“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; who present darkness for light and light for darkness; bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isai. 5:20). “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both are an abomination to the LORD” (Prov. 17:15).
For almost 50 years, neighboring countries have accused Israel of genocide for its treatment of the Palestinians. With the Hamas-Israel war, those accusations have become more shrill. Is the accusation true? Genocide is the deliberate destruction of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group with the goal of eliminating that group. Robust Palestinian population growth over decades and even now, whether in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (Judea and Samaria), or in Israel would suggest no. That is not how genocide looks.
What is very ironic, and diabolically so, is that the only ones regularly expressing a desire or intent to carry out a genocide are Israel’s Arab or Muslim neighbors, and it is targeted at the Jewish state or, in fact, all Jews:
ˑ Hamas, in the preamble to its 1988 charter, quotes the infamous Hadith (Sahih Muslim, 54:105): The Muslims will attack the Jews, and even the trees and rocks will assist by exposing Jews trying to hide behind them and warn, “O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” In the Muslim view, this heralds the end times.
ˑ In a 2002 speech viewable on YouTube in Arabic, Hassan Nasrallah, the now-late Secretary-General of Hizbullah, expressed the desire that all Jews would gather in Israel, since it would facilitate eliminating them in a single conflict rather than hunting them down worldwide.
ˑ Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking on December 14, 2001, at the University of Tehran, threatened Israel with nuclear destruction, claiming Israel would not be able to absorb a single nuclear bomb attack, while the Islamic world could absorb such an attack with limited harm. In other words, such an attack on Israel is worth the risk.
ˑ In 2019, the now-late head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Salami, called Israel’s destruction an “achievable goal” and expressed his desire to rid the planet of such “filth.”
ˑ These genocidal intentions go back to even before the State of Israel’s existence. Recall that the former British-appointed Mufti (religious leader) of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, met with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler on November 28, 1941, in Berlin to pledge his support for Germany’s war effort and to ask for help to rid Palestine of its Jews. In 1943, he met with SS chief Heinrich Himmler and recruited almost 30,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS in Bosnia.
ˑ In 1947, Arab League Secretary-General Azzam Pasha promised that the developing war with the Jews of Palestine would be a “war of extermination and a momentous massacre.”
ˑ In May 1967, just before the Six-Day War, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser stated that Egypt’s goal is “the destruction of Israel.” During its May to June 1967 broadcasts, Radio Cairo repeatedly referred to liberating Palestine “from the river to the sea,” meaning Israel’s complete annihilation. Iraq’s President Abdul Rahman Arif: “Our goal is clear–to wipe Israel off the map.” And who does not recall the slogan “drive the Jews into the sea,” expressing the sentiments of Arab leaders from 1947 until 1967?
The language of genocide shifts easily between referring to Israel and referring to the Jews–all Jews.
Is it any wonder then that children educated under such regimes, even in schools operated by UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency), or attending youth camps in Gaza, express a desire to kill Jews? That in private homes in Gaza, Hitler’s Mein Kampf is a common find, besides the ubiquitous tunnel entrances and ammunition caches? The genocidal objective is passed from generation to generation.
In spite of all this, it is Israel that is regularly accused by individuals, activists, virtue-signaling celebrities, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), politicians and states (including, shamefully, Ireland, South Africa and Spain), of conducting a war of genocide against the Palestinians.
They often refer to a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2024. This even though Joan Donoghue, the former president of the ICJ, clearly stated on the BBC show HARDtalk that the court did not decide that the claim of genocide was plausible. She emphasized this to correct a common misrepresentation by mainstream media, including the host Stephen Sackur, who had claimed the opposite.
Is Israel deliberately destroying the “Palestinian” people in Gaza (or elsewhere) for the purpose of eliminating them? On the contrary. Israel is the only nation in the entire history of warfare to have warned the Gazan civilian population in advance of its potentially lethal military actions due to the presence of enemy combatants. Not only did such warnings give the civilians the opportunity to evacuate the areas, but it also gave the Hamas terrorists the possibility to escape or strengthen their positions.
Israel used telephone calls and text messages to warn masses of civilians. It dropped leaflets describing evacuation routes. It even announced upcoming bombings of buildings housing Hamas installations by dropping non-lethal “knock-knock” bombs on their roofs in advance. These are not the actions of a genocidal army. These are deliberate actions to preserve civilian lives.
General Sir John McColl
After a fact-finding mission to Israel by a delegation of international military representatives, former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander (NATO) General Sir John McColl stated in September 2024, “The operational procedures the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] have, in terms of the law of armed conflict, are as strong as ours.”
He admitted he was previously a critic of Israeli military operations in Gaza mostly due to media reports. “I went there skeptical,” he said, “I went there with the views of probably the majority of people in this country [UK] that there was a reckless use of force.” But after viewing IDF procedures and interviewing battle commanders, he was convinced “the IDF are doing their absolute level best to minimize [civilian] casualties.”
Seeing a photo or video of a Gazan neighborhood in ruins does not necessarily mean that Israel pummeled the area with indiscriminate bombing as is often suggested by Israel’s critics. It points to the fact that Hamas terrorists are thoroughly entrenched in civilian areas and speaks to the intensity of the fighting that took place.
Hamas terrorists hailed as heroes, but “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. As you rejoiced at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto you: you shall be desolate” (Ezek. 35:14-15).
So are there so many civilian losses in Gaza? According to the latest figures, roughly 60,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in October 2023.
Though the news media categorically ignore the link, the casualty numbers provided by the Gazan Health Ministry are ones that Hamas dictates to it. The Health Ministry is part of the Hamas regime. Gazan health officials are Hamas spokesmen. It is, therefore, highly unlikely that quoted figures are anything more than propaganda-tailored statistics.
Hamas’ casualty figures have never distinguished between civilians and combatants (terrorists). As a result, it is impossible to claim that 60,000 are civilians. Perhaps only half are, as Israel claims.
In fact, on May 9, 2024, after significant discrepancies were shown in Health Ministry reported casualties, especially those of women and children, an update by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported the unreliability of Hamas-provided figures. Hamas revised its own casualties downward and indicated casualties were mainly in the teenager to young adult category. This is the typical Hamas combatant age, suggesting that most casualties were in fact terrorists. The mainstream news media ignore the OCHA advisory and continue to propagate the overwhelmingly-civilian-casualties myth.
Because the media and politically motivated groups focus on portraying Israel as the responsible party for civilian casualties, Hamas escapes blame for its actions, except for brief pro forma criticism. Using its civilian population as human shields, Hamas evades Israeli military responses to its attacks. Or, if Israel does respond, it draws condemnation upon Israel for civilian casualties. Either way, it’s a winning strategy for Hamas.
Contrary to frequent claims of an innocent civilian population, Gazan civilians are not entirely innocent in this conflict. On February 16, 2006, that civilian population elected Hamas, a known terrorist organization with a known genocidal mission, as its government. Years before, Hamas gained acclaim for its part in a terrorist campaign in which hundreds of Israelis were killed by suicide bombers. For years the Gazan population was aware of Hamas’ tunnels under homes, mosques, hospitals and schools. Those tunnels frequently had entrances in homes, in children’s rooms, covered by carpets and baby cribs. Rocket launchers and munition depots were often located in civilian areas.
People with biblical morals, or even just Western values, are usually dismayed by wartime civilian losses, but the reality for the Gazan population is: Civilians function as an essential part of Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure. Civilians serve Hamas’ purposes both as human shields for its war actions, and as victims. Who then bears the responsibility? Hamas and the civilians who cooperate with it.
The division between civilians and combatants has been blurred, both by regime imposition and by tacit (frequently willing) civilian cooperation. Let’s not forget, almost half of the 6,000-man Hamas invasion force on October 7, 2023, were civilians, not terrorists. Gazan civilians are participants in the Hamas war, though not all. This poses a significant dilemma for the IDF, which is responsible for stopping Hamas rocket fire and other attacks, yet must avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
Critics of this argument might claim that the civilian population is under duress, held in check by Hamas threats of violence. By implication, they would resist Hamas if they could. True, the Hamas regime is tyrannical, undemocratic.
So, here is a simple test: What of the estimated six to eight million Palestinians who live in the “Palestinian diaspora,” not in Gaza? What of the Palestinians who live in democracies? The 350,000 in Chile. The 200,000 in the USA. The hundreds of thousands who live in Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and other countries. The ones who can speak freely. Do they protest Hamas’ actions, or do they support them? Do they condemn Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, or do they only condemn Israel for defending itself?
Worldwide, all the mass demonstrations by Palestinians and their sympathizers I have seen were in support of the Hamas October 7 massacre. They carried Palestinian flags, wore Hamas headbands or keffiyehs, carried signs that read “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” (meaning genocide, ethnic cleansing of Jews), “Resistance by any means” (meaning rape and murder), and “Gas the Jews”. Freedom and democracy apparently don’t preclude support for Hamas. I am sure some would protest against Hamas if they could. But it seems, whether in Gaza, London, Paris or Sydney, they are silent.
The genocide accusation against Israel must be rejected.
“Any weapon sharpened against you [Israel] will not succeed, and any tongue that will rise against you in judgment, you will condemn” (Isai. 54:17).