Abusing the word 'genocide' about Israel is dangerous and spectacularly ignorant

THE “Let’s Keep The World Clean” placard with the figure of someone throwing the Israeli flag into a dustbin finally made its way to Trafalgar Square last weekend.

- George Chesterton

It was only a matter of time. We have arrived at the point at which protesters accusing Israel of genocide are simultaneously calling for genocide against Israel. If only there was some example from recent history to help them understand what genocide really means.

On Question Time last week, an audience member compared Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust (equating Israel to the Nazis is one of the recognised definitions of antisemitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, of which the UK is a member). The word ‘genocide’ is everywhere now, propagated by the pro-Palestinian activists, or anti-Israeli activists or antisemites, depending on who you talk to. It’s unjustifiable and insidious. Most of all it’s dangerous.