Key points
- Israeli historian calls Gaza destruction a textbook genocide case
- Jewish academics shift views amid Gaza’s ongoing annihilation
- Israel is committing genocide against Palestinian population: Lee Mordechai
ISLAMABAD: A growing number of Jewish and Israeli scholars in the fields of genocide studies and history now say that Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza meets the definition of genocide under international law.
These voices, once cautious, have become more direct in their assessments, citing the large-scale destruction, civilian death toll, and restrictions on aid as signs of a deliberate effort to destroy the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Martin Shaw, a prominent British sociologist and genocide expert, said in an interview that “the only way to understand what Israel is doing is not as a series of war crimes, but as one big crime – genocide.”
‘The only way we can understand what Israel is doing in an overall sense is not a series of war crimes. It is one big crime and that the name for that is genocide.’ My question to Israeli historian Benny Morris – which he didn’t answer – in @mehdirhasan‘s new @AJHeadtoHead. https://t.co/AI44QGolIY
— Martin Shaw (@martinshawx) August 5, 2024
International Association of Genocide Scholars
Other leading scholars, including Dr Melanie O’Brien, president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have echoed this view. She cited the blockade on essential supplies like food, water, and medical aid as evidence of a policy designed to inflict mass suffering on civilians.
Goldberg:”In the way we normally understand such concepts, Palestinian Gaza as a geographical-political-cultural-human complex no longer exists. #Genocide
is the deliberate annihilation of a collective or part of it…that’s what’s happening in #Gaza.” https://t.co/ViQ07afK39— Dr Melanie O’Brien (@DrMelOB) April 29, 2024
Israeli scholars have also spoken out. Historian Amos Goldberg said that “Gaza no longer exists as a human, cultural, or political entity,” calling the situation “a textbook case of genocide.”
Daniel Blatman and Shmuel Lederman, both from Israeli universities, said they had shifted their positions over time due to what they now see as the cumulative destruction of Gaza and the Israeli government’s defiance of international court orders.
Israeli genocide researcher
Raz Segal, an Israeli genocide researcher, told a Dutch newspaper that there is now a consensus among most genocide scholars that the Gaza crisis constitutes genocide.
He added that despite being Jewish, he is regularly accused of antisemitism for criticising Israel’s actions. There’s No Auschwitz in Gaza. But It’s Still Genocide. This is precisely what genocide looks like, write Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman.
“There’s no Auschwitz in Gaza. But it’s still genocide. This is precisely what genocide looks like, write Israeli historians Amos Goldberg and Daniel Blatman” in @Haaretz. https://t.co/uh9xJwu8KK
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) February 1, 2025
Dr Lee Mordechai is a historian of the Eastern Roman Empire who shared his thoughts on X, “The enormous amount of evidence I have seen, much of it referenced later in this document, has been enough for me to believe that Israel is currently committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.”
4/ The enormous amount of evidence I have seen, much of it referenced later in this document, has been enough for me to believe that Israel is currently committing genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
— Lee Mordechai (@LeeMordechai) March 16, 2024
Opposing the genocide label
Israeli scholar Shmuel Lederman of Open University of Israel “opposed the genocide label” until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government flouted the International Court of Justice’s January 2024 order to prevent genocide by allowing emergency aid into Gaza and halting top officials “incendiary language on Palestinians.”
1. אני ועוד מספר חוקרי ג’נוסייד התראיינו לעיתון הולנדי והסברנו למה אנחנו חושבים שמה שישראל עושה מהווה ג’נוסייד ולמה יש בשלב זה קונצנזוס רחב בעניין בקרב חוקרי ג’נוסייד (ככל שאפשר להעריך דברים מסוג זה). שרשור הסבר ארוך מאוד על למה ולמה זו לא קונספירציה אנטישמית: https://t.co/Ey2Ud8JTXY
— Shmuel Lederman (@shmulikled) May 15, 2025
Other experts, like Uğur Ümit Üngör and Dirk Moses, emphasised that genocide is not always marked by one clear act, but often unfolds gradually – a process seen today in Gaza.
While the topic remains controversial, these statements reflect a significant shift in academic and international legal discourse. Many experts now argue that the events in Gaza can no longer be explained simply as war or self-defence but must be judged through the lens of international laws meant to prevent genocide.
