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88-614: The Free Alabama Movement was founded at St. Clair Correctional Facility in 2013 by Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray. Prior to their transfer to St. Clair, the founding members of FAM were incarcerated at Holman Correctional with Richard “Mafundi” Lake, a founding member of the 1970s prison rights group, Inmates for Action. Along with the legal education that they received at Holman, FAM founders credit Lake for their political education. FAM methods include work strikes, boycotts, protests and social media campaigns. The organization first called for

176-594: A genocide against Palestinians at various times during the longstanding Israeli–Palestinian conflict . Debate on whether Israel's treatment of Palestinians since the Nakba meets the definition of genocide , and whether such actions are continuous or limited to specific periods or events, is ongoing. This treatment has also been characterised as "slow-motion genocide", as well as a corollary or expression of settler colonialism and indigenous land theft . Those who believe Israel's actions constitute genocide point to

264-538: A May 2024 report by the University Network for Human Rights, "actions taken by Israel's government and military in and regarding Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, constitute breaches of the international law prohibitions on the commission of genocide." Human rights lawyer Susan Akram, commenting on the report and on the resistance to labeling Israel’s actions as genocide, said, "The opposition

352-403: A blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. Genocide is directed against

440-641: A genocide", thus arguing that the underlying aim of the Nakba was not to kill Palestinians, but to "get rid of them, and in doing so, [the Israelis] commit massacres", noting the expulsion of people from over 400 villages. According to Auron, ethnic cleansing is one of the "elements of genocide", though "not an act of genocide". Auron differentiates massacres in genocides as being "part of the comprehensive plan", while massacres in ethnic cleansing are "localized and usually stem from hatred or vengeance". Auron noted that

528-626: A genocide. Additionally, 100 civil society organizations and six genocide scholars petitioned Karim Khan , Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court , to investigate new crimes in Palestinian territories and issue arrest warrants against Israeli officials. These actions were underscored by statements from lawyers and groups like the Center for Constitutional Rights and Defence for Children International , accusing

616-635: A group, not randomly. Several actions pertaining to these five acts have been identified: In December 2023, South Africa became the first country to file a suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice , accusing the state of committing genocide in Gaza in violation of the Genocide Convention . South Africa stated that "acts and omissions by Israel   ... are genocidal in character, as they are committed with

704-629: A lawless condition. One expert cited "a total breakdown of the necessary basic structures that are required to operate a prison safely." A prison strike led by FAM began on February 6. Various groups from the Southeast , including the Tennessee Student Solidarity Network , protested outside St. Clair through the month, including one on February 23. The TSSN stated that "The corporations who are profiting from endless wars, killing Palestinians abroad , and destroying

792-444: A legal file to the International Criminal Court encouraging it to begin an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel's 2014 Gaza offensive. The crime of genocide was referenced as an Israeli crime by these groups. Additionally, dozens of Holocaust survivors , along with hundreds of descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims, accused Israel of "genocide" for

880-588: A mass ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Raz Segal , an Israeli historian and director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program at Stockton University , termed it a "textbook case of genocide." A leaked policy paper from the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence , a junior ministry that conducts research but does not set policy, suggested a permanent expulsion of the population of Gaza into Egypt, which has been described as an endorsement of ethnic cleansing;

968-874: A national group as an entity and the attack on individuals is only secondary to the annihilation of the national group to which they belong. According to Ernesto Verdeja, associate professor of political science and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, there are three ways to conceptualize genocide other than the legal definition: in academic social science, in international politics and policy, and in colloquial public usage. The academic social science approach does not require proof of intent, and social scientists often define genocide more broadly. The international politics and policy definition centers around prevention policy and intervention and may actually mean "large-scale violence against civilians" when used by governments and international organizations. Lastly, Verdeja says

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1056-410: A partly decentered, networked genocide, developing in interaction with the Palestinian and Arab enemy, in the context of war". Shaw further detailed this in 2013, in the context of arguments that since a relatively low number of Palestinian Arabs were killed in the Nakba compared to those expelled it could not be considered a genocide, where Shaw draws on Lemkin's definitions of societal destruction being

1144-508: A preliminary ruling finding that the claims in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order to Israel requiring them to take all measures within their power to prevent acts of genocide and to allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza. In March 2024, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories , Francesca Albanese , issued

1232-579: A professor at the University of Notre Dame , told Time on 14 November, that Israel's actions in Gaza were gravitating towards a "genocidal campaign", noting that "the response when you have a security crisis   ... can be one of ceasefire, negotiation, or it can be genocide." Victoria Sanford, professor of City University of New York , compared events in Gaza to the 1960–1996 killing and disappearance of 200,000 Mayans in Guatemala , today known as

1320-568: A report stating that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission" of acts of genocide had been met. Israel rejected the report. Israel and the United States have rejected the assertion that Israel is engaging in genocide. While some scholars describe Palestinians as victims of genocide, others argue that they are not victims of genocide, but rather of ethnic cleansing , politicide , spaciocide , cultural genocide or similar. Some critics of

1408-428: A social group; (3) generally, perpetrators of genocide have at least near-absolute force superiority, which Israel did not have; (4) despite "slurs", there was no "racist ideology" towards Palestinians, exemplified by Israeli groups like Hashomer living similarly to Bedouins. Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg in 2018 described the Nakba as part of "the same modern and global history of genocide and ethnic cleansing" as

1496-689: A strike in January 2014. That same year, conversations between FAM and Brianna Peril of the Industrial Workers of the World led to the formation of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee . FAM began organizing the 2016 U.S. prison strike at Holman in response to conditions that are considered a widespread problem the state of Alabama prisons: overcrowding and understaffing, among them. As part of

1584-404: A unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless. American human rights lawyer Francis Boyle and historian Ilan Pappé both consider Israel's actions against Gaza in the 2008 Gaza War to be genocidal. The 2014 Gaza War, also referred to as Operation Protective Edge,

1672-549: Is considered a crime against humanity by the International Criminal Court . In an interview with the BBC , Egeland stated, "There are hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for their life — [that is] not something that should be called an evacuation. It is a forcible transfer of people from all of northern Gaza, which according to the Geneva Convention is a war crime." UN Special rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned of

1760-511: Is doing on Lebanese soil is genocide. Its purpose is to destroy the Palestinians as a nation." The Nicaragua delegate asserted: "It is difficult to believe that a people that suffered so much from the Nazi policy of extermination in the middle of the twentieth century would use the same fascist, genocidal arguments and methods against other peoples." The United States commented that "While

1848-498: Is not restricted to human annihilation, instead he recommends an "international historical perspective" that focuses on the aims of genocide and defines "genocidal violence" as widespread destructive measures aimed at civilians. With the broadened definition of genocide, Shaw contends that the 1948 Nakba was partially genocidal with regard to Palestinian society: with "specific genocidal thrusts developed situationally and incrementally, through local as well as national decisions   ...

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1936-522: Is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza". In 2010, political science professor Martin Shaw argued that the elimination of the majority of Palestinian Arab society in Israel in 1948 constituted genocide. Shaw opined that the scope of genocide

2024-779: The 1948 Palestine war , and the term has been used to describe the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel throughout the Palestinian territories. Palestinians continued to be expelled , and more Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, with new Israeli settlements established in their place. During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, dozens of massacres targeting Arabs were conducted and about 400 Arab-majority towns and villages were depopulated ; with many of these being either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jewish residents and given new Hebrew names . Approximately 750,000 Palestinian Arabs (about half of Palestine's Arab population) fled from their homes or were expelled by Zionist militias and later

2112-731: The 1967 Palestinian exodus (known as the Naksa) in the actions conducted by Israel that show a pattern that seeks the "destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group". This view is supported by later academics as well. The Naksa was the expulsion of around 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians during and in the aftermath of the Six-Day War , including the razing of numerous Palestinian villages. In September 1982, between 460 and 3,500 civilians—mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shia Muslims —were killed in Beirut 's Sabra neighborhood and in

2200-525: The Guatemalan genocide . David Simon, director for genocide studies at Yale University , stated that it was possible that a court could find the IDF guilty of committing an act of genocide, but added that "it's certainly not textbook in that connecting the intent to destroy ethnic group as such is difficult." Yale's Ben Kiernan opined that events did "not meet the very high threshold that is required to meet

2288-543: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) under, inter alia , the Genocide Convention . These proceedings arose from Germany's support for Israel in the Israel–Hamas war . Imogen Saunders of the Australian National University wrote that Nicaragua's application was the "first   ... to allege contribution to the act of genocide rather than the commission of the act itself". According to

2376-474: The Warsaw Ghetto . Nur Masalha in 2012 argued that the Nakba was both "politicide" ("dissolution of the Palestinian people's existence as a legitimate social, political and economic entity") and "cultural genocide" ("destruction and elimination of the cultural pattern of a group, including language, local traditions,   ... monuments, place names, landscape, historical records   ... in brief,

2464-408: The 'free labor system'. Within a year period ending September 2014, six inmates had been killed in the facility. The Alabama non-profit Equal Justice Initiative had already called for a change in leadership three months prior, after inmate Jodey Waldrop was killed in the early morning hours of June 3, for what they described as a pattern of serious neglect and violence, including an incident when

2552-415: The 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Israeli Holocaust historian Omer Bartov warned that statements made by high-ranking Israeli government officials "could easily be construed as indicating a genocidal intent". On 29 December 2023, South Africa filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice , alleging that Israel's conduct in Gaza during the 2023 war amounted to genocide. South Africa asked

2640-405: The Holocaust; although the events differed in "degree of murderousness", they shared a "common global framework of violence created by strong nationalism combined with imperial and colonial ideology and policies", with the Nakba involving the attempt to "de-Arabize and ethnic-cleanse Palestine". Meanwhile, Alon Confino in 2018 contrasted the "genocide" of the Holocaust with the "ethnic cleansing" of

2728-504: The ICJ to issue provisional measures, including ordering Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza. The Israeli government agreed to defend itself at the ICJ proceedings, while also denouncing South Africa's actions as "disgraceful" and accusing it of abetting "the modern heirs of the Nazis ". South Africa's case has been supported by a number of countries . On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued

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2816-662: The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant and Mohammed Deif for "criminal responsibility" for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel's evacuation order was characterized as a forcible population transfer by Jan Egeland , the Norwegian former diplomat involved with the Oslo Accord . A "forcible transfer" is the forced relocation of a civilian population as part of an organized offense against it and

2904-557: The Israel/Palestine conflict". In a separate publication, Rashed, Short, and John Docker argued that the conflict did not receive enough attention in the field of genocide studies , as the academic "field fears Zionist intimidation and ad hominem attack". The trio raised the possible argument of the ongoing "Zionist project as a structural settler-colonial genocide against the Palestinian people". The trio stated: "Discriminatory land and planning policies" could be viewed using

2992-614: The Israeli army. In 2010, historians Martin Shaw and Omer Bartov debated whether the 1948 Nakba should be regarded as a genocide, with Shaw arguing that it could and with Bartov disagreeing. The former Deputy Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain , Daud Abdullah , has said, "Given the declared intent of the Zionist leaders, this wholesale destruction and depopulation of Palestinian villages fit[s] easily with

3080-539: The Israeli government downplayed the report as a hypothetical "concept paper". Transfer is a topic of discussion and disagreement within Israel's government with some expressly calling for permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. During the Israeli occupation of the West Bank , Israel and settlers have committed violence against Palestinians, forcibly displacing and killing them. A Palestinian activist said that

3168-400: The Israeli government, but found support from some Israeli politicians, including Ofer Cassif . As of June 2024, Susan M. Akram , director of Boston University International Human Rights Clinic , in reviewing the statements, commentary, and literature published by relevant scholars, concluded that there is a consensus among scholars that Israel is committing genocide. On 21 November 2024

3256-669: The Israeli imposition of measures preventing Palestinian births through the destruction of essential health services vital for the survival of pregnant women and their babies. The suit read that all of such actions were "intended to bring about their [Palestinians] destruction as a group". South Africa also asserts that statements made by Israeli officials, such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , have displayed "genocidal intent". Several human rights organizations and other nations have supported South Africa in their suit. On 1 March 2024, Nicaragua instituted proceedings against Germany at

3344-447: The Nakba, describing the latter as aimed at "removing, not annihilating, an ethnic group". Jerome Slater in 2020 described the Nakba as "ethnic cleansing" due to the "forced expulsions" of Palestinians, but also said that "no genocide" occurred due to around 150,000 Palestinians remaining in Israel at the end of the war, who "were allowed to remain there". Cary Nelson in 2019 stated that the notion of Israel having "engaged in genocide"

3432-428: The Palestinians did not meet the genocide threshold and the accusation cheapened the concept. Political sociologist Ronit Lentin wrote in 2010 that the 1948 Nakba was not "genocide", but ethnic cleansing or "spaciocide". Derek Penslar , a professor of Israel Studies at the University of Oxford , opined in 2013 that Palestinians suffered "ethnic cleansing" during the Nakba, but "not a genocide", as Penslar said that

3520-793: The Responsibility to Protect , as well as the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to intervene and protect the Palestinian population. By the end of October, both Genocide Watch and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention issued statements warning of the imminent risk of genocide. Subsequently in December the Lemkin Institute stated that they viewed the continuing actions by Israel as

3608-828: The Sabra and Shatila massacre, and it was awarded the Fipresci Prize at the 2005 Berlinale. In 2005 and again in 2007, Israel imposed a blockade with the support of the Egyptian government on the movement of goods and people in and out of the Gaza Strip . Many protestors across the globe called the blockade an act of genocide, with the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recalling Venezuela's ambassador in Israel and labelling Israel's attacks as "genocide". Israeli New Historian Ilan Pappé has argued that genocide "is

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3696-572: The United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims must be targeted because of their real or perceived membership of

3784-498: The United States of complicity in these alleged crimes . United Nations experts, academics, and human rights organizations have further amplified these concerns. UN rapporteurs warned of the grave risk of genocide to Palestinians, and several Palestinian rights groups filed a lawsuit with the ICC, urging the body to investigate Israel for "apartheid" as well as "genocide" and issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. Ernesto Verdeja,

3872-401: The accusation have argued that the charge that Israel is committing genocide is an assertion commonly made by anti-Zionists with the aim of delegitimising or demonising Israel. The Nakba is the violent displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people, along with the destruction of their society, culture , identity, political rights, and national aspirations . The Nakba began during

3960-770: The adjacent Shatila refugee camp during the Lebanese Civil War . The killings were carried out by the Lebanese Forces , one of the main Christian militias in Lebanon at the time. Between the evening of 16 September and the morning of 18 September, the Lebanese militia carried out the killings while the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had the Palestinian camp surrounded. The IDF had ordered

4048-476: The attack was genocidal. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated that Israeli actions in the West Bank during the war were genocide. It is alleged that Israel has attacked Palestinians using collective punishment , airstrikes (including in refugee camps ), famine , forced displacement ( ethnic cleansing ), looting , psychological warfare , rape and sexual violence , and

4136-546: The blockade various other commentators from political and news organisations have labelled the blockade variously as genocide and sociocide. The 2007 blockade has continued since its implementation. The 2008 Gaza War, also known as 'Operation Cast Lead' and the 'Gaza Massacre', was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with

4224-502: The case of Palestinians in Gaza, historian and sociologist Uğur Ümit Üngör pointed to the extreme asymmetrical nature of violent conflict as the core element of genocidal dynamics, which he found present in the history of Israel and Palestine. Human rights scholars Haifa Rashed and Damien Short have voiced their belief that Lemkin's original concept of genocide can be used to analyse "the historical and continuing, cultural and physical, destructive social and political relations involved in

4312-484: The claim that the 1948 Nakba was genocide has been increasingly advanced by Palestinians, and is also promoted by some European and North American scholars. Auron argues that there are four main factors why he did not consider 1948 as a genocide against Palestinians: (1) the Arabs initiated the war, resulting in Israel experiencing "critical existential combat" for several weeks; (2) Israel had no "intention of annihilating"

4400-410: The concept of a Palestinian genocide. The term 'genocide' was coined in 1944 by a Jewish Polish legal scholar, Raphael Lemkin , who wrote that "the term does not necessarily signify mass killings". More often [genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered

4488-751: The criminality of the massacre was beyond question, it was a serious and reckless misuse of language to label this tragedy genocide as defined in the 1948 Convention". William Schabas , director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland , stated: "the term genocide ... had obviously been chosen to embarrass Israel rather than out of any concern with legal precision". That same year an independent commission headed by Seán MacBride investigated reported violations of International Law by Israel and four of its six members concluded that "the deliberate destruction of

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4576-587: The deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the 2014 Gaza War. In a September statement to the United Nations, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas stated that the war amounted to a genocidal crime. Political analyst and diplomat Abukar Arman drew parallels between what he called the "genocide in Palestine" and the Darfur genocide , highlighting what he believes to be political motives for

4664-572: The definition of genocide as cited in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ." Historian John Docker has also written several papers detailing the Nakba as a genocide. Several scholars have written that Palestinians suffered ethnic cleansing during the Nakba, but that they did not consider the event to have been genocide. Academic Clare Brandabur includes

4752-437: The definition of genocide, which does not necessitate the annihilation of individuals in the group, and points to how this is the more common form of genocide observed in the literature. In response to Shaw's 2010 article, psychologist and genocide scholar Israel Charny detailed how he believed Israel's actions in the Nakba were ethnic cleansing and involved genocidal massacres, it was overall genocide. In 2010, in considering

4840-485: The deliberate and systematic infliction of life-threatening conditions by military siege. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. According to Yair Auron , from 1948 to 2008, "researchers" did not analyze the Israel–Palestine conflict in terms of the concept of genocide, but discussion subsequently began. In 2017 Auron stated that he expected increasing discourse over time regarding

4928-753: The earth are the same corporations—from Raytheon to McDonald's —profiting from the exploitation of incarcerated people ." The FAM demanded that the following be done: • Repeal the Habitual Offender Act • Make sentencing guidelines retroactive • Create mandatory parole criteria that the board must follow • Abolish the Sentence of Life Without Parole • End All Gas Chamber Executions 33°44′44″N 86°23′06″W  /  33.745512°N 86.384993°W  / 33.745512; -86.384993 Palestinian genocide accusation The State of Israel has been accused of carrying out

5016-513: The end of the strike. FAM organized a statewide prison strike that commenced on September 26, 2022 and included at least five state facilities. The strike concluded on October 14, 2022. This prison-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . St. Clair Correctional Facility St. Clair Correctional Facility is an Alabama state men's prison located in Springville , St. Clair County, Alabama . The prison

5104-544: The entrenched anti-Palestinianism , anti-Arab racism , Islamophobia and genocidal rhetoric in Israeli society, and point to events such as the Nakba , the Sabra and Shatila massacre , the blockade of the Gaza Strip , the 2014 Gaza War and the Israel–Hamas war as particularly pertinent genocidal episodes. International law and genocide scholars have accused Israeli officials of using dehumanising language. During

5192-460: The existence of Palestinians in the history of Israel, which to Pappé "is the point where ethnic cleansing becomes genocidal. When you are eliminated from the history book and the discourse of the top politicians". Political scientist Ian Lustick in 2006 described the Nakba as "the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and refusal to allow them to return", and stated that "It was a tragic and unjust and opportunistically accelerated unfolding of

5280-488: The fighters of the Lebanese Christian militias reported that, prior to the massacre, the IDF took them to training camps in Israel and showed them documentaries about the Holocaust. The Israelis told the Lebanese fighters that the same would happen to them too, as a minority in Lebanon, if the fighters did not take action against the Palestinians. The film was called "Massaker" , it featured six perpetrators of

5368-756: The international community labelling Darfur a genocide, but not Palestine. During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis , a video circulated on social media showing Israelis celebrating at the Western Wall , whilst a tree near the Al-Aqsa Mosque burns in the background. A large crowd of Israeli Jews gathered around a fire near the mosque on 10 May, chanting yimakh shemam , a Hebrew curse meaning "may their names be erased". IfNotNow co-founder and B'Tselem USA director Simone Zimmerman criticized them as exhibiting "genocidal animus towards Palestinians — emboldened and unfiltered". The Intercept described

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5456-462: The introduction of the Blockade of the Gaza Strip amount[ed] to slow-motion genocide", following previous descriptions of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a "slow-motion genocide". This is in line with Uğur Ümit Üngör 's application of Lemkin's description of genocide as the "imposition of the national pattern" as being "genocidal as incremental forms of slow violence." Through the period of

5544-406: The killings of Palestinians by Israel in Gaza during 2006 as "genocide", and in 2009 he described the 2009 Gaza War as "genocide", decrying that the "genocidal operations" are being treated as "unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or system". Pappé in 2013 cited a speech by Israel's Prime Minister Shimon Peres that year as having failed to recognize

5632-444: The latter "means that you wipe out a people"; Rashed, Short, and Docker wrote that "Penslar mistakenly interprets the concept of genocide." Earlier, historian Ilan Pappé in 2006 and genocide scholar Mark Levene in 2007 both stated that the Nakba in 1948 was "ethnic cleansing", without stating that it was "genocide", with Levene stating that Pappé's research on the Nakba "demands the attention of readers and researchers engaged with

5720-470: The legal definition of genocide." The Jewish Voice for Peace and FIDH have openly condemned the actions as genocidal. South Africa, supported by several countries, filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, labeling Israel's conduct as genocide and requesting provisional measures to halt the military campaign in Gaza. This move was met with strong criticism from

5808-469: The lens of a government repressing "minority rights" of Palestinian Israelis, but this "does not preclude individual victims experiencing this as genocidal". This conception has also been supported by other academics. Historian Lawrence Davidson , in his book about cultural genocide , included a chapter about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Some academics who support the case of genocide view

5896-439: The logic of circumstances, not a genocidal campaign." Patrick Wolfe , in a 2006 article analyzing the relationship and differences between settler colonialism and genocide, discussed the example of Palestinians who "threw rocks [at Israelis] and died for their efforts", and further described Palestinians as becoming "more and more dispensable", with Gaza and the West Bank becoming increasingly like Indian reservations or even like

5984-916: The militia to clear out the fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Sabra and Shatila as part of a larger Israeli maneuver into western Beirut. As the massacre unfolded, the IDF received reports of atrocities being committed, but did not take any action to stop it. On 16 December 1982, the United Nations General Assembly condemned the Sabra and Shatila massacre and declared it to be an act of genocide. The voting record on section D of Resolution 37/123 was: yes: 123; no: 0; abstentions: 22; non-voting: 12. The delegate for Canada stated: "The term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act". The delegate of Singapore – voting 'yes' – added: "My delegation regrets

6072-434: The national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people amount[ed] to genocide". In its conclusion, the commission recommended "that a competent international body be designed or established to clarify the conception of genocide in relation to Israeli policies and practices toward the Palestinian people". David Hirst believes that while the decision of the U.N. General Assembly could still be called biased, it

6160-563: The only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip". And in his 2017 book, Ten Myths About Israel , Pappé wrote "Israel's claim that its actions since 2006 have been part of a self-defensive war against terror. I will venture to call   ... an incremental genocide of the people of Gaza." In an article written in 2023 in the International Journal of Human Rights , Mohammed Nijim voiced his belief "that Israeli policies that were enacted after

6248-542: The poll may have underestimated the percentage of American Jews who have a critical view of Israel because it undercounted secular Jews who tend to be less attached to Israel. Conversely, the accusation of genocide during this period was rejected as "ridiculous" and "baseless" by several Jewish and Israeli human rights lawyers, including some who had accused Israel of apartheid. Following the bombing of Gaza by Israel, in response to Hamas attacks , concerns arose among Palestinians, international legal and genocide scholars about

6336-455: The potential of a genocide against Palestinians by Israeli forces. According to Time , there is currently disagreement among scholars as to whether Israel's actions can be described as a genocide against the Palestinians. On 15 October, TWAILR published a statement signed by over 800 legal scholars, alarmed by this possibility, urged UN, including the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and

6424-459: The prisoners' constitutional rights," and that the prison's severe understaffing poses a safety risk to guards and correctional officers. The facility runs at 59.5% of full staffing levels, giving it a inmate-to-staff ratio among the highest in U.S. prisons. In the fiscal year ending in September 2016, there were 249 reported assaults at St. Clair. Press reports indicate that the facility is in

6512-414: The requisite specific intent   ... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group". Genocidal actions listed in the suit included the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, the destruction of their homes, their expulsion and displacement, as well as the Israeli blockade on food, water and medical aid to the region. Additionally, South Africa noted

6600-464: The sentiments of their Lebanese allies after their leader Bachir Gemayel had been assassinated along with 26 other Phalangists in a bomb attack 2 days earlier, and also have taken decisive action to stop the killings when the first information was received. The commission's findings were reluctantly accepted by the Israeli government, amid violent, rival, pro- and anti-government protests. In interviews with film director Lokman Slim in 2005, some of

6688-607: The settler violence was the "tip of the iceberg" of the system that he described as genocidal and apartheid . During the Israel–Hamas war, settler violence and Israeli raids heavily increased. Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights activist, wrote in the Middle East Eye that the Huwara rampage constituted a pogrom and incitement to genocide. The Adalah Justice Project similarly said that Israeli officials' rhetoric before

6776-482: The shrines of the soul of a nation"), with strategies for "de-Arabisation of the land" including new Hebrew names for places replacing Palestinian names, and planting forests over destroyed Palestinian villages. Yair Auron in 2017 analyzed the 1948 Nakba using the definition of genocide from the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention (as any other definition would result in "complete chaos" according to Auron), concluding that "Israel committed ethnic cleansing but not

6864-509: The strike, inmates refused to work; demands were issued by groups representing each state involved in the strike. In Alabama, correctional officers also went on strike for a weekend. Inmates across the United States organized a nationwide strike between August 21 and September 9, 2018. FAM organizers claim that shortly before the start of the strike, correctional officers at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility moved one of FAM's key organizers into solitary confinement then released him after

6952-540: The subject of genocide and its suboptimal variants", with the Nakba being "of ongoing relevance – just as much as the Armenian genocide". John Docker argued in 2010 that while Pappé does not label the Nakba as a genocide, when reviewing the evidence and argumentation presented in Pappé's 2006 book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine , it aligns with Lemkin's conceptualisation of genocide. Pappé would in 2006 and 2007 describe

7040-501: The then-warden punched a handcuffed prisoner. As of June 2014, the prison was at 130 percent capacity. In March 2016 a correctional officer was wounded by a knife trying to break up a fight. On May 13, 2016, another inmate was found dead of unknown causes. In June 2016 the Equal Justice Initiative filed a motion in federal court arguing that "severe overcrowding, understaffing and dangerous conditions violate

7128-420: The treatment of Palestinians by Israel over the past century as moving between repressive and destructive policies, with Rosemary Sayigh describing it as a continuing state of repression punctuated with "spasms of genocidal violence". Michael Sfard , an Israeli human rights lawyer who argued on behalf of Yesh Din that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid , said in 2021 that Israel's policy against

7216-477: The use of the term 'an act of genocide' ... [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." Canada and Singapore questioned whether the General Assembly was competent to determine whether such an event would constitute genocide. The Soviet Union , by contrast, asserted that: "The word for what Israel

7304-662: The video as "unsettling" and an example of "ultranationalist frenzy". Ayman Odeh , a member of the Knesset for the Joint List , said the video was "shocking". In an opinion survey of American Jews , commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute following the 2021 crisis, 22 percent agreed that "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians," and Matt Boxer in The Forward noted that

7392-474: The way the general public colloquially uses "genocide" is usually "as a stand-in term for the greatest evils". Alexander Hinton , UNESCO Chair on genocide prevention at Rutgers University, says the colloquial definition centers on "large scale destruction and acts perpetrated against a population" and points to the Holocaust and the Guatemalan genocide as examples that fall under this definition. In 1948,

7480-493: Was "unwarranted slander", and suggested that some people repeat it out of ignorance, just as those who repeated the blood libel about Jews poisoning the wells in Europe did. Nelson further described the accusation of Israel having "genocidal designs on Palestinians" as "false", and the accusation of Israel committing "incremental genocide" in Gaza as "malicious". Nelson described a phenomenon where academics "say publicly that Israel

7568-516: Was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip. Al-Haq , a Palestinian Human Rights organization, concluded in a report that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. The organization, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights , Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and Addameer , submitted

7656-593: Was harder to say the same about the McBride Commission, as well as about individuals around the world, especially Jews, who shared the opinion of its four members. The massacre was also investigated by the Israeli Kahan Commission . The commission concluded that although no Israelis were directly involved in the killings, a number of Israeli government ministers and military were indirectly responsible. They should have taken into account

7744-738: Was originally built in 1983, and has an operating capacity of 1,514 inmates. The current warden is Guy Noe. The facility was built in 1983. In April 1985 it was site of a major riot. Five employees were beaten and 22 others including the warden and his deputy were held hostage by inmates armed with guns. The prisoners complained of "barbaric conditions". The Free Alabama Movement , founded by Melvin Ray, an inmate in St. Clair, led at least two nonviolent prison strikes in 2014. The strike in April explained its motives as an "effort to improve education programs and end overcrowding, harsh sentencing," and to end

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