My leftist friends (and I do have a few) accuse Israel of genocide. This is because of the pictures of civilians, women, and children killed in Gaza. However, not only is the definition of genocide abused by them, but the figures of civilian deaths are exaggerated. In an Orwellian reversal, those nations and parties calling for the genocide of the Jews are given a pass, and Israel defending itself against genocide is called the perpetrator of genocide.
Here is the definition of genocide in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (No. 9, 1948).
Genocide is the carrying out of one or more of five specific war crimes with the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious groups.”
It includes killing people simply because they are members of a group. The second is “causing bodily or mental harm to members of the group.” Inflicting “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction,” preventing births, and abducting children.”
One can readily see how this definition is so connected to the Nazi regime in Germany.
Let’s then look at Gaza. South Africa (very anti-Israel due to Israel’s relationship with the apartheid regime in the past) asserts in its war crimes case before the International Criminal Court, that Israel deliberately killed 23,570 innocent Gazans. Hamas claims the number is 41,000. But Professor Abraham Wyner, a statistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, notes that these figures are wrong. Even the U.N. has not accepted these figures and asserts the lower number. Hamas blames every death in Gaza on the Israel Defense Force and does not distinguish between civilian and military deaths. Estimates are also that friendly fire deaths from Hamas misfired rockets are many, plus natural deaths of 2.9 percent average would be 6,200 plus. We are looking at over 8,000. The estimate is that 17,000 Hamas soldiers have been killed.
Adding all this up, the non-combatant deaths in Gaza are close to 1.2% which is far lower to the average of 1.9% in modern urban warfare. John Spencer, the West Point urban war expert, notes this as the lowest percentage in urban war in history. On the issue of babies, 5,522 babies have been born per month in Gaza according to Save the Children NGO. The pre-war rate was 4,783.
These statistics are in spite of the fact of the massive human shield operation by the terrorist Hamas organization. We see the same strategy with Hezbollah. Seek genocide against Israel while gaining the worlds sympathy when human shields are killed. It brings us to Golda Meier’s famous statement that peace will come when the terrorists are more concerned about protecting their children than killing ours. (my slight paraphrase) NO, THERE IS NO GENOCIDE BY ISRAEL, NOT EVEN CLOSE.
But where is the UN on real genocide against the Kurds, Syria, Darfur from Sudan. South Africa leader posed with the Sudan general Daglo who murdered 15,000 beloinging to the ethnic minority. Turkey exacts a terrible toll on innocent Kurds. Where is their self-determination? The Syria kills over 500,000. But the world is largely silent but very loud against Israel.
I was aided in research by Iam Neubauer. His article in the Oct. 25 Jerusalem Post gave a good summary.