"[On the actions of Israel in the Gaza Strip during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war] I'm not convinced that genocide is the right term. I think ethnic cleansing is the right term. But in any case, I think it's likely that crimes against humanity are being committed there. This is something I want to mention: This whole idea of crimes against humanity — like the idea of genocide — these are concepts that came out of World War II and the Holocaust. When we're thinking about whether a crime against humanity has been committed, or if a genocide has been committed, we're performing the act of comparing the Holocaust to current events. That's a foundational stone of our contemporary international legal system. So to ban that kind of comparison is to try to [throw] a wrench in the entire works of international humanitarian law, and I think Israel does that quite advisedly."
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Journalists from the United StatesWomen authors from the United StatesLGBT rights activistsTranslators from the United StatesJournalists from Russia
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Gessen was awarded the Hannah Arendt Prize, but several sponsoring organisations withdrew their support after an article by Gessen was published by The New Yorker on December 9, 2023. The Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBS) said Gessen was accusing Israel of attempting to "liquidate Gaza like a Nazi ghetto" which they found unacceptable.
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Masha Gessen
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