the only words of this article I can agree with are that the war on Gaza is not excuse for anti-Jewish racism. However, the intent of the article is reprehensible summed up by this para: The Gaza War has thus provided us with a new form of Holocaust revisionism that deflates what genocide is and inflates what is not genocide. Tied to passions of the Middle East conflict, it resonates among a broader audience than David Irving’s denial of gas chambers ever could. Indeed, this new Holocaust revisionism has created an unlikely alliance uniting progressive leftists, the far-right and many Islamic and Arab groups. Well these are the elements of the international legal definition of genocide (leave aside any human interpretation) which clearly apply to Israels seige on Gaza and its occupation of the West Bank, its continued incursion into what was meant to be a Palestinian state even according to the disgraceful carve up of Palestine by the UN with their (illegal under international law) settlements and their regular invasions and killing in the Gaza open jail they have created and enforced: The international legal definition of the crime of genocide is found in Articles II and III of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide: 1) the mental element, meaning the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such, and 2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called genocide. Article III described five punishable forms of the crime of genocide: genocide; conspiracy, incitement, attempt and complicity. ________________________________________ Excerpt from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (For full text click here) Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (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; ...________________________________________ Punishable Acts The following are genocidal acts when committed as part of a policy to destroy a group’s existence: Killing members of the group includes direct killing and actions causing death. Causing serious bodily or mental harm includes inflicting trauma on members of the group through widespread torture... Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to destroy a group includes the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival, such as clean water, food, clothing, shelter or medical services. Deprivation of the means to sustain life can be imposed through confiscation of harvests, blockade of foodstuffs, detention in camps, forcible relocation or expulsion into deserts. IF THIS ALONE IS NOT SUFFICIENT PROOF OF ISRAEL’S ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE WITH THEIR BLOCKADE OF GAZA Forcible transfer of children may be imposed by direct force or by fear of violence, duress, detention, psychological oppression or other methods of coercion. THINK OF THE NUMBERS OF CHILDREN IN Israeli jails often for the heinous crime of staging peaceful protests, throwing a few stones, but often simply for being Palestinian. ... Key Terms The crime of genocide has two elements: intent and action. “Intentional” means purposeful. Intent can be proven directly from statements or orders. But more often, it must be inferred from a systematic pattern of coordinated acts. Intent is different from motive. Whatever may be the motive for the crime (land expropriation, national security, territorrial integrity, etc.), if the perpetrators commit acts intended to destroy a group, even part of a group, it is genocide. The phrase in whole or in part is important. Perpetrators need not intend to destroy the entire group. Destruction of only part of a group (such as its educated members, or members living in one region) is also genocide. Most authorities require intent to destroy a substantial number of group members – mass murder. But an individual criminal may be guilty of genocide even if he kills only one person, so long as he knew he was participating in a larger plan to destroy the group. theage.au/comment/war-of-words-stokes-furnace-of-middle-east-20140731-zyxe0.html
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 01:03:01 +0000
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