New campaign aims to dispel ‘genocide libel’ against Israel, slams Mamdani for role in pushing false charge

The organizers conclude that the “genocide libel” is part of a larger effort to delegitimize and stigmatize Israel on the international stage.

By Corey Walker, The Algemeiner

More than 50 Jewish and non-Jewish organizations have joined forces in a new international campaign aimed at challenging what they describe as a coordinated “genocide” narrative against Israel that emerged in the aftermath of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

The global initiative’s website, GazaGenoLIE.com, argues that the genocide allegation was rapidly promoted by Hamas and its supporters as part of a broader effort to delegitimize Israel, while downplaying Israel’s stated efforts to protect Palestinian civilians and the context of the defensive war against terrorists.

The campaign seeks to dismantle what it calls the “Gaza GenoLIE” by presenting evidence showing how the narrative emerged and spread worldwide.

The campaign’s website lays out what it describes as eight key “pieces” of the Gaza “GenoLIE” narrative: the emergence of genocide accusations almost immediately after the Oct. 7 attack; what organizers characterize as distortions of the legal definition of genocide and the role of intent; portrayals of Israel’s war against Hamas as a war against Palestinians; Hamas’s alleged use of civilians and civilian infrastructure as human shields; what the campaign calls the use of severely ill children to support claims of an Israeli-created famine; allegations that journalists killed in Gaza were deliberately targeted because of their profession; and the spread of the genocide accusation into what the organizers call a “blood libel” against Jews worldwide.

The organizers conclude that the “genocide libel” is part of a larger effort to delegitimize and stigmatize Israel on the international stage.

“Israel’s conduct throughout the war included a series of measures that would be inexplicable for a state aiming to target a whole population. Israel issued evacuation warnings days and weeks in advance; dropped millions of leaflets; and placed tens of millions of phone calls, texts, and recorded messages in Arabic urging civilians to leave combat zones,” the website reads.

Among the organizations participating are the World Jewish Congress, Zionist Organization of America, StopAntisemitism, Students Supporting Israel, CAMERA, HonestReporting, and the Maccabee Task Force.

The campaign comes as Israel and its supporters continue to fight a widely accepted narrative in progressive circles that the Jewish state’s military operations aim to eliminate the Palestinian population rather than specifically the Hamas terrorist group, which explicitly seeks Israel’s destruction.

One of the campaign’s examples is New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a public official who has accused Israel of “genocide” on numerous occasions.

Only six days after the Hamas-led massacre in Israel, he posted on social media that “we are on the brink of a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

The initiative argues that such statements helped establish the genocide narrative before Israel’s ground operation in Gaza had even begun.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist who at the time was a member of the New York State Assembly, went on to call for a ceasefire and an end to additional US military funding for Israel in his Oct. 13, 2023, post.

Contemporary reporting confirms that Mamdani participated that evening in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brooklyn, where he was arrested after protesters blocked traffic outside the home of then-US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Jewish Democrat.