Genocide In The Israeli/Arab Conflict

1. Introduction of the Issue

Over at Neal Godfrey's blog Godfrey continues to try and support his conclusion that there was/is/will be genocide in the Israeli Arab conflict Expulsion of the Palestinians: Insights into Yishuv’s Transfer Ideas in World War 2. His problem so far is that he continues to look for it in the wrong place. He keeps looking for it on the Israeli side but there are now more Palestinians in Israel than there were at the start of the conflict and while Israel had no reaction whatsoever to The Palestinian Museum the Museum has no exhibits because of internal Palestinian fighting.

Genocide is defined as follows:

Genocide

"Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people (usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group) in whole or in part. The hybrid word "genocide" is a combination of the Greek word génos ("race, people") and the Latin suffix -cide ("act of killing").^[1] The United Nations Genocide Convention, which was established in 1948, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group".^[2][3]

The term genocide was coined in a 1944 book;^[4][5] it has been applied to the Holocaust," 

Note that included in the definition of "Genocide" is a religious group and that the term was created because of the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust of which the Palestinians and Arabs participated. Strangely Godfrey prohibits the combination of "Holocaust" and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict because he thinks it creates unfair sympathy for Israel. On the other hand he is quick to combine "Genocide" and Palestinians (as supposed victims) even though the word was originally created to describe the genocide of the Jews (which was largely successful because of the effort of Palestinians/Arabs to prevent a Jewish State at the time).

Everyone, including Godfrey, would agree that there was Genocide against the Jews in all of the surrounding Arab countries:

Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries

Here we have the expected qualities of genocide, murder, persecution, intimidation, forcible eviction, theft of all property, desecration and removal of history. Contrast this to what Godfrey tries to manufacture as Genocide on the Israeli side, while Israel is attempting to defend itself against a repetition of genocide against Jews, one (not "the") Jewish leader, in preparation for war, writes that assuming the Jews survive genocide one option is to try and make agreements with surrounding Arab countries to transfer some Palestinians out of strategically vulnerable areas so as to make the next genocidal attempt against Israel less likely to be successful. Under such a plan the Palestinians and Arab countries would be compensated per any agreement. The proposed plan would remove Palestinians by force if necessary (see how easy that was Neil). Note that this was one idea by one Israeli leader and never official Israeli policy unlike every Palestinian political organization that has an explicit genocidal policy towards Israel. 

So we do have clear evidence of Genocide just outside of Israel, perpetrated by all of Israel's Arab neighbors. But do we have evidence of Genocide inside Israel itself?


2. Discussion

During the Israeli/Arab conflict it's generally agreed that Jordan was the least malicious of Israel's neighbors. During The War of Independence Jordan illegally captured East Jerusalem which under the UN Mandate was supposed to be an International City. Let's see how that worked out for Jews not just in East Jerusalem but everywhere:

Jordanian annexation of the West Bank:

1) The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem.^[14]

2) All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops.

3) Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures.^[15][16] The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.^[17]

4) Tensions continued between Jordan and Israel through the early 1950s, with Palestinian guerrillas and Israeli commandos crossing the Green Line.

5) Tourists entering East Jerusalem had to present baptismal certificates or other proof they were not Jewish.^{[38] [39][40]}

1) - 5) = The destruction of Judaism in East Jerusalem, East 
Jerusalem being the most important geographical area for 
Judaism at the time as well as the symbol of Judaism.

For those sitting on the Wall as to whether this is sufficient to
justify a label of Genocide, add in that Jordan then allowed
Palestinian terrorists to operate from East Jerusalem.

3. Conclusion

In summary Neil Godfrey could end his desperate attempt to find evidence of Genocide in The Israeli/Arab conflict by simply looking everywhere except on the Israeli side. Seriously, Godfrey thinks he is helping the Palestinians by trying to demonize Israel and ignoring Palestinian/Arab evils. By doing this though he makes the Palestinians think that either he sees nothing evil in what they do or at least will tolerate it. Palestinian Terrorism though is the only reason Palestinians do not have their own State. They need constructive criticism and not just propaganda against Israel. By solely criticizing Israel you are hurting the Palestinians, not helping them, and your efforts will just blow up (so to speak) in your and their's face.