Genocide, for all its conceptual limitations, provides a way of understanding the violence in Israel and Gaza. And so, people invoke the word genocide in its conventional sense, sometimes through genocide-related hashtags and slogans.

But long before the current crisis, scholars were debating whether Israel had committed genocide in Palestinian territories.

Along these lines, a high-ranking U.N. human rights official and lawyer named Craig Mokhiber resigned from his post on Oct. 28, 2023, because he said that, as in the past, the U.N. and Western countries were not preventing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

In response, Anne Bayefsky, the head of a New York-based human rights center, accused Mokhiber of “UN antisemitism” and wanting to wipe “ISRAEL OFF THE MAP!”. Her remarks echo those of others who say that it is Israelis who are at risk of genocide.