---
title: "Israel wields it’s genocide shield- When the abused become the abuser"
type: "post"
post_id: "5419"
slug: "israel-wields-its-genocide-shield-when-the-abused-become-the-abuser"
canonical: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2024/01/12/israel-wields-its-genocide-shield-when-the-abused-become-the-abuser/"
markdown_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2024/01/12/israel-wields-its-genocide-shield-when-the-abused-become-the-abuser.md"
json_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2024/01/12/israel-wields-its-genocide-shield-when-the-abused-become-the-abuser.json"
txt_url: "https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2024/01/12/israel-wields-its-genocide-shield-when-the-abused-become-the-abuser.txt"
published: "2024-01-13T00:00:49+00:00"
modified: "2024-01-13T00:00:49+00:00"
author: "penny2"
categories:
  - "Uncategorized"
tags:
  - "Israel"
  - "Palestine"
  - "perception management"
  - "state sponsored terrorism"
  - "US"
site_name: "PFYT2"
publisher: ""
language: "en-US"
generator: "easyPress Markdown"
generator_version: "1.0.6"
---
**When a wrong was done to one group of people there is no automatic get out of jail card given that allows for them to engage in behaviour that is murderous** **against others.**  **Israel is not immune to accusations of ethnic cleansing or genocide because of … history.**

[**The Conversation**](https://theconversation.com/canada-is-being-hypocritical-by-failing-to-support-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-220531)

###### Immune to genocide accusations?

> Israeli officials have called the lawsuit “[blood libel](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67866342)” **( so antisemitism?)** and the United States has dismissed it as “[completely without any basis in fact whatsoever](https://x.com/IsraelinUSA/status/1742663386674937905?s=20).”

> Nonetheless, [an increasing number of states have voiced support](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/9/which-countries-back-south-africas-genocide-case-against-israel-at-icj), including the [57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation](https://www.mfa.gov.tr/OIC.en.mfa), the Arab League, Brazil, Turkey, Malaysia, Jordan, the Maldives, Bolivia and Namibia. France has indicated [it will support](https://x.com/KenRoth/status/1742524291445309818?s=20) the court’s decision.

> **[UN experts](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against), [international organizations](https://www.icj.org/gaza-occupied-palestinian-territory-states-have-a-duty-to-prevent-genocide/) and [numerous Canadian](https://www.alexneve.ca/blog/palestinian-rights-advocacy-international-law) [and international](https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/) legal scholars have warned that Israel’s war risks becoming — or has already become — genocide.**

> Such a stance suggests Israel should be shielded from accusations of genocide. ***(Because history)* Yet as South Africa argued, no atrocity can justify genocide. It also ignores how [structural conditions of apartheid](https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution) and [unlawful occupation](https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/10/commission-inquiry-finds-israeli-occupation-unlawful-under-international-law) set the stage for genocide to occur.**

**Israel had a choice to undertake a more restrained security operation, get their hostages back, target specific Hamas leaders. They didn’t. Israel has opted to displace the masses and destroy the homes of countless people. In an operation that amounts to ethnic cleansing- the dead in Gaza, as of today is nearing 30,000. Mostly women and children. With thousands of others buried under the rubble of all those building demolished by Israel in a massive bombing campaign**

[**Citing the Holocaust, Israel offers rebuttal to South Africa’s genocide charges at the International Court of Justice**](https://forward.com/news/576182/israel-icj-genocide-south-africa/)

> **Lawyers for Israel put forth their rebuttal to South Africa’s charge that it was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, and said the case before the International Court of Justice cheapened a term that was coined to describe the destruction of the Jewish people.**
> 
> **But Israel also advanced an overarching argument that the court should not abuse a term, genocide, reserved only for the most extreme cases.**

**Israel’s concern is for the *cheapening of terminology*. Yet, isn’t Israel cheapening terminology on a daily basis. Presenting this action as justified because of October 7/23. Comparing ISIS to Hamas. Smearing every Gazan as Hamas. Name calling. This is the most common form of propaganda during war. And Israel is waging war on millions of unarmed people, they’ve labeled as terrorists, this is not targeting Hamas. This is killing and displacing Palestinians en masse. [This is mowing the lawn/grass on an industrial scale.](https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/mow-lawn-israel%E2%80%99s-strategy-perpetual-war-palestinians-185775)** **An Israeli practice for a very long time**.

> ***Israel’s confidence that it could go on indefinitely “mowing the lawn” without seeking a political solution may seem accurate. But the mowing may not merely be perpetual, but self-perpetuating.***
> 
> **As Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shamir first approvingly put it in a 2014[ article](https://www.jpost.com/opinion/columnists/mowing-the-grass-in-gaza-368516) for the *Jerusalem Post*, Israeli strategists[ see the wars as “mowing the grass”](https://www.jpost.com/opinion/israel-must-prove-it-has-freedom-to-defend-itself-opinion-668124) in a lengthy struggle of attrition in which a political solution is unlikely.**

**Israel’s concern is for the words being used. They are avoiding dealing with the real harm caused by their war of choice. Israel is obfuscating the reality of their military operation and the effect it’s having on a massive population**.

**Also, thinking psychologically about this situation.. When the abused becomes the abuser – [Is this about the cycle of abuse?](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27436859/)**

**Or is this a case of the abuser playing victim?- [Victim hood as covert abuse](https://psychcentral.com/pro/recovery-expert/2019/01/types-of-abusers-the-victim#Victim-hood-as-Covert-Abuse)**

**Israel’s argument appears to hinge on the fact that because Jews suffered previously- no one else’s suffering is legitimate** **or as legitimate**, **because, history.**