Politicide

For other uses, see Politicide (disambiguation).

Politicide is a neologism, literally translated as "political murder". It is used in two different meanings: politically motivated killing of people and elimination as a political entity.

Killing of people

In one definition, politicide is a form of mass, targeted killings in which a group of people are destroyed because of their political or ideological beliefs. It is similar to genocide, but different in that politicide does not specifically target ethnic, racial or cultural groups, rather, it seeks to eliminate a group of persons identified by their political or ideological beliefs.

The phrase is sometimes used to describe the campaigns of killing committed by Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, in which many individuals were killed because of their anti-communist or "bourgeois" political views. Large groups of anarchists and libertarian socialists were also systematically killed by Stalin. The phrase is also used sometimes to describe the US support to dictatorships that killed communists or alleged communists.

Elimination as a political entity

Israeli sociologist Baruch Kimmerling uses the term in an alternative sense in his book Politicide: Sharon’s War Against the Palestinians and his 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.

Many have asserted that Palestinians wish to commit policide of Israel.

See also

• Democide
• autogenocide
• crime against humanity
• Great Purge - USSR.
• The Killing Fields - Cambodia.
• Massacre at Huế - Vietnam.
• Night of the Long Knives - Nazi Germany.
• Purge