Genocide that feels like self-defense is still genocide
Hot take:
If you think you're fighting discussion More specifically: using violence in self-defense, but your definition of a threat discussion More specifically: a threat that "shall be neutralized with deadly force" is so broad that it includes almost an entire ethnic group, then you are supporting genocide.
Examples
- Nazi Germany: The holocaust was motivated by the belief that a Jew is a threat to the German economy.
- Israel: Israel defines "Hamas combattant" so loosely that the majority of Palestinians could fit the definition.
- Hamas: Hamas "doesn't kill all Jews, only Zionists", but defines "Zionist" so loosely that the majority of Jews could fit the definition. discussion Technically, Hamas's terrorism isn't large-scale enough to be considered genocide. But it's important to include on this page. I was thinking to split the list into 2 parts (genocides and smaller-scale war crimes). But then Israel & Hamas would no-longer be listed beside each other, and so a particular lesson would be lost. But ya, I also want to include Soviet Russia and Maoist China, regarding their mass murders. Also maybe list the KKK as an example as they think they're "defending America"?
- Rwanda: (not written yet)
discussion
Maybe this page should be renamed to "War crimes that feel like self-defense are still war crimes"?
- Pros: More technically correct, if we want the list of examples to include stuff that's a bit too small-scale to be considered genocide but is still important enough to be part of the lesson.
- Cons: The title just doesn't have the same ring to it. Even worse, someone might misunderstand it as "It's still a war crime but maybe it's ok because it's self-defense, war crimes are inevitable" - no, it's not ok, and the whole point of this page is to show how war crimes could be averted if we changed our thinking.
- Solution 1: Maybe keep the title as-is but separate out the "true examples" from the "also important to note" examples?
- Solution 2: How about "Mass murder that feels like self-defense is still mass murder"? And maybe still say "Genocide that feels like self-defense is still genocide" somewhere on the page?