“The term genocide, like fascism, is often flung around carelessly these days, but it’s worth recalling that there is an official definition.
The crime of genocide is “to destroy, in whole, or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
No minimum number of victims is necessary to establish genocide, but the loss must be severe enough that it “will impact the group as a whole”. Since close to 50 families have already and horrifically been exterminated, and we’re only just past the first week of this carnage, what other word should we choose?”
“The urgency to demonstrate against such horrors could not be more necessary. Yet our contemporary ambassadors of the enlightenment have other ideas.
Across the western world, our political leadership has decided that freedom of opinion must be curtailed, that expressions of support for Palestinians reflexively equate to support for Hamas and terrorism, and that Palestinian narratives simply must be suppressed. These notions aren’t just hollow. They’re dangerous.”
“The French minister of the interior, Gérald Darmanin, sent a message to French police banning pro-Palestinians protests.
He wrote that “pro-Palestinian demonstrations must be prohibited because they are likely to generate disturbances to the public order”. Adopting this logic, I suppose we should amend the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man to the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man Unless Such Rights are Likely to Generate Disturbances to the Public Order. Needless to say, government prohibitions on freedom of speech amount to censorship.”
“Berlin also banned pro-Palestinian protests. Vienna banned pro-Palestinians protests. Several cities in Australia banned pro-Palestinian protests.
In the UK, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, told senior police officers that waving a Palestinian flag or chanting specific phrases for Palestine may be a criminal offense.”
“It’s one thing when those in power attempt to suppress your story by privileging another. It’s quite another when they criminalize your story by false attribution and making everyone afraid of you.”
“That tens of thousands did march for Gaza in London, and protesters gathered across the United Kingdom, the United States and other parts of the western world, sometimes risking arrest, merely to express support for the Palestinians illustrates precisely the kind of courage that is needed right now.
At Brooklyn College, where I teach, the college president forced students protesting for Palestinian rights off campus, where they were met with a phalanx of police officers and a pro-Israel city councilwoman who came brandishing her own weapon.”
Source: Prof H Prempeh
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