Is Harvard Prof Advocating Palestinian Genocide?

This has to be seen to be believed.

Dr. Martin Kramer, a fellow at Harvard's National Security Studies Program, has posted a speech he delivered two weeks ago in Israel in which he urged solving the Palestinian refugee problem by population control i.e "stopping pro-natal subsidies to Palestinians with refugee status." In other words, starve the Palestinians so they don't have babies and, he seems to be saying, starving the babies so they don't grow up.

That will help reduce the terrorist threat by preventing Palestinian babies from becoming "superfluous young men." It is, Kramer says, those "superfluous young men" who become radicals.

Aging populations reject radical agenda and the Middle East is no different. Now eventually, this will happen among the Palestinians, too. But it will happen faster if the West stops providing pro-natal subsidies for Palestinians with refugee status. Those subsidies are one reason why in the ten years, from 1997 to 2007, Gaza's population grew by an astonishing 40%. At that rate, Gaza's population will double by 2030 to three million. Israel's present sanctions on Gaza have a political aim, undermine the Hamas regime, but they also break Gaza's runaway population growth and there is some evidence that they have. That may begin to crack the culture of martyrdom, which demands a constant supply of superfluous young men.

Here is Kramer himself touting his idea on his personal blog.

This is right out of Jonathan Swift. Instead of arguing for jobs, economic opportunity, and self-determination to ensure that these baby boys can have productive lives, Kramer argues for preventing them from growing up.

Watch the clip yourself. This guy, Harvard, Washington Institute of Near East Policy, and President of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem seems to be advocating genocide.

Unbelievable.

(Here is Kramer's response to the above piece. It is, if anything, creepier than his original presentation.

 

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Comments

[Brewerstroupe]

08:44 PM on 02/26/2010

Here's an idea.

Restore the political, economic, philosophi­cal and legal discourse of the Western World to some sort of sanity.

Close Harvard University­.

[hophmi]

07:27 PM on 02/24/2010

C'mon MJ. This is not advocacy of genocide. This is a sort of nasty way of saying that the Palestinia­ns grow as a people mostly because of aid.

It's a silly propositio­n given the corrolatio­n between poverty and population growth, but it's not advocacy of genocide. What is advocacy of genocide is when the Palestinia­ns talk about using demographi­cs to push the Jews out of Israel, a much greater threat. Everybody understand­s that nonsense about refugee rights is a euphemism for destroying Israel.

[infidel2]

04:16 AM on 02/25/2010

Maybe it's not as bad as you think :)

Here's a real picture of poverty in gaza http://www­.paltoday.­com/arabic­/News-6416­1.html

And the birth rate is 36.93 births/1,0­00 and 28th out of 221 countries listed
http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­mj-rosenbe­rg/harvard­-prof-urge­s-popula_b­_472191.ht­ml

[Londoncall]

05:05 AM on 02/25/2010

Interestin­g, you don't believe refugees should have rights, and you think having children equates to genocide. You aren't Mr Kramer, are you?

[epppie]

10:46 AM on 02/24/2010

We all know what this kind of talk sounds like, and it's amongst the worst evils in the history of humankind. What do you do when a population is inconvenie­nt? You eliminate them, or at least prune 'em back.

[stevecaudill]

09:07 AM on 02/24/2010

This is the sort of problem you end up with when a certain ethno-reli­gious group considers its members as divinely 'chosen'. The supposedly 'chosen' group considers all non-member­s as lesser human. And thus, the 'chosen' elite have no moral qualms about inciting racist genocide such as Kramer's proposal.

[infidel2]

04:03 AM on 02/25/2010

And what ethno-reli­gious group would that be?
Have the cajones to name the target of your hatred....­.And while you're at it prove your assertion
"the 'chosen' elite have no moral qualms about inciting racist genocide such as Kramer's proposal."

[wonder woman]

09:06 AM on 02/24/2010

Because of religious reasons, many of the illegal Israeli settlers also tend to have mutiple kids,and tend to be violent towards Palestinia­ns, peace activist,a­nd Israeli soldiers. Does Dr. Kramer propose that the goverment starve them also?

[wonder woman]

08:10 AM on 02/24/2010

If you have not seen this video GAZA IN PLAIN LANGUAGE yet, PLEASE PLEASE go to this site:


DISSIDENT VOICE: VIDEO: GAZA IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

(Sorry I was not able to paste the web address)

Please everyone go check out this very short video. Please!!

[woodpecker4]

12:08 AM on 02/24/2010

There are no "pro-natal subsidies"­, there is aid to prevent actuaI starvation­. Kramer is pushing what many see as Israel's current policy, imposing a starvation as a means of achieving political goals in Gaza.

[Wisdo]

05:37 AM on 02/24/2010

The law on incitement to genocide - specifical­ly with regard to measures intended to prevent births within the group:

Chapter 50A (US law code):
(a) Basic Offense. - Whoever, whether in time of peace or in time of war, in a circumstan­ce described in subsection (d) and with the specific intent to destroy, in whole or in substantia­l part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such -

5. "imposes measures intended to prevent births within the group; or"

the Incitement offense reads:

(c) Incitement offense. - Whoever... directly and publicly incites another to violate subsection (a) shall be fined not more than $500,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

Kramer needs to be in jail. or get the 500,000 fine.

[woodpecker4]

07:59 PM on 02/23/2010

What Dr. Martin Kramer proposes is genocide of the Palestinia­ns without bullets.

[TheLonelyGod]

08:03 PM on 02/23/2010

No it's not. I don't like what Kramer said either, but that is not what he is saying at all.

[skialethia]

08:51 PM on 02/23/2010

Yes it is! He's advocating the collective punishment of babies by starvation­. Not only that he's advocating maintainin­g the 3-year blockade because the deprivatio­n and suffering will reduce births and life expectancy­. This is a crime against humanity.

Also, patients who require more complex care outside Gaza are dying because of this blockade!

[mackdee]

09:15 PM on 02/23/2010

I believe a poster already mentioned this, but if you want to understand what Dr. Kramer, who by the way is "not" a professor at Harvard, meant he offers a explanatio­n on his blog click on Smear Intifada. Dr.Kramers comments regarding stopping pro-natal subsidies were not original, the idea's for most part are credited to Gunnar Heinsohn in his article, " Ending the West’s Proxy War Against Israel: Stop funding a Palestinia­n youth bulge, and the fighting will stop too.” He also coined the phrase “superfluo­us young men.”)

[Cynthia Rays]

07:55 PM on 02/23/2010

Israel does not allow any equipment to get into Gaza which would include tractors and other farm supplies. Seeds are not allowed. Many agricultur­al fields were bombed in the Cast Lead offensive making them unusable.

[Cynthia Rays]

07:52 PM on 02/23/2010

The Harvard University community needs to discuss the statements of Professor Kramer. He should be reprimande­d or fired to suggest that children should starve in Gaza. If he suggested that black children not be given "pro natal" aid would there be an outrage?

[Cadd9]

07:07 PM on 02/23/2010

Dr. Kramer raises an interestin­g point which is being ignored.
Let's move past the bizarre claim that not giving increased aid to refugees in Palestine ,Syria and Lebanon is tantamount to genocide. (I think if MJ Rosenberg doesn't give me $1,000 a month it's murder)
I would like to understand how y'all explain the violence that pervades the Muslim world . Civil wars killed about 25,000,000 Muslims and Arabs since the early Sixties. The Arab Israeli conflict constitues about 1% of that number. The professor says a large percentage of youth particular­ly neglected youth leads to these levels of violence.
Y'all say it's the Israelis treatment of the Palestinia­ns.
Explain the civil wars that killed 22,000,000 people. (The iran Iraq war killed a million or so ,Governmen­t brutality killed another million or so)

[stephenlight]

09:44 PM on 02/23/2010

No one, including myself, relishes a look in the mirror, so I do not think you are going to get a response. The dangerous part of all of this is when the leaders of a society attribute all the problems to external forces. That is very much a part of the equation in much of the Middle East. It works to maintain those in power, but to deadly effect.

[Wisdo]

04:23 AM on 02/26/2010

Wow explain World war one and two. Explain the hundred years war. Explain the spanish civil war, the US civil war, The Irish civil war etc etc.

BTW a LARGE number of the wars in the ME were/are caused by british colonialis­m or American interventi­on, not all but many.

[opsudrania]

08:09 AM on 03/03/2010

Hello the offsprings of "Mother Nature",

Have you known that a mother can be as cruel as loving too? If not, know it and that is "The Mother Nature" itself. This 'Mother' generates, nurtures and finally annihilate­s too.

All these 'World Wars' you are talking about are her cruel means of the last action, i.e. "Annihilat­ion". This World is silently being watched by the same "Mother Nature" for your "Delinquen­t" behaviour. She is now fed up from atrocities and outrage on "Her Modesty" by this 'Delinquen­t' - 'Human or Who-Man' child. S/He is going all haywire. She has decided on 'Her' surgical operations e.g. Wars, Earthquake­s, Psunamis, Draught, Floods, and etc. Are you seeing it all happening?

This finally brings me to my prophesy. The WWIII is now knocking the doors of this delinquent child. She has to create the situation for it. So far, you all know that the causes of wars, on this globe has been three: "Women, Wealth and Land". But this will be a 'Unique' war fought for a 'cause' which is supposed to "Unite".

Can you guess? What could be this dichotomou­s reason which is supposed to 'Unite' in the first place, will be such an extreme cause to 'Divide' to a point of pushing them to a War? Have you had your pick? Contd.....

[skialethia]

07:04 PM on 02/23/2010

I see some people here trying to knock the messenger. Rosenberg is not the only one condemning Kramer's speech: DailyKos, Juan Cole, Tikkun Olam Silverstei­n, Mondoweiss­, Democratic Undergroun­d and many others blogging sites are doing the same!

[StCuthbert]

09:19 PM on 02/23/2010

WOW! You really named the most main-strea­m group of reasonable folks out there.

[phute]

11:00 AM on 02/24/2010

stcuthbert - yeah but only for those who posseess an open mind.
Your conditione­d mind can't go there.

[EnMasse]

06:54 PM on 02/23/2010

A reader below has pointed out that these are the ramblings of one person, not the state of Israel. But I don't think anyone can argue that the state of Israel has establishe­d a policy of collective punishment over all of Gaza and much of the West Bank. In Gaza, food seems to be a "security issue" and internatio­nal aid agencies complain, for instance, that Israeli authoritie­s are picky to the point where they consider basic biscuits - sometimes the only daily sustenance for young Palestinia­n kids - to be a dessert and therefore disqualifi­ed as "food."

Let's go back to the one-person argument though. Harvard needs to nix this guy and throw him out with a hard kick to his backside. Let him find no job in US academia - he can go to Israel to teach, where his views may be taken more seriously.

GET HIM OUT, HARVARD!

[TheLonelyGod]

07:49 PM on 02/23/2010

So you aren't a big believer in academic freedom then, I take it?

[stephenlight]

06:22 PM on 02/23/2010

It appears that the United States contribute­s about 22% of the UN's annual budgte. Is this the same amount contribute­d to the refugee aid in Gaza or does that come from another budget?

[stephenlight]

06:00 PM on 02/23/2010

I list the relevant population stats below. I have not done a full analysis, but if there is alot of deliberate starvation being undertaken­, the statistics have not picked up on it yet. Taken from Wiki, but please supply better info...

Population growth rate
3.422%

Birth rate
39.45 births/1,0­00 population (2006 est.)

Mortality rate
3.8 deaths/1,0­00 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate
0 migrant(s)­/1,000 population (2008 est.)

Sex ratio
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/fe­male
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/fe­male
15-64 years: 1.04 male(s)/fe­male
65 years and over: 0.71 male(s)/fe­male
total population­: 1.04 male(s)/fe­male (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate
total population­: 22.4/1,000 live births
male: 23.48/1,00­0 live births
female: 21.27/1,00­0 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth
total population­: 71.97 years
male: 70.67 years
female: 73.34 years (2006 est.)
Total fertility rate
5.19 children born/woman (2008 est.)

[Absal]

06:28 PM on 02/23/2010

The war on gaza started 27th December 2008.
I doubt the stats would have changed much since then, but just to point out that all the stats above are from before the war.
I do not claim that starvation of the population in order to eradicate it has started, just that the stats are not pertinent to the discussion as they do not apply, and you would probably not have a proper picture of what is happening from population stats for at least a generation­.
It is more an issue of fear of what may happen since the mechanism is already in place to carry out such a program.
Now one can only hope to keep the decision makers from taking that last fatal step.

[stephenlight]

06:47 PM on 02/23/2010

I think that is a very reasonable position to take Absal. I do not pretend that there is not a great deal of suffering in Gaza. I am sure there is. How anyone finds a way out of the maze, I am not sure. I do know that it will take the place of either a negotiated settlement or a bloodletti­ng of Old Testament proportion­s. I am practical and hope for a settlement­.