This is your annual reminder that Israel is not committing genocide. Israel’s participation at Eurovision Song Contest and the notorious ‘Nakba Day’ protest in London are both happening this weekend and are being used by Israel-haters to repeat the ‘genocide’ trope against the Jewish state. Five countries have withdrawn from Eurovision, including Ireland, because of Israel’s inclusion in the song contest. Meanwhile, at Saturday’s pro-Palestinian protest in London, chants blaming Israel for genocide will be accompanied, ironically-so, by calls for intifada and the wiping out of Jews.
Accusing Israel of committing genocide is deeply flawed and is being used as a weapon in the hands of antisemites who want Israel destroyed. Here’s why:
Israel is not committing genocide
- Genocide is a legal definition and must be proven
For genocide claims to be proven, they must meet a legal threshold and be adjudicated in a recognised court. The UN’s Commission of Inquiry, published in 2025 and accusing Israel of genocide, does not apply judicial standards. The UN Commission’s findings have no legal weight, even if they sadly carry political weight.
- Genocide requires very specific intent
Under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the prosecution must prove specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the protected group. Genocidal intent is established only when there is no other reasonable explanation for the acts.
The commission’s findings rest mostly on inflammatory rhetoric and the effects of normal wartime consequences. For example, Israel’s military strategy, the targeting of Hamas, and even ‘mistakes’ could all account for civilian deaths, but do not demonstrate genocidal conduct.
Evidence of widespread civilian casualties, extensive destruction, or inflammatory rhetoric is insufficient to establish claims of genocide. What is required is proof that deaths and suffering were the result of a deliberate policy to exterminate a people.
- The data does not support genocide claims
Bodies that accuse Israel of genocide rely heavily on Hamas-supplied data, despite the terrorist group having a long record of exaggerating civilian deaths.
The UN Commission of Inquiry, for example, depended on testimony from voices in Gaza without equal access to Israeli witnesses or documents. It cherry-picked statements by Israeli figures taken out of context. It relied on biased media reports (such as those from Al Jazeera) while ignoring all IDF data.
It also did not properly consider Hamas’s tactics, such as placing terror infrastructure in civilian areas, including weapons in schools, tunnels under hospitals, and command posts inside mosques, thus creating human shields, and embedding themselves among civilians, such as disguising themselves as civilians in order to complicate targeting.
In fact, it completely omitted the documented war crimes and evil ideology of Hamas, which the IDF is fighting against.
The report also did not recognise Israel’s operational efforts to avoid civilian casualties; rather, the report gives the impression that the IDF is deployed against women and children, and not an estimated 30,000-strong Hamas force in Gaza.
The report also downplayed the atrocities of October 7, 2023, which caused Israel to take military action, and makes no mention whatsoever of the Israeli hostages. Nor does it explain Hamas’s 17-year military build-up and terrorism investment in Gaza.
- Reports are not impartial
The slander against Israel began within the UN much earlier than October 7, 2023. In fact, in May 2021, Pakistan and the PLO convened an urgent session that resulted in the creation of the Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel, tasked with investigating “root causes” of the conflict and “systematic discrimination.”
In 2025, HonestReporting revealed that the three commissioners who conducted the UN’s report had a history of anti-Israel bias and antisemitism. The report was published after their resignations.
- ‘Genocide’ deflects Hamas’s crimes and invokes antisemitism
The claim that Israel has committed genocide deflects from Hamas’s genocidal massacre against Jews on October 7, 2023. Hamas provided clearly stated intent backing up their actions in the slaughter of Israeli Jews – that’s the real genocide in this discussion.
The claim ignores the fact that Hamas had the power to end the so-called “genocide” by releasing the hostages it took, which is what started the war. This factor alone is virtually unprecedented in the history of genocide.
By creating a false narrative that all suffering in Gaza is Israel’s responsibility, it excuses Hamas’s terrorism and emboldens Hamas’s aims.
The claim against Israel weaponizes the term ‘genocide’ in a way that undermines genuine genocides that have taken place around the world that are either forgotten or not highlighted enough.
The claim invokes antisemitism by accusing Israelis, many of whom are descendants of Holocaust victims, of committing comparable crimes. This inversion tactic is often played out by antisemites who try to downplay or deny the horrors of the Holocaust or apportion blame to the victims.
- Accusers of genocide do not care about the truth
Those who accuse Israel of genocide do not really care about the legal definition, the facts and data, the crimes of Hamas, or the impact that the claims have on Jews.
They state that Israel is committing genocide because they want to believe it. It is yet another tactic to demonise and delegitimise the Jewish state because they do not want it to exist.
As the Psalmist penned in Psalm 83, “For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted together against Your sheltered ones. They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”
