I feel sad every day to hear about the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
But I’ve never studied the meaning of the word “Genocide”.
What exactly does this word refer to?
That’s an important question. We need to know the definition of the word when we use it.
The definition of genocide is written in The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as follows.
Any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in WHOLE or in PART, a NATIONAL, ETHNICAL, RACIAL or RELIGIOUS group:
1. Killing;
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births;
5. Forcibly transferring children.
So, a genocide means someone targets a particular group of people and tries to eliminate those group members.
That’s right. I am going to show you two examples of the genocide that happened in Cambodia and Rwanda.
During the genocide in the late 1970s in Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge (the communist party which came to power) executed around 2 million people (25% of the total population at the time).
The major targeted population included intellectuals, urban dwellers, and ethnic minorities, with the claim that only pure people were qualified to build a revolution.
In the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, the Tutsi minority group was the target.
1 million of them (approximately 75% of the Tutsi population) were killed in just three months.
For the current ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel, more than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 117,000 people have been injured. Recent data indicate that at least 377,000 are missing.
The total population has decreased by 6% since the war began.
The majority of victims are children and women, and health staff and journalists are also targeted.
In addition, access to all humanitarian aid, including food, water and medicine, has been cut off in the Gaza Strip, leading to starvation of the entire population. Many people waiting for aid distribution sites run by Israel and the US have been shot and killed.
Access to humanitarian assistance is a basic human right that everyone should have, and denying access to food, water, and medicine is a war crime.
It’s unbelievable that people would be killed while waiting for food.
It’s a total moral bankruptcy.
I never thought we’d see genocide and manmade famine in the 21st century.
References
– United Nations. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. Definitions of Genocide and Related Crimes. https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition
– Cambodia Tribunal Monitor. https://cambodiatribunal.org/history/cambodian-history/khmer-rouge-history/
-Damien de Walque. The World Bank. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 3446, November 2004. The Long-Term Legacy of the Khmer Rouge Period in Cambodia. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/924261468743657099/pdf/wps3446.pdf
– JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency). The case of Cambodia (in Japanese). https://www.jica.go.jp/Resource/jica-ri/IFIC_and_JBICI-Studies/jica-ri/publication/archives/jica/kyakuin/pdf/200512_hea_06.pdf
– United Nations. Genocide, Displacement and Starvation in Gaza: The Urgent Need for a Permanent Ceasefire and Protection of Civilians – Letter from the State of Palestine (A/ES-10/1031-S/2025/249). 23 April 2025. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/letter-from-the-state-of-palestine-23apr25/
– Wafaa Shurafa, and Fatma Khaled. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, Gaza health officials say. 13 June 2025. https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/more-than-55000-palestinians-have-been-killed-in-the-israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-officials-say/
– SKWAWKBOX. Analysis of Israel’s figures shows it murdered 377,000 Palestinians during genocide so far – half of them kids. 19 June 2025. https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/19/analysis-of-israels-figures-shows-it-murdered-377000-palestinians-during-genocide-so-far-half-of-them-kids/
