‘I am a genocide scholar, I know it when I see it.’ 

That statement by the Israeli-American genocide expert Omer Bartov (72) landed like a bombshell two years ago. Bartov is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University and made his name through research into Nazi Germany and the myth-making surrounding the Wehrmacht, among other topics.

Bartov witnessed from close up how the young state of Israel developed. He was born and raised on a kibbutz and fought as a squad commander in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) during the Yom Kippur War (1973).

From his office in Boston, the professor looks back on the country’s history and wonders where things went wrong. In his book Israel, What Went Wrong, published in April – on which he will give a lecture at Leiden University on 28 May – he asks how Israel has devolved from a country that enjoyed broad support from the United Nations at its founding in 1948 into a reviled state committing genocide.

Bartov describes how Zionism changed from an emancipation movement seeking protection against European anti-Semitism into an ethno-nationalist state ideology.

When did things go wrong in Israel, and why?
‘Largely because of the lack of a constitution. In 1948, the ultra-Orthodox Jews did not want a constitution because they believed the Torah was sufficient. But in reality, the Israelis ultimately opted for a state without a constitution so that they would not have to define the nation’s borders or establish their relationship with the Palestinians. 

‘As Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, said at the time: “Why should we define the borders now? Perhaps there will be a war and our territory will expand.” Look at how Israel is fighting in southern Lebanon now. Many voices in Israel are saying: perhaps we should occupy it, or take over more territory from Syria. 

Add to that, of course, the attempt at ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians in Gaza, and the creeping ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. It all comes down to that core issue: the decision not to make a decision. A constitution would have made postponing that decision much more difficult because it would have codified core legal issues within the Israeli legal system.

‘The last war Israel fought was the Yom Kippur War, in which I fought myself. At the time, Israel was fighting the armies of Egypt and Syria, which were equipped with tanks, aircraft and artillery. Since then, Israel has never again faced an existential threat, and has not fought a real war against an enemy of equal strength.

‘The Palestinian question is now decisive. All the violence that has ensued since then stems from the refusal to resolve that core issue of Israel’s existence: the relationship between two groups of roughly equal size living under Israeli rule.’

Is there a big difference between being conscripted now and in 1973?
‘Absolutely. I don’t think the war of ‘73 should ever have broken out. Israel could have accepted a peace treaty from Egypt. But that didn’t happen, and what followed was a war that we experienced as an existential threat to our survival. 

‘Today’s army is completely different. Many soldiers are trained very differently from how we were trained back then. The army believes it’s waging a holy war against the enemy and doesn’t care about human rights or democracy. What they’re actually doing is counter-insurgency.

‘In addition, the occupation of the Palestinian territories is on a completely different level than in my day. We were already protesting against it when I was seventeen.’

‘I think the development of the occupation since 1967 has had an enormous impact on generations of Israeli men and women. They were and are responsible for the dehumanisation of Palestinians. And that became particularly evident in Gaza, following the Hamas attack, in which hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed. And that created the space to carry out something on an unprecedented scale. ‘The army I served in would never have been capable of that.’

You dedicated the book to your father. Why do you call him ‘the last Zionist’?
‘He watched as an earlier version of Zionism was replaced by a different idea. This version of Zionism is very different from that of my father’s generation, but also from my own. Back then, there was still the belief that Zionism could be intrinsically improved. 

‘Today’s Zionism is devoid of humanism and has no respect for anyone. To put it bluntly: it’s Jewish supremacism; racist, violent and genocidal. It belongs on the rubbish heap of history. As long as Israel is governed by that ideology, it will remain what it is now and deserves to be a pariah state under international pressure.’

The book is being published in eight languages, but not in Hebrew. It is also not being released in Israel – why not?
‘Not yet. I’ve made a lot of effort to get it published in Israel and I’m still in contact with two publishers. There’s a very small chance it might still happen. I think the publishers are under a lot of pressure and not willing to take the commercial risk. There simply isn’t a large enough readership in Israel, especially not for serious subjects.

‘In addition, there might be readers who would no longer want to buy books from that publisher as a form of protest. There are also many publishers who disagree with my arguments and criticism of the left-wing movement in Israel, which is a rather strange decision from a publishing perspective. You don’t have to agree with the content; you just have to think it’s worth reading.’

Both your genocide statement and the book have elicited many negative reactions. How do you deal with that?
‘I’m not a snowflake, but if someone starts their e-mail to me by saying I’m an arsehole, I’ve read enough. Baseless accusations that I’m hurting the Jewish people or that I’m a supporter of Hamas are the result of exposure to propaganda. Those people are not writing to me to engage in a discussion. I block them, often after reading just the first line.’

‘There are also people who believe that Israel is not committing genocide, or who think the terminology is wrong. That’s a reasonable argument to have. But what’s important to me is that I feel like the book helps a group of people to look at the situation more clearly and distance themselves from the constant propaganda on social media and in traditional news media.’

In June 2024, you were scheduled to give a lecture at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. Many IDF reservists who had just served in Gaza and (extreme) right-wing students protested against this. After considerable delay, you engaged in a dialogue with them. How did that go?
‘At the start, they yelled at me that they were not murderers. Some groups were so disruptive that after an hour, I invited them to participate in a discussion. In the end, I never gave the lecture.

‘They wanted to show that they were humane and showed photos of them giving their own rations to Syrian and Palestinian children. “Look”, they said, “there is no hunger in Gaza!” Not understanding that this was completely irrational. The children only accepted those rations precisely because there is a famine.

‘According to them, there was no choice but to destroy the entire area. They saw themselves as victims of the Hamas attacks against which they were defending themselves. What I saw was that they were clearly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, something the Israeli government sweeps under the carpet. I saw lots of unprocessed trauma; those young people had walked through streets filled with corpses torn apart by dogs. From that perspective, I was able to empathise with them.’

At Dutch universities, including Leiden, there is a fierce debate about academic ties with institutions in Israel. Should universities sever those ties?
‘Yes. Israeli universities have suppressed their own Palestinian students and staff. Until October 2023, I believed that Israeli universities were becoming more progressive, but at that time, the majority either remained silent or expressed their support for what the Israeli government was doing. 

‘Personally, I no longer wish to have any ties whatsoever with any Israeli university as an institution. I do invite Israeli academics to conferences, but I don’t want to be associated with Israeli academic institutions until they actually change. And they have constantly complained about being boycotted, without ever trying to understand why.’

Omer Bartov, Israel, What Went Wrong. Fern Press/Penguin Random House UK, 256 pages, € 23