one of my pet peeves is when beings say that any one group of beings deserve to die (because they are in the previously mentioned group).

yes, i believe that sometimes death is the right choice. yes, i support murder in some cases.

but i do not support sociocide. nothing is black and white as every being loves to claim. there is ALWAYS an exception.

also, realistically, who would we trust with the extermination of said group? there is no being that could be trusted with handing that sociocide and not getting out of control.

because, we will hand them the power to kill and that will give them power over others. it will quickly turn from ‘getting rid of this specific group’ to ‘getting rid of any who oppose me’ .

you’ve heard the quote- you’re either with me or against me.

anyways, you get the point. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

this video is a short but effective explanation of this and highlights how important it is to recognise that tax avoidance is sociocide

the video is by richard murphy, a professor of accounting at sheffield university in the UK

there is a transcript of the video available here

Russell Tribunal on Palestine Part III – Sociocide

October 8, 2012

One of the most interesting topics discussed by the tribunal was the question of sociocide, an academic concept which means the complete destruction of a people’s social and political structures as well as the destruction of a people’s identity.

Some of the experts called to testify in front of the tribunal pointed out that this is just one form of genocide, not separate from genocide, but rather a particular type.

Saleh Hamayel (which as he pointed out was the Hebrew last name given to his family by the occupying Israeli settlers) particularly testified on the Palestinian case for sociocide. He discussed the term sociocide and compared it to others like apartheid and politicide. It was his opinion, and the opinion of others, that the situation in Africa is more severe than South African apartheid on a number of levels.

“Apartheid is not accurate to describe fully what is being done ot he Palestinian people. As Desmond Tutu has said ‘I’ve seen many of the things in South African Apartheid being done to the Palestinian people, but I’ve seen many more things being done to the Palestinian people that were never done under South African apartheid.’” Saleh said in his testimony. He then went on to list examples. For instance:

Palestinians are now a minority people, suffering under the oppression of a majority. After many have been dispossessed, and killed and after new settlers have continued to migrate to Israel, transforming the Israeli population from 200,000 a few years ago, to now over 600,000. Blacks in South Africa were a majority people, suffering under the exploitation and oppression of the white minority.

Blacks in South Africa were exploited for their labor and thus included in the economy. Whereas the indigenous Palestinian people, more like indigenous people here in the United States, were excluded from the economy entirely. Their ability to thrive under any economic conditions has been systematically destroyed, creating some of the most devastating conditions for the Palestinian people that exist for human beings in the world today. When an oppressed group is not part of the labor force, genocide is the obvious track, he said.

He also offered an example about swimming, and noted that Palestinians are not allowed to share beaches with Israelis. “Palestinians have not been able to swim in the same sea as Israelis for more than 17 years.” Saleh Hamayel added.

More than apartheid and more than genocide or politicide, a new definition is necessary to describe the desperate and terrible conditions of the Palestinian people, with Palestinians being destroyed both as a political/national group and as a society. This process has been ongoing, with both an initial massacre of many and then a series of policies to slowly destroy the minority that is left. Saleh Hamayel calls this sociocide. He argued that a unique situation needs a unique concept to define it.

From a strategic point of view, with a focus on stopping Israel from continuing to violate international law, the panel took the position that apartheid is sufficient and necessary as it is already defined as illegal under international law. In the comments many of the jurors did note that after visiting Palestine and seeing the conditions that Israel has subjected the Palestinian people to, that the situation in Palestine is much more severe than South African apartheid and much more severe than Jim Crow in the south. This coming from South Africans who lived through apartheid and from black Americans who live in the United States and who grew up in the south struck me as incredibly telling about the level of complete disparity that Palestinians are forced to live in. 

 - Robert

Russell Tribunal on Palestine Part I - Background & Introductions

October 8, 2012

It seemed like many people I spoke to at the Russell Tribunal on Palestine were waking up to the reality of the horrible conditions that the people of Palestine are subjected to. Many of the panelists too, seemed to only come to their realization recently after visiting the occupied territories and seeing the conditions that Palestinians live in, and after talking to activists who have been involved in the struggle for decades. A shifting consciousness around Israel and Palestine is underfoot and this tribunal represented a new international commitment to something more than just “peace talks” (a term that misleadingly conjures the imagery of war, and not of ethnic-based oppression, genocide, sociocide, politicide and apartheid). This commitment comes in the form of a demand to Israel to stop their human rights violations, a demand for basic human dignity for the Palestinian people and the promise of a future for the children of Palestine. For the people of Israel, for the people of Palestine and for humans everywhere, Israel’s actions against the people of Palestine must end.

The tribunal sought to examine details surrounding the situation in Palestine and to make recommendations on how to move forward based on the details and testimonies presented. One of the most important things that can come from this tribunal is a complete social media blitz, which could create a long-term effect on the way people view, understand, and speak about the situation in Palestine, adding power to the social currents building against human rights violations committed by Israel and supported by the United States.

When Israel colonized the lands of the Palestinian people in the 20th century, they, with the help of the powers in the west (mainly the United States), were able to dominate the conversation with narratives that justified disturbing and horrific acts against the people of Palestine. The occupation was spun as an “ancient unending conflict” between two groups, dating back thousands of years. The indigenous people of Palestine in the 20th century, who had not been alive thousands of years before, whose grandparents and great-great-grandparents had not been alive in such a time, understood that this was rhetoric used to justify colonization of their lands. We now live in the age of free and verifiable information. Propaganda campaigns that support the destruction of one group for the benefit of another cannot run rampantly unchecked any longer. The international community is beginning to stir around this issue, and a movement to end the human rights violations in Israel is beginning to emerge. As they have in other cases of extreme human rights violations, the Russell Tribunal will certainly have played a significant role in this growing movement.

The Russell Tribunal is also known as the International War Crimes Tribunal and has tackled war crimes committed by the United States in Vietnam and Iraq and war crimes & human rights violations in Brazil, Chile, and other parts of Latin America.

This was the fourth meeting of the tribunal on Palestine, this time meeting in New York City. The tribunal on Palestine has met previously in Barcelona, London and Cape Town successively, in order to tackle various aspects of the human rights violations taking place against the Palestinian people.

The undeniably credible panel of tribunal jurors included the following: Dennis Banks, Angela Davis, John Dugard, Miguel Angel Estrella, Stephane Hessel, Ronnie Kasrils, Mairead Maguire, Cynthia McKinney, Michael Mansfield, Alice Walker, Roger Waters.

There were also many notably prominent expert witnesses including Noam Chomsky. It was an incredibly thoughtful and responsible collection of individuals who have spent their lives devoted to human rights and the fact that they came together to denounce what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people is significant.

-Robert

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