Meanwhile on the International front....

Forced displacement is unacceptable, but it isn't genocide. Words matter and that one has been misused by people criticizing Israel since Oct. 7.

 

Depends upon who(m) we ask, I think.

United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect

The Commission of Experts also stated that the coercive practices used to remove the civilian population can include: murder, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, extrajudicial executions, rape and sexual assaults, severe physical injury to civilians, confinement of civilian population in ghetto areas, forcible removal, displacement and deportation of civilian population, deliberate military attacks or threats of attacks on civilians and civilian areas, use of civilians as human shields, destruction of property, robbery of personal property, attacks on hospitals, medical personnel, and locations with the Red Cross/Red Crescent emblem, among others.

The Commission of Experts added that these practices can “… constitute crimes against humanity and can be assimilated to specific war crimes. Furthermore, such acts could also fall within the meaning of the Genocide Convention.”

Experiencing Forced Displacement: Cambodia - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Throughout history and today, the practice of forcibly displacing people from their homes is often a mechanism for committing mass atrocities. Forced displacement often takes place during the early stages of genocide, sometimes pushing it to the periphery in narratives of persecution.

Ethnic cleansing | War Crimes & Genocide Prevention

The establishment of the ICC reinforced the links between ethnic cleansing and other offenses such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In its finalized text on the elements of the crimes in the court’s jurisdiction, the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court made clear that ethnic cleansing could constitute all three offenses within the ICC’s jurisdiction. Genocide, for example, was defined as an act that may include the systematic expulsion of individuals from their homes; the threat of force or coercion to effect the transfer of a targeted group of persons was recognized as an element of crimes against humanity; and the “unlawful deportation and transfer,” as well as the displacement, of civilians were recognized as elements of war crimes.

https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/Publications/Elements-of-Crimes.pdf

 

No, it really doesn't. Words mean things even if some groups decide to twist the meaning. That said, I can see referring to it as a war crime if Israel was actually doing it.

 

Hamas did every single one of those things on Oct. 7, with the exception of the attacks on hospitals/Red Cross. That came a little later (or maybe before) when they turned the hospitals into fronts for military bases. Has the WaPo condemned them for committing genocide?

 

Send 'em to Texas. Give Governor I Got My Tort, Fuck You a taste of his own medicine.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/06/hamas-genocide-against-israel/

 

Why any decent person gives the first shit about the utterances of some United Nations Office of Anti-Israel Now, Anti-Israel Forever escapes me.

 

Why any decent person gives the first shit about the utterances of some academic from Harvard escapes me.

 

Because properly calibrating the H-index is important, dammit!

 

Well, @outofplace was asking about definitions of "genocide" as it relates to "forced displacement."

There are several of these definitions, all of them evolving, all of them the product of international bodies like the ICC and the International Red Cross and yes, the UN.

Pretty safe to say that "forced displacement" is a war crime, and a step taken toward "ethnic cleansing."

Ethnic cleansing as a concept has generated considerable controversy. Some critics see little difference between it and genocide. Defenders, however, argue that ethnic cleansing and genocide can be distinguished by the intent of the perpetrator: whereas the primary goal of genocide is the destruction of an ethnic, racial, or religious group, the main purpose of ethnic cleansing is the establishment of ethnically homogeneous lands, which may be achieved by any of a number of methods including genocide.

Ethnic cleansing | War Crimes & Genocide Prevention

Thornier thereafter.