8mo ago

‘Not genocide’ says Biden after ICC warrants sought

www.google.com /amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/program/newsfeed/2024/5/21/whats-happening-is-not-genocide-says-biden-after-icc-seeks-warrants

30 comments

The more he talks about this topic the less enthused I am about his candidacy. I mean, the alternative is fucking horrible. But it would be nice to have a better choice than between 'bad and terrible', at least when it comes to foreign policy.
- And my expectations are rock bottom. All he needs to do is just step back and not take a side rather than proactively support Israel's genocide. The people who organized the "uncommitted" drives would love to instead organize for Biden, but he just keeps popping into the news to remind them the job isn't done and he's still bad on the issue.
  The American people can ignore foreign war crimes in favor of domestic issues. Africa's got some going on right now that haven't even warranted a mention in the presidential race. We'd just like to not be proactively supporting them.
- I refuse to take any advice from the people that spent like a full decade shitting on Al Gore and the idea of global warming. No, I don’t care that they pivoted well after global warming was settled science and public opinion started to shift to viewing it as cringe to be a climate change denier.

In the end, it doesn't matter how he defines it. We are signatories to the UN and the UN definition in Article II of the "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide" is:
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
a) Killing members of the group;
b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
Note the language: "ANY of the following acts".
Israel is now 5/5 with the relocation of children from Gaza to the West Bank.
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238227682/orphans-gaza-rafah-israel-west-bank-sos-childrens-village-international
- with intent to destroy
  dolus specialis (intent) is the most crucial part of genocide. Without it none of the five acts apply.
  
  "intent to destroy in whole or in part".
  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-mp-no-innocents-gaza-should-burn-now
  "I don't think there are any innocents there now, not now and not when I said those things," Vaturi said.
  “I urge you to do everything and use Doomsday weapons fearlessly against our enemies,” Gotliv wrote on social media platform X, calling upon Israel to use “everything in its arsenal”.
  In November, Galit Distel Atbaryan, Israel's former public diplomacy minister, called for Gaza to be “erased from the face of the Earth”, stating that the besieged enclave should be “wiped out” by a “vengeful and vicious” Israeli army.
  Last week, lawmaker Moshe Saada said that widespread calls he had heard from the Israeli public to “destroy all Gazans” had proven that the “right-wing was right about the Palestinian issue”.

- Without actual proof of intent, no, it is not
  
  Taking genocidal actions without intending to commit genocide... is that better or worse? I mean, I don't see how Israel could do what they're doing without intent...

Of course for Biden to admit that it is genocide would be to admit that that he is complicit in genocide. But whether it is called genocide or merely the indiscrimate slaughter of thousands of innocent people, he is still guilty as fuck.

The US doesn’t deal with the ICC, so he didn’t even have to say anything. I’m not sure why he’s trying his hardest to not get elected, with the stakes that high.
- I don’t know anyone who isn’t going to vote for him, regardless of this crap.

"Not my president" says Voters after Biden refuses to stop directly enabling the genocide of Palestinians.
- well he's certainly asking for it. :/

I think what we believe to be genocide is actually a byproduct of Zionism. They’d kill whomever was living on that land, but since they’re Muslim it’s easier to justify and looks like genocide.

Without thinking about the validity of the ICCs argument for it, I wonder if part of their concern is whether or not having an antagonist like the ICC doesn’t shore up potentially eroding domestic support from Gantz and his allies.