When is a genocide a genocide? You’d think this question would be easy to answer. After all, the official definition of the word is clear. The UN’s 1948 Genocide Convention explains it as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part…”

But somehow, the Western world has been tying itself up in knots for nearly two years trying not to call what is happening in the Gaza Strip by its name. Experts have been warning us of it for some time. Now, in the past several months, we’ve been seeing inarguable proof of it: vivid, disturbing images of an entire people — children and families — displaced, homeless, fighting for food, desperate for health services, and suffering, starving and dying amid the rubble of Gaza. And yet, the Western world has still not called it a “genocide”. So, when is a genocide a genocide?

Starvation, bombings and blocked Aid

Is it a genocide when the people of a region are imprisoned within its borders? Is it when buildings — homes, schools, hospitals, and places of worship — are bombed daily, leading to over 60,000 civilian deaths and over 145,000 injuries? Is it when over 18,000 children have been killed and more still are lying dead under the rubble? Is it when the country’s administration blocks desperately-needed aid (including food, medicines, and even water) from entering the region?

Is it when the foreign press is not allowed in the region? Foreign journalists have been prohibited from going inside the Gaza Strip to see or report on the horrific situation. In the meantime, some 270 local journalists have been killed. Most recently, five Palestinian journalists working for international media (Reuters, AP, Al Jazeera and the Middle East Eye) died in a double-strike, apparently a strategy used by the Israeli military; the first strike hits a building, and when aid workers and journalists rush to the scene, there is a second strike. Those who are still alive are now starving, along with the rest of the population. 

Is it when South Africa — having suffered apartheid itself — accused Israel of practicing apartheid against Palestinians and worse? Or is it when they brought a case of genocide against Israel concerning the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice in December 2023? A case that Brazil later joined South Africa in.

Is it when the current Pope (Leo) — head of the Roman Catholic religion, and moral and spiritual leader of some 1.4 billion people — describes the situation using phrases like “collective punishment”, “indiscriminate use of force” and “forced displacement of the population”? Is it when the previous Pope (Francis), before his death, was compelled to write in his book (coming out this November), “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide. It should be carefully investigated … “?

Is it when hundreds of thousands of ordinary people come out to protest on the streets of major global cities like London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm, Athens, Toronto, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Sydney, New York and even Israel because they are horrified at the inhumane conditions in the Gaza Strip and the mass murder of Palestinians?

Is it when UN experts, numerous humanitarian organizations (including MSF, Amnesty International, ICRC, and Human Rights Watch), and even two Israel-based human rights groups, say that “the Palestinian people are at grave risk of genocide”? Is it when the UN passes yet another resolution in support of the Palestinian people? This past June, 149 countries voted for the resumption of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to prevent starvation. Even the Russian ambassador to the UN has called the situation an “inhumane tragedy”. The US and Israel voted against the resolution.

Is it a genocide when starving people coming to so-called aid stations in search of food are shot and killed by the dozens each day? Last year, Israel banned the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — the UN organization that has had the responsibility for the past 75 years to provide humanitarian aid and support to the Palestinians — claiming that Hamas had infiltrated UNRWA. 

Around four months later, the US and Israeli governments formed their own organization (the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation [GHF]) to supposedly aid the Palestinians; this is like getting the foxes to guard the hen house. In the past two months, nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed (mostly shot) by members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and American mercenaries while trying to access food aid. More than 859 of them were killed near GHF sites. 

Palestinians killed while starving

However, none of this seems sufficient for Western world leaders to say the G word. Although there is now increasing global chatter among common people, humanitarian institutions and non-Western countries, all of it has been met by the Israeli and American governments with charges of “antisemitism”. 

For the past 300 years, scholars have used the word “semite” to mean anyone who is from the Middle East and speaks a Semitic language — including Jews and Arabs (i.e., Palestinians). In 1879, the word “antisemitism” was coined to mean hatred against Jews specifically, not all Semites. And certainly, since the end of World War II, calling someone “antisemitic” is practically like calling them a Nazi. 

However, now, the word has been weaponized and lobbed at anyone who is anti-Zionist (disagrees that Israel has a right to occupy Palestine), objects to the apartheid-like treatment of Palestinians or protests against the Israeli government killing Palestinians with bombs and starvation. We need to make the distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. 

So, when do we start calling it a genocide? Is it a genocide only when the perpetrators themselves label it as such? Hitler referred openly to “the final solution to the Jewish question”. Concerning the “Palestinian question”, the thoughts of the founders of Israel were clear. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister, said simply, “We must expel Arabs and take their places … and, if we have to use force … then we have force at our disposal.” And over the decades, other Israeli leaders have made similar comments. 

Today, several far-right Israeli politicians (such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich) have publicly stated that they want to drive all Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and, indeed, Israel. And in support, Israeli settlers now harass and kill Palestinians in the West Bank, too. Is it a genocide only when the leader of the most powerful country in the world calls it one and demands that it stop?

Western silence and complicity

If the West needs to wait for the Israeli and US administrations to set moral standards and to declare a genocide publicly, it may be too late for the Palestinians. And perhaps that is the easy and the intended solution — a final solution — for the West, because the “Question of Palestine” will no longer exist.

Many of us, looking back at the genocide inflicted by the Nazis on the Jewish people of Europe, have often asked how such a horrific thing could happen — and yet now, it is happening in front of our eyes, and we, the people, are powerless to stop it. 

Our governments are too afraid to call a spade a spade, fearing reprisals on aspects of trade and security; instead, they wring their hands and ask plaintively and ineffectually, “Why can’t we just all get along?” And so, we dance, being led by the morality of the morally corrupt and the agenda of the insatiably greedy, averting our eyes from the daily apocalyptic images and hoping our nations’ leaders know what they’re doing. When is a genocide a genocide? Apparently, not yet.

[Kaitlyn Diana edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.