UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, International Court of Justice President: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Indigenous Palestinian People.
Category: Talks and lectures about Israel and genocide
Israeli ministers can go around making genocidal remarks about Palestinians, and the UK government won't even condemn them, let alone impose sanctions for the illegal outposts in the West Bank.
“The Palestinians, of course, want to enlarge the scope of that investigation to go beyond, or prior to 2014. And they also want to enlarge the scope of that investigation regarding the topics themselves. Because we all know that the ICC covers more than just war crimes. It covers war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, or crimes against peace, along with very specific criteria of crimes, including of course the crime of genocide. And all of these crimes can be argued, since 1948 until today, have actually been committed by Israel.”
Sarah Ihmoud: “BDS is one such opportunity for feminist praxis. As Israel’s ongoing settler project remains an enactment of genocidal violence against an indigenous people, through technologies of war, capture, and militarized dispossession… Feminist organizing in Palestine has been deeply invested in dismantling structures of settler colonialism and apartheid that place women and queer folk disproportionately in marginal positions. Like in other colonial and genocidal contexts, Israel has targeted the bodies and sexualities of Palestinian women, as symbolic peripheries of the Palestinian nation.”
“- Emma in Manchester asks “what language should commentators and journalists be using now? Are we looking at a genocide, as many Palestinians are saying? Are we now looking at a genocide or has there always been a genocide taking place?”
– Yes well, I think that the Nakba is not an event that we just commemorate, about something that happened 75 years ago. No. The Nakba has been ongoing ever since 1948. And when you look at it, the incremental genocide has never stopped. The destruction, the displacement, have never stopped.”
Sarah Ihmoud: My question is my first question, why has holocaust and genocide studies been so reluctant to call what is happening in Palestine a genocide? And what do you see as the intellectual and ethical task of scholars of mass violence in this moment?
Raz Segal: Actually, I think that I see significant change in the treatment of Israeli state violence. Apartheid policies and settler colonialism within Holocaust and Genocide Studies. This change has taken a long time and many- I think- will continue to push back, but our conversation today, for instance, organized by a center in this field of study, seems to me a part of this shift.
There’s also clear indications of this shift in scholarly journals and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. I can mention here two book forms published in recent years in the Journal of Genocide Research; one on the co-edited volume by Dr. Amos Goldberg and Dr. Bashir Bashir on the intertwined histories and memories of the Holocaust and the Nakaba, and another one- Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s last book on the Structural Everyday Brutalities of Israeli authorities against Palestinian children and youth, which she calls dechilding.
I think it was very significant that in both forms, in the Journal of Genocide Research, we saw multiple perspectives that demonstrate the great extent to which discussions about Israel, about Palestine, offer opportunities to delve into key issues in questions in holocaust and genocide studies.
… And with Palestinians- as a group that has faced and is facing the longest ever experience of forced displacement, the refusal of return to their villages, their towns, their cities, their homeland- Palestinian history is indeed central, I think, in holocaust and genocide studies, and becoming more and more so.
Finally, I want to mention that the fact that some institutes of global holocaust memory- and I’m thinking particularly here about the International Holocaust Rememberence Alliance, the IHRA- that these institutes have weaponized the discourse around antisemitism to shift the focus of the struggle against antisemitism away from Jews around the world, and only on to Israel. This effort, I think, has backfired and actually contributed to the centering of Israel and Palestine in holocaust and genocide studies.
“Concerning genocide: This is something I intend to look into very carefully. There is the question of intent that needs to be absolutely explored, investigated, and documented. So I know that many use the term genocide to already qualify what’s happening. I personally refrain from it because I want to be absolutely sure of the argument when I make it. And I will get there. I will get there, because I see what’s happening and there is a level of persecution and combination of violations that speak to genocide.”
“For them, our very existence intimidates them and our artwork humanizes us- Palestinians- and this does not serve their purposes. They want us to be portrayed as we are in the media- terrorists, people throwing rocks- this is the picture that they have in mind, and that’s why they didn’t like this piece of artwork. And I also think it comes as part of the genocide that Israel is committing against Palestinians, which comes at all levels. So we have the daily killings, demolitions, evictions, land theft, burning of trees, and all of that. And then we have a different level which is a cultural genocide, where they steal our food and they attack our art. They don’t want the word ‘Palestinian’ to be heard in the western world.”
“What we’re experiencing now is the attempted end of the long game of the Zionist project. And by that I mean: Netanyahu’s government is, I think, not something that he would like to have be more moderate. He has these extremists given strategic positions that are necessary to do in order to sustain his coalition, so that they could do the dirty work. He could stand by and puroport to be trying to moderate what was happening and keep good relations with the US and so on. It’s a little bit hard for him to do it and be with the genocidal kinds of settler violence that has been encouraged by members of the Netanyahu government. But what we’re seeing, I think, is this last phase of a settler colonial project… I agree with Michael [Lynk] that the UN is crucial in establishing what the proper contours of behavior are in a situation of this sort. It cannot change the behavior, but it can create symbolic understanding that is extremely important for civil socioety. Because it relies on this more objective presentation of the relevance of international law, the responsibility of civil society, the need for global solidarity that imposes real cost on Israel for continuing on this path of apartheid with its genocidal implicanions.“ (40:17)
Date and time Sat, February 18, 2023, 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM MST
Location 5615 14 Avenue Southwest Calgary, AB T3H 2E8 Canada
About this event 2 hours 30 minutes
Outcomes From the Fundraising
• Book: Palestine, Lost in a two state Solution by Colonial Practice of Forced Displacement, Genocide, Apartheid, Torture, Occupation, Physical and Sexual Abuse of Palestinian children.
• Creation of mini-Videos (1-3 min for social media) of the 22 book chapters
• 30-minute digital exhibition by picture / Videos from the information provided by the book.
• Conference after publishing the book
• Apply to Calgary Board of Education to include this book in the curriculum for high school
• Possibly a Board game on Apartheid and Genocide on Palestine, possibly
