Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of one of the largest pro-Israel groups in Washington, has publicly acknowledged that Israel’s actions in Gaza may amount to genocide.
“I have … been persuaded rationally by legal and scholarly arguments that international courts will one day find that Israel has broken the international genocide convention,” Ben-Ami wrote Sunday in a blog post.
Despite a personal reluctance to use the term because of his family history, he added: “I cannot and will not argue any more against those using the term. I simply won’t defend the indefensible.”
Calling the realization “deeply personal,” he asked: “How can it be that Israel – the state founded by a people who experienced genocide – could itself be committing this most heinous of crimes?” For some in the Jewish community, he said, it is “inconceivable” and even “an outrage” to raise the question.
Ben-Ami cited specific Israeli actions — denying food and basic necessities to civilians, soldiers shooting at civilians trying to obtain food, destroying Gaza’s entire infrastructure, forcing the population into “intolerably small areas,” and creating conditions for mass displacement — as having no justification.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government leaders will eventually be held accountable in international courts, but predicted that Jewish organizations will label the legal process antisemitic. “This government and these leaders will be remembered with revulsion for the horrors they’ve overseen,” he wrote.
The Israeli army has pursued a devastating offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 61,000 Palestinians — almost half of them women and children — and pushing the enclave to the brink of famine. Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, while Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.
Source: Middle East Monitor
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