SWC Details “12 Lies of Omission” in Human Rights Watch’s Accusation that Israel is Committing “Genocide” in Gaza

December 23, 2024

Human Rights Watch recently released a report on the current war between Israel and Hamas in which it accuses Israel of the crimes of “genocide” and “extermination” against the Palestinian people.  

In addition to using terms that are defamatory and grotesque in their intentional appropriation of Holocaust imagery, the HRW report whitewashes Hamas’ ongoing, explicit, and undenied intent to commit genocide against the entire civilian population of Israel through its decades-long pattern of public statements and terror induced mass-murder.

Additionally, in using terms like “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions in a war it did not initiate, HRW trivializes cases of actual genocide and mass murder, both historic and ongoing.

The report by HRW contains so many lies of omission as to be too extensive to be addressed here, but 12 highlights include:

1. Although Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by both the US and the EU, the HRW Report uses the term “Palestinian armed groups” downplaying Hamas’ targeting of civilians.

2. HRW’s report omits the millions of phone calls and text messages issued by Israel to Gaza’s civilians warning them to evacuate apartment buildings, an action inconsistent with a government that is supposedly trying to maximize the loss of life.  

3. The HRW Report treats every Gazan fatality as civilian, without acknowledging independent estimates that 50% of Gaza fatalities are likely combatants; a civilian-to-combatant ratio of 1:1 which is low given the extent to which combatants embed themselves in civilian areas. 

4. HRW’s report makes no mention of Hamas’ widely documented use of hospitals, kindergartens, and apartment buildings for the storage of rockets, grenades, and other weapons; removing the civilian designation of these areas and placing Israel in an impossible situation.

5. The HRW report makes multiple references to statements and statistics provided by the “Palestinian Ministry of Health” without mentioning that this is a ministry run by and subject to the control of Hamas, a designated terror group.

6. The HRW report makes no mention of the millions of tons of food Israel has facilitated into Gaza, an action inconsistent with a government intent on committing genocide.

7. While referring to the risk of a Polio outbreak in Gaza, the HRW report makes no mention of Israel’s assistance in facilitating a vaccination effort in the middle of the war. 

8. The HRW report omits any mention of Hamas’ widely reported hijacking and diversion of humanitarian aid for its fighters at the expense of Gaza’s civilians.

9. The HRW report fails to acknowledge Hamas’ hijacking of civilian fuel to power its rockets fired into Israel, further placing Israel in an impossible moral situation.

10.  While imputing genocidal intent to Israel based on limited, cherry-picked statements made by Israeli leaders in the days immediately following the October 7th attacks, HRW ignores Hamas’ explicit, decades-long mission to murder all Jews as embodied in its charter and in thousands of statements made by Hamas officials.

11. While making frequent reference to the temporary, forced displacement of Palestinians within Gaza, not once does HRW mention that these displacements, however difficult, are themselves attempts to minimize loss of life as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas’ terror infrastructure which is embedded in civilian areas.

12. The HRW report ignores Hamas’ publicly acknowledged digging up of water pipes and converting them into rockets as seen in videos professionally produced by Hamas. 

By imputing to Israel a genocidal intent that does not exist while ignoring Hamas’ decades-long publicly stated intent to kill every Israeli, Human Rights Watch draws the worst conclusions about a democratic country facing complex moral choices as it seeks to defend its people from one of the most racist, religiously fanatical, and homicidal terror groups in the world today.

For further information, please email Michele Alkin, Director of Global Communications at malkin@wiesenthal.com or Erik Simon at esimon@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed. *

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).