Selective Humanitarianism

Spectator

A word first coined by a Polish author in 1944, “genocide” is defined by Amnesty International as the killing or destruction of specific ethnic, racial, national, or religious groups or nationalities with the intent of fully destroying them.

Sadly, these kinds of horrors have existed pretty much forever. History lists hundreds of genocides all over the globe. Though we don’t like to talk about it, the list would include our decimation of indigenous folks on this continent when we Europeans showed up. According to Charles C. Mann’s great book, 1491, as much as 90 percent of the indigenous population was wiped out by disease or war by the time the American Revolution started.

Just in the 20th century we had the Holocaust, which attempted to kill every European Jew, Roma, or LGBTQ+ person and nearly succeeded with a death toll exceeding 11 million.

Earlier, we had the Ottoman Empire’s (now Türkiye) slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, a genocide recognized internationally but still denied by the Turks. Then there was Josef Stalin’s intentional starvation of Ukraine, killing millions in the 1932-33 Holodomor, punishment for Ukrainians’ desire for independence they still harbor.

In 1971, Pakistani forces systematically killed at least 3 million Bengalis during the Bangladesh fight for independence. And, maybe the most grotesque modern genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994 when Hutu extremists butchered, often with machetes, more than 800,000 Tutsi tribe members in just 100 days.

You would think we would have stopped this insanity long ago, but even now there are genocidal actions taking place in multiple locations, most often by the government.

In Sudan, where warfare and random massacres seem to be ongoing, the current genocide, started in 2023, is being undertaken against the Masalit ethnic minority and other non-Arabs. In Myanmar, the target is Rohingya Muslims being methodically wiped out, and in China it’s the Uyghurs (who are Sunni Muslims, which is not a permitted religion). It’s also various Muslim groups being attacked, again, in the Central African Republic.

You might have noticed neither Gaza nor South Africa are included on the current genocide roster. Amnesty International has declared a genocide in Gaza, but it doesn’t fit their own technical definition. That doesn’t mean everything is just swell in Gaza; one could call the actions of the Israeli military murderous, barbaric, brutal, or almost anything else—but not genocide.

Israel has declared their intent in Gaza is to destroy Hamas, which is not a religion or ethnicity or nationality or race but a political party. In fact, our own government categorizes them as a “terrorist organization” we would actually like to see eliminated. Israel’s problem is the grotesque collateral damage to civilians, including thousands of children. It’s horrifying but not genocide.

(Those now demanding we abandon Israel because of their actions in Gaza might remember it was Hamas, which has declared their intent to “drive Israel into the sea,” that started this on Oct. 7, 2023, by killing 1,200 Israelis and kidnapping another 200. All of us might also remember the reason Israel exists at all, and the fact they have been under unrelenting attack by one or more of their neighbors since 1948. It doesn’t forgive current excesses, but does provide context.)

What’s happening in South Africa, described by the current U.S. administration as genocide against white farmers, is not even close. We have welcomed 57 white Afrikaners from South Africa to the U.S. gifted with special asylum guarantees based on the notion they are, or will be, the victims of genocide. It’s just preposterous; white South African farmers represent less than one percent of all murder victims according to the country’s Institute for Security Studies.

This is all spinning off from something called the Expropriation Act of 2024 which allows the government to take some property for “public purpose” or “public interest.”

The property being appropriated by the government is currently owned by white South Africans, but they might recall their ancestors “appropriated” the land from Black South Africans to begin with, so it is now being returned. And income and property inequality in South Africa is monumental—whites comprise only nine percent of the population but own or control more than two-thirds of the land, property, and wealth.

Contrary to what we are being told by our leaders, compensation will be provided for most of the taken land, the exception being vacant land sitting idle as an investment.

It is interesting that our “humanitarian efforts,” have been restricted to 57 white South Africans. Those experiencing real danger every day in Gaza or parts of Africa or the Middle East—but whose skin is a little darker—won’t benefit from the same benevolence because it isn’t being offered. Our arms are open for some white folks who might lose their investment property but not for those who might lose their lives.

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