Pro-Zionist Peace Activist, Editor and Commentator
Gaza Catastrophe Also Harms Israel and Jews
I’m active with the liberal pro-Israel Google group of the Alliance for Academic Freedom. We’ve been intensely debating, mostly critically, Prof. Omer Bartov’s “genocide” conclusion, but not to defend the policies of Netanyahu’s government. In the past year, Bartov left the group to flee a barrage of our criticisms, but the flood of evidence on the devastation in Gaza, including tons of camera footage, is undeniable. My thanks to Joan S. Friedman (Lincoln Professor of Religion and Professor of History Emerita, College of Wooster in Ohio) for permitting me to share her words from this discussion group:
It seems to me that the word “genocide” is both a red flag and a red herring. As many people — even Ehud Olmert — have been saying for over a year, there is no doubt that Israel is committing war crimes in its treatment of the Gaza population. So arguing over whether or not those war crimes amount to “genocide” paradoxically deflects attention from the awful reality. Hence it is a red herring.
But for most Jews the term is also a red flag. As Bartov himself briefly acknowledged, the definition of “genocide” is itself contributing to the argument. For most Jews, “genocide” means total physical annihilation, the single-minded ruthlessness with which the Nazis murdered us, expending enormous resources on hunting down every last Jew they could find. However, the legal definition of “genocide” is broader than total physical annihilation, including destruction of the social and physical infrastructure that sustains a group’s existence.
While there are members of the current Israeli government who are happy to wipe out the Palestinians, that is not (yet?) the government’s policy. But the government is clearly pursuing a policy of destroying the infrastructure needed to sustain collective Palestinian life in Gaza, and also, apparently, encouraging their permanent physical displacement from the Strip. Both of those actions are included in the definition of genocide.
But for most Jews — myself included, I admit — there is a gut reaction that says, “But that’s not really genocide.” Hence the impasse of “Yes, it’s genocide,” and “No, it’s not genocide,” and the consequent accusations of antisemitism and hypocrisy that fly back and forth. How can we move beyond that simplistic and unhelpful binary?
This is most of what I wrote in our email discussion:
Without necessarily agreeing with Prof. Bartov fully, one needs to be fair to him. On Fareed Zakaria’s Sunday CNN program the other week, Bartov referred very clearly to the crimes committed by Hamas on Oct. 7th, even suggesting that they may have been genocidal in intent. And he saw as necessary an IDF response.
The International Convention on Genocide is written very broadly. It certainly looks like Israel is committing acts that fall within the legal definition of genocide. For example, there’s this among the legal criteria cited: “Deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
Still, I agree with the 1930s-era humorist, W.C. Fields, that “If that’s the Law, the Law is an ass.” What’s happening in Gaza has not (yet) reached the systematic proportions that we can easily define as genocide; it doesn’t (yet) parallel the Holocaust, Armenian and Rwandan genocides, or the killing fields of Cambodia. But what Israel is doing is heinous. Even if people were not being forced into unsafe situations in desperately seeking a pittance of food, the Defense Minister’s announced plan to force 2 million Gazans into a tiny enclave (not a death camp, but clearly a concentration camp) is monstrous.
Maybe we can raise a small objection to the wording of the Genocide Convention, but let’s not work too hard at that. Crimes are clearly being committed.
On July 28th, liberal and progressive Zionists demonstrated for an end to the slaughter and suffering, for an end to the war, an immediate return of the hostages and massive humanitarian relief for Gaza. Among the speakers were local public officials, including the “dean” of Jewish members of the House of Representatives, Jerrold Nadler.
One lone voice in the back occasionally shouted loudly for BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) against Israel, but drew no response. It was not that kind of crowd. Mainstream liberals and moderates are taking up the cause of peace in the interest of both Israelis and Palestinians.