The devastation is undeniable – but genocide is a blood libel

On October 7th, 2023, the Hamas military invaded southern Israel. For an entire day, they systematically murdered every Jewish person they found.* Their stated goal was to join with Hezbollah forces scheduled to invade northern Israel on the same day, and together with militant cells in the West Bank successfully wipe out millions of Jewish people.

From October 7th, 2023 onward, for a period of two years, the IDF invaded, bombed, and shelled the Gaza Strip, targeting military tunnels, weapons caches, and Hamas units densely embedded and enmeshed amongst and under civilians, their homes, their schools, and their hospitals. Their stated goal was to rescue the captive Israelis that Hamas kidnapped and to destroy Hamas as an organization.

To my mind, one of these is clearly attempted genocide.

The other is not.

However, it would seem that there are many, many people – some of whom I would even count as friends – who disagree with this rather straightforward assessment, and are convinced that the IDF perpetrated a genocide against Gazans over the course of this war.

Since October 7th, I have read and heard arguments from anti-Zionists accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Not just war crimes, not even ethnic cleansing, but genocide.

While the accusation originates in authoritarian state propaganda and is largely promoted by ignorant talking heads via memes and reels, it also has the support of several academic bodies dedicated to the study of international human rights law and genocide studies (as well as a bogus pseudo-academic fake institute, but I won’t dignify them with inclusion here).

These academics published and co-signed a paper suggesting that according to the standard and accepted definition of genocide, Israel is commiting genocide against Palestinians. As proof of this claim, they cited: select statements by Israeli politicians, the “totality of evidence” of the war’s devastating impact, select instances of IDF soldiers targeting civilians, and the widely-circulated casualty statistic claiming that roughly 3% of the population was killed.

Based on this paper, co-signed by several reputable academic centers for genocide studies, I am supposed to believe that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

If I don’t accept this supposed consensus, then apparently I am a “genocide denier” – but here’s why I am not persuaded by the argument.

1. Cherry-picking statements from hyperbolic politicians who ALSO made many statements asserting the goal of self-defense and the need for humanitarian aid for Gazans, completely fails the standard of the “only possible interpretation” of these statements being genocidal intent.
2. The recourse to the “totality of evidence” in the alleged absence of direct evidence of genocidal intent is completely unnecessary: the direct evidence available – in the form of all the measures the IDF took to protect Gazan life, from sending warning phone calls and leaflets to evacuating civilians to literally scheduling airstrikes in advance – indicates that there was no genocidal intent.
3. While over 70% of the Gaza Strip was reduced to rubble, only 3% of the Gazan population was killed in this war. The wild disparity between these two percentages indicates that rather than wantonly disregarding Gazan life, let alone targeting Gazans for slaughter, the IDF waged war in a densely-packed urban setting without genocidal intent.
4. Gazans are not a separate religious, ethnic, or national group. They are part of the Palestinian people. While Gazans were dying from Israeli airstrikes by the thousands, millions of Palestinians across Israel were completely safe from any threat of genocide; in fact, they were in greater danger from rockets and missiles from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. While military measures in the West Bank intensified and settler crimes against Palestinians increased, there was no genocidal targeting of Palestinians as a religious, ethnic, or national group at any point in the past two years.
5. As mentioned above, only 3% of the Gazan population died in this war. That number is not just civilians – it includes Hamas soldiers. And the fact that, on analysis, it actually disproportionately includes Hamas soldiers as opposed to, say, children (roughly half the population), indicates not only a lack of genocidal intent but a lack of genocidal outcome.

Kappara, this war has been undeniably devastating for Gazans.

The question itself of whether we have committed genocide or come close to committing genocide, is a valid question. We should always be concerned for the sanctity of human life, and that we do not become normalize the voices in our society calling for ethnic cleansing or worse.

The debate itself in international human rights law regarding the meaning, nature, and definition of genocide, is a valid debate. As moral understanding evolves and the project of international law becomes more attuned to the global realities its meant to govern, it’s natural that there be continuing discussion on such an important issue.

It is also clear that the IDF did not always follow its own policies and it may even be that war crimes were committed over the past two years. Israel is a democracy dedicated to the rule of law, and we can and should investigate everything that needs investigation.

Howthebleepever.

The accusation of genocide, in light of the evidence, is a blood libel.

Its origins, its memes, its subtext, its imputation of ultimate guilt, its baselessness, make it a blood libel.

Not everyone who believes it is a rabid antisemite – but everyone who believes it has bought into modern antisemitism on some level. Including those Jewish people who support, repeat, and insist on the truth of the libel.

As I’ve written on other platforms, I believe that Zionism must reckon with the devastation of Gaza, and that a new future must be built from the ashes of both Beeri and Gaza. And as anyone who has read my Facebook posts knows, I’m the last one to place the Israeli state, government, or military beyond criticism.

But the truth is the truth.

And so in the name of the truth, I pray:

May the genocides actually occurring right now across the world be swiftly stopped, and may the world know no more genocide.

May a just peace come to this land and may Palestinians and Israelis together take the right steps forward towards a shared future of liberty, equality, and security for all.

Notes

* Yes, Hamas soldiers obviously also took hundreds of Israelis captive alive, both to inhibit Israeli targeting for strikes and to reduce them to “bargaining chips” in anticipation of expected negotiations. I choose to summarize the crimes of that dark day as simply “murder,” even though they included many other violations of Israeli bodies and spirits, so as not to unnecessarily recapitulate the traumas of those crimes and shove them in the face of the reader, as it were. Perhaps, over the past two years, we’ve had enough graphic and gratuitous references to the horrors that befell that day.