The idea of expelling Arabs to other countries was once linked to Meir Kahane and other far-right radicals, and thus considered anathema by most Israelis. Now, to the delight of right-wingers, the idea is gaining traction as a ‘moral’ solution to the war.
“Population transfer” is a funny way of saying genocide.
Israel is really playing around with the idea of taking the mask off.
taking the mask off
They already have; now they’re in “Who do you believe, us or your lying eyes?” mode.
No, this is called ethnic cleansing. Not genocide. It is to prevent genocide.
EDIT: for those downvoting me, please do not downvote for the reasons as if I support this. I am simply pointing out on incorrect usage of the words, and their logic without supporting it.
It’s genocide in the same way the Armenian genocide is a genocide. When you forcibly move millions of people from one place to another a lot of them die. Think trail of tears.
Arguably, some ethnic cleansings are genocides too. But not all of them.
It’s not an incorrect usage though, so for the crime of being both wrong AND a useless pedant, you get downvoted!
Outside of a UN tribunal, that’s a distinction without a difference.
One is killing people, another is moving them to different place. I feel there is difference.
Russia was moving Ukrainian children into Russia, that’s a component of genocide. German Jews were forced into ghettos, then into concentration camps. The ghettos didn’t “prevent” genocide, they facilitated it.
The United Nations first defined genocide in 1948 in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The treaty outlines five acts that can constitute genocide if they are done “with the intent to destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group”:
- Killing members of the group
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births
- Forcibly transferring children
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/whats-the-difference-between-genocide-and-ethnic-cleansing
They both serve the purpose of erasing the identity of a people. The methods and means are common between the two: you destroy their homes, you force them to move, you starve them, you kill the ones who don’t comply, and you leave the weak and struggling to die. The distinction you’re making matters in a UN court, where Genocide has a legal definition and legal consequences, whereas Ethnic Cleansing does not. But that doesn’t make ethnic cleansing some preferable alternative to genocide.
If you told a civilian in Gaza “you’re not being genocided, you’re being ethnically cleansed!” Do you think that would change their understanding of the situation much?
Reminds me of jim crow and the “back to africa” position advocated for as the more kind way to treat fornerly enslaved folks. “We’re treating you so poorly, wouldnt you rather leave?” Big morality brain
If only Israel would have rebuilt the rail lines in Gaza… I’m waiting to hear about a secret IDF manned ovens…
Immediately stinks because it’s clearly self-serving dishonesty that treats the others as second class humans - they wouldn’t accept the reverse of it.
Should kick themselves out to a different land if they’re so keen on it.