Sir Ephraim Mirvis raises concern over “so-called human rights organisations which appear to revel in misappropriating” the charge
January 11, 2026 12:15
The Chief Rabbi has condemned the accusation against Israel of “genocide” in Gaza as a “troubling moral deceit” which “trivialises” the concept.
In a rare outspoken public intervention, Sir Ephraim Mirvis says the word is sometimes used “from a place of singular hostility towards the world’s only Jewish state”.
He also warns “linguistic escalation has consequence”, and that “extreme rhetoric almost always leads to extreme violence”, following the antisemitic terror attacks in Manchester and Sydney, Australia last year.
The Chief Rabbi’s comments in the Sunday Telegraph come with the term continuing to be used by a number of NGOs and MPs in Britain.
In November, the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, the second most senior figure in the Church of England, said the Israeli military had committed “genocidal acts”.
In his comment piece in the Telegraph, the Chief Rabbi writes: “When academics, activists, faith leaders and public figures declare, with unshakeable certainty, that genocide has occurred, they do something far more destructive than merely repeat a falsehood. They trivialise the very concept they claim to defend.”
Citing crimes against the Rohingya and the Uyghurs and in West Darfur as warranting the justified use of the term, he says: “To invoke the term ‘genocide' as an accusation against Israel is to strip it of its true meaning, reducing humanity’s gravest crime to a political insult.”
Sir Ephraim argues that “intent” is a crucial part of the definition of genocide.
Highlighting the military capabilities of Israel as demonstrated by the overwhelming success of its campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran, he says: “The clearest evidence that Israel did not intend to destroy the people of Gaza is that it did not in fact do so.”
He adds: “A military with such capability, if truly seeking to destroy a population, would not simultaneously have facilitated the entry of more than two million tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza,” also mentioning the setting up of 15 field hospitals to serve Palestinian civilians and the mass immunisation of a million Gazan children against polio.
Rabbi Mirvis say both side in the war “have been clear about their intent…Israel has only ever sought the return of the hostages and the disarmament of Hamas. Hamas has sought the total destruction of the state of Israel and the murder of as many of her civilians as possible.”
He raises concern over “many so-called ‘human rights’ organisations’ that “appear to revel in misappropriating the term genocide, because it has proved such an effective rallying call for them.
“They do so by expanding the definition to include actions in which it is known that military activity could cause some harm, even if not necessarily undertaken with the intent to cause that harm.
“This is a truly troubling moral deceit.
“It should be obvious that there can be no such thing as a genocide in which the victims could end the violence at any moment, by releasing the hostages they have taken and laying down their arms.”
Last year, the UK Government made its position clear that Israel is not committing genocide. Then Foreign Minister David Lammy wrote to MPs in September, saying: “As per the Genocide Convention, the crime of genocide occurs only where there is specific ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group,
“The Government has not concluded that Israel is acting with that intent.”
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