Overview
- Writing in the Telegraph, Sir Ephraim Mirvis argues that calling Israel’s Gaza campaign a genocide reduces humanity’s gravest crime to a political insult.
- He says genocide requires proof of intent to destroy a protected group and contends Israel did not intend to destroy Gaza’s population.
- He frames the war as a response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack and says Israel’s objectives are returning hostages and disarming Hamas.
- He criticizes some human rights organizations for expanding the term for rhetorical effect and warns this trivializes recognition of atrocities against groups such as the Rohingya and Uyghurs and in West Darfur.
- He notes official judgments remain split, citing a UK government position that found no genocidal intent and an independent UN commission that reached the opposite conclusion, and he welcomes police assurances to act on incitement at protests.