{"id":100000,"date":"2025-08-21T19:05:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=100000"},"modified":"2025-08-21T19:05:45","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T17:05:45","slug":"holocaust-scholar-warns-israels-gaza-offensive-amounts-to-genocide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/holocaust-scholar-warns-israels-gaza-offensive-amounts-to-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Holocaust Scholar Warns Israel\u2019s Gaza Offensive Amounts to Genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za<\/a>
\n3-minute read | 21 August 2025 | 17:30 CAT<\/p>\n

\"\"

\ud83d\udcf8 Descendants of Holocaust survivors protest in solidarity with Palestinians, calling for an end to what they describe as genocide in Gaza. Image: Report Digital<\/p><\/div>\n

Urgent questions are being raised about Israel\u2019s ongoing assault on Gaza, with leading Holocaust scholar Professor Omer Bartov warning that the campaign has crossed into genocide.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Radio Islam International,<\/em><\/a> Bartov explained that his conclusion became clear in May 2024, when Israel\u2019s assault on Rafah unfolded. \u201cBy 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,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were moved out to Al-Mawasi, where there was no humanitarian infrastructure, and then Rafah was destroyed. At that point, it appeared clear\u2026 this was systematic destruction of Gaza and eventually ethnic cleansing of the population\u2026 [which] became a genocidal operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bartov criticised the political weaponisation of Holocaust memory, particularly in Europe. \u201cAllegations 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,\u201d he noted. He argued that Israel has used Holocaust remembrance not as a universal call of \u201cnever again,\u201d but as justification for occupation and now \u201can actual genocidal attack on Palestinians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reports of systematic targeting of journalists and medical professionals further amplify the concern. Bartov highlighted findings by Physicians for Human Rights\u2013Israel, which revealed \u201ca deliberate attempt to destroy the entire medical apparatus\u201d in Gaza. He stressed that such actions form part of the wider pattern of destruction.<\/p>\n

While images of Gaza\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cThe extent to which the Israeli public didn\u2019t want to know about what was going on in Gaza continues,\u201d he said, linking this shift to the political swing toward the far-right since the Second Intifada.<\/p>\n

The rise of figures like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, now in top government roles, has entrenched an ideology advocating exclusive Jewish sovereignty \u201cfrom the Jordan to the sea.\u201d Without strong opposition leadership offering a vision of shared space for Jews and Palestinians, Bartov warned, extremists on both sides fill the void.<\/p>\n

Listen<\/strong> to the full interview on The Daily Round-Up<\/em> <\/a>with Moulana Junaid Kharsany and Holocaust scholar Professor Omer Bartov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Neelam Rahim | neelam@radioislam.co.za 3-minute read | 21 August 2025 | 17:30 CAT Urgent questions are being raised about Israel\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":100001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4998,4997],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-ummah","category-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Holocaust-survivors.jpg?fit=700%2C468&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-q0U","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 13:37:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}