The Gaza Genocide. A Public Talk Artwork

StocktonAfterClass

Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.

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StocktonAfterClass

The Gaza Genocide. A Public Talk

August 27, 2025 • Ronald Stockton

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This is a public talk I delivered on the concept of genocide and the arguments presented in the South African genocide charge against Israel in late 2023. Several people who wanted to attend but could not asked if it could be recorded. We tried, but somehow that did not work out.

To the extent possible I tried to be scholarly and analytical in this talk. But how can we be scholarly and detached and analytical when we see Miss Rachel singing "hop little bunny" as a three-year-old Palestinian child dances gleefully around on her new artificial legs? And the evening news (if you watch a good source) is beyond distressing. There are times when I think of that line from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness: "The horror! The horror!

I have delivered this talk three times, once at a university, once at a church, and once at a retirement community. In all three cases, the audience was open and responsive, and the post-talk discussion was serious and engaging.

I hope you find this talk helpful. Also, I delivered a full hour-long podcast discussion of that South African document soon after it was filed with the High Court of Justice in the Hague.