There seems to be a lot of confusion about what constitutes a genocide and why it gets applied to Israel’s behavior in Gaza. Among those seemingly confused is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.), who was interviewed at some length about the issue on NPR in March.
To help dispel the confusion of Schumer and others, let us start with the internationally recognized definition of the term found in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was ratified and put into force in 1951.
This international convention was signed by both Israel and the United States, and it contains the legal definition of the term that all signatories should be using. Here is the definition:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group [emphasis added]
In the interview by NPR news host Scott Simon on March 15, Schumer apparently has his own definition of genocide:
Schumer: “And the one—if I can talk for a second, the one that bothers me the most is genocide, accusing the Jewish people or Israel of genocide. Genocide means you want to wipe…”
Simon: “Because of Israel’s policies in Gaza…”
Schumer: “Yeah…”
Simon:: “Which have…”
Schumer: “Which can be legitimately criticized as…”
Simon: “Yeah.”
Schumer: “…even I have done. But genocide is to want to wipe out a whole people. If Israel, unprovoked, invaded Gaza and started shooting at innocent Palestinian civilians, that would be genocide. But that’s not what’s happened.
“What’s happened is that Hamas has waged a very, very tough war. They went into Israel. They were vicious, almost to inspire—inspire—a tough retaliatory attack.”
Schumer claims that “genocide is to want to wipe out a whole people.” He is totally ignoring the phrase “in whole or in part,” which appears twice in the legal definition. The phrase “in part” clearly applies to some subset of a larger population. Palestinians living in Gaza and/or the West Bank would certainly qualify as a subset of the Palestinian people as a whole.
So, when Schumer says that “genocide is to want to wipe out a whole people,” he is conveniently ignoring the part of the definition that includes subsets of a people.
But there is another gigantic flaw in Schumer’s definition of genocide. He says that if Israel had done the things it is doing in Gaza “unprovoked,” it would constitute genocide—but as it was provoked, the very same behaviors are no longer genocide.
Where in the legal definition of genocide does it say anything like that? Is there an asterisk, a footnote somewhere, saying that if the offending party is provoked, they can go ahead and try to destroy an entire subset of a people?
Hitler claimed that what he was doing had been provoked by the actions of some Jews. Thus, he claimed that he was justified in punishing all Jews, not just the offending ones. That is group guilt and collective punishment, a war crime.
Collective punishment is clearly what is happening in Gaza these days. Schumer is conveniently ignoring all of this—and much to his discredit, Simon did not challenge Schumer on his misreading of the law.
Apparently, Schumer is also claiming that anyone who disagrees with him about the meaning of the term genocide and applies it to the actions of the Israeli government (not the Israeli people as a whole) is engaging in antisemitism. Antisemitism is a real problem, but it is a serious mistake to broaden the definition to include criticisms of the actions of the Israeli government.
These are not criticisms of the Israeli people as a whole, many of whom oppose the actions of their government. And it certainly is not a criticism of the Jewish people as a whole, as large segments of the Jewish population, both in the United States and abroad, oppose the actions of the current Israeli government. Many Jewish critics of Israel’s actions also call it a genocide.
This helps explain why so many of us who oppose the actions of Israel in Gaza and the West Bank call it a genocide. It clearly fits the internationally recognized definition of the term.
(Author’s note: If I were an international student or a green card holder, I might get deported for writing this article.)
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Gerry Bill is professor emeritus of sociology and American studies at Fresno City College. He is vice president and treasurer of the Eco Village Project of Fresno and, as such, oversees daily the operations of the Dakota EcoGarden. He is also on the boards of the Fresno Free College Foundation/KFCF, Peace Fresno and the Fresno Center for Nonviolence, and is past co-chair of the Central California Criminal Justice Committee.
The complete text of the Convention can be found here:
