Gaza: A Case of Genocide
In the wake of the Holocaust in the 1940s and earlier in the century the genocidal attacks against the Armenians by Turkey and the German slaughter of the Herero and Namaqua peoples in SW Africa, the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin coined the term genocide. In 1948 the UN adopted the Genocide Convention. On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a case with the UN’s International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Israel of the crime of genocide in its ongoing assault on Gaza. The Convention defines genocide as “the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” Israel has dismissed the South African charge calling it “meritless.”
Speakers
Adila Hassim
Adila Hassim is a South African lawyer, human rights activist, and senior counsel at Thulamela Chambers. She represented South Africa in the Gaza genocide case at the International Court of Justice in January 2024. She is also a co-founder of Corruption Watch, an anti-corruption organization, and a former director of litigation at Section 27, a public interest law center.
Richard Falk
Richard Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton. He is the co-convener of SHAPE, Save Humanity and Planet Earth. He is the recipient of the UNESCO Peace Education Prize. He served as special rapporteur for the United Nations from 2008-2014 on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. He is the author of numerous books including The Great Terror War, Unlocking the Middle East, Palestine: The Legitimacy of Hope and Chaos and Counterrevolution: After The Arab Spring. He is the co-author of Protecting Human Rights in Occupied Palestine.
Irene Gendzier
Irene Gendzier is Professor Emerita at Boston University’s Departments of History and Political Science and a member of the African Studies Center. She’s currently a research affiliate at the Harvard Center for Middle East Studies. She is the author of several books including Dying to Forget: Oil, Power, Palestine, and the Foundations of U.S. Policy in the Middle East.
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Stepping –
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