Hamas leader and Oct. 7 pogrom mastermind Yahya Sinwar addressing a rally in Gaza. Photo: Reuters/braheem Abu Mustafa

The Arab term for catastrophe is Nakba. The Hebrew word for catastrophe is Shoah — which is also used to refer to the Holocaust.

Since 1948, Israel has been nourished and sustained by the Jews who were violently evicted from Arab countries, by the Jews who fought for the right to leave the open-air prison called the Soviet Union, by the Jews of Ethiopia and more recently, by Ukrainians seeking shelter from Putin’s onslaught. Melting pots are complex. Israel is complex, but it is not an apartheid or racist country. It is not a “white settler-colonial state” that is engaged in the “genocide of Palestinians.”  These are all accusations that compose the modern blood libel used to delegitimize and then destroy Israel.

The initial Palestinian catastrophe was self-inflicted when the decision was made to destroy Israel in 1948, and has been continually compounded by the catastrophic decisions of Palestinian leaders in 1967, 1973, by their rejection of the Clinton Parameters in 2000, by their green light for the Second Intifada between 2000 to 2005, and by their decision to invade, rape, and pillage Israel on October 7. The Palestinian leadership must stop making catastrophic decisions that keep Israelis and Palestinians locked in a dance of death.

Israel’s resistance to Palestinian and Arab violence has saved millions of Jews from death — from another Holocaust. This is the gas and violence that antisemites today are hysterically chanting for and salivating over (shouts to “gas Jews” ). After October 7, there were tears of joy and excitement from around the world that Hamas had delivered a blow that rocked Israel, and would force it to make concessions that would further weaken its ability to survive and thrive.

Israel resists to avoid the next catastrophe, and their resistance is called genocide.

On December 11, 2023, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) stated:  “We didn’t turn out in huge numbers to elect President Biden to have him supply the bombs for a genocide.”

Israel is now defending itself in the International Court of Justice from South Africa’s accusation of genocide. The accusation states: “Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” and that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide ratified by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 states that the following acts constitutes genocide. (UN Genocide Prevention):

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its

physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Why isn’t Hamas being charged with genocide? Which of these five acts has Hamas not committed, and is not now committing? Hamas kills Israeli civilians, they mentally and physically torture women and children, they viciously murder women, children and the elderly, and Hamas’ brutal rape and torture of Israeli women is a way of preventing these women from having children. Their kidnapping of Israeli children is a forcible transfer. Hamas advocates for the genocide of Israelis between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It is their raison d’être (See the Hamas Charter).

Every time that Hamas or Hezbollah launches barrages of missiles at Israel, they are in violation of the law of genocide that Israel is accused of violating. When more than 200,000 Israelis are forced to evacuate their villages to escape Hezbollah missiles, it is Hezbollah that is violating the United Nations law on genocide. The objective of the blame, shame, defame movement is to delegitimize Israel and starve it of the resources it needs to resist annihilation.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) voted “present” not “nay” to fund Israel’s Iron Dome defense system when the “Iron Dome Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022” was introduced to Congress, but she let everyone know that she should have voted no. If every one of the Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthi missiles hit Israel — instead of being knocked out of the sky by Iron Dome — would Hamas then be brought before the International Court of Justice?

Would those who hate Israel accuse Hamas of committing genocide? I doubt it.

Israel’s resistance saves lives. When the IDF destroys Hamas and Hezbollah missile launchers, it saves lives. Hezbollah’s and Hamas’ missiles deliver death and destruction to the Muslims, Christians, Jews and Druze of Israel — and even to Palestinians when the rockets misfire. The weapons of Hamas and Hezbollah kill and wound and destroy a racially and religiously diverse population. But Israel is slandered as a racist and apartheid country.

Robert Frost in his poem “Mending Wall” asks the question, “Why do Fences Make Good Neighbors.” To answer this question, Frost advises us to reflect on “what is being walled in and what is being walled out.” The context of Frost’s poem is two orchards in the pristine New England countryside, not Gaza or the West Bank. October 7 has made it crystal clear what and who is being walled in and out.

Israel’s war on Hamas is not genocide it is terrorcide. Israel should not have to apologize for wanting to live apart from terrorists. Creating a space so that you can live apart from terror is not apartheid it is self-preservation.

Charles A. Stone is a Professor at Brooklyn College, CUNY.