Israel's Twelve Tactics of Denial

Benjamin Netanyahu's Photo: Ronen Zvulun/AFP via Getty Images

ISRAEL’S TWELVE TACTICS OF DENIAL

By Dr. Gregory H. Stanton

Founding President, Genocide Watch

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israel’s supporters claim that it’s wrong to call Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide. They are wrong.

Although Israel’s war began as retaliation for the genocidal massacre perpetrated by Hamas against Israelis on October 7, 2023, Israel has turned the war into a genocide against a substantial part of the population of Gaza. Israel’s war has become the “intentional destruction in part of a national and ethnic group, as such.” That is the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention.

Neighboring Arab states have fought four major wars to destroy Israel since 1948. They have sponsored thousands of acts of terrorism against Israeli citizens. Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah have fired thousands of missiles into Israel, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians.

Hamas is a genocidal terrorist organization. Hamas and its supporters like Iran deny the Holocaust and openly declare their intention to destroy Israel and exterminate Jews. They have openly stated that destruction of Israel is their goal.

In the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust on October 7, 2023, Hamas and Islamic Jihad massacred over 1200 Israelis in the area adjoining Gaza. They took 251 hostages. Most were Israelis. Five were American citizens . 139 have been freed. 7 have been rescued. 82 have been confirmed killed in captivity. At least 36 of these were murdered by Hamas. Many hostages were starved, tortured, raped, and kept in cramped underground tunnels for weeks. Israel counts 58 hostages still held in Gaza. 35 are believed to be dead. Hamas still holds 23 hostages believed to be alive.

ISRAEL's JUSTIFICATIONS FOR RETALIATION

Three deep structural foundations of Israel’s response to the Hamas October 7, 2023 genocidal massacre underlie the motivations for Israel’s destruction of Gaza and Israel’s denial that it is committing genocide. They are Holocaust Prevention, Israel’s Divine Destiny, and Self-Defense.

HOLOCAUST PREVENTION: Hamas must be defeated to prevent another Holocaust.

The Holocaust exterminated six million Jews. As the new nation legally created by the United Nations to be a homeland for Jews after the Holocaust, Israel’s primary national purpose is to protect Jews. That priority outweighs all other national purposes. “Never Again” is the ultimate justification for Israel’s self-defense

ISRAEL’S DIVINE DESTINY: God gave Jews Judah and Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

Many Zionists believe that the nation of Israel was granted to the Jewish people by God. They trace this faith to the promises made by God in the Torah, the sacred Hebrew scriptures. The Torah affirms that Jews have a divine right to live in Israel. Jewish settlers in the West Bank claim that they are only re-settling areas that belong to Jews by divine right.

They assert an Israeli “divine destiny,” much like the “manifest destiny” that European settlers of the Americas claimed to justify uprooting native Americans from their lands, committing genocide against them, and forcibly displacing them to Indian Reservations.

SELF-DEFENSE: Israel has a right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter.

With the justification of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Israel’s invasions in Gaza and Lebanon were intended to destroy the bases of Hamas and Hezbollah before they could be used for more attacks on Israel.

Israel also justifies its invasion of Gaza as necessary to free Israeli citizens who are being held hostage. This right to protect national citizens has long been a doctrine of international law.

Has Israel’s retaliation against Hamas for its 7 October 2023 genocidal massacre been in accord with international law?

If Israel had invaded Gaza only to hunt down the perpetrators of the October 7 Hamas attack, it could claim proportionate retaliation under the laws of war.

Israel’s retaliation has gone far beyond any possible interpretation of international law. Israeli bombing has killed over 53,000 Palestinians. Israel has not limited its bombing to Hamas combatants. It has bombed the entire civilian population of Gaza. Israel has destroyed 92 percent of housing units and 70 percent of all structures in Gaza. It has targeted hospitals, maternity clinics, feeding centers, refugee camps, medical and relief personnel.

THE TWELVE TACTICS OF ISRAEL’S DENIAL OF GENOCIDE

Israel’s supporters employ all twelve of the classic tactics of genocide denial:

1.     MINIMIZE DEATHS: All statistics from Hamas or the UN are exaggerations.

Israel’s supporters question all statistics on Palestinian deaths provided by the Hamas Health Ministry, citing Hamas’ monopoly control over Gaza. They claim that all Hamas statistics are dishonest exaggerations of Palestinian fatalities for Hamas propaganda purposes.

The real monopoly control over Gaza is held by Israel’s Defense Forces. Israel won’t permit any independent journalists or social scientists into Gaza.

The UN estimates that Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed over 53,000 Palestinians,  including over  15,000 children. Hamas says the real figure is 61,700 deaths due to thousands of Gaza residents who are missing, buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings, and presumed dead. 

Israel claims that half of those killed in Gaza were combatants. Independent experts say that only 25% were combatants.

2.     ATTACK THE TRUTH-TELLERS: Critics are “antisemitic”, liars, or Hamas sympathizers.

Israel’s supporters and Israeli officials accuse critics of “antisemitism” and support for Hamas terrorism. Israel  accuses UNRWA workers of involvement in the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack. Israel has ignored the findings of the United Nations investigation into its accusations against UNRWA, which found evidence that only nine UNRWA employees were assisting Hamas. The UN immediately fired them.

Summoning egregious historic examples of antisemitic propaganda against Jews and Israel, Israel’s supporters claim that the charge of genocide against Israel is just another case of antisemitic propaganda.

It is true that antisemitism is a real threat to Jews and is on the rise globally. The reality of antisemitism and its impact on Jews is deplorable. However, accusations that the UN, ICC, human rights groups, and other critics that provide evidence of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza are “antisemitic” remain unproven.

Genocide Watch, for example, has a consistent record of vigorous opposition to all forms of antisemitism. Genocide Watch’s stalwart support for Israel’s legitimate right to exist and its self-defense against terrorism and eliminationism by Iran, Arab, and other Muslim states has been strong and uncompromising. Yet Genocide Watch’s careful legal analysis has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

3.     DENY INTENT: Civilian deaths are unintentional “collateral damage” in self-defense.

In a Wednesday Opinion article in the Washington Post on June 4, 2025, Professors Norman J.W. Goda and Jeffrey Herf claim that “from the beginning of this terrible conflict, Israeli leaders made it very clear that their war is against Hamas, not the people of Gaza.”

Israel says its Defense Forces (IDF) take all necessary precautions to diminish the toll on civilian life. Hamas fighters hide among Palestinian civilians, making civilian deaths unavoidable.

Goda and Herf quote Israel’s legal representative at the International Court of Justice, Tal Becker, who said that Hamas is pursuing “a reprehensible strategy of seeking to maximize civilian harm to both Israelis and Palestinians, even as Israel seeks to minimize it.”

If defeating Hamas is really Israel’s only intent, why has Israel bombed all of Gaza, destroying over ninety percent of Gaza homes, leaving Gaza in rubble burying thousands of

human corpses?

Why has Israel imposed a total blockade of food to Gaza for three months, starving all Palestinians in Gaza, clearly violating Genocide Convention’s “Article 2(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”?

4.     DEHUMANIZATION: Palestinians are animals who support terrorism and genocide.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant claim that there are “no innocents” among Palestinians. They deny any distinction between Hamas combatants and Palestinian civilians.

Israel’s former U.N. ambassador Dan Gillerman described Palestinians as inhuman animals. Former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a “total siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, food, and electricity.

Gallant referred to Palestinians as  “human animals.” 

Israel’s historic dehumanization of Palestinians has included:

• Denying most Palestinians Israeli citizenship.

  
  

• Refusing to recognize Palestinians’ property rights in Israel and the West Bank.

• Supporting confiscation of Palestinian land to build Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

  
  

• Requiring Palestinians working in Israel to endure long border checks and carry permits, reminiscent of the passes South African blacks had to carry during apartheid.

  
  

• Bulldozing Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

  
  

• Cutting off food and medicine to Gaza, causing malnutrition and deaths of Palestinian children.

  
  

• Destroying most hospitals and maternity centers in Gaza.

Israel’s supporters reject criticisms of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Critics are vilified as immoral, antisemitic supporters of terrorists.

5.     BLAME ANCIENT CONFLICT. The war continues ethnic conflict since Biblical times.

Israeli officials have explained massive Palestinian civilian casualties and the destruction of Gaza as the inevitable continuation of the ancient conflict between the Jews of Israel and the ancestors of Palestinians, the Amelekites, who also lived in Gaza.

On October 28, 2023, three weeks after October 7, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu equated Israel’s response to the Hamas genocide with Israel’s response to the Amalekites in Deuteronomy 25: 17 -19:

“17 Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way, when you were faint and weary, and struck down all who lagged behind you…19 Therefore …you shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”

In 1 Samuel 15:3, God’s orders are overtly genocidal:

“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

The logic of irresolvable differences explains war as the unavoidable result of ancient ethnic conflict.

6.     BLAME MISTAKES. Civilian deaths are mistakes, accidents, or acts against orders.

Explanations of civilian deaths by Israel are blamed on acts of individual soldiers rather than on the orders of military leaders. This tactic denies that mass murder and destruction are Israeli state strategies.

War crimes against Gazans are described as acts of individuals, not the result of Israeli policies. For example, the March 23, 2025 murders of fifteen Palestinian medics by IDF soldiers were blamed on "professional failures” and a "breach of orders" by IDF commanders.

Israeli military officials often base this excuse for war crimes on the “fog of war.” IDF commanders and the state of Israel deny that war crimes and genocide are state or military policy. Israeli officials say that alleged “war crimes” committed by Israeli soldiers should be investigated as crimes of individuals rather than as the result of Israeli state policies.

7.     APPEASEMENT: Critics are appeasing Hamas killers, rapists, and genocidists.

Israel’s leaders and allies have sought to portray the state of Israel as blameless. When Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant were charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor with the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, the US Congress and President Trump adopted legislation sanctioning officials of the ICC, citing the ICC’s “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

In contrast, European Council President António Costa and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said these US sanctions were attempts to intimidate ICC officials and undermine the legitimacy of international criminal justice institutions.

8.     JUSTIFY ARMING ISRAEL: Arming Israel is legal. It supports Israel’s self-defense.

The US and European nations have avoided criticizing Israel out of solidarity with their own Jewish populations. They also want to atone for their profound guilt for not preventing the Holocaust. In the US, Jewish Americans form large voting blocs in key states. They are an influential economic, educational, and political group.

The US and EU nations avoid criticizing Israel, a kindred democracy, trading partner, and ally. While some Israeli corporations have been complicit in genocides in other countries, they justify their actions by claiming legality, the private sector’s response to market supply and demand.

Many governments have engaged with Israel due to its robust economy. Normal economic trade is justified by respect for Israeli sovereignty.

9.     CLAIM GOOD TREATMENT: Palestinians are treated well and receive enough food.

By portraying Palestinian civilians, including children, as terrorists, any food offered to the Palestinian people by Israel and its allies is deemed to be “generous.” Shortages of food are blamed on “looting” by Hamas and by criminal gangs.

In fact, Israel blocked all food from entering Gaza for ninety days, since the end of the temporary ceasefire. The result has been acute malnutrition and starvation. Children are dying of malnutrition every day.

Israel now claims it has lifted its blockade. But it will not permit the UN to distribute food directly to Palestinians as UNRWA has done for years. Food will be distributed at five sites to which Palestinians must walk. Israeli troops have opened fire on Palestinians walking to an aid site designated by Israel, killing over 200 men, women, and children.

10.  LEGALISM: Israel’s attacks don’t fit the legal definition of genocide, which requires “specific intent to destroy the whole Palestinian people.”

Israel’s supporters claim that Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza does not fit the legal definition of genocide set forth in the Genocide Convention. They are wrong.

Israel has committed all of the first four acts of genocide enumerated in the Genocide Convention:

“Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

The defense that Israel’s killing and destruction in Gaza fails to fit the legal definition of genocide is the favorite of lawyers. It has many forms. It is based on denial of Israel’s “intent to destroy” a substantial part of the Palestinian national and ethnic group.

• Many who have not read the Genocide Convention think genocide can only be proven if the intent is to destroy a whole people. But the Convention clearly states that intent to destroy part of a people is enough to prove genocide. 

  
  

• Arguing that this is a civil war against Hamas and that war is mutually exclusive from genocide ignores that fact that most genocides occur during civil or international wars.

  
  

• Claiming that the intent of Israel is self-defense, not genocide, ignores the fact that many genocides, including the Holocaust have been justified by their perpetrators as necessary to defend against subversion, aggression, or invasion.

  
  

• The International Court of Justice in Bosnia v Serbia and Croatia v Serbia, held that if there is any other intent besides destruction of a group, such as “ethnic cleansing” (forced deportation), this other intent precludes conclusive proof of the intent to commit genocide. Israel’s defenders claim that Israel’s intent is self-defense, not genocide.

  
  

  Such misinterpretation of state intent in the Genocide Convention is like saying that if a robber shoots and kills a victim, he cannot be prosecuted for murder because he also had the intent to rob his victim.

  
  

• Claiming that response to aggression justifies all violent reactions, even if they are disproportionate, is a profound distortion of the laws of war. Israel’s rules of engagement permit twenty or more civilian deaths for each combatant death. They are the most extreme in any war since the firebombing and nuclear attacks of World War II.

  
  

• Claiming that Israeli leaders have made no statements advocating destruction of the Palestinian population of Gaza is simply false. There are over 500 recorded instances in a database of statements by Israeli politicians, officers, and other public figures that show incitement and intent to commit genocide in Gaza.

  
  

• British Foreign Office lawyers and even the UN Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide have claimed that only a court can determine whether Israel is committing genocide. But courts never make such determinations until a genocide is over.

  
  

  Requiring a court to first determine that a genocide is underway means that the word can never be used to prevent genocide. Prevention is the first duty required by Article One of the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Requiring a court decision to use the G-word is a tactic of genocide denial.

  
  

• A systematic pattern of acts of genocide is sufficient to prove genocide. The invasion of Rafah has now been added to hundreds of other acts of genocide, such as the destruction of hospitals, maternity centers, refugee camps, feeding centers, blocking of food supplies resulting in starvation, and the murders of relief and medical personnel.

  
  

11.  BLAME THE VICTIMS: Hamas terrorism justifies defense of Israel’s Jewish people.

Israel blames victims and survivors in Gaza for voting Hamas into power. Many Israeli citizens express little or no sympathy for Palestinians, presenting them as a monolithic group of Hamas-supporters instead of a diverse population with many views, including opposition to Hamas.

In fact, among Palestinians, opinions vary widely. Polls show that although many Gazans support Hamas for resisting Israeli oppression, only a minority support continued Hamas control of Gaza. Most Palestinian civilians are not Hamas terrorists.

12.  PEACE TRUMPS JUSTICE: Making peace outweighs justice for genocide.

The claim that peace and reconciliation are more important than justice would obstruct accountability for Hamas, for the Israeli Defense Forces, and for the Israeli government. It would support amnesty for the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed by both sides in this war.

The UN has called for accountability on all sides, to break the cycles of violence and ensure lasting peace.

CONCLUSION:

• Hamas and Israel have committed war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

  
  

• War and genocide will continue until Israel and Hamas conclude a permanent cease-fire enforced by the US, NATO, UN, and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation.

  
  

• Hamas must release all remaining hostages NOW.

  
  

• Israel must end its genocidal blockade of food, fuel, water, and medicines to Gaza NOW.

  
  

• Israel must stop its bombing and genocidal destruction of Gaza NOW.

• Israel must defeat Hamas and Hamas must be excluded from future governance in Gaza.

  
  

• Israel should then fully withdraw from Gaza with security provided by the US, NATO, UN, and neighboring Arab states.

  
  

• Hamas perpetrators should be brought to justice in courts with Universal Jurisdiction.

  
  

• Israeli officers who committed war crimes should be tried in Israeli courts.

  
  

• Leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Israel should be tried in the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

  
  

• Israel, the US, EU, and Arab states must fund reconstruction and resettlement of Gaza.

  
  

• Israel should end its segregation and discrimination against Palestinians.

  
  

• Israel must stop expansion of settlements and persecution of West Bank Palestinians.

  
  

• Israel’s Arab neighbors and other Muslim nations must recognize Israel, confirm Israel’s legal right to exist in full security, and never again attack Israel, Israelis, or Jews.

  
  

The war and genocide in Gaza must stop NOW, before they take another human life.

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton is Founding President of Genocide Watch and the Alliance Against Genocide. He founded the Cambodian Genocide Project. He was Professor in Genocide Studies at George Mason​ ​ University and was James Farmer Professor in Human Rights at the University of Mary Washington. He was a law professor at Washington and Lee University. In the State Department, he wrote UN Security Council Resolution 955 that established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He wrote the rules of the Khmer Rouge Tribuna​​l. He was President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He holds degrees from Oberlin, Harvard Divinity School, Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.