YouTube and Website Comments

https://www.cuttingedge.org/newsletters/index.html

Old David Bay;

Genocide is a term that refers to the **deliberate and systematic destruction** of a group of people because of their **ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race**. The word was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer who studied the Nazi policies of mass murder during World War II. He combined the Greek word genos, meaning race or tribe, with the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. In 1948, (the same year that Israel officially became a nation) the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention, which defined genocide as any of the following acts committed with **intent to destroy, in whole or in part**, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Genocide is considered one of the most heinous crimes against humanity and a violation of international law. Genocide and ethnic cleansing are both terms that describe the **deliberate and systematic destruction** or **removal** of a group of people because of their **ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race**.

Ethnic cleansing is a term that refers to the process of **removing** a specific group of people from a certain area based on their race, nationality, religion or other identifying principles. Ethnic cleansing does not necessarily involve the **intent to kill** a group, but it often results in mass deaths, rapes, tortures and displacements. Ethnic cleansing is not recognized as a crime under international law, but it is considered a crime against humanity. The term ethnic cleansing was first used in the 1990s to describe the atrocities committed by Serbs against Muslims and Croats in the former Yugoslavia and that is what is taking place in Gaza right now.

The difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing is not always clear-cut, as both crimes involve violence and persecution against a targeted group. However, genocide focuses more on the **annihilation** of a group, while ethnic cleansing focuses more on the **separation** of a group from a territory. The greatest overlap between genocide and ethnic cleansing occurs when forced removal of population leads to a group's destruction.

The world is now seeing the removal of the Palestinians from one area to another. Taking place now is ethnic cleansing with the intent of Israel to take over the entirety of Gaza and establish Jewish settlements in the region now known as Gaza.

Israeli American scholar Omer Bartov, one of the world’s leading experts on the Holocaust, says Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza Strip is at risk of becoming a genocide. The month long air and ground war has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave, a majority of them women and children. Israel has also severely limited the movement of food, water, fuel, medicine and other essentials into Gaza. Bartov says the disproportionate killing of civilians by Israel, as well as dehumanising statements by Israeli leaders and suggestions of mass expulsion, are of grave concern. He recently joined hundreds of lawyers and academics in signing an open letter warning about Israel’s violations of international law in Gaza. “There is an indication that there are war crimes happening in Gaza, potentially also crimes against humanity,” says Bartov. “If this so-called operation continues, that may become ethnic cleansing … and that may become genocide.” end of quote

However, it is clear enough that this individual has his priorities mixed up as we have already seen Genocide, but what the world is now seeing is more than that, it is ethnic cleansing.

Blessings