No pain, no agony, no carnage is neither seen or heard. No outrage, no fallout, no shame is angered or offended. It is business as usual, there is no distaste or contempt.
The high and the mighty see a distorted image of a deceptive vision, preferring the illusion to the truth. They see a playground, but see no genocide.
There are no combatants in a war — not in Gaza. There are only defenceless citizens, mostly children. Does it have a name? Despite objection or rejection, protest or dissent, the disguised lies cry genocide.
It is hard to believe that this dreadful word never existed in history until 1944, when a Polish/ Jewish lawyer, Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) coined the word, combining genos (Greek for people) to cide (Latin for killing). Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Lemkin fled to the US and pursued his career as an academic. Deeply conscious of the persecution of the Jews, he particularly referred to the Armenian genocide, (April 1915), but the word lived on to apply elsewhere.
A fervent protester, Lemkin served as the chief US prosecutor among the Allied powers at Nuremberg. He committed the rest of his life to prevent the extermination of ethnic groups and avert future Hitlers. In 1948 the UN approved the Genocide Convention, based on Lemkin’s proposal. Little did he know then that the day will come when one of the very people he so vehemently fought for on their behalf, would become an army of Hitlers — and worse.
Lemkin escaped from the Hitlers of Poland to seek asylum in the land of the free and the home of the brave. A virtuous Congress objects to all persecuted nations, unbeknownst to its own slaves, indigenous natives and African Americans. They formed their fine constitution, convinced they seek freedom for all.
While the founding fathers were crafting the laws of their new nation, they were actively engaged in conflicts and negotiations, violating treaties and failing to protect native American rights. They are consciously unaware of the extent and nature of the historical events that has eradicated the native population of the existing inhabitants of the Americas. They were not invaders or migrants from other lands. They were only trying to survive on their native land. How dare they defend their ancestral lands.
Should they now worry about the native Palestinians?
As for slavery-that is yet another long story for another time and place. Suffice it to be reminded that the word “slave” does not appear in the constitution.
How to hide a violent gene for supremacy?
The dormant culture of colonialism dictates the suppression of minority groups — the violence, displacement and exploitation, that is part of colonisation — is evident.
Original British settlers of the first 13 colonies, who came primarily from England, Scotland, and Ireland are colonists, but modern Americans are a much more diverse group due to centuries of immigration and cultural evolution. This stark contrast to the initial British colonists and the influx of immigrants developed into a melting pot of various cultures. However, the pot did not melt enough.
Remains of the violent gene still accompanies the American disposition.
The current global landscape and the American power makes it evident that somehow, in their DNA, they tolerate the present condition. Did they not call the native Americans savages? They too died of starvation and diseases, not to mention the killing and the seizing of their ancestral lands. Do they accept the plight of the Palestinians because they are familiar and normal? Confound the constitution. Confound the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Killing is commonplace. Its significance is lost. No, there is no genocide in Palestine.
The US has long been Israel’s most powerful ally, since its creation in 1948. The US was the first country to recognise the nascent State of Israel and this alliance never wavered. This close relationship is unshakeable, regardless of the many violations, conflicts and bloodbaths. It is an impertinence to men of good faith, but Americans see it differently.
There is little or no difference between the colonisation of the Americas and the colonisation of Palestine. What is coming next is ominous. It is apparent that colonisation has no containment when it comes to the state of Israel.
Is the innocence of the American population intact, or have they been stained by the touch of genocide?
Moved by the plight of the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, they embraced the oppressed peoples, now the oppressors, but they refuse to see, hear or know.
It was Truman, who despite caution against a Jewish state and the bloody conflict that would be inevitable, was the first man to recognize the state of Israel. It was the same Truman who was the only man to authorised the use of nuclear weapons.
Astounding and alarming how men can easily deceive or being deceived. Obviously, we are back to the colonization era, when genocide is exercised with or without a name.
Once a dream, now a nightmare, the US sends BLU-bombs for intense bombardments to kill and maim civilians indiscriminately in Gaza, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, wherever and whenever Israel dictates.
The irony is that the purveyor and the criminal use their deadly weapons and hope to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Shameful.
“As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sow the seeds of murder and pain, cannot reap the joy of love.”
Pythagoras (570-495 BC)
* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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