Senator Bernie Sanders finally acknowledged the genocide as a genocide after almost two years of abominable atrocities committed in Gaza. He stated in an op-ed published on the website of his US Senate: “The intent is clear. Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, and that is unquestionable.
This declaration arrived too late, like other recent declarations from the UN and the IAG. However, it was included in a very problematic framework, making matters worse. In essence, Sanders suggested that “Hamas started it” before beginning his op-ed. This eliminates eight decades of plunder, ethnic cleansing, and victim-blaming as well.
This framing goes beyond being morally bankrupt to being legally irrelevant, and it sets a dangerous precedent for those who resist being repressed by any occupied or colonized people to lay down their weapons in order to avoid suffering the same fate as Gaza. Every oppressed population is screamed at by the world that their complete submission to those who want to eradicate them is essential for their survival, not international law or humanity.
Genocide is defined as “any of the acts that have been committed with the intention to completely or partially destroy a national, racial, or religious group” according to the 1948 Genocide Convention. The five prohibited acts include forcing the transfer of a population to the occupied West Bank, causing serious bodily or mental harm, intentionally creating conditions intended to cause physical destruction, and imposing measures to prevent births.
There are no asterisks or exceptions in the legal framework. “Unless you believe the other side started it,” is not a clause. No proportional genocide is mentioned in any paragraphs. There is no section that specifies the justifiable or implausible times for genocide.
Sanders acknowledges that Israel has a “right to defend itself,” which it does not in this case. A state cannot, under international law, assert that a territory is “foreign” and poses a threat to national security while also claiming control over it.
Israel’s construction of the apartheid wall was confirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its own 2004 decision. Because it occupies them, the ICJ ruled that Article 51 of the UN Charter, which permits a state to exercise self-defense, does not apply to Israel in the event of a Palestinian alleged threat.
Since 1967, Israel has sworn to a perpetual, unquestioned rule over Gaza’s borders, airspace, and territorial waters. It has for decades dictated what enters and exits, as well as who lives and dies. It does not have “the right to defend itself” from occupiers in full.
Sanders and others object to the Palestinians’ right to resist occupation under international law. The UN General Assembly’s Resolution 37/43 declared “the legitimacy of the struggle for independence, territorial integrity, national unity, and freedom from foreign dominance and occupation through all means, including armed struggle.”
This does not make it appropriate to attack people in the street. Palestinian resistance must follow international law and distinguish between combatants and civilians, just like it does for all other resistance. However, it implies that resistance itself is not inherently unlawful and that it cannot be used to justify genocide in response.
Sanders is not just victim-blaming when he acknowledges the genocide with “But Hamas.” He denies Palestinians the rights that international law specifically denies while affirming Israel’s rights.
Therefore, it is genocidal to start off the Gaza genocide with “But Hamas.” It suggests that a people’s ability to live peacefully without genocide depends on their complete pacifism, their willingness to accept their own oppression, and their “perfect behavior.” This premise would retroactively support every historical colonial genocide. German colonization of Namibia was averted by the Herero and Nama populations. That served as a justification for their genocide. White European settlers were fought by the Native Americans. That legitimized their complete extermination, right? Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe gathered for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and various resistance organizations. The gas chambers and concentration camps would have been justified by that.
In addition to erasing more than a century of history, Sanders is also getting into the “But Hamas” argument.
The genocide is not scheduled to end on October 7, 2023. It is the most extreme instance of a project that began in the late 19th century when Zionist settlers arrived with the intention of establishing a Jewish state with the highest number of Jews and Palestinians possible. More than 500 Palestinian villages and towns were razed by Zionist forces during the Nakba of 1948, resulting in the expulsion of 750, 000 Palestinians, or more than 50% of the original Palestinian population, from their homes. More than 15, 000 Palestinians were killed between 1947 and 1949.
The Israeli governments continued to pursue the vision of Greater Israel, which extended from the Sinai to the Euphrates River, throughout the next seven decades. Israel committed a crime that has been ongoing since October 7, 2023, but it did not suddenly commit genocide.
Yet, there are still those like Sanders who pick to blame Palestinians for their own extermination.
For a reason, a genocide is referred to as the “crime of crimes.” It embodies humanity’s acceptance that, regardless of context or provocation, some actions can never be justified and others can never be crossed. We have made it so that one group’s lives matter more than another’s when we start making exceptions and when we say “but they started it.”
Without asterisks, without exceptions, or without the comforting lies that allow the powerful sleep while children are torn apart or starved, history will assess whether we can see genocide for what it is. We do not just fail Palestinians if we don’t grasp this fundamental truth. We fall short of all oppressed, colonized, and occupied people who may one day be told that their resistance only serves to justify their extermination.
Source: Aljazeera
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