Experts emphasized that genocide is not defined by total annihilation or Holocaust comparisons, but by intent and destructive practices, a process many say Israel’s campaign has entered or even completed.
Omer Bartov, one of the world’s most respected Holocaust and genocide scholars, has publicly concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach and one that I resisted as long as I could,” he wrote. “But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”
Bartov, a professor at Brown University and a former Israeli soldier, cited two key elements that led to his conclusion: statements of intent by Israeli leaders and a clear pattern of systematic destruction on the ground.
“In Israel’s case, that intent has been publicly expressed by numerous officials and leaders. But intent can also be derived from a pattern of operations on the ground, and this pattern became clear by May 2024 – and has since become ever clearer – as the IDF has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip,” he said. (Related: Israel genocide tracker account sparks ‘panic’ among Israeli soldiers.)
Bartov highlighted the widescale targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, mosques, universities, water facilities and cultural heritage sites, as evidence of a policy that makes Palestinian life in the territory nearly impossible to sustain.
Bartov’s article follows a recent investigation by the Dutch newspaper NRC, which interviewed seven prominent genocide and Holocaust scholars from six countries, including Israel, all of whom characterized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocidal.
“Can I name someone whose work I respect who does not think it is genocide? No,” said Israeli genocide researcher Raz Segal in his interview with the news outlet. “There is no counterargument that takes into account all the evidence.” Professor Ugur Umit Ungor, a Dutch-Turkish scholar at the University of Amsterdam and NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, was similarly unequivocal: “There are certainly researchers who say it’s not genocide, but I don’t know them.”
Among those who have shifted their stance is Dr. Shmuel Lederman, an Israeli scholar from the Open University of Israel. Initially hesitant to label the Gaza campaign as genocide, Lederman reconsidered after Israel dismissed a January 2024 interim ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered the country to take concrete steps to prevent genocide, including opening aid corridors and halting incendiary rhetoric. Israel’s failure to comply, combined with a letter by 99 U.S. health professionals estimating over 100,000 deaths in Gaza, led Lederman to change his position.
Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, cited Israel’s deliberate obstruction of food, water and shelter as central to her assessment.
“That’s the key,” she told NRC. “The intent to destroy a group is often clearest in the denial of basic conditions for life.”
Comparisons to the Holocaust or arguments that the entire population of Gaza has not been eradicated misunderstand the legal framework, said Anthony Dirk Moses, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Genocide Research.
“Genocide is a process, not an all-or-nothing event,” he explained. Ungor echoed this view, comparing genocide to a dimmer switch rather than a light that suddenly flips on. “The Netanyahu government is in that process – according to most scholars, even in its final stages.”
This interpretation is reinforced by legal experts, such as Canadian international law scholar William Schabas, who has previously been cautious with the use of genocide terminology. In a June interview with Middle East Eye, Schabas said Israel’s Gaza offensive was “absolutely” genocide.
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