Who is Actually Committing Genocide in the Middle East? 

One of the most circulated words at the present is “genocide.” This word has horrendous connotations revolving around it and shouldn’t be used in a light and uneducated manner. To ensure it has the correct context, we need to be certain we fully understand its meaning and historical use.

What is Genocide?

Merriam-Webster defines genocide as follows: “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” Israel has not put out a single statement calling to destroy every Palestinian. Israel has, however, made statements claiming intent to eradicate the Hamas terror organization. Unless you believe every Palestinian is involved with Hamas, then Israel has shown no intent or action related to genocide.

Despite the claim that Israel is genocidal, combatting a known terrorist organization following a large-scale terror attack is an entirely legitimate response. Dismantling terror tunnels and unearthing the buildings that house Hamas leaders and soldiers is also an entirely legitimate response.

The contrast you will see in the attack that Hamas enacted against Israel on October 7th, 2023 and the defensive measures Israel has taken since then comes down to one entirely essential and extremely relevant piece of information. Israel is not targeting innocent civilians. In fact, prior to entering the Gaza Strip, Israel issued a statement to Gazan citizens warning them to evacuate the northern part of the region and Gaza City prior to the IDF’s ground invasion. The UN Secretary-General’s press encounter on October 13th acknowledges this fact in the following statement: 

“After days of airstrikes, the Israeli Defense Forces have ordered the Palestinians in Gaza City and its surroundings to move to the south of the territory.” 

This means that Israel has done everything in its own power and capability to avoid innocent Gazan deaths, even to the extent of the IDF aiding Gaza citizens in escaping from hospitals and specifying an open route by which to travel. Israel cannot be held accountable for individuals’ decisions to ignore this advice and stay in the region that Israel ordered to be evacuated.

As Israel does everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties, Hamas leaders and terrorists take an opposite stance by using these civilians as human shields. Hamas tunnels have been found underneath multiple buildings that house people who should be protected by any and all measures, including sick persons and children. Instead, Hamas exploits Israel’s humanity and unwillingness to kill these especially vulnerable citizens by not only hiding out in these structures and building terror tunnels beneath them but also by putting their terrorist headquarters in the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.

While no casualty of war is ever without meaning and loss, the blame cannot be projected entirely on the side of the victim of the initial attack who risks losing terrorist targets by warning innocent civilians to evacuate prior to invasion. Terming Israel “genocidal” in its response to this horrendous attack is entirely false and should hold absolutely no regard by any person.

This is What Actual Genocidal Intent Looks Like

Hamas, on the other hand, has made their genocidal intentions extremely clear in their Hamas Covenant. Here are some excerpts from this covenant: 

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” 

The covenant later says:

“The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say to Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”

The majority of the world, unfortunately, appears to be willfully ignorant of these differences in ideology despite this information being easily accessible. Thus Israel is continually regarded as the aggressor.

Let’s Reference Times in History Where Genocide Took Place

The Genocide Education Project lists some dark periods in history where genocide occurred. Here are a few the onslaughts mentioned on their website:

• The Rwandan Genocide: “Beginning on April 6, 1994, groups of ethnic Hutu, armed mostly with machetes, began a campaign of terror and bloodshed which embroiled the Central African country of Rwanda. For about 100 days, the Hutu militias, known in Rwanda as Interhamwe, followed what evidence suggests was a clear and premeditated attempt to exterminate the country’s ethnic Tutsi population. The Rwandan state radio, controlled by Hutu extremists, further encouraged the killings by broadcasting non-stop hate propaganda and even pinpointed the locations of Tutsis in hiding. The killings only ended after armed Tutsi rebels, invading from neighboring countries, managed to defeat the Hutus and halt the genocide in July 1994. By then, over one-tenth of the population, an estimated 800,000 persons, had been killed. The country’s industrial infrastructure had been destroyed and much of its population had been dislocated.”
• Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina: “In the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina, conflict between the three main ethnic groups – the Serbs, Croats, and Muslims – resulted in genocide committed by the Serbs against Bosnian Muslims. In the late 1980’s a Serbian named Slobodan Milosevic came to power. In 1992 acts of “ethnic cleansing” started in Bosnia, a mostly Muslim country where the Serb minority made up only 32% of the population. Milosevic responded to Bosnia’s declaration of independence by attacking Sarajevo, where Serb snipers shot down civilians. The Bosnian Muslims were outgunned and the Serbs continued to gain ground. They systematically rounded up local Muslims and committed acts of mass murder, deported men and boys to concentration camps, and forced repopulation of entire towns. Serbs also terrorized Muslim families by using rape as a weapon against women and girls. Over 200,000 Muslim civilians were systematically murdered and 2,000,000 became refugees at the hands of the Serbs.”
• The Holocaust: “It began with a simple boycott of Jewish shops and ended in the gas chambers of Auschwitz as Hitler and his Nazi followers attempted to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe.  The Holocaust took the lives of close to six million Jews during the World War II era. Anti-semitism was the central component of Nazi ideology.  While the Nazis also murdered many millions of Poles, Russians, Roma, Sinti, Serbs, Czechs, homosexuals, and political opponents, only the Jews were slated for total annihilation. The “final solution” was partially successful through the process of genocide.  The Nazi Party who first targeted the Jews, then isolated them into ghettos, then deported their victims to concentration camps where most perished. Others became Nazi victims not because of who they were but because of what they did – Jehovah’s Witnesses, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, and other political enemies.”

Let’s put some emphasis on a portion of  the above sentence… “only the Jews were slated for total annihilation.” Unfortunately, we see much of the same ideology taking place today, however, this time, instead of the responsibility and blame falling on the party responsible (Hamas), the group being targeted for total annihilation is the same group being accused of genocide.

Many of these historical genocides have a  concerning resemblance to the events that took place on October 7th: the targeting of one people group, the raping of women and girls, and the hateful propaganda that preceded and followed the attack. 

In contrast, the attempts by Israel to avoid innocent Gazan casualties, the lack of acts of violence against women and girls, and the focus on dismantling a terrorist organization, not a people group, does not, in any way, follow the historic examples of genocide. 

How Does This Understanding Help Us? 

The understanding of what genocide is and the recognition that Israel is not committing genocide does not lessen the value of the life of every person in Gaza. Each and every person is created in God’s image, but the unjust contrast in news relating to Gaza and Israel must be acknowledged.

The narrative that the Jewish people are guilty and deserve the violence they experienced is what led millions of people to allow innocent Jewish deaths to occur en masse during the Holocaust. We must not allow this narrative to continue to the point that we see a genocide against the Jewish people take place once again.