Letters to the Editor: Genocide isn’t just about deaths. Israel is destroying Palestinian life in Gaza

To the editor: I have read Raphael Lemkin’s ideas on genocide, cited by columnist Jonah Goldberg, in the context of the American genocide of Native Californians, and it is wrong to conclude that the crime can only exist after a specific benchmark of deaths. (“This is what’s wrong with the rush to accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza,” Opinion, March 5)

It is more than a measure of killing. It includes physically destroying a way of life, and it can be a separate activity from killing.

Does Goldberg imagine that life in the Gaza Strip will ever go back to what it was? Does it matter that Israel’s stated intent is to root out Hamas if the result is that Gazans have lost the ability to create a life for themselves?

Israeli and U.S. “solutions” to this problem are to one day rebuild Gaza in their own image, with the desires of its inhabitants conveniently ignored because they are too infiltrated by Hamas.

The world says “genocide” because we are tired of severing people’s identities and connections from their land in the name of “safety.”

Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks

..

To the editor: It’s rare when I agree with Goldberg, but he eloquently explains how and why using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s defensive actions is incorrect and lazy.

I only hope those who misguidedly do so will read this column so they can understand why.

Aaron Levinson, Woodland Hills

..

To the editor: It strikes me as odd that given the current proceedings before the United Nations International Court of Justice to determine whether Israel is violating the Genocide Convention, Goldberg ignored the definition of genocide contained in the Convention, to which Israel is a party.

Article II, in part, says this:

“Genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

“(a) Killing members of the group;

“(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

“(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.”

He also ignores that the ICJ granted South Africa’s request for provisional measures to prevent genocide in Gaza pending a decision on the merits of South Africa’s claim, based on a finding that such claim was plausible.

Israel is a party to the Convention and bound by its terms. Goldberg does no one a favor by ignoring the standard by which all parties to the Convention are judged and making up a standard that is not the one recognized in international law.

Martine Kawar, Altadena