Damien Short: redefining genocide



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Genocide is historically known as the systematic mass killing of a group of people, but in reality it is a delicate and very complex phenomenon. In his book “Redefining Genocide: Settler Colonialism, Social Death, and Environmental Genocide” (Z Box 2016), writer Damien Short systematically rethinks how academia currently describes genocide and how it should be defined in the future, and tries to tend a bridge on what he calls “the connection between Genocide and environmental genocide” to present a more solid concept of genocide in the current moment of global climate change.

It also seeks to expand the category of genocide to include “cultural genocide” that cannot be separated from the destruction of a social group, especially with regard to the continuing effects of the genocide of settler colonialism. The writer, professor of human rights and director of the Union for Human Rights, draws primarily on the work of Raphael Lemkin, who is often referred to as the founder of the United Nations Genocide Convention, and sheds light on on the “inherent colonial character of genocide” and its methods It is carried out through environmental devastation that affects vulnerable, disadvantaged and colonized social groups, focusing on current issues that have not been discussed in depth, such as Palestine, Sri Lanka, Australia and oil sands in Alberta / Canada, through a comprehensive examination of current issues such as hydraulic fracturing, environmental destruction and settlements. West Bank. It also reveals the main roles that settler colonialism, capitalism, limited resources and the environmental crisis play in driving the social death of genocide on a global scale.
The author explores this broader link through a series of four studies, the first two in war contexts, while the last two are in “peacetime” contexts. Damien’s short chapter on Palestine, co-authored by Haifa Rashid, connects the dots between “Israel” as a settler’s colonial project, its confiscation of Palestinian land, and the intentional damage to Palestine’s environment (such as disposal of untreated waste) and his attacks on Palestinian cultural practices. The chapter on Sri Lanka, which he co-authored with Vinay Prakash, focuses primarily on the violent conflict between the Sinhalese and Tamil populations. It also explains how the post-war “development” agenda has become “the preferred rationale for contemporary population transfers, which is the cause of the massive displacement of the Tamil people from their lands and the destruction of their livelihoods”, which constitutes a form of genocide in itself.

Reveals the main roles played by settler colonialism and capitalism

The next two chapters expand on this topic by first examining the Australian government’s relationships with various indigenous groups and briefly touching on the history of settler pogroms. Instead, the author focuses on modern policies such as the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act of 2007 that included a mandatory land tenure measure that would have opened indigenous lands to large-scale resource exploitation. The author also points out that, although social death by genocide may result without a specific intention of destruction, regardless of the underlying motives, it is certain that the forcible confiscation of property is deliberate, the exercise of coercive control over people’s lives is Deliberate and intentional saintly measures to force people to leave their homes.
Finally, Damien Short (with co-author Jennifer Haussmann) discusses the exploitation of the tar sands located in northern Alberta, and describes this exploitation as a continuous genocide directed against the indigenous groups that live there, by seizing their lands and poisoning their bodies. The authors argue that this fact constitutes a possible genocide against humanity in general, since mining tar from sand and burning its oil, according to the most recent studies, will push global climate change beyond the “point of no return”.
One final point that should be called attention is that the book reveals the major roles that settler colonialism, capitalism, limited resources, and environmental crisis play in driving collective genocidal social death on a global scale. This work underscores the importance of redefining genocide as foundational reading for students and researchers in genocide studies.

Redefining Genocide: Settler Colonialism, Social Death, and Ecocide – Zed Books

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