Next Libel in War of Words Against Israel: Genocide

By DOVID BEN-MEIR
 After "occupation", another terrible word sometimes thrown at Israel is "genocide". This is a particularly odious accusation, intentionally flung against the Jewish. One of the fundamental lies of anti-Israel propaganda is that Israel was established only because of the Holocaust. This is blatantly untrue, as for example proven by the League of Nations recognition of the historic connection between the Land of Israel and the Jewish nation, long before the Holocaust. But according to anti-Israel fundamentalists: Israel owes its existence to the Nazis. Therefore, what better way to libel Israel than to throw at it the false charge of genocide?
I personally first heard this nonsensical claim about ten years ago from two far-left female activists. They were haranguing a religious soldier about the "genocide" that Israel allegedly is perpetrating against Arab Nablus. The soldier listened politely without reacting. I, the son of a Holocaust survivor, did react.
"Excuse me, but did I hear correctly? Were you accusing Israel of committing genocide in Nablus?" I asked, not believing I'd heard right. They nodded in assent.
"Well I haven't heard about gas chambers and crematoria. Did you? Are people being lined up against the wall or in front of pits, in order to be shot? Are people being driven out to the desert to die?"
Their answer: Israel has placed Nablus under siege and is starving the people to death.
"Really? How many have died? Thousands? Hundreds? Tens? I haven't heard. Israel doesn't stop food from entering. There's no "siege", Nablus isn't Leningrad of WWII or Jewish Jerusalem of 1948 when the Arab armies placed 100,000 Jews in a siege!"
Since the facts were that there was no siege, no stoppage of food water and other basic necessities, just supervision that no terror or arms leave Nablus – there was nothing rational for them to reply. So the older activist said to the younger one: "Come away! He's not interested in hearing the truth!"
People with irrational positions often project their own close-mindedness on others!
Some call the latest round in Gaza not warfare but genocide. Really? If Israel, with all that firepower, was intent on genocide – how come so few people were killed, compared to any national conflict anywhere else in the world? Imagine ISIS with the power of the Israeli army: would any Yazidis be alive today?
Someone wrote to me: "Look up the definition of genocide in international law and you'll see that Israel is committing genocide."
So I did. I've become convinced that most critics of Israel, throwing out "definitions" of Israeli crimes against international law, have only read talking points, but never bother to fact-check the source. Article II of the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" (CPPCG), adopted by the UN in 1948 defines genocide as: "… acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."
Israel has never had any intent to destroy in whole or in part any national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Nor does Israel inflict conditions that harm life, nor prevents births, nor do we steal children.
Quite the opposite: Israel has done all in its power to enhance life in areas under its control. Israel has gone beyond the Western norm of trying to safeguard enemy life even during time of war.
Before Israeli rule in 1967– life expectancy of the Arab population in Judea, Samaria and Gaza was about 48 years. Just before the Oslo Accords – when the local Arab received civilian self-rule in most of Judea and Samaria – life-expectancy had risen to about 72 years. In addition infant mortality rates had plunged, medical services rose in standard, and in general the Arab population grew. All this – under Israeli rule and supervision!
I once saw a tag on a towel that read "irregular". I asked what that meant and someone joked: "Oh, the more you wipe the wetter you get!" Here too: the more Israel "commits genocide" the more the Arab population grows, life expectancy gets longer and infant mortality drops!
In reality, the charge of "genocide" is a projection of what was (and for some still is) the Arab intention towards the Jewish community in the Holy Land.
Israel seeks only to live in peace with its neighbors.


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