To the Editor:
Re “Standing with Israel is standing on the wrong side of history” (November 13, 2023):
Mark Mikhail has published a column that is so full of misrepresentations and false allegations that it would be impossible to refute all of them in 600 words. However, I will challenge his most outrageous false allegation: that Israel has committed genocide.
He claims that Israel has engaged in a slow genocide over decades. Now, the facts: In 1950, the life expectancy for Palestinians was 45.79. In 2023 it is 74.28. That is an increase of 28.49 years. Compare that to the life expectancy of an African American in Mississippi. In 2021 it was 70.29 years. Life expectancy for Native Americans is even lower — 65.2 years. I can’t think of any power that has engaged in genocide that has increased life expectancy in the targeted population almost 62% in less than 80 years.
Now look at population numbers. In 1950, the Palestinian population was 944,807. Today it is 5,371,230. That is a 570% increase in population in less than 80 years. Again, it is impossible to argue that a state engaged in genocide would increase a population almost six-fold in three generations.
Under Article II of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Genocide requires the “intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such.” Israel has never stated such an intent. Even Likud’s party platform states an intention to eliminate the Palestine Liberation Organization and similar terrorist organizations, and to live in peace with Palestinians as such. Palestinian Arabs are citizens of Israel, vote in elections, are represented in the Knesset, attend Israeli universities and participate in all areas of the economy. If you argue that intent can be deduced from behavior, then looking at the demographic data above makes it clear: Israel has never pursued a policy of genocide nor has Israel acted in a genocidal manner.
Article II of the Convention defines five actions that constitute genocide: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Lacking a stated or implicit intent, and given the population statistics of the Palestinian community, it is impossible to conclude that Israel’s actions constitute genocide. Any of these actions alone, without intent, does not constitute genocide under international law.
Hamas has stated its intent to kill not only Israelis but all Jews. Article Seven of its Charter states that the Day of Judgment will not come until all Jews are murdered. Hamas has undertaken actions such as kidnapping children and killing and injuring large numbers of Jews and Israelis in Israel and abroad and calling for Muslims around the world to do the same. Jewish victims of violence from Palestinian groups number in the thousands. In short, the genocidal force in this conflict is Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist organizations.
It is time to stop the propaganda and examine the complexities of this conflict responsibly and critically. As always, the first casualty in war is truth.
