A Textbook Case of Genocide — Raz Segal

Raz Segal is Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University, where he directs the Master of Arts programme in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. On 13 October 2023 — six days into the Gaza campaign — he published “A Textbook Case of Genocide” in Jewish Currents, under the subheading “Israel has been explicit about what it’s carrying out in Gaza. Why isn’t the world listening?”

Segal wrote that the assault on Gaza “can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” adding: “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians.” His argument turns on the openness of the statements rather than on inference: setting out the Convention’s definition of genocide as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,” he wrote that “in its murderous attack on Gaza, Israel has loudly proclaimed this intent,” and quoted Defence Minister Yoav Gallant’s declaration of 9 October 2023 in full.

Segal also traced the dehumanising register beyond Israeli officials, noting the language used by Western leaders in the same days. The essay was among the earliest published assessments by a specialist in genocide studies, and it appeared in a Jewish American magazine — a placement that is part of its meaning. It is worth being exact about what that placement does and does not show. The analysis did not originate in Jewish and Israeli scholarly debate: Palestinian human rights organisations were documenting the conduct from the first week, and Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights put the crime of genocide and incitement to genocide before the International Criminal Court on 9 November 2023, seven weeks before South Africa filed at the International Court of Justice. What Segal’s essay shows is that a scholar of the Holocaust, writing in a Jewish publication, reached the same conclusion within days — a convergence that is harder to dismiss than either statement alone.

Why it matters

• One of the first assessments of the Gaza campaign by a scholar of genocide studies, published within a week of its start.
• It argues from what was said openly and on the record, rather than from inferred intent.
• Written by a scholar of the Holocaust in a Jewish publication, it converges with what Palestinian human rights organisations were documenting and filing at the same time.

Key resources

• Raz Segal, “A Textbook Case of Genocide” (Jewish Currents, 13 October 2023)