This Friday, 8 December, the Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide will mark the 75th Anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Secretary-General did not dare to use the word Genocide to describe the 24-hour live Israeli eradication of Palestinian babies and children in Gaza. According to his spokesman, it’s not up to the SG to determine this, but to the legal entities of the United Nations.
So, the ICC prosecutor, Mr. Karim Khan, was honored by an Elon Musk-like visit organized by Israel. Even though he was invited to visit Gaza to verify Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian people, the ICC prosecutor chose to settle for the Israeli version.
As for the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, she is not present.
Mukesh Kapila wrote an article recently to persuade readers that Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza cannot be classified as Genocide.
According to him, “the destructive ferocity of the Israeli action in Gaza cannot, by itself, be designated as genocidal.”
That is incorrect.
Article II of the Convention defines Genocide as ANY of the following acts ANY of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national or ethnical as such:
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Israel exceeded all the thresholds above by far.
Thus, Israel is committing a GENOCIDE.
Mr. Kapila further contends that if Israel wanted to eliminate Gazans “…we would not expect it to send warning messages to civilians to exit military operation areas, nor to accept evacuation routes or agree to humanitarian ceasefire and relief provision.”
Warning message?
Even Reuters was quoted stating: “Israel orders Gazans to flee, bombs where it sends them.”
Accept Evacuation route?
Even the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, that Israel cannot unilaterally transfer desperate Gaza civilians into so-called safe zones.
Agree to relief provision?
Mind you, Israel has just declared the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings persona non-grata because she made a statement highlighting the catastrophic situation in Gaza.
Kapila concludes by saying that even if a strand “of extremist Israeli politics expounds violent hate against Palestinians.. there is nothing to suggest that this is a formalized Israeli state policy”
Mind you, yesterday Israel president Isaac Herzog said: “This war is not only a war between Israel and Hamas, it’s a war that is intended, really, truly, to save Western civilisation. To save the values of Western civilization.”
Herzog and Israel’s narrative are repellent beyond belief for any person, nation, or civilization.
If this is indeed what Western civilization is, thank you. We do not wish to be converted.
This is a GENOCIDE in Plain Sight.
