In an op-ed published Tuesday in The New York Times, Bartov—an Israeli-born professor at Brown University who has spent over two decades researching the Holocaust, ethnic cleansing, and mass violence—wrote: “My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Bartov, who served in the Israeli army and grew up in a Zionist household, said he resisted the label for months after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023. But by May 2024, following Israel’s mass displacement of civilians in Rafah and the systematic levelling of much of the Gaza Strip, he wrote that “it appeared no longer possible to deny” the genocidal nature of Israel’s campaign.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 58,000 Palestinians have been killed and over 138,000 wounded since the war began, with women and children making up two-thirds of the dead and injured.
Bartov cited a Haaretz investigation estimating that 174,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed, including homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, agricultural land, and water treatment facilities.
“In fact, the systematic destruction in Gaza not only of housing but also of other infrastructure… reflects a policy aimed at making the revival of Palestinian life in the territory highly unlikely,” he wrote.
He added that the enclave had become home to “the highest number of amputee children per capita in the world,” warning of long-term physical and psychological damage to an entire generation.
Bartov argued that both intent and execution—the two legal pillars of genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention—are now evident. He pointed to statements by senior Israeli officials expressing aims to render Gaza uninhabitable, calling for “total annihilation,” and comparing Palestinians to biblical enemies or “human animals.”
“Israel’s actions could be understood only as the implementation of the expressed intent to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for its Palestinian population,” he wrote.
Bartov joins a growing number of legal scholars, rights groups, and international bodies—including the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese—who have characterized the campaign in similar terms.
In January 2024, in a case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel was committing acts tantamount to genocide in its war in Gaza.
Later, in November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in the Gaza war.
Bartov also warned of the moral consequences for Holocaust commemoration and genocide studies if Israel’s actions are met with silence or denial.
“To this day, only a few scholars of the Holocaust… have issued a warning that Israel could be accused of carrying out war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing or genocide,” he wrote. “This silence has made a mockery of the slogan ‘Never again.’”
Bartov cautioned that Holocaust memory, if used as cover for the destruction of another people, risks retreating into an “ethnic ghetto”—discredited, politicized, and stripped of its universal moral force.
His remarks follow similar warnings from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who in May described the war as “indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal,” and accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a private political war with no legitimate goals.
There has been no official response from the Israeli government to Bartov’s op-ed.
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