“As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’,” he said in the letter seen by Reuters.

“The government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        12 hours ago

        Given that the founders and early adopters of Zionism were predominantly atheist, that is not the root cause of anything.

        • ToastedRavioli@midwest.social
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          11 hours ago

          I think water is a large part of the conflict, but its rarely talked about. Israel steals a great deal of water from all of its neighbors, specifically because they believe they are entitled to a higher standard of living. Having pools, lush gardens, and even growing tomatoes and oranges when that makes very little sense in the desert. Agriculture is literally 2% of their GDP, a rounding error, yet they waste massive amounts of water on it.

          On the flip side, Palestinians in Gaza are the most water-poor people in the world, making it by on 1/10th (or less, in many cases) of the average water used by Israelis on any given day. This is despite the fact that a major aquifer is beneath their territory, but the Israelis bleed that aquifer dry from the territory that they illegally occupy. Similarly, they hijack virtually all of the water from the Jordan river and send it through the National Water Carrier before it ever reaches Jordan. They have a third source of water from another aquifer, but it is much smaller than the western aquifer, and desalination is probably more expensive than committing genocide against their neighbors.

          Were getting to a point where the Jordan is hardly more than a small waste-filled creek, and the western aquifer is getting overtapped by their absurd usage of the water. As the water table drops, they will need to be further inside Gaza in order to tap the western aquifer because their settlements are largely at higher elevations. So, before they inevitably lose the water they “need” to keep wasting so much water, they are using the specter of national security as a pretext for wiping out the strip and thereby securing access to the largest source of fresh water