how to interpret the Convention's articles and it has proven difficult, over the years, to define crimes as genocide, let alone to prevent or end them. In line with the Bosnia precedent -- the only authoritative legal treatment of genocide to date -- it would be necessary to establish deliberate intent for an accusation of genocide against Israel to stand up in court.

Israel's leadership has not, of course, issued a declaration of intent. However, many leading Israeli officials can be said to have done so. For example:

• Putting the Palestinians of Gaza "on a diet" -- Dov Weisglass, chief aide to Ariel Sharon, in 2006.

• Exposing them to "a bigger shoah (holocaust)" -- Matan Vilnai, former deputy defense minister, in 2008.

• Issuing religious edits exhorting soldiers to show no mercy -- the Israeli army rabbinate during the actual conflict.

Such declarations echo at least three of the "8 stages of genocide" identified by Genocide Watch president Gregory Stanton in the 1990s after the Rwanda genocide: Classification, dehumanization, and polarization.

Then there is the deliberate destruction or barring of means of sustenance as Israel has done on land and at sea. Already, the Goldstone Report has said that depriving the Gaza Palestinians of their means of sustenance, employment, housing and water, freedom of movement, and access to a court of law, could amount to persecution.

Since the December-January assault, there have been many authoritative reports by human rights and environmental organizations on the impact of the war and the ongoing siege on the people, soil, air, and water, including the increase in cancers, deformed births, and preventable deaths. The death toll in Gaza from swine flu reached nine in mid-December and 13 a week later -- an epidemic in waiting.

The eighth stage of genocide Stanton identifies is denial by perpetrators "that they committed any crimes." Ironically, Stanton headed the International Association of Genocide Scholars during the conflict, which shut down discussion of Israel's actions despite protests by, among others, genocide scholar and author Adam Jones. Jones and 15 other scholars had posted a declaration stating that Israeli policies were "too alarmingly close" to genocide to ignore and calling for an end to the silence.

Alarmingly close is right. Here is how Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish legal scholar who pushed for the genocide convention, defined it in 1943:

"genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation.... It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups."

It is hard to conceive of a better description of what is going on in Gaza.

All UN member states have the duty to prevent and stop acts of genocide. What is needed is a country brave enough to take the lead, before it is too late.



* Nadia Hijab is an independent analyst and a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies.

Nadia Hijab
- Homepage: http://www.uruknet.de/index.php?p=m61789&hd=&size=1&l=e

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Israeli FM: We must do to Hamas what the US did to Japan

16.01.2010 00:25

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman


“Israel won’t be secure so long as Hamas is in power, and therefore we need to come to a decision that we will break the will of Hamas to keep fighting … We must continue to fight Hamas just like the United States did with the Japanese in World War II … Then, too, the conquering of the country was unnecessary.”

[Leader of the "Israel is Our Home" (Israel Beiteinu) party Avigdor Lieberman, 13 January 2009. Three months after making this statement, Mr Lieberman became the foreign minister of Israel.] [1]



“The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust ["shoah"] because we will use all our might to defend ourselves,”

[Former Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai, 28 February 2008] [2]


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Notes:


1) Lieberman: We must do to Hamas what the US did to Japan

Jerusalem Post, 13 January 2009

 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1231774443875


2) Israel minister warns Palestinians of “holocaust”

by Adam Entous and Joseph Nasr, Reuters, 29 February 2008

 http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-32224520080229


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dandelion salad
- Homepage: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/opposition-party-leader-we-must-do-to-hamas-what-the-us-did-to-japan/


Really

16.01.2010 17:39

It's not really true that Israel "Exists because of the Holocaust". It exists because the Zionist movement were succesful is it's nationalist objectives. The Zionists benefited from the support of Hitler, the anialation of their socialist adversaries; and more importantly from the Balfour Declaration; but it was their own direct action that was most significant. Israel exists because the US wants control of Middle Eastern oil.

Against Nationalism
- Homepage: http://www.marxists.de/middleast/brenner/


WAR

19.01.2010 09:48

It is odd that the Censors should suppress the idea that Israel came into existence because of the Holocaust and allow to stand the comment that denies it and claims that pure Zionism was enough to create Israel as a Country.

The torrent of people who created Israel were driven by the Holocaust, the World horror at the Holocaust enabled them to Establish a Jewish State.

It is saddening that few Arabs make that connection, and that Indymedia hide proposals that could help bring Peace.

Talibanwr


WAR

19.01.2010 09:49

It is odd that the Censors should suppress the idea that Israel came into existence because of the Holocaust and allow to stand the comment that denies it and claims that pure Zionism was enough to create Israel as a Country.

The torrent of people who created Israel were driven by the Holocaust, the World horror at the Holocaust enabled them to Establish a Jewish State.

It is saddening that few Arabs make that connection, and that Indymedia hide proposals that could help bring Peace.

Talibanwr