Vermont senator had taken flak for avoiding term as UN panel says Israel’s conduct meets criteria for genocide

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/36304935

[about f—ing time!]

Joseph Gedeon in Washington
Wed 17 Sep 2025 18.18 EDT

“We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people,” he wrote. “Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.”

He now joins a small but growing list of House members including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Vermont representative Becca Balint, who also called it a genocide earlier in the day.

“Today, I believe the Israeli government is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people,” Balint wrote in an op-ed in the Courier. “As the granddaughter of a man murdered in the Holocaust, it is not easy for me to say that.”

  • xyzzy@lemmy.today
    8·
    14 hours ago

    “Ethnic cleansing” is a weasel term to avoid saying “genocide,” which is an actual legally-defined term that requires a response according to domestic and international law, which the US is a party to. If it’s genocide, the US and other countries are obligated to try to prevent it and to bring the perpetrators to justice. A politician calling it an ethnic cleansing does so either because they’re ignorant of the law (although most of them are lawyers) or because they want to sound like they’re taking a stand without actually doing anything.

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      1·
      13 hours ago

      I don’t think legality has anything to do with the choice. There’s no obligation from a handful of senators saying something. It’s not like Warren calling it a genocide obligated the Senate to adopt that position.

      In reality, it just feels like a serious charge that doesn’t have to explain that genocide can exist without full Nazi death camps. None of their voters are going to think “it’s only ethnic cleansing, they don’t have to do anything about that”.