Israel and the Genocide Libel

As the Gaza War approaches its second anniversary, the accusation that Israel is pursuing a policy of “genocide” against the Palestinians in the coastal enclave persists. The word has been employed by activists, commentators, human-rights organisations, and even officials of various governments, who characterise Israel’s military campaign and its strategic goals in the most sinister terms. The claim that the Israeli government and military (IDF) seek the destruction of a population is extremely serious, so it deserves careful and fair-minded consideration. With this in mind, a comprehensive new study by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies (BESA Center) in Tel Aviv examines the factual record in an attempt to distinguish verifiable facts from politically motivated fiction. It concludes that the genocide accusations are unsupported.

The BESA study is written by a team of Israeli military historians and conflict researchers (Danny Orbach, Jonathan Boxman, Yagil Henkin, and Jonathan Braverman), and they approach the issue with academic thoroughness and a clear concern for truth. The authors emphasise that their aim is not to defend every Israeli action, nor to overlook the war’s terrible human cost, but to ensure that any discussion of legality or morality rests on an accurate foundation: “Our focus on factual analysis,” they write, “in no way diminishes or ignores the severe human suffering in Gaza.” By avoiding polemics and focusing on verifiable data, the BESA scholars present a compelling and persuasive counter-narrative to the genocide claim.

The stakes in this debate are high: the accusation of “genocide” is not merely a matter of semantics, it shapes international policy, public perception, and possibly even legal actions. It is therefore important to get the facts right.

I. Starvation

One of the earliest and most emotive accusations made during this conflict was the claim that Israel has imposed a starvation siege on Gaza. Images of emaciated children and warnings of famine spread rapidly in late 2023 and through 2024, as Gaza’s supplies of food, water, and electricity all came under pressure. A number of influential voices argued that Israel was deliberately depriving two million Gazans of basic necessities, effectively using hunger to kill the population or drive it out of the Strip. If true, this would be a heinous crime. However, the BESA study shows that the starvation story was based on incorrect data and an echo chamber of circular reporting, whereby NGOs and media outlets repeated each other’s alarming allegations without investigating the original data.