Camouflaging Genocide behind Armed Conflict: The UN Genocide Convention and Exclusion of Genocidal Warfare

A talk with Dirk Moses, City College of New York

The Israeli destruction of Gaza has triggered an international debate about whether it is motivated by genocidal intent or is the unintended byproduct of an armed conflict.

This paper traces the origins and history of this misleading distinction. It demonstrates that it was created by the drafters of the United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 to license “genocidal warfare” camouflaged by military necessity. The International Court of Justice, the paper concludes, needs to revisit its jurisprudence in order to break out of this conceptual impasse.

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