Genocide, urbicide, domicide – how to talk about Israel’s war on Gaza
Al Jazeera
Officials, experts and activists have used various terms to describe Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
South Africa has taken Israel to the International Court of Justice, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – and 12 other countries have backed the case.
“Genocide” is a legal term that has been increasingly used to describe what Israel is doing in Gaza as it kills more people, a figure nearing 40,000.
What other terms have been used to describe what’s happening in Gaza?
Genocide is the “deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group”.
It was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin – “geno”, the Greek word for race or tribe, and “-cide”, Latin for killing – to describe the Nazi murder of Jews and other groups during the Holocaust.