Thread by @ronnie_barkan

🧵Here are some thoughts on Israel committing The Crime of #Genocide which I wrote back in 2016 - in response to @Blklivesmatter excellent statement on Israeli genocide and white-supremacist @PeterBeinart's attempt to once again protect and promote Israeli #crimesagainsthumanity:

"Let's talk #genocide. First, I am very proud of #BLM for wisely acknowledging the genocidal tendencies of the State of Israel and for sticking to that language along with the natural demand for the end of ethnic-supremacy, occupation and #apartheid.

At the outset it should be made clear that there are (at least) two very distinct understandings of the term "genocide" - one which is the rigid legal definition of the term and the other involves the social, moral and historical understanding surrounding it.

PLEASE WATCH the wonderful Dr. Paul Behrens as he explains the striking differences between the two, as well as demonstrate them. For example, clear cases of what we, sane people, would regard as an act of #genocide like that which took place in Cambodia,

is *not* regarded as genocide from the strict legal perspective. While the Rwandan genocide *is* regarded as such, the Cambodian does not fall into the same legal category even though socially and morally speaking it is clear to all that both cases have the same characteristics

and were just as genocidal.
Onto Israel: During the latest #Gaza massacre we at Boycott from Within submitted a request to the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, charging Israel with this crime and urging them to carry out an investigation:
boycottisrael.info/content/citize…

While #genocide is regarded as "the crime of crimes" other crimes against humanity, such as the Crime of #Apartheid, also demand that the countries of the world intervene and put an end to it rather than actively support or be complicit.

Israel may easily be charged with a long list of crimes, including #crimesagainsthumanity, but there is no need to apply the legal yardstick in order to discuss Israel's genocidal tendencies and the sheer depravity of thought among *the whole* of Zionist-Israeli society.

The very Israeli identity is quite literally dependent on the denial of Palestinian identity, while in some cases it also denies their existence altogether. That may actually be the chief enabler of ongoing Israeli crimes.

From the legal perspective it may be that only incitement towards or the tendency for genocide can be demonstrated, rather than the Crime of Genocide itself, but from every other perspective it couldn't be any clearer:

95% of the water in Gaza is toxic as consequence of Israeli policy towards the people of #Gaza. Due to this policy, which is supported by the overwhelming majority of Israeli society and its parliamentarians, Gaza is expected to become uninhabitable by the year 2020.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense, again with the absolute support of Israeli society and its representatives, had formulated formulas for calculating the caloric intake of the people in the besieged ghetto. Whether they implemented the formulas or not is Irrelevant -

the very act of drafting them and the absolute, total acceptance, by Israeli society reveals the sheer monstrosity and Nazieske tendency among its leaders and just how accepting its public may be to the act of #genocide.

Such policies are not a new phenomena in Israel while the massacres it carries out are already a routine practice which hardly raises an eyebrow - just the act of "mowing the lawn" as they call it.

The voices currently challenging Black Lives Matter's use of "genocide" obviously come from those who openly advocate for such policies but also, and more importantly, from every libZionist mouthpiece which claims to be somewhat critical of Israeli policies -

they all stand unanimous in their opposition to BLM's phrasing and that is a very positive turn of events. BLM, by connecting the dots between ethnic-supremacy and white-supremacy, and by speaking a language which demands equality and justice,

has managed to pass the hurdle posed by the "white moderates", to use MLK's language. The "liberal Zionists" [like @PeterBeinart], those liberal supremacists who "are more devoted to 'order' than to justice and who prefer a negative peace which is the absence of tension

to a positive peace which is the presence of justice", carry on their glorious tradition of trying to dictate to the oppressed their means and way of struggle against oppression. Using the term genocide is a no-no not because it is irrelevant or misleading

(even though this discussion is important and worth having) - it is a bombshell because one cannot use such terms without pointing the finger at the 'liberal' society just as much as at the overtly racist.

Whether they are explicitly or implicitly racist and fascist makes no difference as none of them have ever opposed Israel's genocidal tendencies - quite on the contrary.

That language along with the simple understanding that follows, points the finger at the heart of the matter and that is what they are so concerned about.

/end🧵

Original facebook post: facebook.com/ronnie.barkan/…
@Blklivesmatter statement:
web.archive.org/web/2016081310…
@Mvmnt4BlkLives statement:
web.archive.org/web/2016080908…

@PeterBeinart undermining truth and justice:

https://twitter.com/PeterBeinart/status/761267697468530689

@dahliasc one more Zionist attempt at misinformation by @972mag:
web.archive.org/web/2022081118…
@DerfnerLarry another Zionist pundit with @972mag negates Israeli crimes: web.archive.org/web/2021033012…
@Yair_Rosenberg rabid libZionist on @tabletmag with the same shtick:
archive.ph/OJgoB