• About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
Monday, July 7, 2025
No Result
View All Result
Converseer
  • Home
  • News
    • General News
    • Education
    • Business
    • Security
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Tourism
  • Politics
  • Metro
  • Jobs
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Tech
  • More
    • Science & Nature
    • Agriculture
    • Opinion
    • Feature
    • Fact Check
    • History
    • Profile & Biography
    • Special Reports
  • Home
  • News
    • General News
    • Education
    • Business
    • Security
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Tourism
  • Politics
  • Metro
  • Jobs
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Tech
  • More
    • Science & Nature
    • Agriculture
    • Opinion
    • Feature
    • Fact Check
    • History
    • Profile & Biography
    • Special Reports
No Result
View All Result
Converseer
No Result
View All Result

Why “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” Advocates Cling to Genocide Denial

by Editorial Team
3 April 2025
in News

Photograph Source: Amy Nelson – CC BY 2.0

Israel’s renewed assault on Gaza comes several months after both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports concluding without equivocation that Israel was engaged in genocide. But very few members of Congress dare to acknowledge that reality, while their silence and denials scream out complicity.

In a New York Times interview last weekend, the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer put deep moral evasion on display. Among the “slogans” that are used when criticizing Israel, he said, “The one that bothers me the most is genocide. Genocide is described as a country or some group tries to wipe out a whole race of people, a whole nationality of people. So, if Israel was not provoked and just invaded Gaza and shot at random Palestinians, Gazans, that would be genocide. That’s not what happened.”

Schumer is wrong. The international Genocide Convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” — with such actions as killing, “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,” and “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

Such actions by Israel have been accompanied by clear evidence of genocidal intent — underscored by hundreds of statements by Israeli leaders and policy shapers. Scarcely three months into the Israeli war on Gaza, scholars Raz Segal and Penny Green pointed out, a database compiled by the Law for Palestine human rights organization “meticulously documents and collates 500 statements that embody the Israeli state’s intention to commit genocide and incitement to genocide since October 7, 2023.”

Those statements “by people with command authority — state leaders, war cabinet ministers and senior army officers — and by other politicians, army officers, journalists and public figures reveal the widespread commitment in Israel to the genocidal destruction of Gaza.”

Since March 2, the United Nations reports, “Israeli authorities have halted the entry of all lifesaving supplies, including food, medicine, fuel and cooking gas, for 2.1 million people.” Now, Israel’s horrendous crusade to destroy Palestinian people in Gaza — using starvation as a weapon of war and inflicting massive bombardment on civilians — has resumed after a two-month ceasefire.

On Tuesday, children were among the more than 400 people killed by Israeli airstrikes, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that “this is only the beginning.”

It’s almost impossible to find a Republican in Congress willing to criticize the pivotal U.S. backing for Israel’s methodical killing of civilians. It’s much easier to find GOP lawmakers who sound bloodthirsty.

A growing number of congressional Democrats — still way too few — have expressed opposition. In mid-November, 17 Senate Democrats and two independents voted against offensive arms sales to Israel. But in reality, precious few Democratic legislators really pushed to impede such weapons shipments until after last November’s election. Deference to President Biden was the norm as he actively enabled the genocide to continue.

This week, renewal of Israel’s systematic massacres of Palestinian civilians has hardly sparked a congressional outcry. Silence or platitudes have been the usual.

For “pro-Israel, pro-peace” J Street, the largest and most influential liberal Zionist organization in the United States, evasions have remained along with expressions of anguish. On Tuesday the group’s founder and president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, issued a statement decrying “the decision by Netanyahu to reignite this horrific war” and calling for use of “all possible leverage to pressure each side to restore the ceasefire.” But, as always, J Street did not call for the U.S. government to stop providing the weapons that make the horrific war possible.

That’s where genocide denial comes in. For J Street, as for members of Congress who’ve kept voting to enable the carnage with the massive U.S.-to-Israel weapons pipeline, support for that pipeline requires pretending that genocide isn’t really happening.

While writing an article for The Nation (“Has J Street Gone Along With Genocide?”), I combed through 132 news releases from J Street between early October 2023 and the start of the now-broken ceasefire in late January of this year. I found that on the subject of whether Israel was committing genocide, J Street “aligned itself completely with the position of the U.S. and Israeli governments.”

J Street still maintains the position that it took last May, when the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its military offensive in Rafah. “J Street continues to reject the allegation of genocide in this case,” a news release said.

It would be untenable to publicly acknowledge the reality of Israeli genocide while continuing to support shipping more weaponry for the genocide. That’s why those who claim to be “pro-peace” while supporting more weapons for war must deny the reality of genocide in Gaza.

© Counter Punch

Tags: General News

Related News

Police Arrest Man for Assaulting 12-Year-Old Boy in Delta
Lifestyle

Police Arrest Man for Allegedly Assaulting 12-Year-Old Boy in Delta

6 months ago
News

Calabar Mums Urges Women To Protect Their Mental Health

2 years ago
Court Imposes Seven-Year Sentence on Phone Thief in Ekiti
Lifestyle

Court Imposes Seven-Year Sentence on Phone Thief in Ekiti

5 months ago
Afenifere Leader Adebanjo Passes Away at 96
Lifestyle

Afenifere Leader Adebanjo Passes Away at 96

5 months ago
News

Nigerians react to trending video of youth corper claiming she received threat messages from NYSC officials for criticizing Tinubu?s govt

4 months ago
Police Arrest Former Army Sergeant for Suspected Abduction and Robbery
News

Police apprehend alleged child traffickers and rescue two victims in Rivers.

5 months ago

Latest News

Poland defends new border checks as German officials warn of fallout

JAMB releases 2025 mop-up UTME results, records only 12% turnout

Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, dies at 90

Cross River Chief of Staff reaffirms loyalty to Governor Otu, donates to church

Calls intensify for NOUN study centre in Ogoja

Mbappé’s bicycle kick seals Real Madrid’s 3-2 win over Dortmund

About Us

Converseer is an online newspaper that delivers impartial, comprehensive news coverage on politics, business, health, tech, metro, and education, among other topics.

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • WhatsApp
  • X (Twitter)
  • YouTube
  • Telegram

Coverage

  • Africa
  • Americas
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Middle East

Special Pages

  • Special Reports
  • Fact Check
  • Feature
  • Opinion
  • History
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use

© 2025 Converseer - All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • General News
    • Education
    • Business
    • Security
    • Entertainment
    • Lifestyle
    • Tourism
  • Politics
  • Metro
  • Jobs
  • Sports
  • Health
  • Tech
  • More
    • Science & Nature
    • Agriculture
    • Opinion
    • Feature
    • Fact Check
    • History
    • Profile & Biography
    • Special Reports

© 2025 Converseer - All Rights Reserved.