Skip to main content
Open Book Publishers

4. “More Like Genocide”: The Use of the Concept of Genocide in UK Online Debates About Israel

Chapter of: Antisemitism in Online Communication: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Hate Speech in the Twenty-First Century(pp. 107–136)

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: Missing Long Abstract
  • ONIX 2.1
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
Title4. “More Like Genocide”
SubtitleThe Use of the Concept of Genocide in UK Online Debates About Israel
ContributorMatthew Bolton(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0406.04
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0406/chapters/10.11647/obp.0406.04
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
CopyrightMatthew Bolton
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-06-21
Long abstractAccusations that Israel has committed, or is in the process of committing, genocide against the Palestinian population of the Middle East are a familiar presence within anti- Israel and anti Zionist discourse. In the wake of the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 and the subsequent Israeli military invasion of Gaza, claims of an Israeli genocide reached new heights, culminating in Israel being accused of genocide by South Africa at the International Court of Justice. Such claims can be made directly or indirectly, via attempts to draw an equivalence between Auschwitz or the Warsaw Ghetto and the current situation in the Palestinian territories. This chapter examines the use of the concept of genocide in social media discussions responding to UK news reports about Israel in the years prior to the 2023 Israel- Hamas war, thereby setting out the pre-existing conditions for its rise to prominence in the response to that war. It provides a historical account of the development of the concept of genocide, showing its interrelation with antisemitism, the Holocaust and the State of Israel. It then shows how accusations of genocide started being made against Israel in the decades following the Holocaust, and argues that such use is often accompanied by analogies between Israel and Nazi Germany and forms of Holocaust distortion. The chapter then qualitatively analyses comments referencing a supposed Israeli genocide posted on the Facebook pages of major British newspapers regarding three Israel-related stories: the May 2021 escalation phase of the Arab- Israeli conflict; the July 2021 announcement that the US ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s would be boycotting Jewish settlements in the West Bank; and the rapid roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine in Israel from December 2020 to January 2021.
Page rangepp. 107–136
Print length136 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Matthew Bolton

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8590-2211

Dr Matthew Bolton is a researcher, lecturer and writer focusing on conceptual history, critical theory, antisemitism and genocide studies. He received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Roehampton, London in 2020, with a thesis exploring the relationship between the development of the concept of justice and the capitalist state form. Before joining the UK team of the Decoding Antisemitism project, he was an Associate Lecturer in Politics and Philosophy at the University of Chichester. In 2018, his co-authored monograph on the ideological underpinnings of the Corbyn movement, Corbynism: A Critical Approach, was published by Emerald Books. He has published articles in British Politics, Political Quarterly, the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism and Fathom, and his work has received widespread media coverage in the UK.

References
  1. Aizenberg, Salo. 2023. “The battle over casualty counts in Gaza”. Honest Reporting (11 December), https://honestreporting.com/the-battle-over-casualty-counts-in-gaza/
  2. DM-FB[20201230] Daily Mail (30 December 2020). “Israel vaccinates over 600000 people in just nine days”, https://www.facebook.com/DailyMail/posts/6520275314698828
  3. Ascone, Laura. 2024. “Calls for violence”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  4. Bartov, Omer. 2010. “On definitions”. In: Shaw, Martin and Omer Bartov (eds). “The question of genocide in Palestine, 1948: An exchange between Martin Shaw and Omer Bartov”. Journal of Genocide Research, 12 (3–4): 243–259, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2010.529698
  5. Bartov, Omer. 2014. “Genocide and the Holocaust: Arguments over history and politics”. In: Earl, Hilary and Karl A. Schleunes (eds). Lessons and legacies XI: Expanding perspectives on the Holocaust in a changing world. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press: 5–28, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv47wb5x.5
  6. BBC. 2021. “Covid: Israel to transfer 5,000 vaccine doses to Palestinians”. BBC (31 January 2021), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55879337
  7. BBC HARDtalk, 2024. “Joan Donoghue - Former President of the International Court of Justice”. BBC HARDtalk, 25 April, https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001yplc/hardtalk-joan-donoghue-former-president-of-the-international-court-of-justice
  8. Becker, Matthias J. 2021. Antisemitism in Reader Comments: Analogies for reckoning with the past. London: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer Nature, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70103-1
  9. Becker, Matthias J. 2024a. “Instrumentalisation of antisemitism and the Holocaust”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  10. Becker, Matthias J. 2024b. “Power”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  11. Becker, Matthias J. 2024c. “The Nazi analogy”. In: Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  12. Becker, Matthias J., Laura Ascone, Matthew Bolton, Alexis Chapelan, Jan Krasni, Karolina Placzynta, Marcus Scheiber, Hagen Troschke and Chloé Vincent. 2021. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven study on hate speech and imagery online. Discourse Report 2. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-15310
  13. Becker, Matthias J., Laura Ascone, Matthew Bolton, Alexis Chapelan, Pia Haupeltshofer, Alexa Krugel, Karolina Placzynta, Marcus Scheiber and Victor Tschiskale. 2023. Celebrating Terror: Antisemitism online after the Hamas attacks on Israel: Preliminary results I. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-19143
  14. Becker, Matthias J., Laura Ascone, Matthew Bolton, Alexis Chapelan, Jan Krasni, Karolina Placzynta, Marcus Scheiber, Hagen Troschke and Chloé Vincent. 2022. Decoding Antisemitism: An AI-driven study on hate speech and imagery online. Discourse Report 3. Technische Universität Berlin. Centre for Research on Antisemitism, https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-15310
  15. Becker, Matthias J., Laura Ascone and Hagen Troschke. 2022. “Antisemitic comments on Facebook pages of leading British, French, and German media outlets”. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 9 (1): 1–10, https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01337-8
  16. Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). 2024. Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  17. Ben & Jerry’s, 2021. “Ben & Jerry’s Will End Sales of Our Ice Cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. Ben & Jerry’s, https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/media-center/opt-statement
  18. Benjamin, Walter. 1999. Illuminations. London: Pimlico
  19. Bob from Brockley. 2014. “Gaza/Warsaw Ghetto”. Bob from Brockley (24 July 2014), https://brockley.blogspot.com/2014/07/gazawarsaw-ghetto.html
  20. Bolton, Matthew, Matthias J. Becker, Laura Ascone and Karolina Placzynta. 2023. “Enabling concepts in hate speech: The case of the apartheid analogy. In: Ermida, Isabel (ed.). Hate Speech in Social Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38248-2_9
  21. Bolton, Matthew. 2024a. “Genocide”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  22. Bolton, Matthew. 2024b. “Evil/the devil”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  23. Bruttman, Tal and Stéphane Bou. 2024. “Interview with Tal Bruttmann. Holocaust Historian facing October 7”. K-larevue (3 February), https://k-larevue.com/en/interview-with-tal-bruttmann-holocaust-historian-facing-october-7/
  24. Copelyn, Jesse, 2024. “Why did Cyril Ramaphosa gladhand a genocidal general?”. Mail & Guardian. 5 Feburary, https://mg.co.za/africa/2024-02-05-why-did-cyril-ramaphosa-gladhand-a-genocidal-general/
  25. Fine, Robert and Philip Spencer. 2018. Antisemitism and the Left. Manchester: Manchester University Press, https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526104960
  26. International Criminal Court. 2017. “Al-Bashir case: ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II decides not to refer South Africa’s non-cooperation to the ASP or the UNSC”. International Criminal Court News (6 July), https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/al-bashir-case-icc-pre-trial-chamber-ii-decides-not-refer-south-africas-non-cooperation-asp-or
  27. International Court of Justice. 2023. “Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel)—Provisional measures”. International Court of Justice (26 January), https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192/provisional-measures
  28. Jones, Owen. 2024. “Israel’s genocidal mania is becoming contagious”. The National (2 February), https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24094988.owen-jones-israels-genocidal-mania-becoming-contagious/
  29. Koselleck, Reinhart. 2018. Sediments of Time: On possible histories. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503605978
  30. Lemkin, Raphael. 2012. Lemkin on Genocide (ed. Steven Leonard Jacobs). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books
  31. Mor, Shany. 2023. “The UN is distorting the meaning of the Nakba”. Unherd (15 May 2023), https://unherd.com/thepost/the-un-is-distorting-the-meaning-of-the-nakba
  32. Moses, A. Dirk. 2021. The Problems of Genocide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316217306
  33. Placzynta, Karolina. 2024a. “Death wishes”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  34. Placzynta, Karolina. 2024b. “Jews have not learned from the past”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  35. Reuters. 2007. “Quartet deeply concerned by Palestinian violence”. Reuters (9 August), https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN02225618/
  36. Shaw, Martin. 2010. “Palestine in an international historical perspective on genocide”. Holy Land Studies, 9 (1): 1–25, https://doi.org/10.3366/hls.2013.0056
  37. Shaw, Martin. 2020. “‘Herd immunity and let the old people die’—Boris Johnson’s callous policy and the idea of genocide”. Discover Society (23 March), https://archive.discoversociety.org/2020/03/23/herd-immunity-and-let-the-old-people-die-boris-johnsons-callous-policy-and-the-idea-of-genocide
  38. Spencer, Philip. 2010. “The left, radical antisemitism, and the problem of genocide”. Journal for the Study of Antisemitism, 2 (1): 133–152
  39. Tabarovsky, Izabella. 2022. “Demonization blueprints: Soviet conspiracist antizionism in contemporary left-wing discourse”. Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, 5 (1): 1–20, https://doi.org/10.26613/jca/5.1.97
  40. Trew, Bel. 2021. “Israel rebuffs WHO vaccine request for Palestinian medics, amid outcry over disparity”. The Independent (8 January 2021), https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-palestine-coronavirus-vaccine-b1784474.html
  41. Troschke, Hagen. 2024. “Holocaust distortion and denial”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  42. Van Aaken, Anne et al. 2023. Public Statement by International Law Experts, https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd4lrsDRg3HbJqoAf0BlAe7BHJuzpQB_Le27Iureq9vpCoBkw/viewform
  43. Vincent, Chloé and Matthew Bolton. 2024. “Israel’s sole guilt for the conflict”. In: Becker, Matthias J., Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton and Alexis Chapelan (eds). Decoding Antisemitism: A Guide to Identifying Antisemitism Online. London: Palgrave Macmillan, https://link.springer.com/book/9783031492372
  44. Webman, Esther and Meir Litvak. 2012. From Empathy to Denial: Arab responses to the Holocaust. London: Hurst Publishing
  45. World Bank. 2019. Population, Total—West Bank and Gaza, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=PS
  46. Zeffman, Henry. 2018. “Jeremy Corbyn hosted event likening Israel to Nazis”. The Times (1 August 2018), https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jeremy-corbyn-hosted-event-likening-israel-to-nazis-6sb5rqd5x
  47. DM-FB[20210125] Daily Mail (25 January 2021). “Israel prepares to ban ALL incoming passenger flights”, https://www.facebook.com/DailyMail/posts/6617099281683097
  48. IND-FB[20210108] The Independent (8 January 2021). “Israel rebuffs WHO vaccine request for Palestinian medics, amid outcry over disparity”, https://www.facebook.com/TheIndependentOnline/posts/10159045223066636
  49. GUARD-FB[20210723] The Guardian (23 July 2021). “‘It’s just ice-cream’: settlers’ chilly response to Ben & Jerry’s boycott”, https://www.facebook.com/theguardian/posts/10160419085936323
  50. GUARD-FB[20210720] The Guardian (20 July 2021). “Ben & Jerry’s to stop sales in occupied Palestinian territories”, https://www.facebook.com/theguardian/posts/10160411196976323
  51. IND-FB[20210511] The Independent (11 May 2021). “Over 80 rockets fired at Tel Aviv from Gaza with security at ‘highest alert’, police say”, https://www.facebook.com/TheIndependentOnline/posts/10159394323906636
  52. MIR-FB[20210511] Daily Mirror (11 May 2021). “Israel air strike destroys Gaza tower block with 38 dead and ‘full-scale war’ feared”, https://www.facebook.com/dailymirror/posts/10160040464054162
  53. TEL-FB[20210511] The Telegraph (11 May 2021). “Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza early on Tuesday”, https://www.facebook.com/TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/posts/10160041119554749
  54. TEL-FB[20210124] The Telegraph (24 January 2021). “Israel expands vaccination drive to include 16 to 18-year-olds in bid to save exams”, https://www.facebook.com/TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/posts/10159767727909749
  55. TEL-FB[20210112] The Telegraph (12 January 2021). “Five things the NHS can learn from Israel”, https://www.facebook.com/TELEGRAPH.CO.UK/posts/10159738195734749
  56. TIMES-FB[20210103] The Times (3 January 2021). “Vaccine success in a small country: “What we could learn from Israel”, https://www.facebook.com/timesandsundaytimes/posts/4190971667598750