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5,000 prominent Jews and allies sign letter rejecting ‘genocide’ claim
Deborah Lipstadt, Irwin Cotler, Boris Johnson, Mayim Bialik and Simon Sebag Montefiore among the signatories
More than 5,000 prominent Jews and allies, including former US envoy on antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt, former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Kotler, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and actress Mayim Bialik, have signed an open letter rejecting the “genocide” accusation against Israel, describing it as “the latest blood libel to be inflicted on the Jewish people”.
The letter’s signatories, which also includes historians Sir Niall Ferguson, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Benny Morris, and academics such as Professor John Spencer, Chair of Urban War Studies at West Point and Harvard Professor Stephen Pinker, describe themselves at “outraged and sickened by the charge of genocide, going on to say “we reject this accusation with contempt.
“There is a vigorous debate within the Jewish community over aspects of how this war was fought, and that is a sign of moral health. So is our pain over every innocent life lost. But we must unite in repudiating the lie of genocide.
“The unprecedented combat conditions of the war – hundreds of kilometers of tunnels, thousands of boobytrapped homes – the conflating of combatants with “journalists” and “human rights workers,” the ratio of civilian-to-terrorist casualties, considered low for asymmetrical urban warfare, the absence of mass starvation despite repeated claims of imminent catastrophe, the warnings given to civilians before attack: All these factors were erased in the eagerness to indict Israel for genocide.”
The letter was organised by non-profit entertainment industry organization Creative Community for Peace. Other prominent individuals to have signed the letter include former Chancellor of the Exchequer Nadhim Zahawi, former Chairwoman of Paramount Global Shari Redstone, American film producer Nancy Spielberg and author Jonathan Kellerman.
“A crucial difference between war as tragedy and war as genocide is intent”, the letter goes on. “In this war, only one side intended to commit genocide, and that is Hamas.
“To accuse Israel of genocide, the massacre of 7 October has been systematically downplayed, while Israeli actions have been distorted and amplified. Israel went to war on 8 October not out of vengeance, as its detractors claim, but to break the Iranian-led siege of terror enclaves on its borders, and to restore its deterrence, without which it cannot survive in the long term in the Middle East. Thousands of rockets and missiles were fired at Israel in the weeks following the massacre, while Hamas starved and tortured 250 Israelis, some of whom were murdered in captivity.”
The letter goes on to say that “the classic definition of genocide has been changed to apply only to the Gaza war – just as anti-Israel NGOs changed the definition of apartheid and colonialism to apply only to Israel.
“Already on October 8, as Israel was still fighting terrorists within its border communities and hadn’t yet begun burying its dead, anti-Zionists began raising the cry of “genocide.” In fact, Israel’s enemies have been accusing it of genocide for decades.
“The accusation of genocide has become a pretext for excluding, attacking and even murdering Jews around the world. Its purpose is to delegitimize Jewish self-determination and to turn the only Jewish state into the world’s arch criminal and pariah.
“The bitter irony is that Israel, home to half the world’s Jews, is the only country to face a sustained war of attempted genocide – from its inception in 1948 until today.”
A wide range of diaspora Jewish communal representatives also signed the letter, including the CEOs of the ADL and AJC, Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and Keith Black, Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council.
The letter continues by saying: “We note with astonishment but not surprise the overwhelming silence of Israel’s defamers in the face of the atrocities of Iran – perhaps 30,000 civilians murdered in two days, one of the great crimes of our time. Anti-Zionism is not the defender of conscience but its betrayer.
“We urge our fellow Jews and our non-Jewish friends to treat the accusation of genocide with revulsion – as the latest in a long history of lies about the Jewish people. ‘A lie has no legs,’ notes the ancient Hebrew proverb.
“We will not allow this lie to stand.”
Ari Ingel, Executive Director of Creative Community for Peace, said: ““We see every day how artists and cultural figures shape the way millions of people understand the world. That influence carries real consequences. Mark Ruffalo is a striking example. In 2021, he acknowledged that accusing Israel of genocide was ‘not accurate,’ ‘inflammatory’ and ‘being used to justify antisemitism.’ Five years later, he is again broadcasting the same libelous accusation to his millions of followers.
“When someone with that kind of reach repeatedly lends his platform and credibility to an accusation this incendiary it helps create an atmosphere in which Jews are increasingly shunned, harassed and attacked under the banner of anti-Israel activism. Criticism of Israel and its government is entirely legitimate. Falsely branding the Jewish state as genocidal carries consequences, and Jews around the world are living with them.”
Professor Lipstadt, best known for her victory in a court case brought by disgraced historian and Holocaust denier David Irving, said: “Those who accuse Israel of genocide, a very specific crime with a legally specific definition, are fulfilling the dictum attributed to the Nazi propagandist, Josef Goebbels. ‘If you tell a lie and keep repeating it enough, people will eventually come to believe it.’
“By October 10th, accusations of genocide were common, even before Israel set foot in Gaza. Then it was extremist voices who made this charge. Now, people have come to believe the lie and to mindlessly repeat it.”
The full list of signatories can be viewed here:
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