Can Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip really be called genocide?

A video has been posted on Facebook showing people it says have been killed during an IDF incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Comment added to the video:
“More grief for loved ones on the 46th day of Israel’s genocide in #Gaza #GazaGenocide,” the post claimed.

“Genocide in the Gaza Strip”, judging by the text, in the opinion of the author of the post, is an obvious fact that does not need to be proven. However, it is not so obvious.

Scanpix photo/Nuremberg Process

From the Nuremberg Tribunal to the UN Convention

Genocide is a relatively new concept. Her in 1944 proposed by a Polish lawyer of Jewish origin Raphael Lemkinasand it was later included in the documents of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal.

However, since there was no clear universally accepted legal definition of genocide at the time, the concept was descriptive rather than legal.

in 1944 in the work “Axis Power in Occupied Europe” (eng. Axis Rule in Occupied Europe) R. Lemkinas wrote on issues of international law (terrorism and destruction of national, religious and ethnic groups), then he used the term for the first time genocidebut this concept was legally defined only in 1946. In the indictment of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.

[1945–46min the Nuremberg process R. Lemkin was an assistant to Robert Houghwout Jackson, the main prosecutor of the United States of America.

in 1947 drafted a law on punishment for genocide, which was adopted almost without changes in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly how 12.09.1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Since then, this document has provided an interpretation of the concept of “genocide”. became the most authoritative and generally accepted definition.

For the purposes of this Convention, genocide is defined as the following acts which aim to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, namely:

(a) killing members of that group; (b) causing serious physical or mental harm to members of that group; (c) Deliberately creating living conditions for that group that are deliberately intended to physically destroy it in whole or in part; (d) the use of measures aimed at limiting the birth rate of people belonging to that group; (e) Forcible transfer of children from one such group to another.

Photo by Marcin Czerniawski/Photo by Unsplash/Genocide

Planned and targeted terror

When assessing the events in the Gaza Strip, two aspects must be kept in mind.

First of all, in 1948 The Convention does not provide for any quantitative criteria or criteria for the severity of the committed crimes to establish genocide.

In theory, even killing (injuring or expelling) several people can be considered a crime of genocide.

The second aspect is the presence of intent.

The crime of genocide is an act of violence or killing committed with the deliberate intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

Growing population

After the end of British rule in Palestine, violence between Jews and Arabs intensified, which in 1948 in May ended in war between the newly created state of Israel and its Arab neighbors.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have found refuge in the Gaza Strip. The invading Egyptian army occupied a narrow stretch of coast about 40 km long, stretching from the Sinai Peninsula to south of Ashkelon. Due to the influx of refugees in Gaza the population tripled up to approximately 200 thousand

Map of Israel

Currently, the population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is almost entirely Palestinian Arab.

The number of Arabs in Israel, since the founding of the country, grew up from 156 thousand In 1948, up to 1.2 million in 2001.

Israel Central Bureau of Statistics data2009 in September He lived in Israel 7,465,500 inhabitants, including 5,634,300 Jews, 1,513,200 Arabs and 318,000 other nationalities.

Worldpopulationreview.com data, skaičiuojamathat in 2023 Over 700,000 people will live in the Gaza Strip. population.

in 1950 Gaza had a population of 63,444. In the past year, 2022, they increased by 22,104 inhabitants in the Gaza Strip, ie 2.92 percent. annual positive change.

AFP/”Scanpix” photo/Abandoned cars in which Hamas attacked festival participants trying to escape

15min verdict: missing context. Considering the figures presented and the fact that Israel still has a significant population of Arab origin, as well as the fact that the population of the Gaza Strip is increasing, it can be seen that the statements about genocide are made without revealing the full context.

The publication was prepared in 15 minutes in partnership with Metawhich aims to stop the spread of misleading news on the social network. More about the program and its rules – here.