By HFI staff
The term “genocide” is not just a moral accusation. It is a legal classification with serious weight, rooted in some of history’s most horrific crimes. In recent years, especially in the context of conflict, the word has been used more frequently, sometimes with justification, sometimes recklessly. To use it properly requires clarity, not emotion.
Understanding what genocide actually means, and how it has been applied in real cases, is essential for separating fact from propaganda.
What Is Genocide?
Genocide refers to the intentional destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. It involves acts such as killing members of the group, causing serious harm, inflicting destructive living conditions, preventing births, or forcibly transferring children, but always with the specific intent to destroy the group.
The term was coined in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal scholar who fled the Holocaust. He combined the Greek word genos (race or tribe) with the Latin -cide (killing). Lemkin sought a term that captured the scale and purpose of the atrocities being committed, not just murder, but the deliberate attempt to erase a people entirely.
In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Genocide Convention, defining genocide as a crime under international law.
Where Has Genocide Been Committed?
Armenian Genocide 1915 to 1923
The Ottoman Empire, during World War I and its aftermath, carried out the systematic extermination of 1 to 1.5 million Armenians. Deportations, forced marches into the Syrian desert, mass shootings, and starvation were used to erase the Armenian population from Anatolia.
Perpetrator: Ottoman Empire, modern-day Turkey. The Turkish government still disputes the term genocide, though it is recognized by many scholars and governments.
Rwandan Genocide 1994
Over the course of 100 days, nearly 800,000 Tutsi were killed by Hutu extremists. Victims were often murdered by neighbors with machetes and clubs. The killings were encouraged and facilitated by the government, which provided lists of targets.
Perpetrator: Hutu-led Rwandan government and militias.
Darfur Genocide 2003 to present
In Sudan’s Darfur region, the government-supported Janjaweed militia targeted non-Arab ethnic groups with mass killings, rapes, and village burnings. Over 300,000 people have died and millions have been displaced.
Perpetrator: Sudanese government and allied militias.
ISIS and the Yazidis 2014 to 2017
ISIS militants attacked the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq, killing men and enslaving women and children. The group was targeted explicitly for its religious beliefs.
Perpetrator: Islamic State ISIS
What’s Happening in Gaza?
Since October 7, 2023, the conflict between Israel and Hamas has intensified dramatically. On that day, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians, killing over 1,200 people including children, the elderly, and entire families. The attack was not only brutal in execution, it was ideological in purpose, carried out by a group whose charter has called for the elimination of the Jewish state.
In response, Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza targeting Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, weapons stockpiles, and command centers. These are often embedded in densely populated civilian areas, complicating efforts to avoid noncombatant casualties.
The humanitarian toll in Gaza is tragic, but it is not genocide. Civilian suffering, even on a large scale, does not meet the legal definition unless there is a clear, coordinated intent to destroy a people. That intent does not exist in Israel’s actions.
What Intent Looks Like and Why It’s Crucial
Intent is not something to guess at. It can often be observed through public statements, government policies, or clear patterns of behavior. In past genocides, intent was not vague. Rwandan radio stations openly incited extermination. Ottoman officials issued direct orders to eliminate Armenian communities. Sudanese forces coordinated the mass burning of villages.
In Gaza, there is no Israeli policy advocating the extermination of the Palestinian people. There are no government statements calling for the erasure of Palestinian identity, culture, or religion. There is no system of forced sterilization, mass abductions, or efforts to prevent births. While isolated inflammatory comments by individuals deserve condemnation, they do not represent government intent or national policy.
Israel’s stated and consistent objective has been the dismantling of Hamas’s military capabilities, an organization that has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel. The conduct of war, however tragic, is not an extermination campaign.
Why Definitions Matter
Calling every civilian tragedy or wartime loss genocide risks eroding the meaning of the term itself. It blurs the legal distinctions that were created to identify and prevent the most serious crimes imaginable. It also dishonors the memory of those who have suffered through actual genocides by using the same word to describe fundamentally different realities.
More importantly, this misuse weakens the credibility of serious human rights advocacy. When genocide is redefined to fit political narratives, it loses its moral and legal force. And those who lived through real genocide, from Armenia to Rwanda, are robbed of the historical recognition they deserve.
Final Thought
The Gaza conflict raises painful and urgent questions. But genocide is not one of them. Israel is not committing genocide. That claim has no basis in international law, no support in policy, and no evidence in fact.
What has been made clear, by word and deed, is that Hamas has actively sought the destruction of the Jewish state and the murder of its people. That is genocidal intent. And that is where the term truly belongs.