The administration of US President Joe Biden has dismissed genocide claims levelled against Israel by a number of countries, including a NATO ally, maintaining that there is no evidence that West Jerusalem’s forces are perpetrating such crimes as they pound Gaza in a drive to eliminate Hamas.
South Africa’s government launched a genocide complaint against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week, and NATO member Turkey officially supported the charge on Wednesday. At a press conference later that day, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller dismissed the charges, saying there was no evidence that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) were committing genocide against Palestinians.
“Genocide is of course a heinous atrocity, one of the most heinous atrocities that any individual can commit,” he remarked. “Those are allegations that should not be made lightly, and as it pertains to the United States, we are not seeing any acts that constitute genocide.”
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, was more blunt in his response, calling the claims against Israel “meritless.” He went on to say that South Africa’s ICJ lawsuit was “counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”
According to Gaza health officials, over 22,000 Palestinians have been dead since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7. Last month, the UN warned that more than 500,000 Gazans were starving as a result of Israeli shelling, and that 85% of the population had been uprooted. The conflict began when Hamas terrorists launched surprise raids on towns in southern Israel, murdering over 1,100 people, including approximately 700 Israeli civilians, and kidnapping hundreds of others.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has compared Israel’s military incursion in the Palestinian enclave to the Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany against the Jewish people. He has also slammed Western nations for backing Israel’s methods, implying that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is as genocidal as Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
Türkiye’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, argued on Wednesday that by giving “unconditional support” to Israel, Western nations had lost all credibility to talk about “principles, virtue and morality.” He added, “I see that all of this is paving the way for a huge geostrategic rupture.”
Miller’s remarks come just one day after the US State Department condemned two Israeli MPs for making “inflammatory and irresponsible” statements calling for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. Later that day, Israeli Defence Minister Ben Gvir reaffirmed his statement, saying, “With all due respect, we are not another star on the American flag.”
Calls for wholesale displacement of Palestinians contradict Israeli government policy and US policy, Miller told reporters on Wednesday. “They are in direct contradiction of his own government’s policy, and we believe those statements should stop,” he added when asked about Gvir’s rhetoric.
Miller, on the other hand, believes it is fair for the IDF to order Gazans to “temporarily” abandon their houses while Israeli soldiers conduct “legitimate military operations.”
