James Paul
Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia.
J Bioeth Inq. 2025 Mar;22(1):37-45. doi: 10.1007/s11673-024-10411-6. Epub 2025 Feb 28.
In the context of the current war, the question "Is the Israeli state effecting genocide in Gaza?" suggests a threshold legal excursus, a definitional contestation, or a cry of moral outrage. This article does not take any of those paths. It lives the pain of the unethical deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, while beginning the longer-term task of seeking a way beyond deploying the concept of "genocide" as a performative gesture of shock and horror. The article argues that the meaning of genocide is being emptied out by an unsettling of the grounding conditions of political debate and the relativization of political language. While the evidence is strong that crimes against humanity are being perpetrated in Gaza, both by the Israeli state in its attack upon civilians and by Hamas in holding hostages, the provisional ruling by the International Court of Justice that there is a case to be answered is the most resolute that we can be at this point. Clearly, the war has to stop. In the meantime, the article suggests an alternative way of naming the horror.
在当前战争的背景下，“以色列国在加沙实施种族灭绝了吗？”这个问题引发了一场门槛性的法律探讨、一场定义之争，或者是一声道德义愤的呼喊。本文不走上述任何一条路。它承受着加沙地带数万名平民遭遇不道德死亡的痛苦，同时开启一项长期任务，即探寻一种方式，超越将“种族灭绝”概念作为一种表达震惊和恐惧的表演性姿态来使用。本文认为，政治辩论的基础条件被扰乱以及政治语言的相对化，正在掏空种族灭绝的含义。虽然有充分证据表明，以色列国在袭击平民以及哈马斯在扣押人质方面都在加沙犯下了反人类罪，但国际法院做出的有案件需要回应的临时裁决，是我们目前所能做出的最坚决的表态。显然，战争必须停止。与此同时，本文提出了一种为这种恐怖命名的替代方式。
