cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/36304935
[about f---ing time!]
Joseph Gedeon in Washington
Wed 17 Sep 2025 18.18 EDT“We, as Americans, must end our complicity in the slaughter of the Palestinian people,” he wrote. “Having named it a genocide, we must use every ounce of our leverage to demand an immediate ceasefire, a massive surge of humanitarian aid facilitated by the UN, and initial steps to provide Palestinians with a state of their own.”
He now joins a small but growing list of House members including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib and Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as Vermont representative Becca Balint, who also called it a genocide earlier in the day.
“Today, I believe the Israeli government is committing a genocide against the Palestinian people,” Balint wrote in an op-ed in the Courier. “As the granddaughter of a man murdered in the Holocaust, it is not easy for me to say that.”
34 Comments
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 96 pts · 361d
And from a Jewish senator, nonetheless.
He's got some morals
misteloct@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 17 pts · 360d
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 360d
Now is more important than ever for Jews to condemn the Zionist movement.
It's insane how a group of religious extremists have coopted a race of people.
jimmy90@lemmy.world · -23 pts · 360d
this is a great relief.now this has been established, finally hamas will make peace with israel and it will all be over
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de · 7 pts · 360d
Let’s reverse the roles. Would you support the genocide of Israel to root out some terrorist?
All the while you’re making new terrorists by killing innocent people. If you killed my family you best believe I would join Hamas.
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 51 pts · 361d
He's not the first.
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/08/israel-gaza-war-elizabeth-warren-00151120
And Van Hollen and Merkley called it ethnic cleansing.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/democratic-senators-gaza-ethnic-cleansing
The direct proactive statement proclaiming it a "genocide" rather than answering a question or using "ethnic cleansing" is significant step though.
SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 pts · 360d
Calling it a "genocide" instead of "ethnic cleansing" matter though. Why do you think everyone is always so hesitant to call things genocides? It's because it's a word that has legal implications. It's an international crime that demands action.
So basically politicians loophole things by calling them ethnic cleansing instead.
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 360d
A couple politicians calling it genocide doesn't have any legal implications. Warren did it already and nothing changed in the legal implications, nor would they kick in if 3 (4 now) were doing it instead.
SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 360d
Your link doesn't say that Warren called it a genocide, but that "she thinks it will legally be defined as a genocide". That's not calling it a genocide, that's thinking it will be called that. There is a difference there
But you need to think of it from a political lens moreso than one politician saying it meaning it will immediately have legal consequences
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 360d
If a majority of politicians say "it's ethnic cleansing", things will happen that are not meaningfully different than a majority saying "it's genocide". That's the hurdle, not whether two senators who are on the right side of the issue (albeit after far too long) are using specific terminology.
xyzzy@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 360d
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 360d
I don't think legality has anything to do with the choice. There's no obligation from a handful of senators saying something. It's not like Warren calling it a genocide obligated the Senate to adopt that position.
In reality, it just feels like a serious charge that doesn't have to explain that genocide can exist without full Nazi death camps. None of their voters are going to think "it's only ethnic cleansing, they don't have to do anything about that".
xyzzy@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 360d
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 360d
I do, but it you're asking why I think they didn't, I already answered that in the comment you just replied to.
SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 360d
Genocide carries specific legal frameworks under international law, that ethnic cleansing doesn't.
Words mean things.
Zaktor@sopuli.xyz · -2 pts · 360d
International law itself doesn't mean anything. There are no international cops and no international consequences. Whether two senators say "ethnic cleansing" or "genocide" has zero actual difference in how the United States must or even will act. This legalistic critique of the extreme minority in the debate who are on the right side of the issue is sus as hell.
caboose2006@lemmy.world · 33 pts · 361d
Better late than never I guess?
GiantChickDicks@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 360d
Um, yes? Can we just all enjoy a small crumb of something steering toward the right direction?
BigBenis@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 360d
Hard to enjoy any small gesture when on the same day we've lost our first amendment rights to fascism and spineless complicit media institutions.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 360d
You've only lost them if you stop using them.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 9 pts · 361d
Yes
quick_snail@feddit.nl · 12 pts · 360d
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 360d
I'm glad we finally have "legal experts" and a few influential politicians, telling us what we all have already known for a couple of years.
goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 pts · 361d
And he still goes in with the history started on Oct 7th and everything that happened was just a response
LuigiMaoFrance@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 360d
Took him long enough. He's still a Zionist.
mortalic@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 361d
@salty_chief@lemmy.world I expect you to hand out flowers now, or fuck off.
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · -3 pts · 360d
— Bernie Sanders
he’s still a zionist.
PmMeFrogMemes@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 360d
the next three sentences:
Way to clip some shit out of context. you really did something there
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · -7 pts · 360d
lmfao this doesn't make it any better idiot. he's claiming an indigenous resistance group started this war which is HISTORICALLY wrong and not factual whatsoever. the indigenous people who lived in a fucking concentration camp tried liberating themselves and he's saying THEY started it.
get your kkkracker ass out of my comments and read a book.
PmMeFrogMemes@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 360d
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · -4 pts · 360d
yeah, exactly what i expect from a racist fucking kkkracker.
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · 1 pts · 359d
and now he just backed the resolution to mark Sept 14 as a remembrance day for a nazi. all you kkkrackers downvoting are a bunch of sad racist bootlickers.
PmMeFrogMemes@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 360d
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · -2 pts · 360d
coward.
Velypso@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 360d
1
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · -5 pts · 360d
sounds like you need to read a book since you cannot see the zionism within that kkkracker.
Velypso@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 349d
1
iceagec0mmie@lemmy.org · 0 pts · 347d
easy. anyone blaming this genocide on anyone else except for Isntreal. just like your precious boomer ass kkkracker, Sanders.