The stakes of calling Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide

Code Switch

NPR

Society & Culture

4.6 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

This week: why the term "genocide" matters when talking about Israel's actions against Palestinians in Gaza. On Tuesday, a UN commission said it found that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, as more people, groups and countries are alleging the same. We break down what the word genocide means on both a personal and geopolitical level, why it’s understood very differently by different people, and what that designation requires of the rest of the world.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
0:05.4	RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right.
0:12.1	Learn more at RWJF.org.
0:15.4	Hey, so just in case you don't see the title of this episode, we are going to be talking about the
0:21.0	concept and definition of genocide and everything that entails. So take care of listening.
0:27.6	All right. On to the show.
0:32.5	What's good? You are listening to Code Switch. I'm Gene Demby. And today I'm joined by Leah Daninella. She's our senior editor at Code Switch. You've heard her on the podcast like a million times at this point. Leah, what's good with you? Hey, Gene. All right, so I'm a... You're next to me on the mic. I guess I'm turning to staring while over to you because I need to mix metaphors. Where are we driving today, Leah? Okay, so we're actually
0:55.9	flying, not driving, or maybe taking a time machine because we're going to Kigali in 1998,
1:04.2	where President Bill Clinton is addressing the people of Rwanda. During the 90 days that began
1:10.6	on April 6th in 1994, Rwanda experienced the most intensive
1:16.1	slaughter in this blood-filled century we are about to leave.
1:20.9	Families murdered in their homes.
1:23.3	People hunted down as they fled by soldiers and militia, through farmland and woods as if they were animals.
1:33.6	In that speech, President Clinton said he thought it was important to know that the killings that happened were not spontaneous or accidental.
1:42.1	They grew from a government policy aimed at the systemic destruction
1:45.4	of a people. And it wasn't just the Rwandan government at fault, the entire international community
1:51.6	bore responsibility as well. We did not act quickly enough after the killing began.
1:58.8	We should not have allowed the refugee camps to become safe haven for the
2:04.8	killers. We did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name, genocide.
2:20.3	Jean, the United States failed to call what was happening in Rwanda a genocide until it was too late to do anything about it.
2:29.3	President Clinton called that one of the failures of his administration.
2:33.3	And make no mistake, the U.S. had at the time the knowledge to understand what was happening.
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