Also, throwing around ‘genocide’ which is a very specific international legal term, diminishes it and the user.
Article Two of the convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such":
- Killing members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
The fact that the high birth rate in Gaza and the West Bank prior to Oct 7 proves that there was no ‘genocide’ of Palestinians.
The ICJs interim judgement on South Africa's Genocide case did not order an immediate ceasefire. It warned Israel to effectively stay tightly within its remit, and while doing so supply aid, food and water to the civilians. The judgment also called for the release of the hostages.
War is awful, the deaths are distasteful and deeply saddening, but please place the blame where it belongs, at the feet of Hamas.
Hamas leaders could surrender and release the hostages but they won’t.