The New York Times Magazine has addressed "genocide," the word, in a lengthy article titled, "The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide.’" It's worth reading (if the paywall maintained by The Times will let you do that).
The word "genocide" is fraught, and that word, of course, is very much at issue as Israel continues to take actions in Gaza, and the West Bank, and in Lebanon that are horrific, that are killing tens and tens of thousands of persons, many of them children.
What Israel is doing in Palestine would be horrific beyond any precedent - except for the fact, of course, that there are so many precedents for what Israel is doing, destroying peoples' homes, and schools, and hospitals, and places of work, and delivering death sentences upon those who have never had a trial, whose "guilt," if any, has never been measured or judged. Given that so many of those being killed are children, it seems clear that there is, in fact, no "guilt" that could be shown to justify the deaths of those being bombed and burned.
Is what is happening in Palestine "genocide"? The signs and the chants on American campuses, and that were heard at the Democratic National Convention, all say, "Yes." The Times' article suggests that what is going on may well not be "genocide," and reports that "a reappraisal of genocide’s legal definition," is needed, and may, in fact, be underway. "Thinking like a lawyer," it does seem that there are substantial questions whether or not what Israel is doing is "genocide."
Let's not think like "lawyers." Let's think like human beings.
What is happening in Israel and Palestine - and what is happening elsewhere around the world - is, in fact, unconscionable and insupportable. The definition of "genocide" doesn't have to be modified, to make all of us aware of that. The real question - I think - is not whether or not "genocide" is occurring. What is occurring, by any name, is horrific and unsupportable. In Israel and Palestine - and everywhere around the world where nations, and people, are engaged in and preparing for the kind of death and destruction that is occuring in Palestine, we - the world, the United Nations, the nations of this world, must simply say, "no more."
Kris Kristofferson, who just recently died, at 88, has a line, in one of his songs ("Love Is The Way") that speaks to this point. In the video you can see by clicking this link, Kristofferson sings: "Look closer, my brother, we're killing each other."
We have to stop. We have to "call the whole thing off."
I suggest we not focus on words. I suggest we focus on the facts. Are we, citizens of the United States, implicated in what is happening [we are]? Are businesses in the United States making money from the destruction and death so readily visible in Israel and Palestine and elsewhere [they are]?
Are we prepared to learn what is happening - getting a full and fair account - and then use every political, economic, and social tool at our disposal to stop the destruction underway?
That remains to be seen, but that is what we need to do!
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