• OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m not sure what else the intent could be. If I lock someone in a room and eventually stop pushing food and water under the door for them what else am I doing but killing them on purpose? I honestly don’t understand how else this can be interpreted. I don’t even think this is really a matter of opinion.

    • galloog1@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      Is it really that inconceivable to you that a blockaid had a military purpose? Were all the blockaids in history considered genocide?

      • المنطقة عكف عفريت@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        A military blockade on a civilian area?

        People detained in unknown locations?

        Constant shelling of schools and hospitals?

        Withholding medical supplies?

        People left to die from preventable diseases in a preventable siege?

        153:10 at the UNGA, with only ten countries (including the US and Israel, or “Azrael” as my grandma liked to call them) standing in the way of a humanitarian ceasefire?

        Sounds like a pretense to genocide to me.

        • galloog1@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          9
          ·
          1 year ago

          Literally all of this was happening in Ukraine and nobody serious was calling it a genocide. It is just urban warfare. It sucks but it is not genocide.

              • galloog1@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Putin’s actions have not been found to be genocide by anyone reputable. I can say that while being vehemently against the invasion and all it stands for and additionally supporting Ukraine in every capacity.

                Words matter. They are important to understand.

                You have not gotten me in any logical inconsistency despite thinking you have. Genocide is an important concept to understand so you do not water it down when it actually happens. If every action in war is considered a war crime, no actions are war crimes and people will not believe your claims when you make them.

                  • المنطقة عكف عفريت@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    Edit: before you read this, it’s worth noting the following:

                    you’d also have to say that if I don’t know what genocide means,

                    I wasn’t replying to you… I was replying to @galloog1@lemmy.world, so not sure why you took it as a response to you? Maybe a technical error? In any case I don’t agree.


                    You said:

                    oh, so you do acknowledge that Putin’s actions have also been called genocidal,

                    My conclusion is that you must have been sniffing glue because how else would you “read” this in my comments above… Then you do some more analysis of what I mean and believe, but all of it is bullshit standing on the one-legged “conclusion” that you made.

                    Now to your links…

                    The first is titled something completely unrelated to start with: UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine finds continued systematic and widespread use of torture and indiscriminate attacks harming civilians. No one denies this.

                    It goes on to read:

                    “The Commission is also concerned about allegations of genocide in Ukraine. For instance, some of the rhetoric transmitted in Russian state and other media may constitute incitement to genocide. The Commission is continuing its investigations on such issues.”

                    Good, there we have it then. Putin is bad, etc, but there doesn’t seem to be much that that commission has found except for rhetoric in Russia, but generally Putin’s actions are those of an invader, and if more inquiries are made about genocide in Ukraine, I would be an idiot to deny that.

                    The second link is an entire document dedicated to genocide against Palestinians. Something that has been ongoing for over 7 decades. The title reads “Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”

                    Not an inquiry. Not based on “rhetoric in the media”, but based on Israel’s continued aggression.

                    In any case, it seems that Russia is only brought to comparison here just to make Israel look like a “poor victim of double standards”. You know, not from your genuine interest in human lives or anything… just the genuine interest to make Israel’s actions acceptable.

            • galloog1@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              3
              ·
              1 year ago

              Well, at least you are consistent about not understanding the differences between war and genocide.

      • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Gaza has been blockaded for almost 20 years. It’s the complete stopping of food and water for months that makes it genocide, yeah. Combined with all the bombing etc. Are you being serious?

        If you show me any analogous situation to Gaza then yes you will show me another genocide. Feel free to give an example you think is similar but widely accepted as fine.

        Edit: still absolutely reeling over this: “Oh so you’re saying that every case of mass civilian starvation is genocide?!” Err… yeah?

        • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          16
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          The word genocide has been over-used and diluted. It should only be used sparingly if you want it to retain any meaning at all. Hitler actually attempted to exterminate the Jews. That is the modern canonical example for genocide, but there are many historical examples as well (Carthage, etc.). Israel isn’t doing anything like that. You are just playing word games with an ambiguous definition.

            • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I hope they read it. This post was what made me start openly calling it genocide. It’s a weighty word to use but that’s why it’s important to do so when it is actually happening. You can’t promise “never again” if you don’t remember what it even is.

            • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              9
              ·
              1 year ago

              Ah yes, comparing 18,000 people dead as the result of collateral damage in dense urban warfare to the systematic round-up and extermination of 6 million Jews by Hitler. Makes perfect sense. What was I thinking?

              • المنطقة عكف عفريت@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                We’re on our way to get to 6 million. This is the world failing to stop a full blown genocide from resuming.

                Imagine yourself saying that at the beginning of the holocaust when the humber of casualties was only 18k.

                That would be disgusting wouldn’t it?

                I think no one except for supporters of Israel would dub this was “collateral damage”. Literally no one else agrees.

                Disturbing.

          • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            10
            arrow-down
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            I literally gave the official UN definition and argued a specific point regarding it.

            • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              arrow-down
              10
              ·
              1 year ago

              Yes, I know. I’m saying that the definition can be read expansively or narrowly, and when it is read expansively, it loses some of its impact. To my mind, putting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the same category as Nazi death camps is somewhat problematic. Do you disagree?

              • BassTurd@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                9
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                I disagree. Genocide doesn’t list a minimum number of causalities to be considered genocide. If I go out and kill one person, that makes me a murderer. If I kill a couple of people, that makes me a serial killer. If I kill less people than John Wayne Gacy, does that suddenly mean I’m not a serial killer, because his serial killing was worse?

                Just because the atrocities committed in Israel aren’t as significant as those in Nazi Germany doesn’t mean it’s not a genocide.

                • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  7
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I don’t necessarily disagree with you. Obviously, the UN has had a hard time coming up with a definition of genocide that is both inclusive and impactful. I think your counter-examples actually underscore my point that there are some concepts that are hard to adequately capture under a single category. That’s why, for example, we have different categories for different types of homicide: first-degree murder, second-degree murder, felony murder, manslaughter, negligence resulting in death, etc.

                  Definitions are hard and somewhat arbitrary, but we all have an intuitive sense of degree. My point is that the expansive definition dilutes it’s effect.

                  • المنطقة عكف عفريت@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    4
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    My point is that the expansive definition dilutes it’s effect.

                    Are you sure that that’s your point? Because to me it sounds like you nitpicked this one genocide here (maybe because it’s painful to believe) and decided it can be excluded from a definition over a self-proclaimed technicality that you just came up with?

                    It feels like everything you are saying is just because it rubs you wrong to say the Jewish state of Israel is committing a genocide and a continued ethnic cleansing. I am not saying that this is your argument, I’m just saying that that is how you come off.

              • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Yeah I do. I don’t see how it’s problematic. They don’t have to be equally bad to be in the same category.

                The conflict itself obviously is not in this category. This particular bout of conflict, progressively reducing the “safe” zones in Gaza (while bombing them anyway), calling Palestinians “animals”, cutting off food, water, medical supplies, connectivity and more, stripping people and taking photographs of them, putting hospitals under siege, and all of the daily horrors we’ve been reading about. That is something else.

                To say this isn’t genocide because there are no gas chambers would be missing the point, I think. Hitler really gave a text book example. Israel is being a bit less obvious but the result is the same. Death and displacement of the unwanted.

                • sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  4
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Okay, let’s set aside magnitude then. Definition of genocide includes the aspect of intent. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people. Not “people”, but “a people”, meaning basically a nation/race/tribe/etc. I don’t think that Israel is attempting to kill “the Palestinian people”. Do you?

                  • OccamsTeapot@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    3
                    arrow-down
                    2
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Yeah I do! In fact that’s why I started this discussion with the example of the purposeful starvation and cutting off of water to Gaza. In my opinion this is an example of intentionality. This is not an accident or just a “side effect” or something. It is done purposefully. In the UN’s language, it is “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”

                    You say…

                    Not “people”, but “a people”, meaning basically a nation/race/tribe/etc. I don’t think that Israel is attempting to kill “the Palestinian people”

                    But the reality is that it’s “In whole or in part,” and Gaza is part of the Palestinian people. The important part isn’t the % intended to be killed. It’s primarily why they’re killed, and more specifically, if they are killed because they are members of a group. This is unavoidably true in Gaza.

                    You can see the issues with your take in other cases. The Cambodian genocide is a widely recognized genocide. They killed 25% of the pop and probably always intended to keep enough alive to run the farms. So not “The Cambodian people,” as a whole, but it doesn’t really matter.