"Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people."
Israel is at war with Gaza because Gaza has attacked it on Oct 7th and is holding Israeli hostages and has continued an armed conflict with it since then. Previously Gaza has launched 10's of thousands of rockets into Israeli population centers, executed terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, etc.
The "current use" so to speak of the term is just to weaponize it against Israel as part of a long term strategy. So by that definition - you're absolutely right. In fact the term started popping up before Israel responded at all to Oct 7th. Since Oct 8th more or less.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/Ele...
Israel has been killing Palestinian civilians. Israel has been restricting food and medical supplies going to Palestinian civilians. All of that was beyond reasonable in regard to military objectives (e.g., bombing hospitals to take out a weapons stash). Israel's political and military leaders have expressed their opinions that Palestinians (not just Hamas or militants) are an ethnicity deserving punishment.
Note that, in the ICC's definitions, genocide does not require intent to eliminate the entirety of a group. It only requires targeting people based on their belonging to a protected group with the intent to diminish that group.
- Israel has been restricting supplies to the Gaza Strip, no to all Palestinians, as a result of a war. The Palestinian civilians are broadly the responsibility of their government who is refusing to end the war, stealing aid to finance its operations, and hoarding aid to enable the war to be prolonged. Just like North Korean citizens are the responsibility of the North Korean government (as one example) and the Russian citizens are the responsibility of the Russian government.
- Hamas is the elected government of Gaza.
- Various politicians in Israel made various statement. The official position of the government of Israel is that the war is against Hamas, not against Palestinian civilians. This has been said numerous time.
- Hamas makes extensive usage of hospitals and civilian infrastructure. Israel does not "bomb a hospital just to take out a weapons stash". Israel e.g. bombed near a hospital to kill Hamas military leaders in a tunnel. Or raided a hospital, while protecting civilians, to capture militants. Israel has supported the creation of field hospitals to ensure civilians can get some minimal care while Hamas is using the civilian infrastructure that was supposed to be for that purpose. https://gaza-aid-data.gov.il/main/medical-response/ Israel also facilitates moving of patients that can't be treated in Gaza to other locations. You are not going to find any example of a similar war situation where a one side has done more.
- Palestinians are not targeted because they are Palestinians or to diminish that group.
Israel has very much been targeting civilians.
> Civilian deaths have been a consequence of military objectives and actions
So you agree Iran's rockets were fired as a defense against the cowardly unprovoked attack by the genocidal Israeli? Those rockets killed some Israeli civilians but since
Why place your Israeli military next to civilians then? Sounds like you are using your civilians for human shields.
> While it's possible that some war crimes have been committed the official orders and policy is crystal clear
It's genocide and it's been verified by trusted third parties. We are supposed to take Israel's word for it? Especially considering Israel shoots journalists and aid workers, it's pretty clear the genocidal regime doesn't want the truth of their war crimes to come out.
Stop the genocide.
Are you including Palestinians that are Israeli citizens? The West Bank? Those living outside the region?
Word choice matters here.
Is Israel executing a plan to kill all Gazans?
I am 100% convinced Israel is not actually committing a genocide against Palestinians. That claim has no factual support. Do I agree with everything Israel is doing? No. Are there war crimes being committed by the IDF? Possibly yes, not necessarily different than any other modern war waged ever.
What would you suggest, based on Jewish ideology, should have been the proper response to Oct 7th? Would you go to war? Would you wage it differently? How would you deal with the realities on the ground?
Firing on people seeking food is not right.
The use of the word genocide, coined to describe the systemic murder of 6 million Jews for no reason, in this context, is very clearly meant as a form of diminishing/denying the Holocaust. There is just no other way to look at it. If Hamas was to surrender and return the hostages would Israel be sending all Palestinians to gas chambers?
"The word "genocide" was coined in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin. He combined the Greek word "genos" (meaning race or tribe) with the Latin word "cide" (meaning killing) to create the term. Lemkin used the word to describe the systematic destruction of groups of people, specifically referencing the Nazi's actions during the Holocaust"