Characterization of genocide in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
This article is about question of Palestinian genocide throughout the entireIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. For the ongoing genocide by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza, seeGaza genocide.
Since its foundation in 1948,Israel has been accused of carrying outgenocide againstPalestinians during theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict. During theGaza war, a wide consensus of scholars have concluded that Israel's actionsconstitute genocide. Debate continues over whether Israel's treatment of Palestinians since theNakba—prior to the Gaza war—also constitutesgenocide, and whether such actions are continuous or limited to specific periods or events. This treatment has also been characterised as "slow-motion genocide",[1][2] as well as a corollary or expression ofsettler colonialism andindigenous land theft.[3][4][5]
Those who believe Israel's actions constitute genocide point to the entrenchedanti-Palestinianism,anti-Arab racism,Islamophobia and genocidal rhetoric in Israeli society, and point to events such as theNakba, theSabra and Shatila massacre, theblockade of the Gaza Strip, the2014 Gaza War, and theGaza war as particularly pertinent genocidal episodes.[6][7] International law and genocide scholars have accused Israeli officials of usingdehumanising language.[8][9][10] During the 2023 Gaza war, Israeli Holocaust historianOmer Bartov warned that statements made by high-ranking Israeli government officials "could easily be construed as indicating a genocidal intent".[11]
On 29 December 2023,South Africa filed acase against Israel at theInternational Court of Justice, alleging that Israel's conduct in Gaza during the 2023 war amounted to genocide.[12][13] South Africa asked the ICJ to issue provisional measures, including ordering Israel to halt its military campaign in Gaza.[12] The Israeli government agreed to defend itself at the ICJ proceedings, while also denouncing South Africa's actions as "disgraceful" and accusing it of abetting "the modern heirs of theNazis".[14] South Africa's case has been supported bya number of countries.[15] On 26 January 2024, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling finding that the claims in South Africa's filing were "plausible" and issued an order to Israel requiring them to take all measures within their power to prevent acts of genocide and to allow basic humanitarian services into Gaza.[16] In March 2024, theUN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in theoccupied Palestinian territories,Francesca Albanese, issued a report stating that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission" of acts of genocide had been met. Israel rejected the report.[17][18]
The Nakba was the violent displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people, along with the destruction of their society,culture, identity, political rights, andnational aspirations.[30] The Nakba began during the1948 Palestine war; the termongoing Nakba has been used to describe the continued persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel throughout the Palestinian territories.[31] Palestinians continued to beexpelled after the war, and more Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed, with new Israeli settlements established in their place.[32]
In 2010, historiansMartin Shaw andOmer Bartov debated whether the 1948Nakba should be regarded as a genocide, with Shaw arguing that it could and with Bartov disagreeing.[36][37]Daud Abdullah, the former Deputy Secretary General of theMuslim Council of Britain, has said: "Given the declared intent of the Zionist leaders, this wholesale destruction and depopulation of Palestinian villages fit[s] easily with the definition of genocide as cited in theConvention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."[38][39] Historian John Docker has also written several papers detailing the Nakba as a genocide.[40][41] Several scholars have written that Palestinians sufferedethnic cleansing during the Nakba, but that they did not consider the event to have been genocide.[b]
Academic Clare Brandabur includes theNaksa (known as the 1967 Palestinian exodus) in the actions conducted by Israel that show a pattern that seeks the "destruction of the national pattern of the oppressed group".[48] This view is supported by later academics as well.[49] The Naksa was the expulsion of around 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians during and in the aftermath of theSix-Day War, including the razing of numerous Palestinian villages.[50][51][52]
In September 1982, between 460 and 3,500 civilians—mostlyPalestinians andLebanese Shia Muslims—were killed inBeirut's Sabra neighborhood and in the adjacentShatila refugee camp during theLebanese Civil War.[53] The killings were carried out by theLebanese Forces, one of the mainChristian militias in Lebanon at the time. Between the evening of 16 September and the morning of 18 September, the Lebanese militia carried out the killings while theIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) had the Palestinian camp surrounded.[54] The IDF had ordered the militia to clear out the fighters of thePalestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Sabra and Shatila as part of a larger Israeli maneuver into western Beirut. As the massacre unfolded, the IDF received reports of atrocities being committed, but did not take any action to stop it.[55][56]
On 16 December 1982, theUnited Nations General Assembly condemned the Sabra and Shatila massacre and declared it to be an act of genocide.[57][58][59] The voting record[60][61][62] on section D of Resolution 37/123 was: yes: 123; no: 0; abstentions: 22; non-voting: 12. The delegate forCanada stated: "The term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act".[62] The delegate ofSingapore – voting 'yes' – added: "My delegation regrets the use of the term 'an act of genocide' ... [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." Canada and Singapore questioned whether the General Assembly was competent to determine whether such an event would constitute genocide.[62] TheSoviet Union, by contrast, asserted that: "The word for what Israel is doing on Lebanese soil is genocide. Its purpose is to destroy the Palestinians as a nation."[63] TheNicaragua delegate asserted: "It is difficult to believe that apeople that suffered so much from the Nazi policy of extermination in the middle of the twentieth century would use the same fascist, genocidal arguments and methods against other peoples."[63] The United States commented that "While the criminality of the massacre was beyond question, it was a serious and reckless misuse of language to label this tragedy genocide as defined in the 1948 Convention".[62]William Schabas, director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at theNational University of Ireland,[64] stated: "the term genocide ... had obviously been chosen to embarrass Israel rather than out of any concern with legal precision".[62]
Martyr's Square is a site in Shatila refugee camp where one of the mass executions took place during the Sabra and Shatila massacre, as well as burial grounds for some of the victims.
That same year an independent commission headed bySeán MacBride investigated reported violations of International Law by Israel and four of its six members concluded that "the deliberate destruction of the national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people amount[ed] to genocide".[65][66] In its conclusion, the commission recommended "that a competent international body be designed or established to clarify the conception of genocide in relation to Israeli policies and practices toward the Palestinian people".[67]David Hirst believes that while the decision of the U.N. General Assembly could still be called biased, it was harder to say the same about the McBride Commission, as well as about individuals around the world, especially Jews, who shared the opinion of its four members.[68]
The massacre was also investigated by the IsraeliKahan Commission. The commission concluded that although no Israelis were directly involved in the killings, a number of Israeli government ministers and military were indirectly responsible. They should have taken into account the sentiments of their Lebanese allies after their leaderBachir Gemayel had been assassinated along with 26 other Phalangists in a bomb attack 2 days earlier,[69] and also have taken decisive action to stop the killings when the first information was received.[70] The commission's findings were reluctantly accepted by the Israeli government, amid violent, rival, pro- and anti-government protests.[71]
In interviews with film directorLokman Slim in 2005, some of the fighters of theLebanese Christian militias reported that, prior to the massacre, the IDF took them to training camps in Israel and showed them documentaries about the Holocaust.[72] The Israelis told the Lebanese fighters that the same would happen to them too, as a minority in Lebanon, if the fighters did not take action against the Palestinians.[72] The film was called"Massaker", it featured six perpetrators of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and it was awarded theFipresci Prize at the 2005 Berlinale.[73]
21st century
Second Intifada
At the UN-backed2001 Durban Conference Against Racism, the majority of delegates approved a declaration that accused Israel of being a "racistapartheid state" guilty of "war crimes, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing".Reed Brody, the then-executive director ofHuman Rights Watch, criticised the declaration, arguing that "Israel has committed serious crimes against Palestinian people but it is simply not accurate to use the word genocide", while Claudio Cordone, a spokesman forAmnesty International, stated that "[w]e are not ready to make the assertion that Israel is engaged in genocide".[74]
During the 2002battle of Jenin, numerous Palestinian officials,[75] as well as a British forensics expert who entered the camp as part of anAmnesty International team, accused theIsrael Defense Forces of carrying out a massacre of Palestinian civilians numbering in the 100s at theJenin refugee camp in theWest Bank.[76]A. N. Wilson, a columnist for the British newspaperThe Independent, wrote that "we are talking here of massacre, and a cover-up, of genocide",[77] whileYasmin Alibhai-Brown called forAriel Sharon to be tried for crimes against humanity.[78] Subsequent investigations by Human Rights Watch and theUnited Nations confirmed that there had been no massacre, but accused Israel of committing war crimes.[79][80]
Cartoon byCarlos Latuff depicting the consequences of Israel's blockade on Gaza in 2010[81]
The restrictions on movement and goods in Gaza imposed byIsrael date to the early 1990s.[82] AfterHamas took over in 2007, Israel significantly intensified existing movement restrictions and imposed a completeblockade on the movement of goods and people in and out of theGaza Strip.[83] In the same year, Egypt closed theRafah Border Crossing.[84] Many protestors across the globe called the blockade an act of genocide,[85][86] with the Venezuelan presidentHugo Chavez recalling Venezuela's ambassador in Israel and calling Israel's attacks "genocide".[87]
IsraeliNew HistorianIlan Pappé has argued that genocide "is the only appropriate way to describe what the Israeli army is doing in the Gaza Strip".[88][89] In his 2017 book,Ten Myths About Israel, Pappé wrote: "Israel's claim that its actions since 2006 have been part of a self-defensive war against terror. I will venture to call... an incremental genocide of the people of Gaza."[90][91] In an article written in 2023 in theInternational Journal of Human Rights, Mohammed Nijim voiced his belief "that Israeli policies that were enacted after the introduction of theBlockade of the Gaza Strip amount[ed] to slow-motion genocide",[92] following previous descriptions of Israel's treatment of Palestinians as a "slow-motion genocide".[93][94] This is in line withUğur Ümit Üngör's application of Lemkin's description of genocide as the "imposition of the national pattern" as being "genocidal as incremental forms of slow violence."[95] Through the period of the blockade various other commentators from political and news organisations have labelled the blockade variously as genocide and sociocide.[96][97][98] The 2007 blockade has continued since its implementation.[99][100][101]
The charred body of a Palestinian baby killed in an Israeli strike then run over by a tank during the2008–2009 Israel-Gaza conflict
The 2008 Gaza War, also known as 'Operation Cast Lead'[102] and the 'Gaza Massacre',[103][104][105] was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces thatbegan on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths.[106] Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.[107]
Asix month long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas ended on 4 November, when the IDF made a raid intoDeir al-Balah, central Gaza to destroy a tunnel, killing several Hamas militants.[108] Israel said the raid was a preemptive strike and Hamas intended to abduct further Israeli soldiers,[109][110] while Hamas characterized it as a ceasefire violation,[109][110] and responded withrocket fire into Israel.[111][112] Attempts to renew a truce between Israel and Hamas were unsuccessful. On 27 December, Israel began Operation Cast Lead with the stated aim of stopping rocket fire.[113][114]
American human rights lawyerFrancis Boyle and historian Ilan Pappé both consider Israel's actions against Gaza in the 2008 Gaza War to be genocidal.[118]
The 2014 Gaza War, also referred to as Operation Protective Edge, was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip.[6][119]Al-Haq, a Palestinian Human Rights organization, concluded in a report that serious violations of international law were committed in the course of the 2014 Israeli offensive against Gaza. The organization, along with other Palestinian human rights organizations thePalestinian Centre for Human Rights,Al Mezan Center for Human Rights andAddameer, submitted a legal file to theInternational Criminal Court encouraging it to begin an investigation and prosecution into the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the course of Israel's 2014 Gaza offensive. The crime of genocide was referenced as an Israeli crime by these groups.[120] Additionally, dozens ofHolocaustsurvivors, along with hundreds of descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims, accused Israel of "genocide" for the deaths of more than 2,000 Palestinians in Gaza during the 2014 Gaza War.[120][121][122] In a September statement to the United Nations, Palestinian presidentMahmoud Abbas stated that the war amounted to a genocidal crime.[123] Political analyst and diplomatAbukar Arman drew parallels between what he called the "genocide in Palestine" and theDarfur genocide, highlighting what he believes to be political motives for the international community labelling Darfur a genocide, but not Palestine.[124]
In an opinion survey ofAmerican Jews, commissioned by theJewish Electorate Institute following the 2021 crisis, 22 percent agreed that "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians,"[127] and Matt Boxer inThe Forward noted that the poll may have underestimated the percentage of American Jews who have a critical view of Israel because it undercounted secular Jews, who tend to be less attached to Israel.[128] Conversely, the accusation of genocide during this period was rejected as "ridiculous" and "baseless" by several Jewish and Israeli human rights lawyers, including some who had accused Israel of apartheid.[20]
By October 2025 theGaza Health Ministry had reported that at least 66,148 people in Gaza had been killed.[142] Most of the victims are civilians,[143][144] of whom at least 50% arewomen andchildren.[145][146] Compared to other recent global conflicts, the numbers of knowndeaths of journalists, humanitarian and health workers, and children are among the highest.[147] Thousands more uncounted dead bodies are thought to be under the rubble of destroyed buildings.[144][148] A study inThe Lancet estimated that traumatic injury deaths were undercounted by June 2024, while noting a larger potential death toll when "indirect" deaths are included.[149][150] As of May 2025 traumatic injury deaths are estimated at 93,000,[d] representing 4–5% of Gaza's pre-war population.[151][e] The number of injured is greater than 170,000.[153][154] Gaza has the most child amputees per capita in the world;[155] the Gaza war has caused disabilities for more than 21,000 children.[156]
Anenforced Israeli blockade has heavily contributed toongoing starvation and confirmed famine. Projections show 100% of the population is experiencing "high levels of acute food insecurity", with about 641,000 people experiencingcatastrophic levels as of August 2025.[157] Early in the conflict, Israel cut off Gaza's water and electricity, but it later partially restored the water.[158] As of May 2024, 84% of Gaza's health centres have beendestroyed or damaged.[159] Israel has alsodestroyed numerous cultural heritage sites, including all of Gaza's 12 universities and 80% of its schools.[160] Over 1.9 million Palestinians – 85% of Gaza's population – have been forcibly displaced.
The government of South Africa has instituted proceedings,South Africa v. Israel, against Israel at theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ), alleging a violation of theGenocide Convention.[161] The Israeli governmenthas denied South Africa's allegations and has argued that Israel is defending itself.[162][163] In an initial ruling the ICJ held that South Africa was entitled to bring its case, while Palestinians were recognised to have a right to protection from genocide.[164] The court ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent the commission of acts of genocide, to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and to allow basic humanitarian service, aid and supplies into Gaza.[165][166][162] The court later ordered Israel to increase humanitarian aid into Gaza and to halt theRafah offensive.[167][168] Israel did not comply with the court's orders.[169][170][171] There is increasing scholarly consensus on the genocide assessment,[139] with few dissenting voices.[172]
Israel's evacuation order was characterized as aforcible population transfer byJan Egeland, the Norwegian former diplomat involved with theOslo Accord.[173] A "forcible transfer" is the forced relocation of a civilian population as part of an organized offense against it and is considered acrime against humanity by theInternational Criminal Court.[174] In an interview with theBBC, Egeland stated, "There are hundreds of thousands of people fleeing for their life — [that is] not something that should be called an evacuation. It is a forcible transfer of people from all of northern Gaza, which according to theGeneva Convention is a war crime."[173] UN Special rapporteurFrancesca Albanese warned of a massethnic cleansing in Gaza.[175]Raz Segal, an Israeli historian and director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies program atStockton University, termed it a "textbook case of genocide."[176] Aleaked policy paper from theIsraeli Ministry of Intelligence, a junior ministry that conducts research but does not set policy, suggested a permanent expulsion of the population of Gaza into Egypt, which has been described as an endorsement of ethnic cleansing; the Israeli government downplayed the report as a hypothetical "concept paper".[177][178] Transfer is a topic of discussion and disagreement within Israel's government with some expressly calling for permanent expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.[179]
During theIsraeli occupation of the West Bank, Israel and settlers have committed violence against Palestinians, forcibly displacing and killing them.[183][184] A Palestinian activist said that the settler violence was the "tip of the iceberg" of the system that he described as genocidal andapartheid.[185] During the Gaza war, settler violence andIsraeli raids heavily increased.[184] Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights activist, wrote in theMiddle East Eye that theHuwara rampage constituted apogrom and incitement to genocide.[186] TheAdalah Justice Project similarly said that Israeli officials' rhetoric before the attack was genocidal.[187] The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated that Israeli actions in the West Bank during the war were genocide.[188] UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has detailed how the actions of Israel in the West Bank mirror those that have occurred in Gaza, seeking to ethnically cleanse the territory and that this "amounts to a genocidal campaign to erase Palestinians as a people".[189]
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[f] in whole or in part. According toYair Auron, from 1948 to 2008, "researchers" did not analyze the Israel–Palestine conflict in terms of the concept of genocide, but discussion subsequently began. In 2017 Auron stated that he expected increasing discourse over time regarding the concept of a Palestinian genocide.[207]
Raphael Lemkin
The term 'genocide' was coined in 1944 by aJewishPolish legal scholar,Raphael Lemkin, who wrote[g] that "the term does not necessarily signify mass killings".[208][209]
More often [genocide] refers to a coordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight. The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion. It may be accomplished by wiping out all basis of personal security, liberty, health and dignity. When these means fail the machine gun can always be utilized as a last resort. Genocide is directed against a national group as an entity and the attack on individuals is only secondary to the annihilation of the national group to which they belong.[208]
Other definitions of genocide
According to Ernesto Verdeja, associate professor of political science and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, there are three ways to conceptualize genocide other than the legal definition: in academic social science, in international politics and policy, and in colloquial public usage. The academic social science approach does not require proof of intent,[210] and social scientists often define genocide more broadly.[211] The international politics and policy definition centers around prevention policy and intervention and may actually mean "large-scale violence against civilians" when used by governments and international organizations. Lastly, Verdeja says the way the general public colloquially uses "genocide" is usually "as a stand-in term for the greatest evils".[210]Alexander Hinton, UNESCO Chair on genocide prevention at Rutgers University, says the colloquial definition centers on "large scale destruction and acts perpetrated against a population" and points to theHolocaust and theGuatemalan genocide as examples that fall under this definition.[211]
Genocide Convention
In 1948, the United NationsGenocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group". The five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims must be targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.[212][213]
Several actions pertaining to these five acts have been identified:
Israel has been accused of imposing living conditions intended to destroy Palestinians as a group.[205] Following theSabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, an independent commission headed bySeán MacBride investigated reported violations of International Law by Israel and four of its six members concluded that "the deliberate destruction of the national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people amount[ed] to genocide".[65][66] TheKuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, a 'citizens' tribunal', in 2013 found Israel guilty of genocide for actions taken over the previous 67 years, agreeing with the prosecution that the "harsh conditions of life were deliberately inflicted to destroy" Palestinians.[215]
Israel has been accused of preventing Palestinian births. ThePalestinian Centre for Human Rights alleges that Israeli measures have been intended to prevent births. It lists such measures as: "lack of protection from military attacks, poor health services and unsafe access to healthcare, restricted access to adequate food and dire living conditions elevating risks during pregnancy." It notes that "[a]ll these violations have increased miscarriages among pregnant women, preterm labors and stillbirths while many of them fear maternal mortality or stillbirth due to lack of healthcare and ignoring their special needs."[216] InSouth Africa'ssuit against Israel at theInternational Court of Justice, prosecutors noted the Israeli imposition of measures preventing Palestinian births through the destruction of essential health services vital for the survival of pregnant women and their babies. The suit read that all of such actions were "intended to bring about their [Palestinians] destruction as a group".[217]
Israel has been accused of forcibly transferring children from Palestinian groups. Independent organisationDefence for Children International - Palestine (DCIP) has stated that since 2000, the Israeli military has detained some 13,000 Palestinian children, almost all boys between the ages of 12 and 17.[218] Miranda Cleland, a DCIP advocacy officer, stated: "Everywhere a Palestinian child turns, there is the Israeli military to exert some kind of control over their life". Based on collected affidavits from 766 children detained between 2016 and 2022, DCIP found approximately 59% had been abducted by soldiers at night. 75% of children were subjected to physical violence and 97% were interrogated without a family member or lawyer present. One quarter are placed in solitary confinement for two or more days even before the beginning of a trial.[218] Palestinian human rights groupAddameer has concluded that throwing stones is the most frequent charge against Palestinian minors detained in theWest Bank, punishable by up to 20 years inprison under Israeli military law.[218] TheGeneva-basedEuro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor notes that theIsraeli army has abducted Palestinian children and transferred them out of Gaza. It stated: "Numerous testimonies that the rights group has received say that the Israeli army regularly detains and transfers Palestinian children without disclosing their whereabouts".[219][better source needed]
Stances of states on South Africa's genocide case against Israel:
South Africa
Countries that have supported South Africa's case
Countries that have opposed South Africa's case
Israel
In December 2023,South Africa became the first country to file asuit against Israel at theInternational Court of Justice, accusing the state of committing genocide in Gaza in violation of theGenocide Convention.[217][220][221] South Africa stated that "acts and omissions by Israel... are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent... to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group".[220] Genocidal actions listed in the suit included the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, the destruction of their homes, their expulsion and displacement,[h] as well as the Israeli blockade on food, water and medical aid to the region. Additionally, South Africa noted the Israeli imposition of measures preventing Palestinian births through the destruction of essential health services vital for the survival of pregnant women and their babies. The suit read that all of such actions were "intended to bring about their [Palestinians] destruction as a group".[217] South Africa also asserts that statements made by Israeli officials, such as Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu, have displayed "genocidal intent".[217] Severalhuman rights organizations and other nations have supported South Africa in their suit.[223]
On 1 March 2024, Nicaragua instituted proceedings against Germany at theInternational Court of Justice (ICJ) under,inter alia, theGenocide Convention. These proceedings arose from Germany's support for Israel in theGaza war.[224][225]: ¶ 16 [226] Imogen Saunders of theAustralian National University wrote that Nicaragua's application was the "first... to allege contribution to the act of genocide rather than the commission of the act itself".[227]
According to a May 2024 report by the University Network for Human Rights, "actions taken by Israel's government and military in and regarding Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, constitute breaches of the international law prohibitions on the commission of genocide."[228] Human rights lawyer Susan Akram, commenting on the report and on the resistance to labeling Israel's actions as genocide, said, "The opposition is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza".[229]
Discourse on pre-2023 events
In 2010, political science professorMartin Shaw argued that the elimination of the majority of Palestinian Arab society in Israel in 1948 constituted genocide.[207][page needed] Shaw opined that the scope of genocide is not restricted to human annihilation, instead he recommends an "international historical perspective" that focuses on the aims of genocide and defines "genocidal violence" as widespread destructive measures aimed at civilians.[230] With the broadened definition of genocide, Shaw contends that the 1948 Nakba was partially genocidal with regard to Palestinian society: with "specific genocidal thrusts developed situationally and incrementally, through local as well as national decisions... a partly decentered, networked genocide, developing in interaction with the Palestinian and Arab enemy, in the context of war".[230] Shaw further detailed this in 2013, in the context of arguments that since a relatively low number of Palestinian Arabs were killed in the Nakba compared to those expelled it could not be considered a genocide, where Shaw draws on Lemkin's definitions of societal destruction being the definition of genocide, which does not necessitate the annihilation of individuals in the group, and points to how this is the more common form of genocide observed in the literature.[209] In response to Shaw's 2010 article, psychologist and genocide scholarIsrael Charny detailed how he believed Israel's actions in the Nakba were ethnic cleansing and involved genocidal massacres, it was overall genocide.[42]
In 2010, in considering the case of Palestinians in Gaza, historian and sociologist Uğur Ümit Üngör pointed to the extreme asymmetrical nature of violent conflict as the core element of genocidal dynamics, which he found present in the history of Israel and Palestine.[231]
Human rights scholars Haifa Rashed andDamien Short have voiced their belief that Lemkin's original concept of genocide can be used to analyse "the historical and continuing, cultural and physical, destructive social and political relations involved in the Israel/Palestine conflict".[232] In a separate publication, Rashed, Short, and John Docker argued that the conflict did not receive enough attention in the field ofgenocide studies, as the academic "field fears Zionist intimidation andad hominem attack".[233] The trio raised the possible argument of the ongoing "Zionist project as a structural settler-colonial genocide against the Palestinian people".[233] The trio stated: "Discriminatory land and planning policies" could be viewed using the lens of a government repressing "minority rights" of Palestinian Israelis, but this "does not preclude individual victims experiencing this as genocidal".[233] This conception has also been supported by other academics.[48][234][235] HistorianLawrence Davidson, in his book aboutcultural genocide, included a chapter about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[236]
Some academics who support the case of genocide view the treatment of Palestinians by Israel over the past century as moving between repressive and destructive policies, withRosemary Sayigh describing it as a continuing state of repression punctuated with "spasms of genocidal violence".[237][238]
Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer who argued on behalf ofYesh Din that Israelis committing the crime ofapartheid, said in 2021 that Israel's policy against the Palestinians did not meet the genocide threshold and the accusation cheapened the concept.[239][240]
Political sociologistRonit Lentin wrote in 2010 that the 1948 Nakba was not "genocide", but ethnic cleansing or "spaciocide".[241]Derek Penslar, a professor of Israel Studies at theUniversity of Oxford, opined in 2013 that Palestinians suffered "ethnic cleansing" during the Nakba, but "not a genocide", as Penslar said that the latter "means that you wipe out a people";[242] Rashed, Short, and Docker wrote that "Penslar mistakenly interprets the concept of genocide."[243]
Earlier, historianIlan Pappé in 2006 and genocide scholarMark Levene in 2007 both stated that the Nakba in 1948 was "ethnic cleansing", without stating that it was "genocide", with Levene stating that Pappé's research on the Nakba "demands the attention of readers and researchers engaged with the subject of genocide and its suboptimal variants", with the Nakba being "of ongoing relevance – just as much as the Armenian genocide".[23] John Docker argued in 2010 that while Pappé does not label the Nakba as a genocide, when reviewing the evidence and argumentation presented in Pappé's 2006 bookThe Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, it aligns with Lemkin's conceptualisation of genocide.[244] Pappé would in 2006 and 2007 describe the killings of Palestinians by Israel in Gaza during 2006 as "genocide",[89] and in 2009 he described the2009 Gaza War as "genocide", decrying that the "genocidal operations" are being treated as "unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or system".[28] Pappé in 2013 cited a speech by Israel's Prime Minister Shimon Peres that year as having failed to recognize the existence of Palestinians in the history of Israel, which to Pappé "is the point where ethnic cleansing becomes genocidal. When you are eliminated from the history book and the discourse of the top politicians".[245]
Political scientistIan Lustick in 2006 described the Nakba as "the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and refusal to allow them to return", and stated that "It was a tragic and unjust and opportunistically accelerated unfolding of the logic of circumstances, not a genocidal campaign."[246]Patrick Wolfe, in a 2006 article analyzing the relationship and differences between settler colonialism and genocide, discussed the example of Palestinians who "threw rocks [at Israelis] and died for their efforts", and further described Palestinians as becoming "more and more dispensable", with Gaza and the West Bank becoming increasingly likeIndian reservations or even like theWarsaw Ghetto.[247][248]
Palestinian men, behind barbed wire fence, before being expelled. Ramle, 10 July 1948
Nur Masalha in 2012 argued that the Nakba was both "politicide" ("dissolution of the Palestinian people's existence as a legitimate social, political and economic entity") and "cultural genocide" ("destruction and elimination of the cultural pattern of a group, including language, local traditions,... monuments, place names, landscape, historical records... in brief, the shrines of the soul of a nation"), with strategies for "de-Arabisation of the land" including new Hebrew names for places replacing Palestinian names, and planting forests over destroyed Palestinian villages.[249]
Yair Auron in 2017 analyzed the 1948 Nakba using the definition of genocide from the 1948 United NationsGenocide Convention (as any other definition would result in "complete chaos" according to Auron), concluding that "Israel committed ethnic cleansing but not a genocide", thus arguing that the underlying aim of the Nakba was not to kill Palestinians, but to "get rid of them, and in doing so, [the Israelis] commit massacres", noting the expulsion of people from over 400 villages.[207] According to Auron, ethnic cleansing is one of the "elements of genocide", though "not an act of genocide".[207] Auron differentiates massacres in genocides as being "part of the comprehensive plan", while massacres in ethnic cleansing are "localized and usually stem from hatred or vengeance".[207] Auron noted that the claim that the 1948 Nakba was genocide has been increasingly advanced by Palestinians, and is also promoted by some European and North American scholars.[207]
Auron argues that there are four main factors why he did not consider 1948 as a genocide against Palestinians: (1) the Arabs initiated the war, resulting in Israel experiencing "critical existential combat" for several weeks; (2) Israel had no "intention of annihilating" a social group; (3) generally, perpetrators of genocide have at least near-absolute force superiority, which Israel did not have; (4) despite "slurs", there was no "racist ideology" towards Palestinians, exemplified by Israeli groups likeHashomer living similarly to Bedouins.[207]
Bashir Bashir andAmos Goldberg in 2018 described the Nakba as part of "the same modern and global history of genocide and ethnic cleansing" as the Holocaust; although the events differed in "degree of murderousness", they shared a "common global framework of violence created by strong nationalism combined with imperial and colonial ideology and policies", with the Nakba involving the attempt to "de-Arabize and ethnic-cleanse Palestine".[250] Meanwhile,Alon Confino in 2018 contrasted the "genocide" of the Holocaust with the "ethnic cleansing" of the Nakba, describing the latter as aimed at "removing, not annihilating, an ethnic group".[251] Jerome Slater in 2020 described the Nakba as "ethnic cleansing" due to the "forced expulsions" of Palestinians, but also said that "no genocide" occurred due to around 150,000 Palestinians remaining in Israel at the end of the war, who "were allowed to remain there".[47]
Cary Nelson in 2019 stated that the notion of Israel having "engaged in genocide" was "unwarranted slander", and suggested that some people repeat it out of ignorance, just as those who repeated theblood libel about Jews poisoning the wells in Europe did. Nelson further described the accusation of Israel having "genocidal designs on Palestinians" as "false", and the accusation of Israel committing "incremental genocide" in Gaza as "malicious". Nelson described a phenomenon where academics "say publicly that Israel is a settler-colonialist, genocidal, racist, and apartheid state"; Nelson recommends that these allegations should be presented to higher education students "as debatable", instead of being "commonly" presented as facts.[252]
In a 2019 interview,Benny Morris stated that in his view, what happened to Palestinians in 1948 was not a genocide.[253] Morris had written in an earlier 2016 opinion article that the events of 1948 also did not amount to an ethnic cleansing.[254]
Marouf Hasian Jr. in 2020 stated the Nakba exemplified a situation where "empowered decisions-makers are reluctant to call some historical incidents colonial genocides", while "many Palestinian and other Arab writers" have compared the Nakba to "colonial genocides".[255] Hasian describes that some "Israelis worry that al-Nakba consciousness-raising threatens state legitimacy", while "many Israeli supporters" do not consider the Nakba as any form of genocide, instead arguing that there was "spontaneous Arab Palestinian fleeing that was based on calls from neighboring Arab nations".[255] Hasian concludes that "public deliberation, and political events" caused "so many" people to attempt to separate the 1948 Nakba from "the 'real' genocides".[255] Hasian further highlighted how restrictive "Auschwitz-centered, or Lemkin-like ways" of defining genocide was preventing consideration of the Nakba as genocide.[255]
Stephen Sedley, writing in theLondon Review of Books, discussed a trip organized by the UKForeign, Commonwealth and Development Office toHebron to observe the Israeli army's treatment of Palestinian children, and wrote about how one of the first things they saw was graffiti on the door of a deserted Palestinian shop that said "Gas the Arabs". He remarked "Nobody, evidently, has a monopoly of genocidal abuse."[256] Academics, such as Clare Brandabur and Mohammed Nijim, argue for considering not just specific events in the determination of whether Palestinians have been subjected to genocide, but for the totality of their treatment since at least the Nakba.[48][257] In Brandabur's article "Roadmap to Genocide", she argues that the sum of Israel's actions against Palestinians since the Nakba fit the definition of genocide as described by Lemkin in his bookAxis Rule in Occupied Europe.[48][258]
In 2024, Mark Levene labelled the mass destruction of infrastructure under Israel'sDahiya doctrine that had been implemented against Gaza since 2006, asurbicide and a tool of genocide.[259] In a 2024 academic article, historian Yoav Di-Capua charts a history of increasing genocidal ideology amongHardal, building onKahanist ideology.[260] He identifiesBezalel Smotrich andItamar Ben-Gvir as politicians who seek the adoption of the ideology of Hardal as national policy,[261] and pointing to an increasing presence of Hardalim among the officers and soldiers of the IDF.[262]
Discourse on post-2023 events
In the context of theOctober 7 attacks, the Israeli counterattacks, and the imposedcomplete blockade, which included the denial of water and food to the civilian population, Israeli historian Raz Segal described it as a "textbook case of genocide" and connected it to theNakba, the expulsion of Palestinians during the establishment of Israel in 1948.[263] With other academics also detailing Israel's attacks on infrastructure, food, and water as being genocidal in nature,[264][265][266] while others have described these actions as genocidal when Israel previously engaged in them prior to 2023.[267]
HistorianOmer Bartov wrote in November 2023 that he believes that "there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place in Gaza", noting the distinctions between ethnic cleansing and genocide. However he called for "stop[ping] Israel from letting its actions become a genocide" and said that "[...] we may be watching an ethnic cleansing operation that could quickly devolve into genocide".[11] In February 2024, Bartov toldAnadolu: "There seems to be intentional destruction of housing. There is destruction of places of worship, especially of mosques. There's destruction of universities and schools, which seems to be intentional. They can certainly come under war crimes, it can come under crimes against humanity, and it can come under genocide".[citation needed]
In April 2024,Amos Goldberg, professor of Holocaust History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, stated in an essay that: "Yes, it is genocide". He said: "It is so difficult and painful to admit it, but despite all that, and despite all our efforts to think otherwise, after six months of brutal war we can no longer avoid this conclusion."[268][i]
Historian Yoav Di-Capua believes that politicians, such as Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, are using the Gaza war to implement a plan to have the ideology of Hardal adopted as national policy in Israel.[261]
There has been longstanding legal discourse on whether a case can be made that Israel has violated theGenocide Convention, with American human rights lawyer Francis Boyle, the professor ofinternational law at theUniversity of Illinois College of Law, first suggesting that such a case should be brought to bear in 1998.[271][272][273] Boyle's argument is that Israel has "ruthlessly implemented a systematic and comprehensive military, political, and economic campaign with the intent to destroy in substantial part the national, ethnic, racial and different religious (Muslim and Christian) group" of Palestinians.[274]
TheKuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal, a 'citizens' tribunal', in 2013 found Israel guilty of genocide for actions taken over the previous 67 years, agreeing with the prosecution that the "harsh conditions of life were deliberately inflicted to destroy" Palestinians.[215]
TheRussell Tribunal on Palestine, a 'people's tribunal', in response to the 2014 Gaza War held an extraordinary session where they determined Israel failed in its duties under the Genocide Convention to punish the direct crime of genocide and incitement to genocide.[275]
On 9 November 2023, three Palestinian civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Israel with theInternational Criminal Court.[278] The groups charged Israel with war crimes,apartheid, andgenocide, calling for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for significant Israeli officials.[278] On 13 November,Defence for Children International, Al-Haq, and Palestinians living in Gaza and the United States, represented by theCenter for Constitutional Rights, filed a lawsuit againstJoe Biden,Antony Blinken, andLloyd Austin for failure to prevent genocide, citing Israel's "mass killings," targeting of schools and hospitals, collective punishment, use of chemical weapons, forced expulsion, and blockage of food, water, electricity and other basic needs.[279][280][281] The lawsuit seeks to enact an emergency order to end diplomatic and military aid to Israel for their international crimes.[282][279] On 22 November,Euro-Med Monitor urged the United Nations to constitute Israel's actions in Gaza as genocide, investigate crimes against humanity, and take action to prevent any more death or destruction.[283] On 22 December, Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs) warned that Israel's military operation in Gaza aimed to "deport the majority of the civilian population en masse" thus "repeating a long history of mass forced displacement of Palestinians by Israel".[284]
On 29 December 2023, South Africa filed a case with theInternational Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza.[285] On 28 January 2024, a conference on resettling Gaza was attended by 11 cabinet ministers and 15 coalition members of the Israeli Knesset which, according to the Guardian "'appears to violate the international court of justice ruling last week that Israel must "take all measures within its power" to avoid acts of genocide in its war in Gaza, including the "prevention and punishment of genocidal rhetoric.'"[286]
Both Israel and Palestine frequently accuse the other of planning to commit genocide.[287][288]
In late 2023, various global leaders and officials voiced their perspectives on the Israel-Gaza conflict, with many labeling Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide." Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian,[289] Pakistani Foreign MinisterJalil Abbas Jilani,[290] theTaliban,[291][292] Palestinian PresidentMahmoud Abbas,[293] Venezuelan PresidentNicolás Maduro,[294] and theKurdistan Communities Union were among those who condemned Israel's actions.[295][296]Palestinian-American U.S. CongresswomanRashida Tlaib accused President Biden of supporting this "genocide,"[297] leading to a resolution for censure against her by the Republican caucus, sponsored byMarjorie Taylor Greene.[297] On 4 November, Tlaib released a video in which she directly accusedPresident Biden of supporting "the genocide of the Palestinian people".[298][299]Craig Mokhiber from theUN High Commissioner for Human Rights resigned, criticizing the organization for its response to theGaza war.[300][299] A day after Colombia withdrew its ambassador from Israel, PresidentGustavo Petro posted onX in Spanish: "It's called genocide, they do it to remove the Palestinian people from Gaza and take it over. The head of the state who carries out this genocide is a criminal against humanity. Their allies cannot talk about democracy."[301][302] Leaders from Turkey,[303] Brazil,[304] and Syria also condemned Israel's actions.[305]
The international response continued with various nations expressing strong condemnation. TheHonduran ministry of foreign affairs stated "Honduras energetically condemns the genocide and serious violations of international humanitarian law that the civilian Palestinian population is suffering in the Gaza Strip".[306] South Africa recalled its diplomatic mission from Israel and criticized Israel's ambassador for disparaging those "opposing the atrocities and genocide of the Israeli government".[307] South African PresidentCyril Ramaphosa accused Israel of war crimes and acts "tantamount to genocide" in Gaza.[308] Iraqi Prime MinisterMohammed Al Sudani and Iranian PresidentEbrahim Raisi labeled the conflict a "genocide."[309] Meanwhile, journalistIshaan Tharoor highlighted that: "In protests around the world, in the corridors of the United Nations and in the angry chambers of social media, one word is getting louder and louder: genocide." with governments, UN rapporteurs, and scholars echoing this sentiment.[310] The same monthJeremy Corbyn, former leader of theUK Labour Party, called for anInternational Criminal Court investigation.[311]
UN experts reported that "grave violations" committed by Israeli forces against the Palestinians of Gaza "point to a genocide in the making" and cited evidence including "increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to 'destroy the Palestinian people under occupation', loud calls for a 'second Nakba' in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure."[312]
Contrasting these views, Israel's Ambassador to thePhilippines,Ilan Fluss, denied allegations of genocide, asserting Israel's efforts to minimize civilian casualties and target Hamas members.[313]US national security advisorJohn Kirby stated that applying the term "genocide" to Israeli actions was "inappropriate," while emphasizing Hamas' stated intent "What Hamas wants, make no mistake about it, is genocide," explaining "They want to wipe Israel off the map".[314][315]
In February 2024, law professor andUnited Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, accused the state of Israel of being "culpable" of genocide, as according to Fakhri, firstly "Israel has announced its intention to destroy the Palestinian people, in whole or in part, simply for being Palestinian", and secondly Israel was denying food to Palestinians by halting humanitarian aid and "intentionally" destroying "small-scale fishing vessels, greenhouses and orchards in Gaza[...] We have never seen a civilian population made to go so hungry so quickly and so completely, that is the consensus among starvation experts. Israel is not just targeting civilians, it is trying to damn the future of the Palestinian people by harming their children."[316]
Statements of genocidal intent have long been a feature of the Israeli cultural landscape, not least in the chant or slogan of "Death to Arabs" – a regular invocation at far-right Israeli protests and marches, such at the annual march marking "Jerusalem Day".[319][320][321]
In 2023, several high-profile individuals and groups voiced strong opinions on the Israel-Gaza conflict, with some labelling Israel's actions as genocide. WriterJazmine Hughes leftThe New York Times after signing an open letter condemning Israel's actions in Gaza calling them "an attempt to conduct genocide".[322][323] MusicianMacklemore expressed his view that the conflict is a genocide at a rally in Washington.[324] Feminist scholarsAngela Davis andZillah Eisenstein, among nearly 150 other signatories, signed an open letter which reads "We will not be silent when the bells of genocide ring. Silence is complicity."[325] Mexican actressMelissa Barrera was reportedly fired from "Scream VII" for social media posts supporting Palestine and labelling Israel's actions as "genocide and ethnic cleansing".[326]
Russian-American authorMasha Gessen when asked if what was happening in Gaza was a genocide said, "I think there are some fine distinctions between genocide and ethnic cleansing and I think that there are valid arguments for using both terms".[327] When pressed further they stated, "it is at the very least ethnic cleansing". This was followed soon aftercontroversy surrounding Gessen's reception of theHannah Arendt Prize over remarks in aNew Yorker article critical of Israeli actions in the strip in which Gessen compared them to an Eastern European ghetto "being liquidated" by the Nazis.[328] In December 2023,Olly Alexander, set to represent theUnited Kingdom in theEurovision Song Contest 2024,[329] signed a letter by the LGBT associationVoices4London accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians.[330] This stance led to condemnation from the Israeli government and theCampaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), who asked the BBC to disallow Alexander's Eurovision participation. However, the BBC declined Israel's request, choosing not to sever ties with Alexander over his political views.[331]
Those who have accused Israel of genocide have cited various statements made by Israeli government and military officials as evidence of intent to commit genocide. During the2008–09 Gaza War, Israeli Defense MinisterMatan Vilnai said: "The more Qassam [rocket] fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a biggerShoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." Colleagues said that his statement had meant "disaster" rather than "genocide".[332][333][334]
On 28 October 2023, Netanyahu said Israelis were "committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world" and added: "You must remember whatAmalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember." The quotation refers toDeuteronomy 25:17 in theHebrew Bible.[j] Critics say Netanyahu's reference to Amalek alludes to an incident in1 Samuel 15:3, in which God commands the Israelites to commit genocide against the Amalekites.[k] Noah Lanard ofMother Jones described the Amalek verses as among the most violent in the Bible and said they have a long history of being used by Israelis on the far-right, such asBaruch Goldstein, to justify killing Palestinians.[344]Yair Rosenberg says the Deuteronomy verse refers to the need to remember an attack against the Jewish people.[343]NPR issued a correction to indicate that Netanyahu had added a citation to Deuteronomy, rather than Samuel, in his speech, but added: "Both stories call for the Israelites to completely eliminate their attackers. In the Book of Deuteronomy, the text reads 'blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven'."[345]
On 9 October 2023, Israeli Defense MinisterYoav Gallant said Israel would launch a "complete siege" of Gaza, with plans to cut off electricity, food, water and fuel supplies, saying: "We are fighting human animals and will act accordingly."[346] Gallant's statements were criticized as expressing genocidal intent towards Palestinians, and of calling for collective punishment of Gazan civilians.[347][348][349] Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich stated that Israel had "returnedKhan Yunis to the stone age".[350]
Other Israeli figures whose statements on the 2023 war have been cited by accusers includeAriel Kallner, aKnesset member forLikud, who said Israel's sole goal was "ANakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948",[349] and IDF spokesmanDaniel Hagari, who said Israeli forces would turn Gaza into a "city of tents" with the focus on "damage and not on accuracy".[299]Amichay Eliyahu, a cabinet minister, andTally Gotliv, a Likud parliament member, have called for Israel to use nuclear weapons on Gaza. Gotliv said: "It's time for a doomsday weapon. Not flattening a neighborhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza."Galit Distel-Atbaryan said that Israelis should focus on "Erasing all of Gaza from the face of the earth" and either forcing the Gazans into Egypt or killing them.[299]Raz Segal said statements such as these represented a "textbook case of genocide": "If this is not special intent to destroy, I don't know what is."[299]Anshel Pfeffer says that Benjamin Netanyahu has tolerated extreme rhetoric, including "apocalyptic threats and conspiracy theories", from his allies to serve his own personal political interests.[351]
Ramzy Baroud ofArab News compared the rhetoric from Israeli officials with the language used in Rwanda ahead of theRwandan genocide, such as the refrain by theRadio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) in Rwanda thatTutsis were "cockroaches" and a 1983 quote from former Israeli army chief of staffRafael Eitan that Arabs are like "drugged cockroaches in a bottle".[349] JournalistChris McGreal, who won anAmnesty International Media Award for his reporting of the Rwandan genocide,[352] also described the rhetoric against Palestinians as being "eerily familiar" to the rhetoric used against Tutsis.[353]
On 14 November 2023, Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said he welcomed "the initiative of the voluntary emigration of Gaza Arabs to countries around the world". He said that "the State of Israel will no longer be able to accept the existence of an independent entity in Gaza".[354] Critics, such asPalestinian National Initiative presidentMustafa Barghouti, have likened the statement to a call for ethnic cleansing.[355] The Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Foreign affairs accused Israel of engaging in a "genocide" supported by Smotrich.[355] Likud Intelligence MinisterGila Gamliel said the international community should promote the "voluntary resettlement" of Palestinians in Gaza to sites around the globe.[356] AChannel 12 survey reported that 44 percent of responders said they were in favor of a renewal of Jewish settlement in Gaza.[357]
Protester inBerlin on 4 November 2023, holding a "Stop the Genocide in Gaza" sign
In November 2023, Israel's former justice minister, Ayelet Shaked, spoke of transforming Khan Younis into a soccer field with "the assistance of God and the IDF". He said Israel should pressure countries worldwide into accepting quotas of Gazan refugees, ranging from 20,000 to 50,000 per country.[358]Otzma Yehudit MKLimor Son Har-Melech, said: "there is no escape from returning and fully controlling the Gaza Strip", including "extensive and flourishing settlement" across "the entire length and width of the strip".[359] David Azoulay, the local council head of the town ofMetula, said the people of Gaza should be transported to "Lebanon's shores where there are enough refugee camps". He said: "the entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and levelled flat, just like inAuschwitz. Let it become a museum, showcasing the capabilities of the State of Israel and dissuading anyone from living in the Gaza Strip" and "demonstrating the madness of the people who lived there". His statements were condemned by theAuschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.[360]
From American officials
In the Florida legislature,Democratic RepresentativeAngie Nixon, supporting a ceasefire resolution, highlighted the high death toll of Palestinians questioning how many had to die before a ceasefire was called for,[l]Republican RepresentativeMichelle Salzman replied instantly "All of them". Salzman's remark, perceived as a call for genocide, led to calls for censure or resignation from Nixon and the Florida chapter of theCouncil on American-Islamic Relations called for her to be censured or to resign.[362][363] CAIR-Florida Executive Director Imam Abdullah Jaber said in a statement: "This chilling call for genocide by an American lawmaker is the direct result of decades of dehumanization of the Palestinian people by advocates of Israeli apartheid and their eager enablers in government and the media."[364]
In October 2023, Republican Florida governorRon DeSantis said "If you look at how [people in Gaza] behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they are all anti-Semitic" and called for a "swift and lethal response."[365] Republican US CongressmanMax Miller, onFox News, stated that Palestine is "about to get eviscerated... to turn that into a parking lot." He said there should be "no rules of engagement" during Israel's bombardment of Gaza.[366] Miller also questioned the accuracy of theGaza Health Ministry's claim that 10,000 people have been killed in Gaza, saying that he believes many of those killed have been "Hamas terrorists", not innocent civilians.[367] Republican U.S. RepresentativeBrian Mast compared all Palestinians to Nazis in November on the House floor, stating "I don’t think we would so lightly throw around the term 'innocent Nazi civilians' during World War II. It is not a far stretch to say there are very few innocent Palestinian civilians."[368] On 31 January 2024, Mast said that Palestinian babies are not innocent civilians but "terrorists" who should be killed, that more infrastructure in Gaza needs to be destroyed, and "It would be better if you kill all the terrorists and kill everyone who are supporters."[369]
RepublicanTennesse representativeAndy Ogles said "I think we should kill them all."Arkansas senatorTom Cotton remarked "As far as I’m concerned, Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza."Michigan representativeTim Walberg said "We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It [Gaza] should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick."South Carolina senatorLindsey Graham called the genocide a "religious war" and said he sides with Israel, calling on it to do "whatever the hell you have to do to defend yourself; level the place."[370] Florida representativeRandy Fine called for Gaza to be nuked likeNagasaki and Hiroshima and made numerous statements endorsing genocide and starvation in Gaza, such as "There is no suffering adequate for these animals. May the streets of Gaza overflow with blood," "Release the hostages. Until then, starve away," "There is no starvation. Everything about the 'Palestinian' cause is a lie," and "Kill. Them. All. #NoMercy #BombsAway."[371][372] Former presidential candidate in the2024 Republican Party presidential primaries,Nikki Haley, wrote "finish them" on an Israeli bomb bound for Gaza.[373]
Former Republican RepresentativeMichele Bachmann appearing in December onThe Charlie Kirk Show claimed all Palestinians were "clever assassins" and that they should be forcefully relocated to Iran. She received a round of applause from the audience, while Kirk replied that US policies should be more like those of the current Israeli government.[374][375]
Ahmad Abuznaid, the executive director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USPCR) said that "There is a bipartisan effort to dehumanise the Palestinian people," referring especially to President Joe Biden voicing doubt over the accuracy of the Palestinian death count and attacks on Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for hercriticism of Israel's military offensive.[376]
Responses to the accusation
A protester holds a poster stating "Not in our name, Jews against genocide," at a pro-Palestine march inBristol, United Kingdom, 4 November 2023
The accusation of genocide has been largely rejected byIsraelis.[89][377] Despite most Israelis rejecting the accusation of genocide, some Israelis and many in theJewish diaspora – including severalHolocaust survivors – have protested against the Israeli government, claiming that such accusations are true.[378][379][380]
HistorianSimon Sebag Montefiore says that "Jews are now accused of the very crimes they themselves have suffered [...] when no genocide has taken place or been intended", with the effect that the word has "been so devalued by its metaphorical abuse that it has become meaningless".[381] In 2015, sociologistDavid Hirsh said there has never been a genocide of Palestinians, and that there was no evidence of genocide in Gaza. Hirsh says that accusations of genocide against Israel – whether in Gaza, the West Bank, or Lebanon – are commonly made by anti-Zionists to demonize Israel and "oversimplify the complex dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".[29] Zionist history professorRobert S. Wistrich says the genocide accusation is "purely fictional".[382]
In May 2024,NYU Langone Health fired Hesen Jabr, a Muslim Palestinian-American nurse, after she called Israel's actions in Gaza "genocide" during an award acceptance speech.[386]
Ilan Pappé reported in 2008 that since the year 2000 "almost 4,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, half of them children, and more than 20,000 wounded."[m] According to data from theUnited Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 6,735 Palestinians had been killed from 1 January 2008, to 6 October 2023.[387][n]
During the ongoing Gaza war, which began on 7 October 2023, a Reliefweb report released 18 November 2023, which labels Israel's actions in Gaza as a genocide, reported that 15,271 Palestinians in Gaza had been killed, 32,310 Palestinians had been injured, and an estimated 41,500 were unaccounted for.[398] Multiple news and academic outlets have subsequently reported on updated figures, with at least 20,000 Palestinians having been killed inGaza, an estimated 70% of whom were women and children.[399][400] Per theGaza Health Ministry and Government Information Office by 3 January 2024, over 22,300 people had been confirmed dead.[401] About 7,000 people are missing, likely buried under the rubble.[402] Over 52,000 have been wounded.[403][404]
Indirect Palestinian deaths from disease are expected to be much higher due to the intensity of the conflict, destruction of health care infrastructure, lack of food, water, shelter, and safe places for civilians to flee, and reduction inUNRWA funding; 186,000 Palestinians or more may have died as a result of the conflict according to a July 2024 conservative estimate byRasha Khatib,Martin McKee, andSalim Yusuf published inThe Lancet.[405]Michael Spagat criticized their methodology, saying that the projection "lacks a solid foundation and is implausible".[406] Even so, Spagat allowed it was "fair to call attention to the fact that not all of the deaths are going to be direct violent ones" and has called the death toll in Gaza "staggeringly high".[407][406]
Some commentators have accused media outlets and governments of theWestern world, especially those of theUnited States, of supporting genocide against Palestinians.[413][414][415] Among other journalists and scholars,[416] the Canada-based sociologist M. Muhannad Ayyash has accused the United States of complicity in the alleged genocide, in this case amidst the Gaza war in which theUnited States has provided significant aid to Israel.[417]On 13 October 2023, journalist Eric Levitz ofThe Intelligencer argued that governmental administrations of the United States, such as theBiden administration, have given approval to Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in the Gaza war, and that no military solution can achieve Israel's security goals short of ethnic cleansing and genocide.[416] This sentiment was later supported by Mark Levene applyingA. Dirk Moses' analysis that "absolute securitization lends itself to collective targeting of human groups, more precisely civilians, regardless of issues of ethnos or genos."[418] On 19 October 2023, amid the war, lawyers at theCenter for Constitutional Rights voiced their belief that Israel's actions were "calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza", and warned the Biden administration that "U.S. officials... [could] be held responsible for their failure to prevent Israel's unfolding genocide, as well as for their complicity, by encouraging it and materially supporting it."[319] On 1 November 2023, theDefence for Children International accused the United States of complicity with Israel's "crime of genocide."[419] On 4 January 2024, the United States government acknowledged it was not conducting formal assessments of whether Israel was violating international humanitarian law.[420]
In November 2023, presidentJoe Biden was nicknamed "Genocide Joe" by critics of his support for Israel.[421] National Security Council spokesmanJohn Kirby, described by Israeli media outletYnet as "an exceptionally accomplished Israeli advocate",[422] said "Israel's trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we're going to start using that word, fine, let's use it appropriately".[421] On 13 November 2023, the New York-basedCenter for Constitutional Rights sued Biden for allegedly failing in his duties, defined under national and international laws, to prevent Israel committing genocide in Gaza in the Gaza war.[279] The complaint alleged that Israel's "mass killings", targeting of civilian infrastructure and forced expulsions amounted to genocide.[279][423] In a declaration in the lawsuit, genocide scholarWilliam Schabas said that in his view there was a "serious risk of genocide" and that the US was "in breach of its obligation" under the1948 Genocide Convention and international law.[423][424] In January 2024 afederal judge dismissed the caseDefense for Children International – Palestine et al v. Biden et al, sayingthe Constitution prevents his court from determining foreign policy, which is reserved to the political branches of U.S. government, though he would have preferred to have issued the injunction and urged President Biden to rethink U.S. policy, writing "it is plausible that Israel's conduct amounts to genocide."[425]
In February 2024, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated the Biden Administration was complicit in the allegedGaza genocide.[426]Ali Harb wrote that the US has continued to arm and fund the Israeli military while it conducts a genocide.[427] In February 2024, following a U.S. veto of a UN ceasefire resolution, Cuban presidentMiguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez stated, "They are accomplices of this genocide of Israel against Palestine".[428]
In March 2024, Australian Prime MinisterAnthony Albanese, Foreign MinisterPenny Wong, Opposition LeaderPeter Dutton, and others were referred to the ICC by Sydney-based firm Birchgrove Legal as accessories to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, citing the defunding ofUNRWA, the provision of military aid, and "unequivocal political support" for Israel's actions during the Gaza war.[431][432]
Human Rights Watch announced in August 2025 that US military personnel who assist Israeli forces in committing war crimes may be prosecuted for their actions. According to Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, the direct involvement of US forces in Israeli military activities in Gaza makes the country a party to the conflict - and that means those US soldiers could be held responsible for any war crimes committed with their assistance.[433]
^The designation of genocide can also be dependent on the specific event talked about, as an example while Ilan Pappé does not consider the Nakba an act of genocide,[26] he considers Israel's actions against Gaza in theSecond Intifada and the 2008–2009 Gaza War, acts of genocide.[27][28]
^Originally published asGenocide - A Modern Crime in the April 1945 issue ofFree World magazine
^There has been 1,900,000 internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip since 7 October 2023[222]
^Originally published in Hebrew in Sikha Mekomit,[269] Goldberg reiterated his view in a July 2024 interview with Elias Feroz inJacobin.[270]
^"Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way as ye came forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, all that were enfeebled in thy rear, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget." (Deuteronomy 25:17–19,Jewish Publication Society of America Version)[341][342] The phrase "Remember what Amalek did to you"(Hebrew:זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק) is used in Holocaust memorials, includingYad Vashem and the Hague Jewish Monument.[343]
^"Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (1 Samuel 15:3,King James Version)[299][279][344]
^Around 10,000 Palestinians had been reported dead at the time of the debate.[361]
^Most of these occurred during the Second Intifada where, from 29 September 2000 to 1 January 2005, 3,179[389][390][391]–3,354[392] Palestinians were killed.
^Docker 2012, p. 2. sfn error: no target: CITEREFDocker2012 (help)
^El-Affendi 2024, p. 1 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFEl-Affendi2024 (help);Short 2016, p. 10 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShort2016 (help);Shaw 2013, p. 4 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaw2013 (help);Rashed, Short & Docker 2014, pp. 13–15 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRashedShortDocker2014 (help);Usher 2006, pp. 10–14, 28–29 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFUsher2006 (help);Saldívar 2010, pp. 826–827, 828–829 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSaldívar2010 (help);Khoury 2018, pp. 117–118 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhoury2018 (help);Nijim 2020, pp. 41–47;Samudzi 2024, pp. 7–8 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSamudzi2024 (help);United Nations 2022 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFUnited_Nations2022 (help);Adhikari et al. 2018, p. 148 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAdhikariCarmichaelJonesKapila2018 (help);Üngör 2024, pp. 3–4: "or Israeli settler colonial genocide" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFÜngör2024 (help)
^"Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza".Third World Approaches to International Law Review. 17 October 2023. Archived fromthe original on 17 November 2023.Statements of Israeli officials since 7 October 2023 suggest that beyond the killings and restriction of basic conditions for life perpetrated against Palestinians in Gaza, there are also indications that the ongoing and imminent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are being conducted with potentially genocidal intent. Language used by Israeli political and military figures appears to reproduce rhetoric and tropes associated with genocide and incitement to genocide. Dehumanising descriptions of Palestinians have been prevalent. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on 9 October that "we are fighting human animals and we act accordingly". He subsequently announced that Israel was moving to "a full-scale response" and that he had "removed every restriction" on Israeli forces, as well as stating: "Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything." On 10 October, the head of the Israeli army's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, addressed a message directly to Gaza residents: "Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell". The same day, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari acknowledged the wanton and intentionally destructive nature of Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza: "The emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy."
^Rashed, Short & Docker 2014, pp. 12–15 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRashedShortDocker2014 (help);Lentin 2008, p. 10 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2008 (help);Lentin 2010, pp. 20–21 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help): "While neither 'categorial murder' nor genocide, the Nakba has been described as 'ethnic cleansing' (Pappé, 2006) or 'spaciocide' (Hanafi, 2005), perpetrated by self categorising 'Jews', 'Zionists', or 'Israelis', against people they categorised as 'Arabs'."
^Abu-Laban & Bakan 2022, pp. 511–512 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbu-LabanBakan2022 (help);Manna 2022, pp. 7–9 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFManna2022 (help);Khalidi 2020, pp. 60, 76, 82, 88–89 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhalidi2020 (help);Shenhav 2019, pp. 48–51 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShenhav2019 (help);Bashir & Goldberg 2018, Introduction harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBashirGoldberg2018 (help);Al-Hardan 2016, pp. xi, 2 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAl-Hardan2016 (help);Rashed, Short & Docker 2014, p. 1 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRashedShortDocker2014 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 1, 10–13 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, ch. 2 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Abu-Lughod & Sa'di 2007, pp. 3, 8–9 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbu-LughodSa'di2007 (help)
^Sayigh 2023, pp. 285 and 288 n. 12–13 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSayigh2023 (help);Pappé 2021, pp. 70–71 and 80 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2021 (help);Khalidi 2020, p. 75 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhalidi2020 (help);Shenhav 2019, p. 49 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShenhav2019 (help);Bashir & Goldberg 2018, pp. 7 and 33 n.4 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBashirGoldberg2018 (help);Rashed, Short & Docker 2014, pp. 1 and 12–18 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRashedShortDocker2014 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 5, 12–14, 75 and 254 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, pp. 23, 111 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Abu-Lughod & Sa'di 2007, pp. 10 and 18–19 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbu-LughodSa'di2007 (help);Ali 2012, pp. 78–79;Samudzi 2024, p. 5 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSamudzi2024 (help)
^Sayigh 2023, p. 281 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSayigh2023 (help);Khalidi 2020, pp. 75 and 83 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhalidi2020 (help);Slater 2020, p. 83 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help);Shenhav 2019, p. 49 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShenhav2019 (help);Manna 2013, p. 93 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFManna2013 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 5, 107, and 117 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help)
^Slater 2020, p. 406. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help)
^abcAbu-Laban & Bakan 2022, p. 511, "over 80 per cent" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbu-LabanBakan2022 (help);Pappé 2022, p. 128, "Three-quarters of a million Palestinians... almost 90 per cent" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2022 (help);Khalidi 2020, p. 60, "Some 80 percent... At least 720,000..." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhalidi2020 (help);Slater 2020, pp. 81 ("about 750,000"), 83 ("over 80 percent"), and 350 ("It is no longer a matter of serious dispute that in the 1947–48 period—beginning well before the Arab invasion in May 1948—some 700,000 to 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from or fled their villages and homes in Israel in fear of their lives—an entirely justifiable fear, in light of massacres carried out by Zionist forces.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help);Shenhav 2019, p. 49, "750,000" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShenhav2019 (help);Bashir & Goldberg 2018, p. 7, "some 750,000" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBashirGoldberg2018 (help);Manna 2013, pp. 93 ("approximately 750,000") and 99 n. 12 ("Recently, both Palestinian and Israeli scholars seem to agree on this estimate of 700,000–750,000 refugees.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFManna2013 (help);Masalha 2012, p. 2, "about 90 per cent... 750,000 refugees" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, pp. 6 ("at least 80 per cent") and 7 ("more than 700,000") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Kimmerling 2008, p. 280, "700,000 to 900,000" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKimmerling2008 (help);Sa'di 2007, p. 297, "at least 780,000... more than 80 percent" harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSa'di2007 (help)
^Usher 2006, p. 11–12. sfn error: no target: CITEREFUsher2006 (help)
^Shaw 2010, pp. 2–3, 20–21 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaw2010 (help);Shaw 2013, pp. 4–5 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaw2013 (help);Shaw 2024, p. 2 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaw2024 (help)
^abSlater 2020, pp. 80–87. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help)
^abcdBrandabur, Clare (September 2004)."Roadmap to genocide".Nebula.5 (3):25–49.Archived from the original on 16 October 2023. Retrieved15 October 2023.
^abSchabas 2000, p. 235. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSchabas2000 (help)
^abSaid 1984, p. 27. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSaid1984 (help)
^"Israel in Lebanon: Report of the International Commission to Enquire into Reported Violations of International Law by Israel during Its Invasion of the Lebanon".Journal of Palestine Studies.12 (3):117–133. 1983.doi:10.2307/2536156.JSTOR2536156.
^"Lokman Slim: The daring Lebanese activist, admired intellectual".The New Arab. 6 February 2021. Archived fromthe original on 21 September 2023. Retrieved6 June 2024.Their film "Massaker" — which studied six perpetrators of the 1982 Christian militia massacres of 1,000 people at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian camps in Beirut — was awarded the Fipresci Prize at the 2005 Berlinale.
^"Light at the End of Their Tunnels? Hamas and the Arab Uprisings"(PDF).International Crisis Group. 14 August 2012. p. 38, note 283.Archived(PDF) from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved1 March 2025.The prime minister is comfortable with limited economic growth in Gaza, particularly as a way to modify Hamas's urge to get into trouble. We still want there to be a discrepancy between economic life in Gaza and the West Bank, but we no longer feel it needs to be so large.
^"Gaza Up Close".Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. 28 June 2023. Archived fromthe original on 29 August 2023.
^Amnesty International report 2024, p. 13: "This report focuses on the Israeli authorities' policies and actions in Gaza as part of the military offensive they launched in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 while situating them within the broader context of Israel's unlawful occupation, and system of apartheid against Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. It assesses allegations of violations and crimes under international law by Israel in Gaza within the framework of genocide under international law, concluding that there is sufficient evidence to believe that Israel's conduct in Gaza following 7 October 2023 amounts to genocide."
^Médecins Sans Frontières 2025 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMédecins_Sans_Frontières2025 (help): "Our decision to describe what's happening in Gaza as a 'genocide' is based on nearly two years of extensive, firsthand information from our teams, who are witnessing massive levels of death and destruction by Israeli forces, a campaign of ethnic cleansing and the almost total dismantling of the health care system."
^B'Tselem 2025, p. 86 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFB'Tselem2025 (help): "The review presented in this report leaves no room for doubt: since October 2023, the Israeli regime has been responsible for carrying out genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Killing tens of thousands of people; causing bodily or mental harm to hundreds of thousands more; destroying homes and civilian infrastructure on a massive scale; starvation, displacement, and denying humanitarian aid – all this is being perpetrated systematically, as part of a coordinated attack aimed at annihilating all facets of life in the Gaza Strip."
Sultany 2024, p. 4 : "Although legal scholars and commentators were slow to recognize the severity and urgency of the situation, this article sought to show that there is an emerging consensus that Israel's actions in Gaza are not another instance of armed conflict but instead amount to genocide"
Swart 2025, p. 3 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSwart2025 (help): "South Africa's actions led to an ever-growing consensus in international legal circles that Israel is committing genocide"
Lederman 2025, p. 1 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLederman2025 (help): "Roughly since mid-2024, there seems to have emerged a broad agreement among genocide scholars – at least those who have expressed their views on the matter – that this is indeed the case ... What followed seems to be a similar broad agreement emerging among legal scholars that this is indeed a genocide, and even those who are still hesitating find the genocide charges much more convincing."
Shaw 2025b, p. 3 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShaw2025b (help): "By the end of 2024, when Amnesty International published a comprehensively evidenced and legally argued case,17 the consensus that Israel was committing genocide was becoming overwhelming"
Gessen 2024 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFGessen2024 (help): "Trachtenberg testified to a consensus opinion among historians of genocide that what is happening in Gaza can indeed be called a genocide, largely because the intent to cause death on a massive scale has been so clear in the statements of Israeli officials"
Bouranova 2024: "The opposition is political, as there is consensus amongst the international human rights legal community, many other legal and political experts, including many Holocaust scholars, that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza."
"Genocide Emergency: Gaza 11 July 2025".Genocide Watch. 14 July 2025. Archived fromthe original on 31 August 2025. Retrieved8 September 2025.Israel has engaged in all of the processes of genocide described in Genocide Watch's powerful model of the genocidal process, the Ten Stages of genocide: classification, symbolization, discrimination, dehumanization, organization, polarization, preparation, persecution, extermination, and denial.
Albanese 2024a, p. 1 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAlbanese2024a (help): "By analysing the patterns of violence and Israeli policies in its onslaught on Gaza, the present report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating that Israel has committed genocide has been met"
Corder 2024 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCorder2024 (help)
Dumper & Badran 2024, p. 2 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDumperBadran2024 (help): "In this context we should not overlook the latest turning point in the history of Palestine – the attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023 on Israeli settlements adjacent to Gaza and the subsequent genocidal war that the state of Israel has carried out in the Gaza Strip."
International Federation for Human Rights 2024: "One year ago, the FIDH International Board, its governing body elected by all its member organisations, recognised, after extensive debate and examination, that Israel was carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza"
^Jamaluddine et al. 2025 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFJamaluddineAbukmailAlyCampbell2025 (help): "We estimated 64,260 deaths (95% CI 55 298–78 525) due to traumatic injury during the study period, suggesting the Palestinian MoH under-reported mortality by 41%. ... Our findings underestimate the full impact of the military operation in Gaza, as they do not account for non-trauma-related deaths resulting from health service disruption, food insecurity, and inadequate water and sanitation."
^Bloxham 2025, pp. 23–24 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBloxham2025 (help): "When considering the total 'excess mortality,' we need to add the Palestinians who have died because of the blockade in combination with the IDF's destruction of health and sanitation and food infrastructure. As public health experts noted, in many wars, 'most deaths' are 'due to the indirect [sic] impacts of war: malnutrition, communicable disease, exacerbations of noncommunicable disease, [and] maternal and infant disorders.'117 'Indirect' would be the wrong word for this conflict given the nature of Israeli policies, including the systematic obstruction of supplies into Gaza."
^"How many people have died in Gaza?".The Economist. 8 May 2025. Archived fromthe original on 29 May 2025.The researchers found that the overlap was so small that the true number of deaths was probably 46–107% higher than the official ministry total. If you assume that the ratio has stayed the same since last June (and not fallen, as systems caught up during the ceasefire, say) and apply them to the current tally, it would suggest that between 77,000 and 109,000 Gazans have been killed, 4–5% of the territory's pre-war population (see chart).
^Bloxham 2025, p. 23. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBloxham2025 (help)
^Donoghue 2024, 5:10 ("The court decided that the Palestinians had a plausible right to be protected from genocide, and that South Africa had the right to present that claim in the court.");Order,S. Afr., No. 192 (ICJ 26 January 2024), ¶ 54 ("In the Court's view, the facts and circumstances mentioned above are sufficient to conclude that at least some of the rights claimed by South Africa and for which it is seeking protection are plausible. This is the case with respect to the right of the Palestinians in Gaza to be protected from acts of genocide and related prohibited acts identified in Article III, and the right of South Africa to seek Israel's compliance with the latter's obligations under the Convention.").
^Sabbagh-Khoury 2023, pp. 36, 44, 163, 169–177, 183, 186–189, 226–236, 241, 247–251, 256, 265 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSabbagh-Khoury2023 (help);Sayigh 2023, pp. 281–282 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSayigh2023 (help);Manna 2022, pp. 49, 83, 152, 169–170, 174–176, 182, 201, 287 n. 2, 316 n. 26 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFManna2022 (help);Khalidi 2020, pp. 250 n. 4 and 287 n. 58 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhalidi2020 (help);Shenhav 2019, p. 49 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShenhav2019 (help);Confino 2018, pp. 141–143 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFConfino2018 (help);Masalha 2018, p. 185 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2018 (help);Nashef 2018, pp. 95, 143 n. 4, 178–179, and 180 n.8 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFNashef2018 (help);Lustick & Berkman 2017, p. 41 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLustickBerkman2017 (help);Rouhana & Sabbagh-Khoury 2017, pp. 396 n. 6 and 413 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRouhanaSabbagh-Khoury2017 (help);Natour 2016, p. 94 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFNatour2016 (help);Fierke 2014, p. 805 n. 17 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFierke2014 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 16, 135–147 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, pp. 31, 70, and 84 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Ram 2009, p. 371 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRam2009 (help);Morris 2008, pp. 154–155, 163, and 281 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2008 (help);Abu-Lughod 2007, p. 89 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFAbu-Lughod2007 (help);Pappé 2006, pp. 91–95, 100, 109, 125, 147, 167–169, 190, 200, 204–211 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2006 (help);Bajec 2024 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBajec2024 (help);Uddin 2023 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFUddin2023 (help)
^Hasian Jr. 2020, pp. 101 ("Israeli-sponsored radio messages that were used to 'wage psychological warfare'") and 103 ("Walid Khalidi, who wrote some of the first Palestinian summaries of what happened during the fall of Haifa in 1959, has recently revisited these issues and concluded that the British colluded with the Haganah in ways that made sure that the use of "psychological warfare tactics" would be used in ruthless ways so that the Plan Dalet could be carried out against unarmed civilians who needed to be moved out of these lands.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHasian_Jr.2020 (help);Slater 2020, p. 81 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 2 and 68, "From the territory occupied by the Israelis in 1948, about 90 per cent of the Palestinians were driven out — many by psychological warfare and/or military pressure and a very large number at gunpoint." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, p. 109 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Shlaim 2009, p. 55, "Morris describes the flight of the Palestinians wave after wave, town by town, and village by village. He gives numerous specific examples of psychological warfare, of intimidation, of expulsion by force and of atrocities committed by the armed forces of the infant Jewish state." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShlaim2009 (help);Morris 2008, pp. 160 ("To reinforce this "whispering," or psychological warfare, campaign, Allon's men distributed fliers, advising those who wished to avoid harm to leave "with their women and children."") and 332 ("employing 'psychological warfare by means of flyers and 'treatment' of civilian inhabitants'") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2008 (help);Sa'di 2007, p. 308, "Morris's (2004a) research confirms what Palestinians have argued all along; he shows definitively that active expulsion by the Jewish forces, the flight of civilians from the battle zones following the attacks of Jewish forces, psychological warfare, and fear of atrocities and random killing by the advancing Jewish forces were the main causes for the Palestinian refugee problem." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSa'di2007 (help);Pappé 2006, pp. 156 ("The UN 'peace' plan had resulted in people being intimidated and terrorised by psychological warfare, heavy shelling of civilian populations, expulsions, seeing relatives being executed, and wives and daughters abused, robbed and in several cases, raped."), 197 ("...from the Chief of Staff,Yigael Yadin: 'Your preparations should include psychological warfare and "treatment" (tipul) of citizens as an integral part of the operation.'"), and 278 n. 27 ("A range of strategies that could only be described as psychological warfare was used by the Jewish forces to terrorize and demoralize the Arab population in a deliberate attempt to provoke a mass exodus. Radio broadcasts in Arabic warned of traitors in the Arabs' midst, describing the Palestinians as having been deserted by their leaders, and accusing Arab militias of committing crimes against Arab civilians. They also spread fears of disease. Another, less subtle, tactic involved the use of loudspeaker trucks. These would be used in the villages and towns to urge the Palestinians to flee before they were all killed, to warn that the Jews were using poison gas and atomic weapons, or to play recorded 'horror sounds' - shrieking and moaning, the wail of sirens, and the clang of fire-alarm bells.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2006 (help);Morris 2004, pp. 129, 168-169 ("Jewish tactics in the battle were designed to stun and quickly overpower opposition; demoralisation was a primary aim. It was deemed just as important to the outcome as the physical destruction of the Arab units. The mortar barrages and the psychological warfare broadcasts and announcements, and the tactics employed by the infantry companies, advancing from house to house, were all geared to this goal. The orders of Carmeli's 22nd Battalion were 'to kill every [adult male] Arab encountered' and to set alight with firebombs 'all objectives that can be set alight. I am sending you posters in Arabic; disperse on route.'"), 230, 246, 250, 252, 468 ("He also ordered the launching of 'psychological warfare operations' and instructed the units 'to deal with the civilian [populations]'. Yadin did not elaborate but presumably the intention was to frighten civilian communities into flight."), 522 (Israel agreed that 'those of the civilian population who may wish to remain in Al Faluja and 'Iraq al Manshiya are to be permitted to do so...' But within days Israel went back on its word. Southern Front's soldiers mounted a short, sharp, well-orchestrated campaign of low-key violence and psychological warfare designed to intimidate the inhabitants into flight. According to one villager's recollection, the Jews 'created a situation of terror, entered the houses and beat the people with rifle butts'.128 Contemporary United Nations and Quakers documents support this description. The UN Mediator, Ralph Bunche, quoting UN observers on the spot, complained that 'Arab civilians . . . at Al Faluja have been beaten and robbed by Israeli soldiers and . . . there have been some cases of attempted rape'."), and 591 ("If Jewish attack directly and indirectly triggered most of the exodus up to June 1948, a small but significant proportion was due to direct expulsion orders and to psychological warfare ploys ('whispering propaganda') designed to intimidate people into flight.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2004 (help);Fernández 2023 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFernández2023 (help)
^abSabbagh-Khoury 2023, pp. 185–186 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSabbagh-Khoury2023 (help);Sayigh 2023, p. 282 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSayigh2023 (help);Manna 2022, pp. 75-77 ("[p. 75] The Israeli army carried out killings (including massacres), pillaged, and raped in a number of border villages, including Safsaf, Saliha, Jish, Hula, and Sa'sa', on the day the villages were occupied or shortly thereafter."), 202, and 301 nn. 79-81 ("[n. 79] It seems likely that cases of rape during and after the 1948 war were underreported in the historical literature. With time, it becomes more difficult to investigate those events.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFManna2022 (help);Hasian Jr. 2020, p. 84, "Palestinian researchers, archivists, interviewers, and others who help chronicle these events now have transcontinental allies who collect oral histories that are filled with tales of the rape of women and the killing of innocent children during the involuntary transfers of the 1940s." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHasian_Jr.2020 (help);Natour 2016, p. 94 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFNatour2016 (help);Khoury 2012, p. 263, "Many stories of massacres, rape, and expulsion are known, and many other stories are still to be revealed: Tantura, Safsaf, Ein al-Zeitun, Sa'sa', Sha'ab, Kabri, Abou Shousha, Ai'laboun, and so on." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKhoury2012 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 82–84, "[p. 82] The use of rape and other forms of sexual violence by Jewish forces in 1948 as weapons of war and instruments of ethnic cleansing has yet to be studied. In 1948 the rape of Arab women and girls was not a rare or isolated act committed by individual forces, but rather was used deliberately as an instrument to terrorise the civilian population and push people into fleeing their homes." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, p. 31 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Ram 2009, p. 373 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFRam2009 (help);Morris 2008, pp. 406–407, "The Israelis' collective memory of fighters characterized by 'purity of arms' is also undermined by the evidence of rapes committed in conquered towns and villages. About a dozen cases—in Jaffa, Acre, and so on—are reported in the available contemporary documentation and, given Arab diffidence about reporting such incidents and the (understandable) silence of the perpetrators, and IDFA censorship of many documents, more, and perhaps many more, cases probably occurred. Arabs appear to have committed few acts of rape." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2008 (help);Humphries & Khalili 2007, pp. 209, 211-213 ("[p. 211-212] AsBenny Morris writes, the regular and irregular military forces of the Yishuv had employed rape in 'several dozen cases' (Morris 2004a: 592) and the news of the rape, though subsequently silenced by both perpetrators and victims, spread as quickly as the news of massacres, aided by the fear and horror of the Palestinians and the 'whispering campaign' of the Yishuv military commanders... these rapes were one of the more devastating components ofHagana assaults and perhaps the primary explanation behind the decision of many of the refugees to flee."), and 223-226 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHumphriesKhalili2007 (help);Sa'di 2007, pp. 293 ("On numerous occasions in the execution ofPlan D, the Zionist forces expelled people from their towns and villages, committed rape and other acts of violence, massacred civilians, and executed prisoners of war."), 299-300 ("Morris (2004a) reports that there were 'about a dozen' cases of documented rape, often followed by murder. As he notes, 'We have to assume that the dozen cases of rape that were reported . . . are not the whole story. They are just the tip of the iceberg' (Morris, 2004b: 39)."), and 303-304 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSa'di2007 (help);Slyomovics 2007, pp. 31 ("Morris documents statistics of a dozen cases of rapes and twenty-four instances of massacres as supporting evidence for a pattern") and 33-38 ("[p. 37] It has been a major achievement by historians of 1948 that the conditions and numbers ofactual rape and civilian massacre of the Palestinian population are finally recognized.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlyomovics2007 (help);Pappé 2006, pp. 90, 132, 156, 184, 196, and 208-211 ("[p. 209]David Ben-Gurion seems to have been informed about each case and entered them into his diary. Every few days he has a sub-section: 'Rape Cases'.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2006 (help);Schulz 2003, pp. 28 and 136 ("According to [Kitty] Warnock [Land Before Honor: Palestinian Women in the Occupied Territories,Monthly Review Press 1990], honour was an ingredient in the exodus as fear and concern to save women from being raped was a reason for flight.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSchulz2003 (help);Urquhart 2006 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFUrquhart2006 (help)
^Hasian Jr. 2020, pp. 101 ("Israeli-sponsored radio messages that were used to 'wage psychological warfare'") and 103 ("Walid Khalidi, who wrote some of the first Palestinian summaries of what happened during the fall of Haifa in 1959, has recently revisited these issues and concluded that the British colluded with the Haganah in ways that made sure that the use of "psychological warfare tactics" would be used in ruthless ways so that the Plan Dalet could be carried out against unarmed civilians who needed to be moved out of these lands.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFHasian_Jr.2020 (help);Slater 2020, p. 81 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help);Masalha 2012, pp. 2 and 68, "From the territory occupied by the Israelis in 1948, about 90 per cent of the Palestinians were driven out — many by psychological warfare and/or military pressure and a very large number at gunpoint." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help);Lentin 2010, p. 109 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLentin2010 (help);Shlaim 2009, p. 55, "Morris describes the flight of the Palestinians wave after wave, town by town, and village by village. He gives numerous specific examples of psychological warfare, of intimidation, of expulsion by force and of atrocities committed by the armed forces of the infant Jewish state." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFShlaim2009 (help);Morris 2008, pp. 160 ("To reinforce this "whispering," or psychological warfare, campaign, Allon's men distributed fliers, advising those who wished to avoid harm to leave "with their women and children."") and 332 ("employing 'psychological warfare by means of flyers and 'treatment' of civilian inhabitants'") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2008 (help);Sa'di 2007, p. 308, "Morris's (2004a) research confirms what Palestinians have argued all along; he shows definitively that active expulsion by the Jewish forces, the flight of civilians from the battle zones following the attacks of Jewish forces, psychological warfare, and fear of atrocities and random killing by the advancing Jewish forces were the main causes for the Palestinian refugee problem." harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSa'di2007 (help);Pappé 2006, pp. 156 ("The UN 'peace' plan had resulted in people being intimidated and terrorised by psychological warfare, heavy shelling of civilian populations, expulsions, seeing relatives being executed, and wives and daughters abused, robbed and in several cases, raped."), 197 ("...from the Chief of Staff,Yigael Yadin: 'Your preparations should include psychological warfare and "treatment" (tipul) of citizens as an integral part of the operation.'"), and 278 n. 27 ("A range of strategies that could only be described as psychological warfare was used by the Jewish forces to terrorize and demoralize the Arab population in a deliberate attempt to provoke a mass exodus. Radio broadcasts in Arabic warned of traitors in the Arabs' midst, describing the Palestinians as having been deserted by their leaders, and accusing Arab militias of committing crimes against Arab civilians. They also spread fears of disease. Another, less subtle, tactic involved the use of loudspeaker trucks. These would be used in the villages and towns to urge the Palestinians to flee before they were all killed, to warn that the Jews were using poison gas and atomic weapons, or to play recorded 'horror sounds' - shrieking and moaning, the wail of sirens, and the clang of fire-alarm bells.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFPappé2006 (help);Morris 2004, pp. 129, 168-169 ("Jewish tactics in the battle were designed to stun and quickly overpower opposition; demoralisation was a primary aim. It was deemed just as important to the outcome as the physical destruction of the Arab units. The mortar barrages and the psychological warfare broadcasts and announcements, and the tactics employed by the infantry companies, advancing from house to house, were all geared to this goal. The orders of Carmeli's 22nd Battalion were 'to kill every [adult male] Arab encountered' and to set alight with firebombs 'all objectives that can be set alight. I am sending you posters in Arabic; disperse on route.'"), 230, 246, 250, 252, 468 ("He also ordered the launching of 'psychological warfare operations' and instructed the units 'to deal with the civilian [populations]'. Yadin did not elaborate but presumably the intention was to frighten civilian communities into flight."), 522 (Israel agreed that 'those of the civilian population who may wish to remain in Al Faluja and 'Iraq al Manshiya are to be permitted to do so...' But within days Israel went back on its word. Southern Front's soldiers mounted a short, sharp, well-orchestrated campaign of low-key violence and psychological warfare designed to intimidate the inhabitants into flight. According to one villager's recollection, the Jews 'created a situation of terror, entered the houses and beat the people with rifle butts'.128 Contemporary United Nations and Quakers documents support this description. The UN Mediator, Ralph Bunche, quoting UN observers on the spot, complained that 'Arab civilians . . . at Al Faluja have been beaten and robbed by Israeli soldiers and . . . there have been some cases of attempted rape'."), and 591 ("If Jewish attack directly and indirectly triggered most of the exodus up to June 1948, a small but significant proportion was due to direct expulsion orders and to psychological warfare ploys ('whispering propaganda') designed to intimidate people into flight.") harvnb error: no target: CITEREFMorris2004 (help);Fernández 2023 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFFernández2023 (help)
^Argüello Gómez, Carlos J. (1 March 2024)."Application instituting proceedings"(PDF).International Court of Justice.Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 April 2024. Retrieved21 May 2024.
^Lentin 2016, p. 40. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLentin2016 (help)
^Masalha 2012, pp. 10, 11, 88, 120. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMasalha2012 (help)
^Bashir & Goldberg 2018, p. 20, § "The Historical Global Register: The Holocaust and the Colonial Framework", pp. 14–20. sfn error: no target: CITEREFBashirGoldberg2018 (help)
^Goldberg, Amos (7 July 2024)."Israeli Historian: This Is Exactly What Genocide Looks Like".Jacobin. Interviewed by Feroz, Elias. Archived fromthe original on 12 September 2024.I admit that, at first, I was reluctant to call it genocide, and sought any indication to convince myself that it is not. No one wants to see themselves as part of a genocidal society. But there was explicit intent, a systematic pattern, and a genocidal outcome — so, I came to the conclusion that this is exactly what genocide looks like. And once you come to this conclusion, you cannot remain silent.
^Lendman 2010, pp. 30–31. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLendman2010 (help)
^Sharma, Vasu (14 November 2023)."Decoding Pakistan and Afghanistan's Public Responses to the Israel-Hamas War".Stimson Center. Archived fromthe original on 17 January 2024. Retrieved17 January 2024.The Taliban's response to the current conflict is entirely in support of the Palestinians and calls out Israeli aggression for violating their rights and the sanctity of Al-Aqsa and other mosques in Palestine. In a series of tweets, Afghanistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to Israel's bombardment as a "genocide."
^"KCK: Attacks on the Palestinian people must stop".Firat News Agency. 18 October 2023. Archived fromthe original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved6 February 2024.Last night, the Israeli state launched an airstrike on a hospital in Gaza and unfortunately hundreds of people lost their lives in this attack. This attack is an attack of massacre and genocide.
^Mahmoud, Sinan (6 November 2023)."Iraq and Iran describe Israel's war in Gaza as 'genocide' against Palestinians".The National. Archived fromthe original on 14 November 2023.Anyone who wants to contain this conflict and to prevent its spillover in the region should exert pressure on the authorities of the occupation to stop this aggression and the devastating and systematic killing, " Mr Al Sudani said. [...] "The aid from the United States to the Zionist regime [Israel] is encouraging them to kill and commit cruel acts of neglect against the Palestinian people, " Mr Raisi said. [...] "These horrible crimes against humanity are a genocide, which is carried out by the Zionist regime [Israel] with the support of the United States and certain European countries.
^"Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people".OHCHR. 16 November 2023. Archived fromthe original on 24 December 2023. Retrieved22 December 2023.Grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians in the aftermath of 7 October, particularly in Gaza, point to a genocide in the making, UN experts said today. They illustrated evidence of increasing genocidal incitement, overt intent to "destroy the Palestinian people under occupation", loud calls for a 'second Nakba' in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, and the use of powerful weaponry with inherently indiscriminate impacts, resulting in a colossal death toll and destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure.
^Antonio 2023: "Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss rejected the notion that his country is committing genocide in Gaza City, where a two-week war has erupted [...] their measures were targeting Hamas members, and they were "taking all measures to avoid having civilians affected" by attacks. "We are informing civilians even before attacks: keep away from Hamas' infrastructure and Hamas' facilities," [...] Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians." sfn error: no target: CITEREFAntonio2023 (help)
^Magid, Jacob (21 November 2023)."'Genocide' accusations by anti-Israel activists 'pretty inappropriate' — White House".Times of Israel. Archived fromthe original on 21 November 2023."Israel is not trying to wipe the Palestinian people off the map. Israel is not trying to wipe Gaza off the map. Israel is trying to defend itself against a genocidal terrorist threat. So if we're going to start using that word, Fine. Let's use it appropriately," Kirby says.
^abSperi, Alice (19 October 2023)."Going All-In for Israel May Make Biden Complicit in Genocide".The Intercept. Archived fromthe original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved23 October 2023.calculated to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza [...] U.S. officials can be held responsible for their failure to prevent Israel's unfolding genocide, as well as for their complicity, by encouraging it and materially supporting it.
^Karantth 2023 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKarantth2023 (help): "While it appears that Gallant was specifically referring to Hamas fighters in that comment, the rest of the minister's remarks called for further oppression of all people in Gaza by denying them basic human needs.";Semerdjian 2024, p. 1 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSemerdjian2024 (help)
^Schifrin, Nick; Sagalyn, Dan; Kopelev, Sonia; Warsi, Zeba (11 January 2024)."Experts give 2 perspectives on accusations Israel is committing genocide in Gaza".PBS NewsHour. Archived fromthe original on 23 February 2024.They used Yoav Gallant, the defense minister's statement that he's going after — that they're fighting human animals. He says, oh, I just meant Hamas, but, in fact, if you listen to him, he was talking about the siege, which is of everybody in Gaza.
^Khatib, Rasha;McKee, Martin;Yusuf, Salim (2024)."Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential".The Lancet.404 (10449). Elsevier BV:237–238.doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01169-3.ISSN0140-6736.PMID38976995.Archived from the original on 27 September 2024. Retrieved28 July 2024.Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip. In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, this would translate to 7·9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
^Slater 2020, p. 406 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFSlater2020 (help): "There is no serious dispute among Israeli, Palestinian, or other historians about the central facts of the Nakba. All of the leading Israeli New Historians—particularly Morris, Shlaim, Pappé, and Flapan—extensively examined the issue and revealed the facts. Other accounts have reached the same conclusions. For example, see Ben-Ami, "A War to Start All Wars"; Rashid Khalidi, "The Palestinians and 1948"; Walid Khalidi, "Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited"; Masalha,Expulsion of the Palestinians; Raz, Bride and the Dowry. Reviewing the evidence marshaled by Morris and others, Tom Segev concluded that "most of the Arabs in the country, approximately 400,000, were chased out and expelled during the first stage of the war. In other words, before the Arab armies invaded the country" (Haaretz, July 18, 2010). Other estimates have varied concerning the number of Palestinians who fled or were expelled before the May 1948 Arab state attack; Morris estimated the number to be 250,000–300,000 (The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, 262); Tessler puts it at 300,000 (A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 279); Pappé's estimate is 380,000 (The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 96). In another recent review of the evidence, the Israeli historian Daniel Blatman estimates the number to be about 500,000 (Blatman, "Netanyahu, This Is What Ethnic Cleansing Really Looks Like"). Whatever the exact number, even Israeli "Old Historians" now admit that during the 1948 war, the Israeli armed forces drove out many of the Palestinians, though they emphasized the action as a military "necessity." For example, see Anita Shapira,Israel: A History, 167–68. In July 2019, the Israeli government sought to cover up the extensive documentary evidence in its state archives that revealed detailed evidence about the extent of the Nakba—even the evidence that had already been published by newspapers and Israeli historians. A Haaretz investigation of the attempted cover-up concluded: "Since early last decade, Defense Ministry teams have scoured local archives and removed troves of historic documents to conceal proof of the Nakba, including Israeli eyewitness reports at the time" (Shezaf, "Burying the Nakba: How Israel Systematically Hides Evidence of 1948 Expulsion of Arabs")."
^Ayyash, M. Muhannad (2 November 2023)."A genocide is under way in Palestine".Al Jazeera. Archived fromthe original on 21 November 2023.For genocide to happen, two critical elements are needed: the infrastructural and material capabilities to commit the genocide and the ability to conceal the genocide by calling it something other than what it is. TheWest is participating in both of these critical elements... In terms of material capabilities, theUnited States empire has sent, not one, but twoaircraft carriers to the region, and has made it abundantly clear in word and deed that if any state or group attempts to enter the picture and aidPalestinians in their desperate attempt to survive Israel's genocidal operation, that the US will intervene with its full force. Years of US and Westernaid and support to Israel have allowed Israel to develop the infrastructural capabilities to carry out a genocide... In terms of concealment, political, media, social and culturalinstitutions are fully mobilised in the West to hide and conceal this act of genocide, presenting it as a righteous violence of avictimisedJewish people everywhere inthe world. Those expressing support for Palestine in the West are being threatened withjob loss (and are actuallylosing their jobs), possiblecriminal charges and bans, and other punitive measures andharassment campaigns.
^Levene 2024, p. 2. sfn error: no target: CITEREFLevene2024 (help)
^"In Gaza, Biden administration complicit: Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention".Al Jazeera. Archived fromthe original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved16 February 2024.None of the Biden Administration's tactics to deny genocide and avoid accountability will withstand the test of time. President Biden and key administration officials are on a path to be remembered as the principal enablers of one of the worst genocides in the 21st century
Antonio, Raymund (23 October 2023)."Civilians not a target: Envoy decries 'genocide' tag of Israel–Hamas war".Manila Bulletin. Archived fromthe original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved1 November 2023.Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss rejected the notion that his country is committing genocide in Gaza City, where a two-week war has erupted [...] their measures were targeting Hamas members, and they were "taking all measures to avoid having civilians affected" by attacks. "We are informing civilians even before attacks: keep away from Hamas' infrastructure and Hamas' facilities," [...] Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
Gerber, H. (2008).Remembering and Imagining Palestine: Identity and Nationalism from the Crusades to the Present.Palgrave Macmillan UK.ISBN978-0-230-58391-7.One of the more important consequences of the 1948 war was the expulsion and/or flight of some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes inside Israel, and the refusal of Israel to allow them to return, despite an express UN decision calling on it to do so.... About 750,000 of the 900,000 strong Palestinian population were expelled, or fled, all completely terrorized and fearing for their lives
Hazkani, Shay (2019).Dear Palestine A Social History of the 1948 War.Stanford University Press.ISBN978-1-5036-2766-6.It is noteworthy that the aforementioned silk gloves were not invoked when discussing the Palestinian "exodus," i.e., the expulsion and flight of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, which became a pressing concern in the months following the adoption of Plan D (tokhnit dalet) by the Haganah's general staff in March 1948.
Kapeliouk, Amnon (1982).Enquête sur un massacre: Sabra et Chatila [Investigation into a massacre: Sabra and Shatila] (in French). Translated by Jehshan, Khalil. Seuil.ISBN2-02-006391-3.
Mackenzie, James; Lubell, Maayan (29 October 2023)."Israel launches Gaza war's second phase with ground operation, Netanyahu says".Reuters. Archived fromthe original on 29 October 2023. Retrieved1 November 2023.Israel has tightened its blockade on and bombarded Gaza for three weeks after the Islamist group Hamas' Oct. 7 assault killed 1,400 Israelis [...] Abbas... said, "Our people in the Gaza Strip are facing a war of genocide and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces in full view of the entire world."
Natour, Ghaleb (2015). "The Nakba—Flight and Expulsion of the Palestinians in 1948". In Hoppe, Andreas (ed.).Catastrophes Views from Natural and Human Sciences. Springer. p. 81.The Nakba is a catastrophe describing "the expulsion and flight of the Palestinians which reached its peak in 1948"
Petersen-Overton, Kristofer J.; Schmidt, Johannes D.; Hersh, Jacques (27 September 2010). "3. Retooling Peace Philosophy: A Critical Look at Israel's Separation Strategy". In Carter, Candice C.; Kumar, Ravindra (eds.).Peace Philosophy in Action.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 49.doi:10.1057/9780230112995.ISBN978-0-230-11299-5.as scores of historical documentation has since revealed, the Yishuv encouraged the flight or directly forced 750,000 Palestinians (more than 80 percent of the population at the time) from their homeland in 1948 and destroyed 531 Palestinian villages
Sayegh, Nadine; Hanieh, Shams (4 October 2024). "The West Bank and the Protracted Genocide of Palestine".Institute for Palestine Studies.{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|url= (help)
Abdo, Nahla (2024). "Israel's settler colonialism and the genocide in Gaza: Alternatives".Studies in Political Economy.105 (1):94–106.doi:10.1080/07078552.2024.2325298.
Hacker, Emily (2020). "Genocide and Public Health in Palestine".Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World. Springer International Publishing. pp. 1–39.ISBN978-3-319-74365-3.
Karmy, Rodrigo; Zerán Chelech, Faride; Slachevsky, Paulo, eds. (2024).Palestina: Anatomía de un Genocidio [Palestine: Anatomy of a Genocide]. Política. Ciencias Sociales y Humanas (in Spanish). Santiago de Chile:LOM Ediciones.ISBN978-956-00-1820-5.
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