Genocide is a crime under international law and condemned by the civilized world. It includes any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:
In all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity. It has been practised against Armenians during the Ottoman Empire; against Hebrews, Slavs, and other racial groups during the Hitler regime (1933-1945); by the Khmer Rouge (under Pol Pot) in Kampuchea; against the Baha'is in Iran; by the Tutsi against the Hutu in Burundi in 1965, 1972 and 1988; by the Iraqis against the Kurds; by Paraguayans against the Ache Indians before 1974 and a number of others.
The Holocaust was the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and "mental defectives" in Europe by the Nazis during and prior to World War II. Most were killed in gas chambers; but also infants were bayoneted for fun, workers thought to be slacking were casually shot in mid-conversation, pregnant women were kicked into parturition, and children's skulls were smashed against the wheels of railroad car. In the immediate postwar period, war crimes against around 500,000 of Europe’s Roma and Sinti were not prosecuted. Survivors struggled to get recognition and compensation for the persecution they experienced. Roma victims were also not acknowledged in monuments commemorating the Nazis’ victims.
Some scholars have referred to the Israel/Palestine conflict as “incremental genocide”. Instead of an overt, blatant attempt to eradicate a people group, incremental genocide involves actions and policies that are designed to slowly erode, break up, and destroy a specific population. Think for example of early American history and the genocide of Native Americans. While it wasn’t always mass killings, genocide occurred by military conflict, expanding land holdings, resettlements, and creating conditions that were destructive for the indigenous population. While it took many years to complete, and while it took many forms, what early Americans did to the indigenous people of North America was nothing short of genocide. The same holds true for Israel. Many of the indigenous people were displaced upon the creation of the modern state of Israel, and the number of displaced people has continued to grow. They are refugees who live in poverty and painful conditions at refugee camps. Israel has systematically expanded its borders to functionally capture more and more land that belonged to Palestinians. Of what’s left, Palestinians have to suffer under a brutal military occupation where so many aspects of life are restricted or deprived. To top it all off, Israel continues to expand illegal settlements into Palestinian territory, further creating conditions designed to break up and destroy the will of Palestinians to even exist.