Genocide? Really? - Column 16
REFLECTIONS Written by Lana Melman for the SOUTH FLORIDA JEWISH JOURNAL / SUN SENTINEL. Originally published on November 8, 2024.
The world is understandably alarmed over reports of Gazan children being injured and unsubstantiated claims of mass starvation. Hamas data claiming 42,000 Gazan deaths without distinguishing between combatants and noncombatants stirs emotions and is endlessly repeated by the international press.
Too often, people forget that Hamas reportage is notoriously inaccurate, and figures are frequently revised after an external investigation. Furthermore, Hamas data typically includes friendly fire on its soldiers as well as the accidental killing of civilians.
According to Israeli data, which has proved far more reliable, over 18,000 Hamas operatives have been eliminated in the past year. Although each noncombatant death, especially those of young children, is a tragedy, and assuming Hamas figures are remotely accurate, the noncombatant deaths are less than 1% of the population – horrible, yes, but not a genocide.
Merrium-Wester defines genocide as "the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group." The Israelis are not attempting to destroy the Palestinian people; they are seeking to dismantle the terrorist groups that seek their destruction and the eradication of all Jews.
In 1947, 1948, 2000-01, and 2008, the Israelis repeatedly offered to recognize a Palestinian state in return for peace. In 2005, Israel completely withdrew from Gaza (even removing the remains of loved ones from graves) and left behind thousands of greenhouses - a source of life and independence for the Palestinian people. Soon after that, Hamas destroyed all of the greenhouses.
Palestinian Israelis, who constitute nearly 20% of Israel's population, have equal rights - more rights than Arabs anywhere else in the Middle East - and are thriving. They are represented in all strata of society, including the Knesset, Israel's parliament, and Israel's Supreme Court.
The false label of genocide in Gaza is not just Nazi inversion - which likens Israeli actions to those of the Nazis - but degrades the horrendous suffering and mass murder of millions in real genocides across the globe and throughout history.
As a result of the genocide, the population of that nation or group dramatically decreases. The genocide in Cambodia in the early 1970s demolished the population by 21–26 percent, with the murder of 1.2–1.7 million people. The Armenian genocide in 1915/16 killed between 664,000 and 1.2 million of the 1.5 million Armenians living in the Turkish Empire at the time. The Rwandan genocide resulted in the murder of five hundred thousand to one million Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus, decreasing the country's total population by as much as 20 percent in 1994.
During the Holocaust, the Nazis killed 78 percent of Europe's Jewry, reducing them from 7.3 million to 1.4 million. To date, the Jews have still not recovered from that atrocity. In 1939, the global population of Jewish people worldwide peaked at around 16.6 million. The worldwide population of Jews today stands at 15.7 million.
On the other hand, the Palestinian populations in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem have grown exponentially, particularly since Israel captured the territories in 1967. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Palestinian population in Gaza in 1994 was 731,000. Today it is 2.3 million.
Anthony Cordesman, the dean of American Middle East military analysts, noted the increase "was the result of improvements in income and health services" made by Israel. Today, over 5.3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza. Rather than destruction, the Palestinian people have experienced consistent and even robust growth. This data alone should free Israel of any genocidal allegations.
The Holocaust is distinct from other genocides and not just because of its size. Unlike the genocides in the Balkans or Rwanda, for example, the Holocaust was not the outcome of years of feuding or hostility between parties; it was a systematic program of mass murder aimed at exterminating a race of people—the Jews.
The Wannsee Conference, a Nazi officers meeting on January 20, 1942, created a plan to implement Hitler's "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem"—extinguishing worldwide Jewry. The Nazis put pen to paper and planned out the segregation, deportation, and extermination of Europe's entire Jewish population in factory-like death camps.
When Israel's critics accuse it of genocide, they are not merely perpetuating an age-old blood libel. They are creating an antisemitic inversion that would have the victims of the world's greatest genocide, the Holocaust, now be falsely cast as perpetrators.
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Bio: Lana Melman is the CEO of Liberate Art and the author of Artists Under Fire: The BDS War against Celebrities, Jews, and Israel. She is a 20-year veteran of the entertainment industry and has been a leader in the fight against the cultural boycott campaign against Israel since 2011. Learn more or contact: www.liberateart.net
Lana Melman is a contributing columnist for the South Florida Jewish Journal / Sun Sentinel.