Prominent scholars, legal experts among 6,000 signatories to letter rejecting Gaza genocide charge

More than 6,000 academics, legal experts, and historians signed an open letter rejecting the accusation that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The letter, released by Creative Community for Peace, argues the charge is contradicted by Israel's conduct and has been weaponized to attack Jews. Signatories include Steven Pinker, Niall Ferguson, Deborah Lipstadt, and Irwin Cotler. The letter cites Israel's warnings to civilians and the civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio as evidence against the genocide claim.

More than 6,000 prominent academics, legal experts, and historians signed an open letter rejecting the accusation that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The letter, released by Creative Community for Peace and authored by Yossi Klein Halevi, Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, Rabbi Micha Odenheimer, and Binghamton University historian Jonathan Karp, argues that the genocide charge is contradicted by Israel's actual conduct in the war and has been weaponized as a pretext to exclude and attack Jews worldwide. The letter addresses what it calls "unprecedented combat conditions" in Gaza, including Hamas's use of tunnels and booby-trapped homes, and cites the civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio as "considered low for asymmetrical urban warfare." It also notes "the absence of mass starvation despite repeated claims of imminent catastrophe" and "the warnings given to civilians before attack." The letter states: "The bitter irony is that Israel, home to half the world's Jews, is the only country to face a sustained war of attempted genocide – from its inception in 1948 until today." Prominent signatories include Harvard professor Steven Pinker, historian Niall Ferguson, Israeli historian Benny Morris, Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt, former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler, and former UK prime minister Boris Johnson. The article reports the letter's arguments without independent analysis or countervailing perspectives.