Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin coined it in 1944 to describe the deliberate destruction of ‘a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’.
asserted
Lemkin → coin → group
To him, it was personal: much of his own family had been butchered in the Holocaust.
asserted
much → butcher → Holocaust
Now, like so much else in our overwrought public sphere, a term coined for humanity’s most appalling atrocities has been drained of meaning.
asserted
term → coin → meaning
Everything from desiring a moderately sane immigration policy to refusing to call biological males ‘women’ is now labelled a ‘genocide’.
asserted
Everything → desire → males
Every day, UN bureaucrats (usually hailing from some psychopath-run hellhole), screeching Amnesty activists, Left-wing MPs, thuggish Islamists and, inevitably, the BBC line up to damn the world’s only Jewish state.
asserted
bureaucrats → hail → state
Last week, rapper Macklemore used an Ed Sheeran concert to denounce Israel’s conduct in Gaza, triggering a row that saw him dumped from the tour.
asserted
him → use → tour
Other support acts and members of Sheeran’s backing band then quit in ‘solidarity’, forcing the singer to make a public apology on stage in Philadelphia on Saturday.
asserted
acts → back → Saturday
Earlier this month, more than 5,000 figures from entertainment, academia and public life signed an open letter rejecting the genocide accusation.
asserted
figures → sign → accusation
Yet they are vastly outnumbered by those using Gaza to display their ill-informed virtue.
asserted
they → outnumber → virtue
The cumulative effect of all this is not just to slander Israel for fighting a war but to excuse the genuinely genocidal terror group Hamas for starting it.
asserted
effect → slander → it
But ‘genocide’ does not describe the numbers of people killed, buildings destroyed or bridges blown up, writes David Patrikarakos
Never forget, the Gaza war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas and other Palestinian gunmen murdered roughly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, with victims raped, mutilated and tortured.
asserted
victims → describe → hostages
Israel went to war the next day to dismantle an Iranian-backed terror enclave on its border that no sovereign nation would tolerate – and to restore the deterrence that guarantees its survival.
asserted
that → go → survival
None of that would warrant genocide.
asserted
None → warrant → genocide
But it is impossible to assess a war honestly while ignoring how and why it began.
asserted
it → assess → war
Its images of death and destruction have horrified me, as they have in other wars I have covered.
asserted
I → horrify → wars
But ‘genocide’ does not describe the numbers of people killed, buildings destroyed or bridges blown up.
asserted
genocide → describe → bridges
It has a strict legal definition, laid down in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
asserted
It → have → Genocide
The term demands evidence of the intent to destroy a people.
asserted
term → demand → people
Article II states: ‘Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
asserted
Genocide → state → group
And as Jeffrey Blackett, Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces from 2004 to 2020, told me: ‘The charge of genocide against Israel is absolute nonsense.
asserted
charge → tell → Israel
It simply doesn’t accord with the law.
asserted
It → accord → law
‘There is no evidence that the Israelis are trying to destroy the Palestinians, Gazans or any other nation.
asserted
Israelis → be → Palestinians
They are involved in a war against terrorists, and it may be that some of their actions are disproportionate.
uncertain
some → involve → actions
But that doesn’t make it genocide – the deliberate destruction of a human group.
asserted
it → make → group
This definition must be rigidly adhered to.
asserted
definition → adhere → ?
So how can we be sure the Israelis are not seeking to destroy the Palestinians as a group?
asserted
Israelis → seek → group
More than 70,000 Gazans have been reported killed (out of a total population of about 2.3 million).
asserted
Gazans → report → million
Given its military capabilities, Israel could exterminate every Palestinian in Gaza within days.
uncertain
Israel → give → days
If genocide were the goal, it would have happened long ago.
asserted
it → happen → ?
I’ve reported from Gaza: its warren of alleyways, packed apartments and throngs of people would be a nightmare for any army.
asserted
warren → report → army
Ed Sheeran and rapper Macklemore perform together at the 2014 iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas
Hamas is dug in under hospitals, mosques, hundreds of miles of tunnels and thousands of booby-trapped homes.
asserted
Hamas → perform → homes
It weaponises every building and civilian it can.
asserted
it → weaponise → building
John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, told me: ‘I would assess Israel’s conduct in Gaza as being in strict adherence to the law of armed conflict’ – adding that Israel has gone further in civilian-harm mitigation than any case he has examined.
Leaflets, calls and texts warning of attacks; humanitarian corridors and pauses in the fighting to move civilians out of harm’s way.
asserted
he → tell → way
‘To say that Israel is trying to destroy, in whole or in part, the entire people of Gaza is counter to everything they’ve done since October 7,’ he added.
asserted
he → say → October
If you want to wipe a people out, you don’t text them where the bombs are going to fall.
asserted
bombs → want → them
Yoav Gallant was the defence minister, not some shock-jock blowhard, when on October 9, 2023, he announced a ‘complete siege’ of Gaza – ‘no electricity, no food, no fuel ...
asserted
he → announce → Gaza
We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.’
asserted
we → fight → animals
Repugnant words, which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) itself noted.
asserted
Court → note → Justice
But Gallant was talking about Hamas, not the civilian population – ‘the Isis of Gaza’, he called the terror group.
asserted
he → talk → group
And what happened next?
asserted
what → happen → ?
…and 38 more, not listed.
The Aporia
