In January 2024, at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, South Africa raised the accusation of a potentially imminent genocide – against Israel. In the contexts of the terror attacks by Hamas on October 07, 2023, and the subsequent massive military retaliation by Israel against Gaza and beyond, the question of genocide has found great prominence yet again, including questions of responsibility for the wider world. Seeking to explore these questions and their implications, this course analyzes the contexts, causes, and developments that drive human beings to seek to exterminate whole groups of people based solely on the perception that they belong to a specific group. The class examines the role played by racism and paranoia in the radicalization of individuals and whole societies, and explores the contexts of imperialism, violence, and de-individualization in the modern world. The focus lays on escalating processes of ‘Othering’ (Antisemitism and Racism) that lead to the radicalization on the 1940s – Holocaust/Shoa as the event which defined the legal concept of genocide, and then the Nakba as the catastrophic event that translated the post-Holocaust foundation of the state of Israel into a lasting trauma for Palestinians and the wider Arab world. The class further investigates experiences of indigenous genocides, sexual violence and the politics of famine, and the attempts to cope with genocide-related trauma, as well as expectations connected with the concept of a ‘just war.’
- Teacher: Marcus Pyka