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On the Use of the Term “Genocide”

C. Gourgey, Ph.D.


First, let us make no mistake. The deliberate starving of a civilian population is a war crime. Acceding to the influence of its rightmost members, the government of Israel blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza for almost three months, from March to May 2025. This action, a violation of international law, is indefensible. It must not be excused in any way.

But is it fair then for Israel to be accused of genocide?

Some say so. Blocking aid to civilians is cruel and reprehensible. It is even a war crime. But not every war crime is genocide.

Let’s look at some of the worst genocides of modern times.

“Genocide,” literally the killing of a race or tribe, implies the intentional effort to wipe out a target population by killing as many of its members as possible. In all of the above examples there was an attempt to exterminate a given population, killing as many as physically possible. It is also important to note that in most if not all of these genocides mass rape was used as a tactic.

Now one might debate the merits or demerits of the way Israel has been managing the Gaza war. But this article is not about that. Those who believe Israel is grossly at fault may continue in that belief. Right now I am only questioning the use of the word “genocide” to describe what Israel is doing. We have the Rwandan Genocide, the Armenian Genocide, the Cambodian Genocide, the Darfur Genocide, and the Yazidi Genocide. We do not have the Palestinian Genocide.

If Israel wanted to exterminate the Palestinian people, given Israel’s technical ability the Palestinian casualties of this war would be astronomically higher, much higher even than the inflated figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. This is not to trivialize the death toll on both sides, and especially the suffering of the Gazan population. There is no diminishing the horror of this war. But nations who commit genocide do not send advance warnings of impending strikes or establish evacuation corridors, as Israel has. One may question the efficacy of these measures; still, they are not typically found in genocides.

The Use of Language

Words have power, and language can and often is used as an instrument of war. The term “genocide” is being used to delegitimize Israel, just one part of the Palestinian effort to deny Israel’s right to exist. It equates Israel with all the other genocides mentioned, especially Hitler’s. How often have I heard this: “Jews may have once been victims of genocide, but they are just as bad. Maybe Hitler was right.” And before we know it, Jews all over the world are subject to retaliation. This is captured in the Palestinian slogan “Globalize the Intifada.” For these reasons accusing the Jewish people of genocide is a very serious matter, and if one does so one should have evidence that is absolutely beyond dispute.

If one really needs an example of a genocidal attack in this war, Hamas provided it on October 7, 2023. They went after every single Jew they could find, killing as many as they could regardless of age or sex, sparing only those they took hostage. They also practiced systematic rape, sexual mutilation, and dismemberment of women’s bodies. I could recount even more atrocities. The attack was indeed Hitleresque, the worst the Jewish people suffered since the Nazi Holocaust.

And that is not the end of it. Hamas declared that as soon as given the chance, it would repeat what happened that day many times over, until it eliminated Israel’s entire Jewish population. It would already have done so, but for the good fortune that it failed to coordinate effectively with Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies when it started the war. Hamas’s attempt to ignite a regional war with mass massacres of Jews did not succeed – for now. But Hamas’s – and Iran’s – program for Israel is explicitly genocidal. Yet it is only Israel being accused, inappropriately, of committing genocide.

Israel did not and does not use the tactics Hamas employed on October 7. Hamas’s actions had the hallmarks of a classic genocide, and the only reason it did not spread further was Israel’s resolve to stop it by force. Not every horror of war is a geocide. Our language must have the capacity to distinguish between real genocide, what Hitler did and what Hamas started and proposes to do, and other forms of war as horrible as they may be. We must have one designated word to describe the extraordinary and intentionally sadistic measures employed in a true genocide, or we will miss the full depths of depravity that make genocides unique. Indeed, it is the hope of Hamas that by hanging the genocide label on Israel, its own genocidal intentions will be ignored.

This of course does not mean Israel can't be criticized for the way it is handling the war. The food blockade was unconscionable. Israel also needs a clearer vision for how the war will end. A war cannot just be open-ended destruction without clearly defined aims. But however unacceptable these flaws may be, Israel is not committing genocide. The word "genocide" itself has now become a weapon of war, used to camouflage the nature of Hamas's anti-Jewish project and to delegitimize Israel's very existence.

Hamas is now using the word “genocide” for political purposes, giving it a cynical twist. Hamas now says: the State of Israel came into being because of a genocide, called the Holocaust. We too now have a genocide. So we too should get a state out of it.

What is wrong with this picture? Imagine the founding of a Palestinian state with October 7 celebrated as its Independence Day. This reward for terrorism will certainly make its mark. But there is a much more important reason for concern. A totally sovereign Palestinian state under present conditions will undoubtedly – count on it – become another front for attacking Israelis, just as Gaza before it. Hamas has ambitions to control that state just as it controlled Gaza, and we know what happened there: rocket attacks and other terrorism targeting Israel year after year, decade after decade. But this one would be much worse: much larger, and right up against Israel’s central cities. Remember Hamas makes no secret of its ultimate war aims. It is also no more likely to share power with the Palestinian Authority than it was in Gaza, when it pushed out the PA in a bloody civil war. So if you can’t wait for Armageddon, then follow Emmanuel Macron’s entirely ill-conceived push to recognize a Palestinian state here and now. Because the war that will be bound to ensue will make the Gaza conflict look like a playground scrap.

The virtually exclusive focus on Israel by the international community ignores factors which, if not confronted, will make a lasting peace impossible. Chief among these is the religiously inspired hatred of Jews that is epidemic in Muslim and especially Palestinian society. This has been documented. For years Palestinian textbooks have harped on the evils of the Jews, and even children’s television programs have encouraged similar hatred. This level of systematic incitement makes peaceful coexistence impossible. Both sides must value peaceful coexistence in order for it to work.

And while extreme measures taken by Israel’s right-wing government can be subject to legitimate questioning, Israel had to do something to respond to the threat posed by Hamas and its allies. Palestinians are not innocent victims without agency. So criticize Israel if you must, but do it with balance. And ask yourself: what would you do if you lived next to a mortal enemy who threatened to kill you if you let him? And who actually tried to do it? Would you just sit back and wait for him to be successful? And what if he put his kids in front of him and dared you to strike him?

This conflict now has a long history, and is extremely complex. And that complexity must be respected, not trivialized through the inappropriate and sometimes reflexive use of words like “genocide.”

July 2025