In his remarks observing the seventieth anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres declared that “the Genocide Convention is preventive at its core, and punishes specific acts that are committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such. Tragically, the international community has sometimes failed to heed the warning signs and take early and decisive action.” The Secretary General proceeded to explain that “dehumanizing language is not only evil in itself. It may also sow the seeds for far more evil acts, including genocide." Secretary General Guterres urged all of us to speak out against such evil acts. He called for “nurturing the courage and the political will to act decisively, at the right time, and to support others when they take action.” Tragically, less than 24 hours earlier, the United Nations General Assembly had failed to take such courageous action. It failed to condemn the terrorist acts of Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian militant group whose founding charter, rhetoric and lethal attacks against innocent civilians are studies in genocidal fanaticism against Jews living in Israel. By failing to do the right thing, the UN General Assembly legitimized Hamas’s evil acts.
