Literature – Genocide: The intention is decisive

In many places in the world, people demonstrate against war in view of the destruction in the Gaza Strip and the terrible suffering of the Palestinian civilian population. Again and again it can be heard that the genocide that Israel commits should be stopped. According to a lawsuit by South Africa against Israel, the International Court of Justice initiated a procedure for the violation of the United Nations genocide convention and sees clues and a plausible initial suspicion that this accusation is correct.

The South African plaintiffs relate to the extent of the violence of the Israeli forces, to the lack of or inadequate deliveries of food and other auxiliary goods as well as to inhuman statements from the cabinet, which is peppered with right -wing politicians, Benjamin Netanyahu as well as other Israeli politicians and militarys about the Palestinians in Gaza.

If one follows the argumentation of the judicial judgments to Srebrenica, killings in a large number would have to be classified ethnically or racistically motivated as a genocide.

The war has a complex history, but is also a reaction to the massacre and the hostage of Hamas and its allies in Israeli territory on October 7, 2023. The evidence of Israeli war crimes is overwhelming, but it is far more difficult to demonstrate genocide. A genocide is a major crime that is committed by states or military groups that have no internationally recognized territory. Völkermurde are planned, organized, sham -legged and carried out with a variety of helpers.

In the United Nations’ Völkermurmord Convention, which was decided by the General Assembly in 1948, genocides are defined as deeds that are “committed to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such. Either by killing, causing severe physical or mental damage, by the imposition of destructive living conditions, through measures to prevent birth or by the violent transfer of children to another group.

This definition of the UN is very broad. A genocide is not necessarily based on the number of victims, but on the intention of destroying a group as such in whole or in part. The United Nations Genocide Convention was a direct consequence of the Shoah, whose singularity in the industrial annihilation of human life and there was no possibility for the Jews to escape their origin and religion or collaboration with the perpetrators of the killing machinery of the Nazis. They shared this fate with the Sinti and Roma.

Serious violations of international criminal law have been punished by various international courts in the past decades. In several judgments against the perpetrators and political managers, the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 was classified as genocide of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys as genocide. In academic circles, the question of whether a genocide has taken place in Srebrenica has not been answered clearly. This is criticized by William Schabas, former President of the International Association of Genociation of Scholar, a judgment of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia of 2003: “It would have been more consistent and coherent to come to the conclusion that Srebrenica was not a genocide.” Cleanings «, which are a warning sign for an impending genocide.

If one follows the argumentation of the court rulings to Srebrenica, ethnically or racially motivated killings and so -called cleansing in a large number would always have to be classified as genocide. In any case, the Yugoslavia tribunal did not consider it necessary that the proof of an “overall plan” had to be provided to murder the Bosnian Muslims, especially since such a plan did not exist.

The case laws on Srebrenica and the resulting legal definition of what is to be understood as a genocide were quite useful for some Western states to justify their military intervention policy in different parts of the world as in Kosovo 1999 and in Libya 2011 as supposedly preventive measures against genocide violence. But now the consequences could turn against one of their allies, namely against Israel.

Israeli politicians are aware that the court decisions on Srebrenica were precedent that could have an impact on the legal assessment of the Israeli approach in the Palestinian areas. The Israeli ambassador in Belgrade, Yahel Vilan, told the Russian broadcaster Sputnik In May 2024, he does not share the genocide thesis of Srebrenica. Because with this claim, the meaning of the term genocide is significantly weakened, says Vilan. He later made it clear that Israel had never accepted the term “genocide” for what had happened in Srebrenica. Rather, there was a very difficult war crime there.

In addition to the South African application, there are, among other things, a report by the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese and Amnesty International, in which Israel is accused of a genocide in the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. Both also refer to judgments in legal proceedings for the massacre in Srebrenica. Albanese also emphasizes that genocidal intentions and practices are an integral part of the ideology and processes of settler colonialism, as the experiences of the American indigenous people in the United States, the First Nations in Australia or Herero in Namibia showed. Albanese also sees this as given for the Palestinian areas. Because the Israeli settler movement wants to colonize the Gaza Strip again. They have had a powerful ally in US President Donald Trump since the beginning of 2025.

On November 21, 2024, the responsible preliminary proceedings of the International Criminal Court unanimously issued three arrest warrants in connection with the “situation of Palestine”. They not only become the devastating effects of the war of the right -wing radical Israeli government, but also the inhumane measures of Hamas. The arrest warrants were directed against Mohammed Deif, the highest commander of the military wing of Hamas, as well as Benjamin Netanyahu and the then Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. Mohammed Deif was accused of war and human crimes in accordance with Article 7 and 8 of the Roman statute on October 7, 2023. The accusations of sexual and gender violence against women and the accusation of human crime of extermination must be emphasized. With the prerequisite of the intentional impact on living conditions that are suitable to bring about the destruction of part of a population, the crime of the extermination. However, there will be no procedure against Mohammed Deif. He was killed in an Israeli air raid in the summer of 2024. If they travel to a contracting state of the International Criminal Court, the living Israeli accused would actually be arrested and transferred to the Court of Justice.

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