At a town hall on the Hudson Valley Community College campus this week, Congressman Paul Tonko referred to the conflict in Gaza as a “genocide.”
While Tonko has previously said the United States must stand against further arming Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Monday’s forum marked the first time the Capital Region Democrat has publicly referred to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza as a genocide.
And, as happened during the Troy town hall, uttering that single word can spur intense reaction. While many of Monday’s hundreds of attendees were supportive of Tonko’s use of the genocide label, some were taken aback. And in the days since, community members, religious leaders and advocates remain starkly divided on Tonko’s phrasing – rhetoric that goes beyond where many in his party have been willing to go.
Israel’s retaliatory strikes after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis have killed more than 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. And Palestinians say several strikes have killed civilians in line for humanitarian aid.
The conflict has been a divisive issue in the United States. While the country has long been a staunch Israeli ally, with President Donald Trump this week indicating the U.S. may become directly involved with Israeli’s targeting of Iranian nuclear sites, widespread U.S. protests in support of Palestine persist.
Mariam Aghayan, an Armenian immigrant who says she is a direct descendant of genocide survivors, was at the town hall and was surprised by Tonko’s rhetoric.
“It’s a bit too late but I certainly welcome it. Every single moment that we don’t acknowledge that and we don’t intervene appropriately and by intervene, I mean cutting funding to Israel, that impacts civilian lives,” she said.
She views the conflict as a genocide and says Israel is targeting innocents.
“Snipers are targeting children, where we are seeing doctors come back and say they see bullet wounds in children’s heads as young as 2, 3 years old so, this is a genocide,” she said.
Christian Garramone, a member of the Palestinian Rights Committee in Albany, says Tonko’s use of the term is a step in the right direction, but says the organization will not be satisfied until the congressman takes steps to block the U.S. from sending aid to Israel.
“We will not be satisfied by rhetorical changes, we have been consistent in applying public pressure to him, in order to get him to support Palestine, but we want actions,” he said.
Garramone says he wants Tonko to back the Block the Bombs Act. The bill, introduced in May, seeks to limit the “transfer of defense articles and defense services to Israel.”
While Aghayan and Garramone welcome the rhetoric, Rabbi Matt Cutler, of the Gates of Heaven Congregation in Schenectady, says he would not use the word “genocide.”
“We use that term flippantly, but for Jews that is a very painful term because of our history,” he said.
Cutler doesn’t agree with Israel’s approach but says Hamas should surrender.
The rabbi says people sometimes use the term “genocide” as a weapon.
“It’s hurtful, it’s taking words of pain in my world, and being used against me,” he said.
Cutler says the situation is so divisive that people need to set aside their differences and come together to find a solution.
He says he recognizes the pain people are experiencing in Gaza.
“And though I don’t agree with the policy of the Israeli government, it is a war situation. And it is up to Hamas as well as the Israelis to demand and to work to make sure this stops,” he said.
Mitch Silber is the executive director of the Community Security Initiative, an organization that seeks to safeguard the Jewish community of the greater New York City area.
Silber says Tonko is mistaken in using the term genocide.
“The word has a particular definition, and, unfortunately, when you’re fighting an enemy that embeds themselves in civilian areas, in schools, underneath schools, in hospitals, the ability for an armed entity to fight against that terrorist organization causes more civilian casualties than it would be if they didn’t hide themselves in civilian facilities,” he said.
Silber says the Jewish community is concerned that the term genocide could mobilize people to commit acts of violence.
“Public protest against Israel is fair game, First Amendment, this is what the United States is all about. But in looking at [last month’s] deadly attack at the Washington capital Jewish Museum, we saw someone who took that rhetoric, it's a genocide and he literally said in his manifesto, lets bring the war home,” he said.
Tonko clarified his use of the term after the meeting. He says people are dying needlessly because of politics.
“I think the masses of people from the Gaza area, the Palestinians, and certainly the Israeli community is to engage in community spirit and to human rights and the dignity of the human being and when politics enters in and denies that, then there is a tragedy that happens,” he said.
