“What’s happening in Gaza is not genocide. We reject that,” Biden said at a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House.

I can’t tell if he’s pandering or trying to lose the election

  • itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    sorry, left out part of the definition:

    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;
    © 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.

    So destroying a military - no, destroying a national or racial group - yes

    • capital@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Don’t stop there:

      The popular understanding of what constitutes genocide tends to be broader than the content of the norm under international law. Article II of the Genocide Convention contains a narrow definition of the crime of genocide, which includes two main elements:

      1. A mental element: the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”; and

      2. A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:

        • Killing members of the group
        • Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
        • Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
        • Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
        • Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

      The intent is the most difficult element to determine. To constitute genocide, there must be a proven intent on the part of perpetrators to physically destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Cultural destruction does not suffice, nor does an intention to simply disperse a group. It is this special intent, or dolus specialis, that makes the crime of genocide so unique. In addition, case law has associated intent with the existence of a State or organizational plan or policy, even if the definition of genocide in international law does not include that element.