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We see images from Gaza of suffering people and particularly children is great distress and are rightly appalled. This raises the most crucial issue regarding Gaza which is genocide. Many say Israel is committing this horrific crime. Let us look at the facts and answer this vexed question.

Definition of Genocide

First, we need a correct definition of the word before we throw it around, like some in the media and social media. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gives this definition from 1944:

Genocide: (n) The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.

The OED definition came from the action of the Nazis in World War II and the killing of more than six million Jews in the Holocaust. This definition has been clear for decades.

We know from the United Nations that genocide is similarly defined as contained in Article II of the Geneva Convention. It describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. This definition was the result of a negotiating process and reflects the compromise reached among United Nations member states while drafting the Convention in 1948.

‘New’ Definitions of Genocide Being Used in the Media

Jamie Paul, in an article on American Dreaming, has analysed thousands of social media comments on the subject. Jamie summaries the ‘new’ definitions of genocide as:

We apparently have a new and improved definition [of genocide]. Things that are genocide now include:

• Any civilian deaths.
• Dropping bombs that kill civilians.
• The use of unguided bombs.
• “Indiscriminate” bombing (“indiscriminate” has undergone the same hyperinflation).
• Lopsided casualty ratios (i.e. one side suffers more deaths than the other).
• Lopsided casualty ratios where one side is a state and the other a non-state actor.
• A militarily superior force fighting a militarily inferior force.
• A wealthy country bombing a poorer country or territory.
• Killing 10,000 or more people (regardless of intent or context).
• Destroying large numbers of buildings.
• Destroying infrastructure.
• Destroying cultural artefacts or culturally important sites.
• Any war crime.
• Any violation of international law.
• Ethnic cleansing (which itself has been redefined as “any time people have to flee from their homes”).
• Obstructing aid or supplies (i.e. a siege or blockade).
• Prioritising military victory over maximal avoidance of civilian casualties.
• Destroying the “concept” of a Palestinian people (i.e. saying Palestine is not a country).
• Anything a US soldier protests via self-immolation.

It is clear the new definitions are wildly exaggerated and absurd. Truth is the first casualty of war. The fact is Israel has gone out of its way to minimise civilian casualties, even after 7 October, as can be shown by any rational analysis of the actual casualties given:

• Hamas and other fighters are completely embedded in the Gazan population.
• Hamas rocket launchers are found in schools, hospitals, and residences.
• Tens of thousands of rockets have been launched into Israel since 2007, targeting civilians.
• Incendiary devices launched into Israel.
• The atrocities of mass murder, rapes, burnings, torture, and kidnapping of civilian hostages on 7 October 2023.
• Hamas using civilians as human shields.
• 70% of Gazans support Hamas.
• Upwards of 450 UN/UNRWA staff actively participated in the horrors of 7 October and other active armed attacks on Israeli forces, yet Israel is accused of targeting UNRWA.
• UNRWA funding is used for tunnels and other military infrastructure.

Jamie Paul gives a clear example of false accusations regarding Israel that are still perpetuated today under the banner of ‘genocide’:

On October 17th, 2023, in the early days of this conflict, there was an explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. Hamas and the Gaza Health Ministry immediately said that Israel had bombed the hospital, killing five hundred.

Third party investigations later uncovered that the rocket had struck the parking lot, not the hospital itself; that the casualty figure was closer to one hundred, not five hundred; and that the rocket was fired from inside the Gaza strip, likely from the Hamas-allied group Islamic Jihad. The Gaza Health Ministry lied about every single aspect of the incident.

Israel’s Military Action

Urban warfare is messy, especially when the defence embeds with the civilian population. For the offensive side (Israel), this makes every door, window, or group of people a potential attack vector. And when you are fighting a force that wears civilian garb, every civilian is also a potential threat. Hamas knows this and uses it to foster anti-Israel sentiment by creating a binary choice of not responding to attacks or killing civilians.

This is exactly the reason why fighting without a uniform, and thus insurgent warfare in general, is considered a war crime that negates other war crimes. If the offensive force can’t tell you from your civilians, then you are intentionally using your civilians as shields and preventing the offensive force from not committing war crimes by accident, and thus, you are the one actually causing their deaths. Therefore, the Hamas military modus operandi is the most immoral warfare strategy possible.

The True Genocide

The accusations of genocide against Israel are incorrect and born of ignorance about history, warfare, and geopolitics. It is clear Israel has not committed genocide and is acting for its own defence and its very existence.

Jamie Paul again writes:

Israel has taken the battle to Hamas, who operate embedded within civilian population centres like hospitals and schools, and in extensive underground tunnel networks that run beneath residential neighbourhoods.

As Palestinian civilians in the thousands have been caught in the crossfire, Israel’s rare public relations honeymoon quickly evaporated. From the moment they started defending themselves, a growing chorus of critics has taken to describing Israel’s retaliatory strikes in the ensuing war as ‘genocide’.

A January 2024 poll found that over a third of US adults and nearly half of 18 to 29-year-olds thought that Israel was perpetrating a Palestinian genocide. In another survey taken a week later, these figures jumped to half of US adults and over two-thirds of young people.

What we are seeing here is a widening disconnect with reality. The problem is not that Israel is committing genocide, but that they are winning the war. Increasingly, people cannot seem to tell the difference between the two, especially when it comes to Israel.

As terror groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, et al. have the stated goal of the annihilation of the state of Israel and all Jews, it is, in fact, these groups that are guilty of genocide according to international law and the correct use of the word.

Israel can and must use all of its military capabilities to remove the scourge of Hamas from Gaza. This is necessary, albeit ugly.  Another example of why this sort of action is sometimes needed is from WWII when, in March 1945, Gen. Curtis LeMay changed bombing tactics to incendiary bombs to stop Japan’s munitions capabilities.

In one night, known as the Night of the Black Snow, more than 100,000 Japanese were killed (more than either of the A-bombs). This ongoing tactic led to Japan’s war-making ability being stifled. While a terrible thing to do, it was necessary as a major step in ending WWII.

We must not forget what started the conflict. Not for the faint-hearted, here is a site using Hamas video and pictures of the 7^th October atrocities. (Warning: very graphic.)

These facts need to be made clear and reiterated loudly and often.

Am Yisrael Chai (Hebrew: עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי; lit. ’The people of Israel live’.)

I will provide reports direct from Israel, including from the Gaza region, when we are there in just under a fortnight.

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Photo by Alfo Medeiros.