Because it's a genocide. And it's correct to call it as it is, and it's a service to the Palestinians. Calling things for what they are is correct and good. Here is an incomplete list of all the crimes Israel perpetuates at the very moment, and this list is 1/1 with the definition of genocide.
- Denying aid and attacking medics: yes (war crime)
- Hitting hospitals: yes (war crime)
- Resettling the population: yes (war crime)
- Indiscriminate killing of civilians: yes (war crime)
- Deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure: yes (war crime)
- Destruction of culture and religious sites: yes (war crime)
For the record no international court has ruled that the Cambodian genocide was a genocide either. The perpetrators were arrested years or decades after the genocide and charged under a special UN endorsed tribunal for various crimes against humanity, but not genocide... That doesn’t mean there was no genocide in Cambodia, obviously.
Even in cases where international courts did rule a genocide, such as in Rwanda, it usually happens months, years, or even decades after the fact. In Rwanda it wasn’t until the genocide was officially over where the UN entertained making charges for genocide, with a special court established 4 months later (nov. 1994), initial indictments a year after that (nov. 1995) and it wasn’t until 1996 when the first perpetrators were found guilty of genocide. The Bosnian Genocide tribunal took even longer.
In no cases has anybody ever been found guilty of a genocide by an international court during an ongoing genocide.
You are right about one thing though. The term genocide is used politically, but not in the way you are arguing. During the Rwandan Gencocide countries—particularly the USA, but also many European countries—avoided the term, and fought hard against using it to describe the horrors in Rwanda, because under the genocide convention they were obligated to take active role in preventing it, which they had no interest in doing. Usually avoiding the term is what politicians do to avoid their responsibilities.
This is 100% meeting the definition of genocide, so we are not using this word because we "love it", we are using it because it's the correct word to use. That's what words are for.
Also, the world's biggest international court issued an arrest for the war crimes of Netanyahu: https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu. And not every war is genocide, but this one is, because it fits the definition of genocide. That's how words work. Oh, and it also has a wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_genocide. Also, OJ did it.
