Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za
3-minute read | 21 August 2025 | 17:30 CAT

📸 Descendants of Holocaust survivors protest in solidarity with Palestinians, calling for an end to what they describe as genocide in Gaza. Image: Report Digital

Urgent questions are being raised about Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, with leading Holocaust scholar Professor Omer Bartov warning that the campaign has crossed into genocide.

Speaking on Radio Islam International, Bartov explained that his conclusion became clear in May 2024, when Israel’s assault on Rafah unfolded. “By then, Rafah had about half of the population of Gaza in it, about a million people, most of them displaced from other places by orders of the IDF,” he said. “They were moved out to Al-Mawasi, where there was no humanitarian infrastructure, and then Rafah was destroyed. At that point, it appeared clear… this was systematic destruction of Gaza and eventually ethnic cleansing of the population… [which] became a genocidal operation.”

Bartov criticised the political weaponisation of Holocaust memory, particularly in Europe. “Allegations of anti-Semitism were levelled at people who were protesting against Israeli actions, whereas in fact they were motivated by horror at what was happening in Gaza,” he noted. He argued that Israel has used Holocaust remembrance not as a universal call of “never again,” but as justification for occupation and now “an actual genocidal attack on Palestinians.”

Reports of systematic targeting of journalists and medical professionals further amplify the concern. Bartov highlighted findings by Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, which revealed “a deliberate attempt to destroy the entire medical apparatus” in Gaza. He stressed that such actions form part of the wider pattern of destruction.

While images of Gaza’s devastation have been livestreamed worldwide, Bartov observed that mainstream Western media showed reluctance in broadcasting them until stark footage of starving children surfaced. In Israel, he added, self-censorship has been widespread, leaving the public shielded from the destruction.

Reflecting on Israeli society, Bartov contrasted the current silence with the protests following the Sabra and Shatila massacre in the 1980s, where 400,000 Israelis rallied in Tel Aviv. “The extent to which the Israeli public didn’t want to know about what was going on in Gaza continues,” he said, linking this shift to the political swing toward the far-right since the Second Intifada.

The rise of figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, now in top government roles, has entrenched an ideology advocating exclusive Jewish sovereignty “from the Jordan to the sea.” Without strong opposition leadership offering a vision of shared space for Jews and Palestinians, Bartov warned, extremists on both sides fill the void.

Listen to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Holocaust scholar Professor Omer Bartov.