The charge of genocide is among the gravest that can be leveled against a nation. It evokes humanity’s darkest chapters — Auschwitz, Rwanda, Darfur — and it carries precise legal weight. Under the Genocide Convention, it requires proof of specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, in whole or in part. It is not a synonym for mass suffering. It is not a label to be casually or ideologically deployed.

Yet this is exactly what is happening now. Two generally respected Israeli human rights organizations — B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel — have released reports accusing their own government of committing genocide in Gaza. Their claims, echoed by activists and political actors worldwide, have reignited the debate over Israel’s wartime conduct and

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