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Richard D

(9,629 posts)
Tue Mar 4, 2025, 03:21 PM Mar 4

The Genocide Libel: How the World Has Charged Israel with Genocide (a deep dive)

This is long and detailed and goes into depth on the latest iteration of the Blood Libel antisemetic trope.

by Norman JW Goda

February 2025

This essay concerns the post-October 7 accusation of genocide against Israel. Genocide is the crime of crimes. States committing genocide are viewed as permanently illegitimate. By itself a genocide accusation is not antisemitic. During the Cold War, the charge was leveled dozens of times by government officials, legal scholars, and activists against France, Portugal, Nigeria, China, Cambodia, the US, and other states.[1] Since the end of the Cold War, judicial proceedings for genocide have been carried out against officials from former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and elsewhere both in ad hoc tribunals and at the International Criminal Court.[2]

Genocide accusations against Israel are different. First, Israel, unlike other states, has been charged with genocide throughout its existence.[3] The genocide accusation is tied to charges of racism, colonialism, and other accusations leveled against Israel since the 1960s.[4] Second, the speed and fury with which the accusations exploded after the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023, are unusual in the annals of lawfare.[5] And yet regarding Israel’s 2023 war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, there has been not only a rush to judgment but an effort to redefine genocide itself so that the constitutive elements of the crime itself are lowered.

The genocide libel also deploys a range of antisemitic tropes. One is the linkage of genocide to violent passages in the Hebrew Bible, a linkage which plays on the theme of Jewish chosenness at the expense of others’ existence and which even claims that God is genocidal. Another is the whitewashing of Hamas’s own genocidal intent in lieu of tropes concerning the outsized Jewish thirst for vengeance in the form of disproportionate response.[6] A third is the coupling of the genocide charge with the deliberate killing of children, images of whom are ubiquitous on NGO, social media, and other platforms that charge Israel with genocide.[7] A fourth is the attribution of special powers to the Israeli government by which it and its supporters have fooled western governments into believing that Israel’s actions are legitimate and that the history of the Israeli- Arab conflict is too complex for snap judgments.[8]

A fifth, and this is what makes the genocide libel particularly dangerous, is the association of all Jews with the crime. Jews worldwide are all in on it, either as Zionist enablers, as dishonest back-room lobbyists, or as community leaders who, we are told, “weaponize” the charge of antisemitism to silence the truth-tellers.[9] Other genocide charges over time have not targeted Hutus living in Belgium or Serbs living in Germany. But the genocide libel, fueled by everything from electoral campaigns to public demonstrations to social media, drives rage against Jews throughout the world.

Much more: https://isca.indiana.edu/publication-research/research-paper-series/norman-jw-goda-research-paper.html
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The Genocide Libel: How the World Has Charged Israel with Genocide (a deep dive) (Original Post) Richard D Mar 4 OP
"Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews..... EarnestPutz Mar 4 #1
It is so very tragic . . . Richard D Mar 4 #2
Did you read the article or just the excerpt? Behind the Aegis Mar 4 #3
Read the entire article. Commented on the OP's use of the term. EarnestPutz Mar 5 #4
What? Behind the Aegis Mar 5 #5
I read the entire article. EarnestPutz Mar 5 #6
I'm going to keep it . . . Richard D Mar 5 #7
I take your point, but we'll have to disagree on this one. An echo of an iteration is just a bit too tenuous of...... EarnestPutz Mar 5 #8

EarnestPutz

(2,800 posts)
1. "Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canard which falsely accuses Jews.....
Tue Mar 4, 2025, 03:45 PM
Mar 4

....... of murdering Christians in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals." This seems rather far-removed from accusations of disregard for civilian casualties, women and children buried in the rubble.

Richard D

(9,629 posts)
2. It is so very tragic . . .
Tue Mar 4, 2025, 04:31 PM
Mar 4

. . . that Hamas commits the war crime of using human shields. So tragic that most of Gaza has fallen under the sway of believing that martyrdom is superior to surrender. It is so very tragic that they allow Islamic Jihadism to rule them. It is so incredibly tragic that they started this war.

And all this needless death and destruction because of Hamas. And it will continue because still, they refuse to return all the hostages and they refuse to lay down their arms and surrender and discuss how to find peace.

Richard D

(9,629 posts)
7. I'm going to keep it . . .
Wed Mar 5, 2025, 12:31 PM
Mar 5

. . . and I do believe that it is a modern iteration of the old blood libel trope. The term "blood-thirsty Jews" is still used, and even on DU, a cursory search showed several instances of "bloodthirsty Israelis" or Netanyahu being bloodthirsty. While the etymological origin of the two words is different, it is currently used, and the idea that Israel is genocidal while not blood libel in the classic sense certainly echos it.

EarnestPutz

(2,800 posts)
8. I take your point, but we'll have to disagree on this one. An echo of an iteration is just a bit too tenuous of......
Wed Mar 5, 2025, 01:59 PM
Mar 5

......a connection for me.

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