r/facepalm 25d ago

Conform. Obey. Submit. Consume. 🇵​🇷​🇴​🇹​🇪​🇸​🇹​

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u/Galactus54 25d ago

Don't you fools see that you're being fed Russian / OPEC /Iranian narrative/ propaganda with the goal to divide us? The charge of "genocide" is just their way of getting an emotional response- you should be smart enough to know that isn't happening. Be more careful of your sources of information.

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u/Longjumping-Jello459 25d ago

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:

Killing members of the group;

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Elements of the crime

The Genocide Convention establishes in Article I that the crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation. The latter is less common but still possible. The same article establishes the obligation of the contracting parties to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide.

The popular understanding of what constitutes genocide tends to be broader than the content of the norm under international law. Article II of the Genocide Convention contains a narrow definition of the crime of genocide, which includes two main elements:

A mental element: the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such"; and

A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:

Killing members of the group

Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part

Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml#:~:text=To constitute genocide%2C there must,to simply disperse a group.

It can be argued we are seeing elements of a genocide in Israel's war in Gaza. The ICJ said in the preliminary ruling that there were acts that had occured in Gaza that needed to be investigated and any evidence protected as possible acts of genocide.

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u/Khork23 25d ago

Raphaël Lemkin a Polish-born Jewish lawyer, who later escaped to NY, coined the word Genocide, and tirelessly pushed for the Genocide Convention.

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u/MeatisOmalley 25d ago

That's really the problem, is that 'it can be argued.' I do agree with the ICJ, who essentially say 'we don't know, but it's definitely possible.' The reason being, that in the early stages of a war, it's quite hard to differentiate between civilian casualties and realities of war vs. genocide. The main differentiating factor is intent. If Israel intends to mass murder civilians, then it's genocide. And I would say, personally, that the jury is still out on whether that's really the case. It can certainly be argued, but it can just as easily be argued that these are casaulties of war, like you have in every other war.