In the accusations leveled at Israel since October 7, four words get thrown around constantly and are rarely understood correctly: “genocide,” “apartheid,” “war crimes,” and “proportionality” – GAWP. Activists, filmmakers like the two behind NAZA, B-grade celebrities, and musicians have all climbed aboard the GAWP bandwagon, repeating accusations they have not tested against the law or the facts.
I write with the added perspective of having served in an IDF PALMAR medical extraction unit since the start of this war, watching firsthand what is happening on the ground.
What I have witnessed does not resemble genocide, apartheid, war crimes, or a disproportionate response. It resembles the opposite: a democracy fighting, under enormous restraint, against an enemy that has openly declared its intent to destroy it.
War crimes
International law defines war crimes with specificity: deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure such as airports or nuclear facilities; tunneling into another state’s territory to murder or kidnap civilians; using schools, hospitals, and mosques to store munitions or launch attacks; breaching agreed ceasefires; recruiting child soldiers; using civilians as human shields; and firing rockets indiscriminately at civilians. Nearly every item on that list describes Hamas’s conduct.
Protected status is not unconditional. Col. John Spencer of West Point’s Modern War Institute and Col. Richard Kemp CBE, former British commander of forces in Afghanistan, have both explained that when a military has credible reason to believe a site is being used to store weapons or fire on soldiers, it legally forfeits protection under the Geneva Convention. This is not a loophole – it is the law, built to prevent armed groups from exploiting civilians as shields.
Hamas uses human shields to protect its fighters and to manufacture casualties for propaganda, knowing the world will blame Israel. Intent is the legal crux: IDF policy prohibits deliberately targeting civilians. Harm that occurs without prior knowledge of civilian presence is a tragedy under the laws of war, not a war crime, which requires intent.
Kemp’s conclusion stands: “The Israeli army has taken greater steps than any other army in the history of warfare to minimize the harm to innocent civilians in a combat zone.”
Proportionality
The claim goes: More deaths in Gaza than Israel proves disproportion. But proportionality weighs anticipated military advantage against expected civilian harm – it is not a body count.
Douglas Murray exposed the absurdity of the numbers argument: By that logic, Israel would have had to replicate October 7’s atrocities, town for town, a standard no military ethic would impose on a nation defending itself.
No army must warn an enemy before a strike. Israel does anyway, publishing evacuation maps and safe corridors, and sends soldiers on foot, street by street, rather than flattening buildings from the air – a choice costing significant IDF casualties. I have personally treated and evacuated wounded soldiers and losses resulting from this policy.
Genocide
Genocide requires proven intent to destroy a group in whole or in part. Israel has facilitated hundreds of thousands of tons of aid, medicine, and fuel into Gaza, repeatedly expanded crossings under pressure, and issued advance warnings before strikes – actions incompatible with genocidal intent, which seeks not to warn a population but eliminate it.
Compare this to Hamas’s charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction and the killing of Jews, and to leaders’ vows to repeat October 7 “again and again.” Hamas filmed its own atrocities on GoPro, broadcasting murder, rape, and kidnapping with pride. If genocidal intent exists here, it was filmed by the perpetrators themselves.
Apartheid
Apartheid means systematic legal segregation by race. Arab citizens make up roughly a fifth of Israel’s population, vote in every election, serve in the Knesset, sit on the Supreme Court, serve in the IDF, and hold full civil rights. Arab Israeli judges have sentenced Israeli prime ministers to prison. That is not apartheid; it is a flawed but functioning democracy – the only one in the Middle East.
Cause and effect, reversed
Israel was invaded by a terrorist organization that murdered, raped, tortured, and kidnapped over 1,200 people in a single morning, filming much of it in celebration. Israel responded within the bounds of international law against an enemy operating entirely outside them. Yet the attacked nation has been recast as aggressor, and the aggressor as victim.
Those pushing the GAWP claims are not seeking truth. At best, they are willfully ignorant; at worst, driven by an animus toward Jews and Israel predating October 7 by generations. It was Israel that buried 1,200 of its people. It is Hamas’s own charter, footage, and words that meet the legal definition of genocidal intent.
Before repeating any GAWP claim, ask: Have you weighed it against the law, or only a headline?
The writer is a licensed tour guide, Jewish educator, and Judaica artist currently serving on IDF reserve duty. He is the author of Heroes of Palmar: How one IDF Unit Revolutionized Combat Medicine in Gaza (Gefen Publishing), as well as For the Sake of Zion, A Curriculum of Israel Education and Jewish Journeys (Koren), books on both the First Temple and Second Temple periods. www.booktuvia.com