By Marco Hugo Barsotti MHB 
You are listening to a new special by am1575news, France24 and Radio Centrale Milano, in podcasting and on the medium waves.
Bernard-Henri Lévy, 77, born in 1948 in Béni Saf, Algeria, is one of France’s most well‑known and debated intellectuals. A representative of the “nouveaux philosophes” who broke with Marxism in the 1970s, author of *La barbarie dal volto umano*, he has linked his name to political struggles and war reporting, from Bosnia to Darfur, from the 2011 Libya, where he urged Nicolas Sarkozy to intervene, to Ukraine. A declared defender of Israel, he has maintained for decades a weekly column, the “Bloc‑notes”, in the weekly *Le Point*. It is precisely from the October 8 issue that the text, relaunched today on his social‑media profiles with the comment: “To say, repeat, hammer. Even if it will probably cost me a lot,” arrives. Here is our full translation.
There is no genocide in Gaza
“Israel genocides…” It is the obsession of Mélenchon and his henchmen. It is a theme of the left‑wing presidential pre‑campaign. It is a sign of recognition, a slogan, on banners in front of some occupied high schools.
The formula circulates, imposes itself, becomes a watchword in writers’ petitions, in directors’ appeals, in statements that accompany festivals.
Having had the terrible privilege, in my long life, of reporting confirmed genocides (the Rohingya in Myanmar, Darfur, Bangladesh…) or reflecting on others (the Holocaust, Cambodia or, in *La Pureté dangereuse*, already in October 1994, Rwanda…), I cannot accept this abdication of intelligence.
And I want to explain here why this accusation seems to me ineffective, senseless, and legally unfounded.
There is no genocide when a warning is issued before bombing
There is no genocide when, as the Israeli army did during the two years of intense war, a warning is issued before bombing.
There is no genocide when the arrival of humanitarian aid, however brutally insufficient, has never been interrupted in a lasting way.
There is no genocide when, almost every day, evacuation corridors are opened that allow civilians to reach safe zones.
One may find these exhortations to leave one’s home before it is pulverized inhumane: but an invitation to seek safety is not genocide.
One could argue that life is not what it is to be tossed into hastily set‑up makeshift camps, displaced, re‑settled: I have never seen, in Mosul or elsewhere, an army take the trouble to create, in full war, refuge zones of this kind.
One can, and evidently I do, find the idea of tens of thousands of civilians killed by Israeli fire after Hamas used them as human shields unbearable: but can we speak of genocide when we know that the same Israel is simultaneously organising vaccination campaigns for hundreds of thousands of Gaza children? Or when it facilitates the transfer of other children, suffering from rare diseases, to Egyptian, Emirati, Jordanian hospitals?
I know well that the meaning of the word has evolved after Srebrenica and that the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group can be enough to constitute the crime of genocide: but where is the genocidal intent when everyone, except the far‑right ministers Ben‑Gvir and Smotrich, repeats that the fire will stop when the enemy lays down its arms? Which genocide is being spoken of when, a year ago, under pressure from the United States, international courts or the conscience of Israelis, a cease‑fire was negotiated that, although violated, still remains the reference framework for the parties?
It is not true, for the record, that the International Court of Justice, brought by South Africa, concluded that it was genocide.
Nor is it true that the other court, the International Criminal Court, could conclude anything, since it is in fact competent only for countries lacking (and Israel is not such a case) a justice system worthy of that name.
As for the alleged “unanimity” of Holocaust historians behind which Israel’s opponents entrench themselves, it simply does not exist: some of them (Omer Bartov, Amos Goldberg, Raz Segal) indeed speak of genocide; but the majority (especially at Yad Vashem and the Wyman Institute in Washington) strongly reject this definition.
A legally absurd accusation
In short, this accusation is legally absurd and, in truth, has only one effect.
It demonises Israel by attributing not an excess of violence, nor a disproportionate response, nor violations of the law of war, but the crime of crimes, the crime par excellence, the only one, alongside crimes against humanity, that is imprescriptible.
It insults, threatens to justify, and ultimately points the fury of the crowds at every Jew who expresses, in France or elsewhere, even an ounce of understanding or nuance toward Israel’s democracy in war.
And then, of course, it drowns under a flood of disinformation and hatred another event, the one with which everything began and whose third anniversary we should commemorate together: the pogrom of October 7.
Because, after all… Intention after intention… What was the intention of those who, that day, murdered 1,200 civilians in a few hours? Who shouted, like the Hutu in Kigali, “Kill them all”? Who massacred indiscriminately, like the Darfur cavalry, men, women and children? Who raped before killing, as I have seen happen in Bangladesh? Who took away people like livestock to rape again, as the perpetrators of the Yazidi women did? What was the intention of the Palestinian assailants, who would have continued forever, without brake or end, if courageous defenders of the kibbutzim had not intervened?
If there is one day in the last three years in this part of the world when genocidal intent has manifested itself in broad daylight, it is precisely that one, October 7 2023, in the exterminatory fury of Hamas.
Rachel’s Editorial – The courage not to repeat the slogan
I’ll now read you today’s editorial.
Finally, someone with the courage to call things by their name. In a country where the word genocide has become the mandatory pass into polite society, somewhere between a writers’ petition and a filmmakers’ appeal, Bernard-Henri Lévy does the most revolutionary thing imaginable: he opens the dictionary. And he does it knowing it will cost him dearly, as he writes himself. Conformism, after all, never pays the bill: it always sends it to whoever dares to disagree.
Let’s be honest: signing an appeal takes one click, taking it apart takes arguments. Lévy lines up plenty of them. The warnings before air strikes, the evacuation corridors, the mass vaccination of Gaza’s children, the International Court of Justice that never concluded what so many claim it did. His critics already have their answer ready: don’t read it. It’s more comfortable that way. A slogan fits nicely on a banner outside an occupied high school; international law, sadly, does not.
And then there’s the detail the conformist consensus prefers not to see. This man has actually reported on genocides, from Burma to Darfur, from Bangladesh to Rwanda, back when many of his critics today couldn’t have found Kigali on a map. But no, now he’s the problem. Funny how short memories are always so selective: October 7, the pogrom where it all began, is forgotten, and only the loudest word is remembered.
We stand with him. Not because the suffering of Gaza’s civilians leaves us cold, but precisely because words matter. If we call everything genocide, in the end nothing will be called genocide. Right-thinking people in every newsroom, go ahead and put the placard down: for once, try reading to the end.
Koan of the Day
Monk: Master, if everyone in the square shouts the same word, does that word become true?
Master: A thousand voices repeating an echo do not make a mountain. They only make more noise.
Monk: And the one who stays silent while the crowd shouts, is he a coward or a sage?
Master: The coward is silent out of fear of the crowd. The sage speaks even when the crowd boos him. The one who shouts loudest is usually the one who has read the least.
This is all for now. From the Paris editorial office, I am Rachel Costa: this is am1575news, France24 and Radio Centrale Milano.