The fall Assad regime in Syria has exposed what many in the international community suspected for years — deposed President Bashar al-Assad committed genocide against Syrian civilians.
Genocide is an international crime encompassing “acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group,” including,
Killing or harming members of a group, or creating conditions designed to kill or harm them.
Creating conditions designed to reduce births within a group.
Forcibly placing one group’s children with another group.
“Genocide” has become an American buzzword in recent years, but few conflicts meet this grisly threshold — for good reason. It was coined to describe the Third Reich’s murder of millions of European Jews. But al-Assad’s treatment of Syrians since the 2011 outbreak of the nation’s civil war can only be described as genocide.
His regime used chemical weapons, indiscriminate bombing and arbitrary imprisonment to stifle civilian protests. People detained in Assad’s vast network of prison systems frequently disappeared. For decades, a few brave survivors claimed the regime was torturing and murdering detained Syrians by the thousands.
Prisons liberated last month validated these stories.
Rebels and desperate families uncovered squalid conditions and emaciated bodies. Groups like the Center for Peace Communications (CPC) captured footage of the crematoriums and industrial metal presses guards used to pulverize prisoner’s remains and hide evidence of torture. Still others have uncovered thousands of bodies, dumped nameless, in mass graves across the nation.
Of the 1.3 million people cycled through this system since 2011, Joseph Braude, the president and founder of CPC, claims at least 10% died there.
Properly used, “genocide” communicates the seriousness of atrocities defying description and explanation. But the power of this term has dwindled in the past year and a half with persistent and flippant misuse.
I’m referring, of course, to the assertion that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas and recover hostages after the Gaza-based terror group brutally massacred more than 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023. Tens of thousands of Gazans have been killed or injured in the crossfire.
But, as the Daily Citizen has previously reported, nothing about Israel’s counterattack meets the criteria of a genocide.
Genocidal acts, by definition, stem from the intent to exterminate an entire people group. Israel’s offensive followed the largest and deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. It intends only to defend it’s citizens by rescuing Israeli hostages and decimating Hamas’ ability to wage war.
Far from wiping Gazans off the map, Israel has gone to great lengths to prevent civilian casualties, including facilitating humanitarian aid. Hamas purposely subverts this goal by using human shields and hiding in tunnels beneath densely populated areas, schools and hospitals.
Israel’s history with Palestinians is similarly devoid of genocidal aims. According to Dr. Jeff Myers of Summit Ministries, twenty-times fewer Palestinians have died in wars with Israel since 1948 than al-Assad’s Syria between 2021 and 2023. Hamas, meanwhile, vows to commit genocide against Israel in its charter. It has refused every single two-stage solution proposed by Israel and international community and spent tens of millions of dollars of foreign aid on Israel’s destruction.
A distressing number of educated Americans either don’t know or willfully disregard these facts. College students and faculty have spent countless hours castigating institutions for “funding genocide.”
Syrian activists like Mazen al-Hamada spent years begging for the attention of activists like these. A former detainee, al-Hamada spent years encouraging governments to shun the Assad regime. Discouraged by the lack of international action, al-Hamada returned to Syria, where he believed he could make a bigger difference, in 2020.
Al-Hamada’s tortured body was one of 38 discovered last month in a military hospital outside Sednaya prison, the regime’s most infamous detention center. He was murdered shortly before Assad fled to Moscow.
Braude feels pro-Palestinian protests have “cheapened” the word “genocide”, telling Senor,
Syrian affairs analyst and former detainee Ahed Al Hendi further argues that using genocide as a politically expedient buzzword makes people less likely to take it seriously. He recounts the change of heart some pro-regime Syrians have experienced following al-Assad’s ouster.
Thousands of Americans spent last year campaigning for Palestine based on a flawed analysis of which groups were the “oppressor” and which were the “oppressed.” In doing so, they minimized and ignored Nazi-era genocidal oppression occurring in real time.
There’s probably a lesson in that.
Additional Articles and Resources
Six Lies Hamas Tells You, Debunked
A Year’s Slide into Antisemitism, Examined
Double Standard? Calls for Israeli Ceasefire Could Conceal Antisemitism
Antisemitism — What It Is and Its Connection to the Israel-Hamas War
Israel is Under Attack — Here’s Why Christians Should Support Its Defense
Women’s Rights Group Silent on Hamas Sexual Violence, Analysis Shows
More Antisemitism — Legacy Media Implies Israeli Rescue Mission is War Crime
Pro-Hamas Protests Will Never Be Peaceful
College Faculty Voice Support for Antisemitic Protests
INVESTIGATION: Who funds anti-Israel protests?
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