What is a genocide?
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend it as an accessible, level-headed explanation of the UN definition of genocide in heated Gaza threads, though one notes it omits some context.
What it is
Anders Puck Nielsen clears up common misunderstandings about what legally counts as genocide, then compares the situation in Gaza with the genocide case against Putin. The chapters cover the definition, individual intent, and the two case comparisons.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2023 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends agmater · 2023-11 · on “One of the greatest user interface disasters in history”
Genocide != Civilian casualties. Genocide is about the extermination of a people. Anders Puck Nielsen just made a good video on this: [this video]
Recommends grumpycamel · 2024-12 · on “Amnesty accuses Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza”
[this video] I thought this was a sensible and accessible explanation of what genocide and what it is not. It has two case studies: Gaza, Ukraine.
Recommends grumpycamel · 2024-12 · on “Doctors Without Borders declares the war in Gaza as genocide”
[this video] This guy has a very accessible take on the proper United Nations definition of genocide and how it applies to the Gaza and Ukraine war. Gemini summary: >>>> This video discusses the definition of genocide and its application to current events. The speaker argues that many people misuse the term to describe any atrocity, while genocide specifically refers to the intent to eliminate a group of people. The speaker uses the examples of the war in Gaza and the arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin to illustrate this point. They argue that while there are many civilian casualties in Gaza, it's unclear if there's an intent to eliminate the entire Palestinian people. In contrast, Putin's forced
Cites physicles · 2023-12 · on “Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims”
It does not. The war is being waged with the intent to destroy Hamas (which has itself stated that its goal is to destroy Israel, if given the chance), not to kill every last Palestinian. See also [this video]
Critical Chris2048 · 2023-12 · on “Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims”
Not a bad video, but I think there is missing context. It also doesn't really "absolve" Israel on what might be a technicality (Genocide vs other Crimes AH). There is a pretty good comment there though: [this video] I think the quotes there are pretty telling: "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank." -- Netanyahu, via theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/20/benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-israel-prime-minister