On October 7, 2023 Hamas militants attacked southern Israel killing at least 1200 people, mostly civilians. They also took about 250 hostages back to Gaza. The attacks are the worst crimes against Jews since the Holocaust.
Israel responded with massive force, and according to the Gaza Health Ministry more than 25,000 people have now died in Gaza, but they do not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties. U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that at this point roughly a quarter of Hamas's estimated 20,000 to 25,000 fighters have been killed. But exact numbers are not known and it remains an extremely fluid situation.
Earlier this month, South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide in its ongoing war in Gaza, and both countries have made their cases before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. A decision will probably take weeks, and the case is likely to last for years.
Our guest is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University and is considered one of the world's leading authorities on genocide. Professor Omer Bartov was born in Israel in 1954 and lived there until the late 1980s. He served in the Israeli Military during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.
He was on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus on Wednesday, January 17 to give a talk as part of the Liebert World Affairs Lecture Series titled "Speaking of Genocide: The Holocaust, Israel-Palestine, and the War in Gaza since the October 7 Massacre."
GUEST:
Omer Bartov, Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies in the Department of History at Brown University; and Faculty Fellow at the Watson Institute for International & Public Affairs at Brown University
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