Since the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, it is a grim reality that many have opted to use Israel’s rightful response to these attacks to level false allegations against it, including the worst of them all: genocide.
We Jews know what genocide is. State Sen. Scott Wiener knows it, too. More than 6 million of us were murdered during the Shoah. Given our history, it should come as no surprise that Israel was one of the first countries to ratify the 1948 Genocide Convention without reservation and to incorporate its provisions in its domestic law.
Genocide is the gravest of accusations, and the Genocide Convention, the United Nations treaty designed specifically to address this crime, sets clear rules for when the term should be invoked. Principal among them is the existence of irrefutable evidence that an actor has intended to destroy a national, ethnic or religious group as such. With this in mind, if there have been acts that may be defined as genocidal, they were perpetrated by the Palestinian terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad against Israel. Unfortunately, non-state actors cannot be formally and directly charged with genocide before the International Court of Justice.
These radical Islamist groups have always aspired to exterminate Jews and destroy the State of Israel, and they have never hidden their intent. Then, on Oct. 7, Hamas carried out its plan to commit, with boundless brutality, the crime of all crimes for the whole world to see.
Based on its inherent legal right to take all legitimate measures to defend its citizens and territory, Israel clearly defined the objectives of the war from the first day: the return of all hostages, the destruction of the capabilities of Hamas and its allies, and ensuring that there would be no threats from Gaza again.
There is no such thing as a victimless war. Any civilian death or, indeed, injury is devastating. But it is an undeniable truth that Israel adheres to its obligations under the law and has sought to minimize civilian harm throughout this war.
Among other things, it issued advance warnings ahead of targeted military strikes, enabled the entry of significant amounts of humanitarian aid, repaired damaged supply lines including water infrastructure, facilitated the vaccination of children — long ignored by Hamas itself — and worked with partners, including the United States, to establish field hospitals and to help evacuate those in need of urgent medical attention.
At the same time, the unprecedented scale of the challenge facing the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza has been insufficiently discussed. Largely ignored by the international community despite countless Israeli warnings, Hamas has for years embedded itself into every fabric, every floorboard of Gazan infrastructure, with a complete disregard for human life.
Reprehensibly, nothing was off limits, including schools, hospitals and even children’s bedrooms. In fact, public statements by senior Hamas officials have clearly outlined this human-shield strategy, which Israel has publicly documented for almost two decades.
Its underground tunnel network, larger than subway systems in major cities, has been used to hide munitions, store stolen aid, transport terrorists and, of course, to hide hostages in the worst conditions imaginable.
These are the facts, as is the legal definition of genocide. No subjective perception, no false narratives peddled on social and mainstream media, no inconsequential and decontextualized statements by politicians will ever change this.
It should be of extreme concern to us all, therefore, that many have leapt at the opportunity to call Israel’s rightful response what it was not. A hostile network of actors propagates this fallacy repeatedly, while ignoring other conflicts and actual instances of ethnic cleansing. This network is relying on false reports, false experts and false media coverage to justify its accusations — many rooted in antisemitism.
The effort to exploit the accusation of genocide against Israel in this situation empties the term of its unique power and profound significance and also undermines the core intent and aim of the Genocide Convention, with consequences for every nation protecting itself from those who show utter contempt for human life and legal norms. Observing how these charges have spurred a surge in antisemitism and antisemitic violence worldwide since Oct. 7 compels me to voice my profound concern over the dangers this poses to our Jewish community.
In the age of social media and identity politics, many are tempted to weaponize language to demonize and vilify. That some in the Jewish community have surrendered to that temptation is not only unforgivable, it is outright shameful.