I am disturbed by the CHOICE of certain leftists to argue that what is happening in Gaza meets some current technical definition of the word Genocide but primarily upset that it seems to be dividing those of us who honestly want peace in the region, and creating a false unity on the left between those who want a peaceful solution and those who actually support Hamas.
The word genocide was created by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to describe the unique phenomenon of what the Nazi’s did to the Jews. Think about the numbers for a moment. In 1939, there were 16.6 million Jews worldwide, and a majority of them – 9.5 million, or 57% – lived in Europe. Ultimately, Hitler killed approximately 6 million Jews which was more than 63 percent of the Jews in Europe and 36 percent of all of the Jews worldwide. He clearly intended to kill more (all of them) if the war had not gone badly for the Nazis. Co-incidentally, the Jews did not start a war against Germany that provoked the genocide against them.
There were approximately 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza and another 3.2 million Palestinians in the West Bank at the time Hamas started this war in October 2023. According to Hamas there have been approximately 50 thousand civilians killed since the war began on October 7. That number of course is suspect because it is from Hamas but let’s assume for the purpose of this discussion that it is true. That means that approximately 2.5 percent of the population of Palestinians in Gaza and about 1 percent of the population of Palestinians in the region have been killed.
Hitler killed 63 percent of the Jews in Europe, Israel has killed perhaps as many as 2 percent of the Palestinians in Gaza. 63 percent vs 2 percent is a significant difference. If the world has now chosen to change the meaning of the definition of genocide to include the killing of 2 percent of a population, then it needs once again to find a different word to describe the much more atrocious killing of 63 percent of the Jews in Europe by the Nazis. Unless perhaps the intent of calling what is happening in amongst the pro Hamas activists is to minimize the significance of the holocaust. I believe that some of those who began to call what is happening in Gaza a genocide are actually Holocaust deniers and antisemites who have that as their goal.
It is simply not clear if 50,000 is an accurate count of the number of Palestinians who have died in Gaza. It is absolutely not credible to believe that all of those killed are civilians. Hamas, of course, has a strategic reason for wanting to exaggerate the number of Palestinians killed and to minimize the number of them who are “fighters” and not civilians. Let me be clear. I think that the death of a single innocent civilian during a war is a tragedy. I believe that there is a massacre going on and it horrifies me. But there is simply more to the story then just Palestinians being killed by Israelis. The other part of the story is significant.
The Nazi killing of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust had no purpose other than the extermination of the Jewish people. This war in Gaza started on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel and killed a total of 1,195 people including 736 Israeli civilians (36 children), 79 foreign nationals, and 379 members of the security forces. 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded while attending the Nova music festival. Hamas and its fighters also kidnapped more than 250 people and brought them back to Gaza as hostages. Hamas started this war (unlike the Jews in Europe).
None of us know for sure what efforts Israel has made to reduce the number of innocent civilians killed while they bombed Gaza and attacked Hamas. I would like to think that the IDF has tried to minimize civilian casualties, but I don’t have any way of knowing for sure. It is clear that Hamas has a strategy (in violation of international law) of hiding their fighters in tunnels underneath civilian locations and amidst civilian populations. Hamas vowed after October 7 that it intended to repeat its massacre in Israel if it could do so. Does anyone really think that Israel could have responsibly allowed Hamas to hide out among Palestinian civilians and not respond and simply release thousands of previously convicted terrorists in return for getting their hostages back and then waited for Hamas to strike again?
I don’t know that Israel has done its best to minimize the number of civilian deaths and if not that would be a war crime, but this is not an intentional extermination of the Palestinian people in anywhere near the same world view as what the Nazis did to the Jews. It just isn’t.
So why then, are so many seemingly intelligent people insisting on calling this a genocide?
I believe that some well-meaning people are merely caught up in the horror of what is happening in Gaza and trying to find the most provocative and extreme language to express their horror. Perhaps there is hope that by calling it a genocide they will make it stop.
I believe that some not so well-meaning people are enjoying the irony of accusing Israel (the descendants of survivors of the holocaust) of now being the perpetrators of a genocide. There is an antisemitic flavor to it for those who don’t really like Jews that much for their own reasons.
Finally I am convinced that the use of the Genocide language is being promoted intentionally by the Holocaust denying antisemites who hate Jews and wished Hitler had managed to kill more of us.
It doesn’t really matter to me to have a semantic argument about whether or not the current UN definition of genocide applies to the events in Gaza. What is happening in Gaza is not the same as what happened to the Jews in the 1940’s yet what is happening in Gaza if a horrific massacre of innocent people that I wish could be stopped.
There is definitely common ground between people like me (who want the massacre of civilians in Gaza to stop) and many of my former friends on the left. Their insistence on calling this a genocide prevents us from finding that common ground.
When I hear the word genocide being used by decent people on the left, I feel compelled to respond and we waste time discussing whether or not this is really a genocide rather than find our common humanity in our desire to end the war.