The past few years, there has been lots of talk about genocide in Gaza. Everyone seems convinced that the Israeli government is committing genocide against the people of Gaza, and has been since the Gaza war began in 2023. Not only is this false, but this claim of genocide is, I believe, directly working against the peace process, and is doing irreperable damage to the world. I am going to try my best to explain why this is the case and why everyone who believes in the Gaza genocide needs to reexamine the facts of this immesurably complex conflict. If you truly care about the people of Gaza, you need to be educated about what is actuall happening.
What is genocide?
Genocide is a specific crime, with a specific defintion. According to the UN "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide", adopted in 1948, "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." Intent is key here. Genocide is NOT a buzzword that means "a lot of people dying". It is a definable crime with incredibly serious implications. If we start calling every war a genocide, we will be unable to name actual genocides when they are occuring.
If an armed group is fighting a war and people are dying. That is not genocide. If the armed group went in with the EXPLICIT INTENT to wipe out a population using the methods listed above, THAT is genocide. This does not excuse any war crimes committed. It does not mean everything is alright, war is hell and brings nothing but misery. But a war on its own, no matter how brutal the fighting, isn't genocide.
What is Israel doing?
Israel is responding militarily to a terrorist attack that murdered around 1,200 people. Proportionally, if that were to happen to the United States, it would be 36,000 Americans dead. You cannot murder that many people and expect the other side to not retaliate. From the beginning, Israel's primary war goal was to eliminate Hamas. I remind you, Hamas is NOT a soverign state. It is a fundementalist religious terrorist organization that is, at its core, no different from ISIS or Al-Qaeda. As such, they do NOT play by the rules of war in international law.
For Israel to be comitting genocide. The wargoal of the IDF has to explicitly and obviously be to erase every Gazan in the strip. There are sick people in the Israeli government that want to do this. But it is very important to understand that this is NOT the majority of those who are fighting in Gaza. The stated war goal by the majority of IDF soldiers is defending their home from a terrorist group that commited crimes against humanity. Of course, this does NOT excuse war crimes that have been comitted. War crimes happen in every war. It is evil, but it is not uniquely evil. War crimes DO NOT equal genocide. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But they are not genocide. We can't let the term become muddled. Intent is required, and it has NEVER been Israeli policy to target civilians.
In fact, Israel has taken steps to ALLIEVATE civilian casulities. A few months ago, Israel, and the EU, announced a whole slew of new aid distribution centers.As well as collaborating with Egypt and Jordan to facilitate aid. Why, why would they not only allow aid in the parts of Gaza they control, but FACILLITATE it. This isn't what you do if your goal is for every Gazan to die. Hamas deliberetly uses human shields to maximize civilian casualities. This puts Israel in an incredibly complicated and unprecedented position. They can either fire at Hamas and risk civilian casulities, or try to save more civilians and risk Hamas getting off unscathed. Think about how fucking sick that is. They do not care about Gazans. They don't use the billions in revenue they have to build bomb shelters for Gazans to stay in. Instead, they spend it on endless weapons. Meanwhile, the IDF warns Gazans to keep away from warzones. IDF soldiers have been shot and killed because the IDF called off operations that could have led to civilian casualites. Why would a military force aiming to commit genocide against a population actively warn them to stay away from conflict zones? Why would they call off operations if it means dead civilians?
They do that because this is a war and not a genocide. It was never a genocide. The only genocide attempted was when Hamas invaded, aiming to kill every Jew they could find. And any non-Jew who refused to cooporate. If you don't believe me when I say this isn't a genocide