Netanyahu’s claim defies the evidence

During his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “Accusing Israel of genocide is the greatest lie of the century.”

These so-called "liars" include Israeli Holocaust and genocide scholars Amos Goldberg, Omer Bartov, Daniel Blatman, Raz Segal, and Shmuel Lederman, all of whom have identified Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Other genocide scholars, including Martin Shaw, author of the book What is Genocide? and Dirk Moses, senior editor of the Journal of Genocide Research, have reached the same conclusion.

So have Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem. In its report, Our Genocide, B'Tselem concludes that Israel is making "a clear and explicit attempt to destroy Palestinian society in Gaza and create catastrophic living conditions that prevent the continued existence of this society in Gaza. That is precisely the definition of genocide."

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders can be added to that list. Moreover, the Quaker-founded organization American Friends Service Committee asserts: "We believe with moral clarity, and in line with the definition of the crime of genocide, that the current actions in Gaza perpetrated by the Israeli government, constitute genocide."

Netanyahu’s statement is outrageous. To dismiss the voices of these scholars, physicians, and human-rights advocates is to abandon moral responsibility. The United States and other governments must stop supplying weapons and providing political cover for policies that have produced such catastrophic civilian suffering—and act to prevent further atrocities.