The 1939 Society, a Holocaust survivor organization, criticized a statement signed by 790 academics accusing Israel of potentially committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, and specifically noted that Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies at UCLA, was one of the signatories to the statement.
In a December email to community members, William Elperin, president of The 1939 Society and the son of Holocaust survivors, linked to an October statement in Opinio Juris, a blog focusing on discussions related to international law. The statement, titled “Public Statement: Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza,” argues that Israel’s military operation in Gaza “is unprecedented in scale and severity, and consequently in its ramifications for the population of Gaza.”
“Following the incursion by Palestinian armed groups on 7 October 2023, including criminal attacks against Israeli civilians, the Gaza Strip has been subjected to incessant and indiscriminate bombardment by Israeli forces,” the statement reads. “Between 7 October and 9:00 a.m. on 15 October, there have been 2,329 Palestinians killed and 9,042 Palestinians injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including over 724 children, huge swathes of neighborhoods and entire families across Gaza have been obliterated. Israel’s Defense Minister ordered a ‘complete siege’ of the Gaza Strip prohibiting the supply of fuel, electricity, water and other essential necessities. This terminology itself indicates an intensification of an already illegal, potentially genocidal siege to an outright destructive assault.”
The statement argues that after Israel ordered an evacuation of northern Gaza, the Jewish state struck “civilians and ambulances” on the “safe route” and cited the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) as saying that the combination of a siege and an evacuation order violates international law. Additionally, the statement argues that Israeli officials have signaled potential “genocidal intent” when they said they are “fighting human animals” and “will eliminate everything.” The statement concludes by lobbying the United Nations “to immediately intervene.”
Rothberg appears to be listed as signatory number 466 on the statement.
“The Public Statement has the narrative exactly backwards. It is not Israel that is guilty of possible genocide, but Hamas,” Elperin wrote in his email. “The Public Statement is mostly in error in both content and tone. The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as crimes committed ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.’ Israel is far from perfect but, clearly, Israel has no intention of destroying the Palestinian people. If that was its intention, among other things, it would not warn Gaza residents where the next missile is going to land or allow any humanitarian aid. It would not create a safe zone or a humanitarian corridor. Every decent human being feels for the death and misery of innocent civilians, but Israel has the right to defend itself from genocide.”
Elperin contended that Hamas, not Israel, has genocidal intentions, as their founding charter calls for the killing of Jews, and Hamas leaders called for the “people of Jerusalem” to “cut off the heads of Jews with knives.”
“Where is the outrage against Hamas for murdering innocent Israelis including women, children and entire families? Burning men, women and children alive? Executing babies in their beds and car seats?” Elperin asked regarding the Public Statement. “Where is the condemnation against Hamas for the rape of Israeli women? Where is the is the censure against Hamas for kidnapping Israeli citizens including babies and children? Murdering the elderly? Where is the denouncement of Hamas for embedding themselves and hiding in hospitals? For using civilians as human shields? Where is the contempt for Hamas hijacking humanitarian aid? Where is the opposition to block civilian attempts to flee to south Gaza from north Gaza where the bulk of the fighting was?”
Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer science at UCLA, National Academy of Sciences member and Daniel Pearl Foundation president, posted on X that Rothberg signed “a Hamas-pleasing Public Statement,” adding that “This week, the Society has publicly distanced itself from the ideology of its name bearer, https://tinyurl.com/5dmynb6y, and declared unambiguously: ‘The Public Statement is mostly in error in both content and tone.’ This protects the name of the 1939 Society from the stains of Rothberg’s declarations, but the question remains: Are anti-Israel professors fit to teach Holocaust Studies?Don’t they desecrate the memory of Holocaust victims, for whom the idea of a Jewish homeland was the embodiment of ‘never again’? I think the community at large should discuss this dilemma.”
A dilemma for Holocaust Education. The 1939 Society, an organization of holocaust survivors and descendants has established an endowed Chair at UCLA to teach Holocaust Studies. Little did they know in 1980 that the 2023 holder of their Chair, UCLA Professor Michael Rothberg,…
— Judea Pearl (@yudapearl) December 18, 2023
Elperin told the Journal in an email, “I think the topic is ripe for discussion in academia.”
Rothberg and the university did not respond to the Journal’s requests for comment.
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