http://www.ejpress.org/article/13558

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http://illinoisns.blogspot.com/

The Palestinians have suffered many war crimes.

Genocide is not among them.

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

You know one thing I like about Jews? They dont post 10 million threads a day about Jews.

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My Political Blog (Most recent update Oct 3rd) - Which Flame Warrior are you?

http://www.europaworld.org/issue40/r...emkin22601.htm

It is very ironic that Raphael lemkin pusued the Idea of making Genocide a crime and that he also saw the institutions of pursecution as part of the crime which is why the UN cenvention states:-

Article II: 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.

http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm

Genocide may be mass killing but is not always! Lemkin argues that the colonisation by settlers is part of the process.

Lemkin started his war again genocide by looking at the partial destruction of the Iraqi Assyrians.

http://www.christiansofiraq.com/

Back to the Palestinians, so are the mass expulsions and confiscation of property part of a systematic policy perpetrated against a group?

If it is then the term genocide may be applied.

I personaly think that the constant vilification of the Palestinian people by Israel shows that it is a systematic policy perpetrated against a group.

The timing of the commemoration however is a different matter, a different date would have been more appropriate. One is arguably a genocide the Holocaust was a genocide without doubt.

Good point, Ashley.

It seems that, in legalese at least, that the term can cover ethnic cleansing and other practices that fall short of industrialised mass killing.

Personally I prefer the common usage which denotes widespread and systematic extermination. I feel the broader definition, with its absence of guidance regarding scale and ferocity, runs the risk of diminishing events like the Jewish Holocaust to `just another crime`.

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

Hey Punk fascist - I live in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. I have jewish friends. I'm sick of your anti-semitic crap. How's about you meet me out here at the local gym, and tell me your opinions to my face?

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Read this post quick before the mods delete it!

I dont live in Cali, LOL.

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http://illinoisns.blogspot.com/

Typical academic response

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Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Marx (G.)

Johnderondon!

Raphael Lemkin observed how the Ottoman Empire carried out Genocides (first Iraqi Christians and then the Armenians) and looked at the mechanics of how they occurred.

I think the point that Raphael Lemkin was making was that from his studies the mechanism of Genocide has an identifiable start point.

At the time it also looked as thought the Ottomans were about to start on the Levant, where Arab Nationalism and Zionism were beginning to appear. Hence also the need for Britain to issue the famous Bafour Declaration.

His campaigning to have the crime of Genocide recognised was not successful until after the Holocaust.

Johnderondon you wrote:-

I don’t think that the Holocaust will ever be considered as ‘just another crime.’ That event is most often referred to as ‘The Holocaust.’ And the term Holocaust gives recognition to the severity of that event. The Mechanics of Genocide still remain broadly as Raphael Lemkin noted and that the appending of the term Genocide to actions should occur if for no other reason than to put the brakes on events escalating to a point of no return.

Maybe we should push for the UN to start a Genocide Index to grade countries around the world, that is if one doesn't exist?