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Ray Harris is a frequent contributor to this website. He has written articles on 9/11, boomeritis, the Iraq war and Third Way politics. Since 2007 he took to writing his novels Navaratri, Wild Child and Eden. Harris lives in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.

The Hypocrites

Part Part Four: Genocide

Ray Harris

Genocide is a serious crime and for this reason accusations of genocide should be treated with the utmost care. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Too often accusations of genocide are made for partisan political point scoring. Some cases are emphasised whilst others are ignored. This is particularly the case in regard to the Israel/Palestine Conflict where attention is focused on allegations against Israel and allegations against Hamas are ignored.

If genocide is such a serious crime, then surely it is a serious crime in ALL cases.

Understanding Genocide

A good part of the problem is that those who protest the alleged genocide in Gaza do not actually understand the crime of genocide. They are using the term to position their political opponents as 'the worst kind'. It is a form of demonisation, itself a stage in the process of genocide.

To explain genocide I am going to refer to the work of Genocide Watch. GW is respected independent NGO founded in 1999 by Dr Gregory Stanton. Stanton has extensive experience in the field, including acting as president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars from 2007-2009.

Before I proceed I highly recommend the reader click the links to familiarise themselves with the work of GW.

The Ten Stages of Genocide

According to GW genocide is not just an outcome, it is a process. To make it easier to understand they have suggested ten stages. These are not linear. They can be used to alert people to the potential for genocide.

The ten stages are:

1. Classification. Defining a people as other or different.
2. Symbolisation. Naming and stereotyping.
3. Discrimination. Denying the group equality and human rights.
4. Dehumanisation. Demonisation, claiming they are inferior, bad or a threat.
5. Organisation. Creating political parties, organisations, militia to institute discrimination.
6. Polarisation. Extremists drive groups apart. Moderates are attacked and marginalised.
7. Preparation. Plans are made to eliminate the target group.
8. Persecution. Action is taken to arrest and silence.
9. Extermination. Persecution expands to targeted killing.
10. Denial. Hiding the evidence of atrocities. Rationalisation, political posturing.

I would suggest that if you are genuinely opposed to genocide that you personally do not entertain any of these stages. Unfortunately most political discourse involves several of the earlier stages. Political opponents are classified, stereotyped, dehumanised and discriminated against, especially by extremists on both the left and right.

Current genocides

Gaza is not the only contemporary example of genocide. GW lists current genocides (in no particular order):

1. Israeli actions against Palestinians.
2. Palestinian actions against Israelis
3. Russian actions against Ukraine.
4. Chinese actions against the Uyghur.
5. Sudan. Rapid Security Forces actions.
6. Myanmar. Actions against the Rohingya and other ethnic minorities.
7. Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ethnic violence.

The Hypocrisy

The hypocrisy lies in focusing attention on specific cases to the exclusion of others. In my other essays I have singled out specific leftist groups as examples (although the problem is not confined to the left). These groups loudly protest the genocide in Gaza because Israel is aligned with the US, whilst they remain remarkably silent about the ongoing genocides in Sudan, Ukraine and China. When pressed about why they choose to ignore certain genocidal actions they claim that they can only protest if their government is involved, even if that involvement is marginal. The Australian pro-Palestinian movement is a case in point. They accuse the Australian government of being complicit in the Gaza genocide because it allows Australian companies to supply components to Israeli F-35 fighter jets as part of Lockheed Martin's global supply chain.

Let's be clear here. The real issue for the socialist left is that Israel is allied with the US, not because of its alleged genocidal actions. That is just the excuse to attack the real target, the 'West'.

Russia and Sudan

In terns of sheer numbers the Sudan genocide is by far the most severe. The number of civilian deaths is estimated to be around 150,000 with 13 million forcibly displaced and a further 25 million facing severe food insecurity and famine.

Russia has direct links with the Rapid Support Forces through the supply of weapons and tactical support by the mercenary Wagner Group.

Russia's genocide against Ukraine

You can read the latest GW report as linked.

It concludes:

“Due to Russia's oppression of minority groups and the rise of neo-Nazi groups, Genocide Watch considers Russia to be at Stage 6: Polarization. Because Russia is committing genocide in occupied Ukraine, Russia is at Stage 9: Extermination. By resisting charges from the ICC and engaging in genocidal mirroring, Russia is at Stage 10: Denial.”

It urges that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recognises that Russia has violated the Genocide Convention.

China and Myanmar

The Chinese Communist Party is deeply involved with the government of Myanmar. Not only does it supply weapons and military advisers, it protects Myanmar diplomatically by using its UNSC veto power on its behalf.

China's genocide against the Uyghur

GW has released a number of reports outlining the situation regarding the Uyghurs. This link is dated December 20, 2025.

It concludes:

“Genocide Watch considers the CCP's repression of freedom of movement and religion, and its Orwellian surveillance of Uyghurs as Stage 3: Discrimination. The CCP's torture and imprisonment of Uyghurs into “re-education camps” is Stage 8: Persecution. Mass rape of women inside and outside these camps and CCP removal of Uyghur children is Stage 9: Extermination, violation of the Genocide Convention. The CCP's denial of its acts of genocide are Stage 10: Denial. The Uyghur genocide is aided and abetted by "genocide scholar" deniers like William Schabas and Jeffrey Sachs.”

Israel and Palestine

GW regards Israeli actions to be in violation of the Genocide Convention. You can read the July 2026 report here, and you can search the archives for previous reports.

The situation in Gaza has been so widely reported that I don't need to mention the details here. Instead I want to point to a side that is rarely discussed and that is the genocidal actions by Palestinians against Jews and Israelis.

In a report titled Holocaust & Genocide Scholars Condemn Oct 7 Hamas Massacre the signatories directly accuse Hamas of the crime of genocide.

“Recognizing, that these incitements to destroy Israel, Israelis and the Jewish people constitute an "intent to destroy in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such," according to article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948);

“Recognizing, that according to article 2(a) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and article 6(a) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1988), both of which constitute customary international law, the killing of members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group with an intent to destroy the group in whole or in part is a crime of genocide;

“Recognizing, that according to article 2(b) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948), and article 6(b) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1988), both of which constitute customary international law, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group is a crime of genocide;”

They further declare: “that the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians, constitute genocide and crimes against humanity, and the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas against Israeli civilians and combatants constitute war crimes;”

In my essays The Neglected Cause: Al-Aqsa and Strange Bedfellows I mentioned several conflicts between Palestinians and Jews. Using the definition used by GW we can readily argue that some of these were crimes of genocide.

1. The 1929 riots and the massacres of Hebron and Safed demonstrate the intent to commit genocide and represent all ten stages.

2. Haj Amin al-Husseini's collaboration with the Nazis shows clear genocidal intent, including stage 7, preparation and stage 10, denial. Stages 8 and 9 were only avoided because Germany lost the war.

3. Hamas

As GW itself says:

“Recognizing, that Hamas militants committed these atrocities in Israel with the declared genocidal intent written in the Hamas Covenant of 1988 that calls for the elimination of the State of Israel, denies Israel's right to exist, and calls for eternal war against Jews and Israel;

“Recognizing, that Hamas's jihadist genocidal terrorism against Israel and Jews, uses indoctrination and incitement to motivate its followers to commit these massacres;

“Recognizing, that according to the UN Human Rights Council, this indoctrination and incitement for genocidal terrorism includes delegitimization, dehumanization, and demonization against Israel and Jews in Hamas's educational curricula and military training;”

An important caveat

Although it really shouldn't need to be said, the genocidal actions of one group do not justify the genocidal actions of another group, even in the name of self-defence. All actions must abide by the principles of IHL.

However, we are entitled to ask why the genocidal actions of one group are highlighted whilst the genocidal actions of the opposite group are ignored or denied.

It is possible for both sides of a conflict to commit genocide, for both to be guilty of war crimes.

Genocidal mirroring

Accusations of genocide are too often just political polemic. The people who make them are rarely interested in the legal technicalities. The aim is not to convince the appropriate legal authorities, but to convince the court of public opinion using a range of rhetorical strategies. One of those strategies is inversion or mirroring. This is defined as:

“Essentially, accusation in a mirror (AiM) is a common technique for inciting genocide by accusing one's intended victims of precisely the crimes that one intends to commit against them. This article argues that the usage of this common genocidal technique should satisfy the directness requirement for incitement to genocide under international law.”

In the case of the Israel Palestine conflict:

“Rather than marking the onset of a new type of violence, rooted in the fantasy of the disappearance of the "other," the 7 October war signifies the peak of a once marginalized pattern of genocidal mirroring. In motion since the late 1980s, the ultra-messianic faction of the Jewish settler movement, emphasizing Jewish supremacy, redemption politics, sacrificial martyrdom, and purifying violence of land and soul, has been entangled with a similar political theology espoused by the Palestinian movement, Hamas. Aware of and constantly reacting to one another, both imagine the disappearance of the other via extermination or expulsion as a form of salvation and take concrete actions to that effect. In this way they are openly engaging in an ever escalating process of genocidal mirroring.”

Another famous case, one that is before the ICJ, is Russia's accusation that Ukraine was committing acts of genocide against Russian speakers in the Donbas, used as justification for the 'special military operation'.

An official press release from the ICJ states:

“Ukraine contends, inter alia, that “the Russian Federation has falsely claimed that acts of genocide have occurred in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine, and on that basis recognized the so-called 'Donetsk People's Republic' and 'Luhansk People's Republic', and then declared and implemented a 'special military operation' against Ukraine”. Ukraine “emphatically denies” that such acts of genocide have occurred and states that it submitted the Application “to establish that Russia has no lawful basis to take action in and against Ukraine for the purpose of preventing and punishing any purported genocide”.”

Russian and pro-Palestinian accusations that the Ukrainians and Zionists are Nazis are examples of polemical mirroring.

Crossing the line

Article III (c) of the Genocide Convention lists 'direct and public incitement to commit genocide' as a punishable offence.

Article IV states: “Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”

Despite these clear provisions, some sections of the pro-Palestinian movement protesting the genocide in Gaza clearly incited genocide against Israel. This is not necessarily the fault of the organisers. Protest movements have always been subject to agents provocateurs, either from the government or more extremists factions. Protest organisers know this and usually create some form of self-policing. But they can also be naive or easily overwhelmed. Protests can quickly escalate and turn to chaos.

Here I want to return to the ten stages of genocide, especially the first six leading to polarisation. In such situations the rhetoric too quickly becomes dehumanisation. The political enemy is literally demonised.

The cycle of violence

In my essay Against Political Violence I described the cycle of violence. The call to eliminate an entire people is the most extreme consequence of this cycle. It is at its most tragic when the calls for genocide are mutual - we must eliminate them before they eliminate us.

Tragically, the groups I have defined as the hypocrites continue to make excuses for the use of political violence, to romanticise violent resistance movements.

The only way to a just and lasting solution is to reject violence and initiate a truth and reconciliation process.