Israel, Genocide & Palestine
Genocide has been called “the crime of crimes.” Alas, mass murder is nothing new, but the term genocide is of relatively recent origin. It was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish lawyer, to describe the Holocaust and the Genocide of the Armenians. The UN passed the Genocide Convention in 1948, and it went into effect in 1951. “Never again” became an empty slogan; witness Bosnia, Rwanda, and most recently Gaza, Palestine. A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide. The panel determined that statements by top Israeli leaders, combined with a systematic pattern of military conduct, demonstrate a clear intent to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Speaker
Omer Bartov
Omer Bartov is a Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University. He is an award-winning scholar and historian. He is the author of many books, including Anatomy of a Genocide, Tales from the Borderlands, Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine, and Israel What Went Wrong?
Leonard Levy –
I listened to this hoping to hear a clear explanation of why Bartov charged Israel with genocide rather than say war crimes or why he would charge them with either. However I was greatly disappointed to find ( as is sadly typical or Pro- Palestinian accounts ) that both in his history of the conflict and discussion of the Gaza war he neglected to mention anything about Palestinian actions that threatened Israelis. I was very open to hearing his account but this made his entire account disappear into propaganda. How can you discuss the years from, ’20 to ’48 without Palestinian massacres of Israelis, without mentioning that Israel refrained from taking over the West Bank in 48 because they didn’t want to rule over a captive population , that they conquered the West bank after they were attacked by Jordan despite begging the King not to attack and that all the Arab countries refused Israel’s offers to return captured territories in exchange for recognition and peace. I’m not trying to deny Israeli responsibilities, but one sided narratives do no one any good. BTW – I imagine I will be attacked for saying this.