William A. Cook, professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California, has charged the state of Israel with genocide -- but his publisher won't let him use the G word in the title of his new book!
Discussing the brand-new The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction on the Kevin Barrett show yesterday, Dr. Cook said that the publishers, Palgrave-McMillan, told him: "'We can't use the original title As the World Watches: Genocide in Palestine.'" Dr. Cook added that the book's contents, which provide ample proof that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, were not censored.
I asked Dr. Cook: "There does seem to be a taboo against calling what is being done to the Palestinians genocide. And yet, according to the internationally-accepted definition of genocide...as I recall, there is a strong argument that it does fit what's happening in Palestine."
Dr Cook responded:
"The book deals with that point quite extensively in at least three different places (including my article). The Christisons' article deals with it as well. In the article that I wrote, 'The Rape of Palestine'...I refer to the 1944 genocide term, which was a neologism created by Raphael Lemkin in The Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn summarized Lemkin's meaning. And let me read that paragraph because I think it's essential to grasp the fulness of the intent the UN grappled with and passed in its accepted definition of genocide. Under Lemkin's definition genocide was 'the coordinated and planned annihilation of a national, religious, or racial group by a variety of actions aimed at undermining the foundations essential to the survival of the group as a group.' That's group, it is not state. Lemkin conceived of genocide as 'a composite of different acts of persecution or destruction.' That's a quote. His definition included 'attacks on political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of the group.' Even non-lethal acts that undermined the liberty, dignity, and personal security of members of the group constituted genocide, if they contributed to weakening the viability of the group. Under Lemkin's definition, acts of ethnocide, a term coined by the French after the war to cover the destruction of a culture without the killing of its bearers, also qualified as genocide. You take that composite understanding, and everything looking back from today -- the siege on Gaza, going back to the various intentional destructions and massacres in Janin or Rafa, Ramallah, you realize that what's taking place, including the building of the wall, which makes the independent economic condition of the Palestinian people impossible -- that is genocide."
Listen to my interview with Dr. William Cook.
The quoted segment begins about 14:40.Labels: Christison, Frank Chalk, Gaza flotilla, genocide, Israel, Janin, Kevin Barrett Show, Kurt Jonassohn, Palestine, Rafah, Ramallah, Raphael Lemkin, William Cook
