Definitions of politicide

Politicide may refer to one of the following:

1. Killing groups of people because of their political or ideological beliefs. Deliberate physical destruction of a group whose members share the main characteristic of belonging to a political movement; the systematic destruction of such groups is not covered as genocide under the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG). The CPPCG only covers the deliberate physical destruction of national, ethnic, racial and religious groups. The social scientists Barbara Harff and Ted R. Gurr uses policide to describe the killing of groups of people who are targeted not because of shared ethnic or communal traits (the types of groups covered by the CPPCG), but because of "their hierarchical position or political opposition to the regime and dominant groups".

2. Political suicide. An action which irreparably damages a person's own political career (political suicide). For example, in The Kansas City Star on 23 February, 1996: "James didn't even finish his inaugural address before committing politicide."

3. Political entity destruction. A systematic attempt to cause the annihilation of an independent political and social entity, such as the destruction of the apartheid system in South Africa. Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling uses the term in his book Politicide: Sharon’s War Against the Palestinians and in various articles. He defines "the politicide of the Palestinian people, a gradual but systematic attempt to cause their annihilation as an independent political and social entity." This he believed has been present throughout Israel's confrontations with the Palestinians, but was epitomised by the thoughts and actions of Ariel Sharon.

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