25 Winter 2026 “a demented will to exterminate an entire people.”4 Rachid Driss of Tunisia, a former ambassador to the U.S., argued that the Palestinians “have had no choice but … to defend themselves against a vast enterprise designed to liquidate them as a nation.”5 Abdirizak Haji Hussein of Somalia, a former prime minister, said that the Palestinian choices “are armed struggle or obliteration.”6 Cuba insisted that Zionism was “an unparalleled form of aggression verging on genocide,” because it aimed “to annihilate [the Palestinian nation] … to wipe it off the map and erase it from history.”7 Genocide accusations at the UN exploded with Israel’s war in Lebanon, launched in June 1982. Israel’s achievable aim was to destroy PLO military infrastructure in southern Lebanon. Its less achievable aim was regime change in Beirut. The Israelis deployed artillery, air power, and a siege of Beirut from late June to mid-August when a U.S. brokered cease-fire provided passage for the PLO to Tunisia. No genocide took place, but the accusation became a form of warfare undertaken from the inability of the PLO’s sympathizers to help materially. The Soviet Union had been embroiled in Afghanistan since 1979, and the extensive caches of PLO weapons previously imported from Eastern Europe and uncovered by the Israelis were an embarrassment. Arab populations sympathized with the Palestinians. But Jordan had forcibly expelled the PLO in 1970-71, Egypt had just implemented its 1979 peace agreement with Israel, and Israel chased Syrian jets from Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley five days into the war, inducing Syria to sign a cease-fire. There were many examples of antisemitic tropes in the accusations. The Qataris claimed that Israeli troops were motivated by “their thirst for Arab blood, be it the blood of a child, a woman, or an old person,” as they were “seeking the so-called security of the ‘chosen people,’ as they so arrogantly state.”8 The Cuban delegation warned that “these are not the times in which the world can be deceived by well-orchestrated press campaigns… The plain truth is that Israel intends to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.”9 The United Arab Emirates added that “There is a Zionist group which dominates the [U.S.] capital and mass media and exercises its influence on the elections of the executive and legislative authorities in the United States of America.”10 Post-Cold War, the PLO continued genocide accusations. Nabil Ramlawi, the PLO’s representative with the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, accused the Israelis of killing unborn children by poisoning Palestinian schoolgirls in the West Bank to render them barren. He claimed that during the first intifada the Israelis had forced 4,000 abortions on Palestinian women.11 And in March 1997, he accused the Israelis of having injected hundreds of Palestinian children with the HIV virus as part of a genocidal campaign.12 Contemporary Ideological Aspects The early PLO charges set a pattern. First, they were utterly unbound by any facts. Accusers avoided lining up Israeli military actions with the UN Genocide Convention. Allegations regarding Palestinian births were cut from whole cloth. Genocide accusations legitimized terror as self-defense, delegitimized Israeli responses, and questioned Israel’s existence as racist and colonial. 4. G.A. Res. A/PV.2285, ¶ 19-33, 2286th Plenary Meeting (Nov. 14, 1974). UN GAOR, 29th Session, 2285th plenary meeting, ¶¶ 19–33, U.N. Doc. A/PV.2285 (Nov. 14, 1974). 5. G.A. Res. A/PV.2267, ¶ 71-4, 2267th Plenary Meeting (Oct. 14, 1974). UN GAOR, 29th Session, 2267th plenary meeting, ¶¶ 71–74, U.N. Doc. A/PV.2267 (Oct. 14, 1974). 6. G.A. Res. A/PV.2268, ¶ 61, 2268th Plenary Meeting (Oct. 14, 1974). UN GAOR, 29th Session, 2268th plenary meeting, ¶¶ 61, U.N. Doc. A/PV.2268 (Oct. 14, 1974). 7. G.A. Res. A/PV.2295, ¶ 109-27, 2295th Plenary Meeting (Nov. 21, 1974). UN GAOR, 29th Session, 2295th plenary meeting, ¶¶ 109–127, U.N. Doc. A/PV.2295 (Nov. 21, 1974). 8. G.A. Res. A/ES-7/PV. 22, 22-25, 27, Special Emergency Session (June 25, 1982). UN GAOR, 7th Emergency Special Session, 22nd meeting, ¶¶ 22–25, 27, U.N. Doc. A/ES‑7/PV.22 (June 25, 1982). 9. G.A. Res. A/ES-7/PV. 25, 46, Special Emergency Session (Aug. 16, 1982). UN GAOR, 7th Emergency Special Session, 25th meeting, ¶ 46, U.N. Doc. A/ES‑7/PV.25 (Aug. 16, 1982). 10. G.A. Res. A/ES-7/PV.27, 13-15, Special Emergency Session (Aug. 21, 1982). UN GAOR, 7th Emergency Special Session, 27th Meeting, ¶¶ 13–15, UN Doc. A/ ES‑7/PV.27 (Aug. 21, 1982). 11. UN Doc. A/38/365|S/15939, Permanent Representative of Israel (Blum) to Secretary-General (Aug. 25, 1983); UN Doc. E/CN.4/1990/59, Permanent Observer for Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights (Sept. 18, 1989). 12. UNCHR, 53rd Session, UN Doc. E/CN.4/1997/3 (March 11, 1997).
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