Genocide names what to prevent, not what to commemorate

"Parallels between Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and early America’s treatment of indigenous peoples are stark. Once you know the twin histories, you cannot unsee it. ... Americans are discouraged to draw parallels between Native American and Palestinian history. ... If anyone should understand ethnic cleansing, it is Americans, because our country was founded upon the genocide of indigenous peoples, followed by centuries of cover-ups." &mdash Sarah Kendzior, "Trails of Tears," Substack newsletter, Jan 11, 2024

Genocide has a legal definition, yes, but I would say — as a descendant of survivors of the genocide that led to the term being coined — that what makes something a genocide is not numbers of deaths, but an attempt to fully eradicate an entire community through the destruction of family lines.

— Lux "Days of Awe"ptraum לקס אלפטראום (@luxalptraum.com) October 7, 2024 at 11:33 AM

What is happening in Gaza is not a genocide simply because massive numbers of people are dying — though yes, genocide often leads to mass death. It is a genocide because a significant amount of Israeli government rhetoric has framed Gazans as a people who must be wiped out in entirety.

— Lux "Days of Awe"ptraum לקס אלפטראום (@luxalptraum.com) October 7, 2024 at 11:34 AM

When I think about what the descendants of Gazan survivors will grow up with, I think of the shadows that haunt my own family legacy. The inability to talk about the past. The family trees that just stop. The generational trauma. That, for me, is genocide.

— Lux "Days of Awe"ptraum לקס אלפטראום (@luxalptraum.com) October 7, 2024 at 11:36 AM

The most tragic thing about the way we wrestle with the concept of genocide was that the term was coined in the hopes of *preventing* future groups from experiencing what my family went through. But instead it only serves to acknowledge the lost and horror trauma in the aftermath.

— Lux "Days of Awe"ptraum לקס אלפטראום (@luxalptraum.com) October 7, 2024 at 11:38 AM

Having your loss recognized as a genocide is a pretty abysmal consolation prize. And it sucks that 80 years after my own ancestors were being slaughtered en masse in an attempt to wipe out their people, this is the best we have to offer.

— Lux "Days of Awe"ptraum לקס אלפטראום (@luxalptraum.com) October 7, 2024 at 11:39 AM

This is an important framing of the idea of genocide. It's not mass murder for cultural reasons, its the attempted murder of a culture (which often involves mass murder). Case in point: The residential school system for Native Americans would have been a genocide even without the mass graves.

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— Greg Muller (Dr Math) (@morilac.bsky.social) October 7, 2024 at 11:40 AM

Important: Israel's public channel (Kann 11) reports that the military effort that commenced today in Jebalia refugee camp is part of a bigger operation to expel all Palestinians from North Gaza, according to the "Eiland Plan".

— Yair Wallach (@yairwallach.bsky.social) October 6, 2024 at 7:19 AM

Estimated 300,000 Palestinians remain in North Gaza. The plan is to force as many of them to leave and then proceed as if no civilians remained edition.cnn.com/2024/09/22/m...

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— Yair Wallach (@yairwallach.bsky.social) October 6, 2024 at 7:23 AM