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Why It's Wrong to Call Israel's War in Gaza a "Genocide"

(Washington Post) Norman J.W. Goda and Jeffrey Herf - Recent weeks have brought a flood of new genocide accusations against Israel. Many insist that it is morally required that we use the word "genocide" to describe Israel's war in Gaza. Why this insistence? Efforts to delegitimize Israel as colonial and racist began before the state was declared in 1948. Is genocide really the correct way to describe the war? According to the internationally accepted legal definition of genocide ensconced in the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, physical destruction of a group based on ethnicity, religion or nationality is the heart of the crime. The definition excludes other actions, such as the movement of civilians from their homes. There have been efforts to stretch the definition since the 1960s. In 1967, the Russell Tribunal, an unofficial court of intellectuals and activists, found the United States guilty of genocide for its war in Vietnam. From 2020 to 2024, Kenyan human rights advocate Alice Wairimu Nderitu was the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide. After Israel began its response to the Oct. 7 attack, Nderitu would not say that it was committing genocide. Such a determination, she insisted, was legally and factually complex; it demanded detailed examination by a competent court with proper jurisdiction. Nderitu was pressured and received threats. Her mandate was not renewed. From the beginning of the conflict, Israeli leaders made it very clear that their war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza. On Dec. 29, 2023, Israel's legal representative Tal Becker told the International Court of Justice that Hamas was pursuing "a reprehensible strategy of seeking to maximize civilian harm to both Israelis and Palestinians, even as Israel seeks to minimize it." "If there have been acts that may be characterized as genocidal, then they have been perpetrated against Israel. If there is a concern about the obligations of States under the Genocide Convention, then it is in relation to their responsibilities to act against Hamas's proudly declared agenda of annihilation, which is not a secret, and is not in doubt." Becker said the genocide accusation made from the earliest days of the war was an effort to force Israel to end "operations against the ongoing attacks of an organization that pursues an actual genocidal agenda." Those accusing Israel of genocide fail to point to the responsibility of the aggressor, Hamas, for starting and continuing this war. Norman J.W. Goda is professor of Holocaust studies at the University of Florida. Jeffrey Herf is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Maryland at College Park.
2025-06-05 00:00:00
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