Rhetorical discomfort not a reason to ignore genocide in Gaza | Letter

The Jewish Community Alliance’s (JCA) recent public statement, “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” cursorily acknowledges that Israel’s actions in Gaza demand “serious scrutiny and accountability” before arguing that calling it a genocide is “irresponsible” and to use the term is to participate in “Holocaust inversion” and inflame hatred against the Jewish community.

I am a lifelong member of the Maine Jewish community. It is outrageous that this is where our organizational and spiritual leaders have chosen to put their energy.

The statement attempts to prove lack of genocidal intent with rationale that crumbles quickly under inspection. Sure, one former prosecutor of the International Criminal Court isn’t definitively convinced, but dozens of human rights organizations — including Israeli ones — consider it genocide.

Yes, Israel allowed the World Health Organization to provide polio vaccines to the children of Gaza, but this argument loses gravitas when one remembers that the Israeli Defense Force has bombed every single hospital in Gaza. Over the duration of the “ceasefire,” near-daily military strikes have killed over 1,100 Palestinians, primarily civilians.

Clinging to semantics won’t change the reality of Israel’s crimes. The myopic fixation on rhetorical discomfort instead of material violence only serves to alienate the majority of Americans who are more concerned with ending the genocide than softening the words they use to do it.

Claire Muscat
Portland

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