The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has released its provisional measures relating to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The first section reads:
The Court considers that, with regard to the situation described above, Israel must, in accordance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in relation to Palestinians in Gaza, take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of all acts within the scope of Article II of this Convention, in particular: (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; and (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group. The Court recalls that these acts fall within the scope of Article II of the Convention when they are committed with the intent to destroy in whole or in part a group as such. The Court further considers that Israel must ensure with immediate effect that its military forces do not commit any of the above-described acts.
While this ruling lacks any enforcement measures, it is still a win for South Africa and the world. The only way for Israel to effectively carry out these measures is to cease their military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. They refuse to do this and are continuing to carry out the genocide in violation of the ruling. The US continues to support Israel in this and are complicit in the genocide.
What is Genocide?
According to the United Nation Genocide Convention, genocide has a very clear definition. Article II of the Genocide Convention reads:
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
This is an accurate description of what is happening in Palestine today. There can be no doubt that Israel is killing and causing serious bodily and mental harm to members of the group (Palestinians). And with the ongoing famine, the blocking of aid, and the deliberate targeting of infrastructure, they are also inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. And Israel admits that this destruction of Gaza is their intent. Speaking of Palestinian civilians, Israeli President Herzog said on October 13, 2023:
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
This rhetoric has been echoed by other top Israeli officials. Israeli’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, said:
“This is civilization against barbarity. This is good against bad. This is people who basically act as animals and do not have any, any respect for children, women.”
And Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gollant has said:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.”
There can be no doubt that the occupying power of Israel is carrying out genocide in Palestine. Anyone who is denying this is denying reality.
The Biden regime could cut aid to Israel, but instead they decided to cut aid to UNRWA - the United Nations agency responsible for getting aid to Palestinians. This is in direct contradiction to the ruling of the ICJ, which called for more humanitarian aid, not less. They have also gone around congress to arm Israel, making them fully complicit in the genocide. Biden, Blinken, Austin, Sullivan, Nuland, and the rest of the crew have blood of Palestinian babies on their hands.
What about Ukraine?
On April 22, 2022, US President Joe Biden called the war in Ukraine a genocide for the first time.
“I called it genocide because it’s become clearer and clearer that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian. The evidence is mounting.” - US President Joe Biden
According to UN reporting at that time, Ukrainian civilian casualties stood at 2,435 killed and 2,946 injured.
This included:
a total of 2,435 killed (746 men, 469 women, 48 girls, and 66 boys, as well as 70 children and 1,036 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
a total of 2,946 injured (345 men, 274 women, 62 girls, and 67 boys, as well as 157 children and 2,041 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 2,439 casualties (1,012 killed and 1,427 injured)
On Government-controlled territory: 2,030 casualties (933 killed and 1,097 injured)
On territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 409 casualties (79 killed and 330 injured)
Deliberate targeting of civilians during wars is considered a war crime. Both sides have targeted civilian areas in this war and today the civilian casualties have surpassed 10,000. According to the latest AP reporting from January 16, 2024:
The confirmed number of civilians killed since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 is more than 10,200, including 575 children, and the number of injured is over 19,300, the U.N. humanitarian office’s operations director, Edem Wosornu, told the U.N. Security Council last Wednesday.
This is after 23 months of fighting and does not include civilians killed by Ukraine in their initial bombardment of the Donbass which began on February 16, 2022. While these casualties are tragic, there is nothing to indicate that they are part of a Russian led genocide. Rather they are the result of a proxy war created by the US and Ukraine in provoking Russia.
Over 10,000 civilians is certainly a large number, but it pales in comparison to US led wars. In 2023, Neta Crawford released a detailed study of the casualties in Iraq and Syria over 20 years starting with the initial US invasion in 2003. In the first month in Iraq, from March 19-April 19, 2003 the United States and their allies killed over 7,000 civilians. Over the entire 20 year period, Crawford estimates that between 325,641-348,985 civilians were killed directly by the war. This number does not include excess deaths due to privation and suffering caused by the war, which is much harder to estimate. It is likely the total number of civilian deaths due to the US war on Iraq and Syria is over 1 million.
And when compared to what Israel is doing in Palestine, the numbers simply don’t add up to a genocide. The 575 children killed by both sides in Ukraine over 23 months is awful and inexcusable, but Israel has been deliberately targeting women and children who make up 70% of the deaths in Palestine. Over 12,000 children have been killed in a little over 3 months in the genocide in Gaza.
While claiming Russia was carrying out a genocide, the US was simultaneously arming the Azov battalion in Ukraine. The head of the Azov Battalion, Andriy Biletsky, once wrote, “The historic mission of our nation in this critical moment is to lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival. A crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen.” If anyone wants to carry out a genocide in Ukraine, it’s Azov and the other Nazi battalions that are part of Ukraine’s army. They have been targeting ethnic Russians with genocidal intent since the illegal Maidan coup in 2014.
The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry in Ukraine has not found sufficient evidence to say that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine.
“At the present stage, we have still not concluded that there is a genocide [happening] in Ukraine.” - Erik Møse
To the best of my knowledge, there has been no investigation into whether the Nazi battalions of Ukraine are committing genocide. There is plenty of evidence that they are guilty of human rights abuses and war crimes though.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
This ethnic cleansing campaign has been going on for over 75 years since the Nakba in 1948 when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland. The ongoing genocide in Gaza is just a continuation of that process at an accelerated rate. The entire population of over 2 million Gazans have been displaced in this genocidal bombing campaign. The intentional targeting of civilians is on a scale similar to the Rwandan genocide of 1996.
The only way this stops is through a mass workers uprising against US and Israeli collusion. Biden could stop the bombing with one phone call like Reagan did in the 80s, but instead he continues to support the genocide. Here are the demands that Palestinian trade unions released to the trade unions of the world in October:
To refuse to build weapons destined for Israel.
To refuse to transport weapons to Israel.
To pass motions in their trade union to this effect.
To take action against complicit companies involved in implementing Israel’s brutal and illegal siege, especially if they have contracts with your institution.
Pressure governments to stop all military trade with Israel, and in the case of the US, funding to it.
So far, trade unions have largely failed to live up to these demands. The UAW has called for a ceasefire but then went on to endorse Genocide Joe. Individual protesters have blocked weapons plants and ports, but the mass action of the trade unions is not present. The workers of the world must unite to stop this genocide and overthrow the capitalist system that enables it.
Turns out Liberals fail at most everything, even genocide. I am no longer a liberal. I can't be okay with genocide. I can't be okay with Biden's horrible administration, I can't be okay with all the inequality and a dying planet; liberals are okay with all of it, they are stuck in the middle of the herd and they just follow. I refuse, I left the herd, I will not follow, I will never be okay with Genocide, I am ashamed of the US. Israel is evil and wrong and the genocide & occupation of Palestinian's must be stopped.
Ukraine is a war, Palestine is a genocide and liberals do their upmost to confuse their listeners about those two facts.
Really the word confuse is too light for the context. Lie or prevaricate suit the description of the deplorable framing of these two concurrent events given by liberal politicians and their cheer leading media.
The wholesale slaughter of Ukrainian soldiers dooms any future for that country. This sad fact goes unreported by our major newspapers. The terrible toll on Ukraine should lead the U.S. to call off the glorious march to Moscow, but Palestine gives the evidence that that will not occur.
The proverb that one reaps what one sows should terrify our ghouls in charge. It won't.