Gaza GenoLIE Shows How the False "Genocide" Charge Became a Blood Libel Against Jews
The Gaza GenoLIE traces how antisemitic rhetoric from the far left and far right has invoked medieval blood-libel themes to amplify the manufactured “Gaza genocide” narrative
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The latest installment of the Gaza GenoLIE series examines how the manufactured genocide claim against Israel has moved beyond criticism of the Israeli government and military and increasingly been directed at Jews around the world, reviving themes associated with historic antisemitic blood libels.
The installment draws heavily on a February 2025 study by Holocaust historian Norman J.W. Goda of Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Goda traces how the genocide accusation against Israel differs from similar allegations made against other states and how it has become intertwined with collective accusations against Jews.
Genocide has been alleged against numerous governments throughout modern history, including the United States, France, Nigeria, China and Cambodia. Those accusations, however, generally did not turn ethnic or national communities living thousands of miles away into alleged accomplices.
From Israel to Jews Worldwide
Israel has faced genocide accusations repeatedly throughout its history, but those claims accelerated almost immediately following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. Public warnings and accusations invoking genocide appeared before Israel expanded its ground operation in Gaza on Oct. 27.
Goda’s research identifies several recurring elements surrounding the accusations. They include efforts to portray Jewish scripture as inherently genocidal, diminished attention to Hamas’ stated objective of destroying Israel, and repeated allegations centered on the deliberate killing of children.
The focus on the alleged intentional killing of children echoes the medieval blood libel, the centuries-old antisemitic accusation that Jews murdered non-Jewish children for ritual purposes. Goda separately documents how claims involving the deliberate killing of children have repeatedly accompanied the genocide accusation against Israel.
The most consequential development is the expansion of responsibility beyond Israel itself.
Jews living in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere have been described as “Zionist enablers,” accused of facilitating genocide, manipulating Western governments or using allegations of antisemitism to suppress criticism.
Historically, genocide allegations against other states did not generally make members of related ethnic communities abroad responsible for the alleged crimes. Yet Jews who are not connected to the alleged conduct have also been swept into the accusation. That shift transforms a claim about alleged state conduct into collective blame directed at a wider population.
Antisemitic Incidents Remain Historically High
The spread of this rhetoric has coincided with historically high levels of recorded antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League documented 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the United States in 2024, the highest annual total since it began tracking incidents in 1979. For the first time, a majority contained elements related to Israel or Zionism. The ADL recorded 5,452 such incidents, representing 58 percent of the annual total.
The organization does not count ordinary criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Israel-related incidents are included when they contain antisemitic tropes, harassment, threats, support for violence, calls for Israel’s destruction or other antisemitic elements.
The elevated levels continued in 2025. According to the ADL’s 2025 audit, 6,274 incidents were recorded that year. Although down 33 percent from the 2024 record, the figure remained approximately five times higher than a decade earlier. Israel-or Zionism-related incidents accounted for 2,847 cases, or 45 percent of the total. Physical assaults also reached their highest level recorded by the organization.
Genocide Rhetoric Crosses Ideological Lines
The genocide accusation has been adopted across ideological extremes in the United States, from prominent far-left figures such as Hasan Piker to far-right figures including Nick Fuentes.
On the far right, the overlap is particularly explicit. American neo-Nazi Mike Peinovich led a small National Justice Party demonstration outside the White House in October 2023, near a much larger pro-Palestinian protest. According to Vice, Peinovich described Israel as a “pure genocidal state” while invoking longstanding antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish control of banks, media and politicians.
Fuentes has similarly combined accusations that Israel is committing genocide with attacks on what he calls “organized Jewry” in the United States.
The Global Network on Extremism and Technology documented similar activity in Canada shortly after Oct. 7, finding that neo-Nazi and white supremacist communities rapidly exploited the war and imagery from Gaza to promote pre-existing antisemitic narratives.
From Political Accusation to Collective Blame
The Gaza GenoLIE series shows how the genocide accusation has been weaponized against Jews far beyond Israel. When the charge is repeatedly applied to the world’s only Jewish state, framed through themes that echo historic antisemitic blood libels, and extended to Jews who are not connected to the alleged conduct, it becomes a vehicle for collective anti-Jewish blame.