More than 6,000 sign letter rejecting genocide accusations against Israel — Jerusalem Post
In Israel, the organization Creative Community for Peace, together with the authors of the letter, published an open document rejecting accusations that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. As The Jerusalem Post reports, the letter was initially signed by more than 5,000 people, and the number of signatories later exceeded 6,000. They include scholars, lawyers, historians and politicians.
The letter’s authors’ position
The authors of the document called the genocide accusations a blood libel. They argue that such claims contradict Israel’s actions during the war and are used as a pretext for excluding Jews and attacking them in different countries.
The letter states that there are discussions within the Jewish community regarding certain aspects of conducting the war, and its signatories express grief over civilian deaths. At the same time, the authors call for rejecting genocide claims. They refer to the conditions of combat in Gaza, including Hamas’ use of tunnels and booby-trapped houses, and also allege the blending of militants with journalists and humanitarian workers.
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Casualty assessments and signatories
The letter’s authors also described the ratio of civilian to combatant casualties as low for an asymmetric war in an urban environment. According to The Jerusalem Post, they compared Gaza Health Ministry data on the total number of deaths, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, with a May estimate by Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies of more than 23,000 militants killed. On this basis, the authors calculated an approximate civilian-to-combatant ratio of 2:1.
The signatories include Harvard University professor Steven Pinker, historians Niall Ferguson, Benny Morris, Deborah Lipstadt and Simon Sebag Montefiore. The letter was also signed by John Spencer of the Modern War Institute at West Point, former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former Canadian justice minister and attorney general Irwin Cotler, and former US Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie.
