Knesset Speaker Ohana tells European parliamentary leaders Israel is not committing genocide

Right · 2Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana rejected accusations that Israel is committing genocide in a speech on Thursday 15 October 2026 to parliamentary leaders at a Council of Europe gathering in Rome. 1 2 Right · 1"Israel is not committing genocide. Enough with this despicable lie. Israel is fighting genocide," Ohana said, according to The Jerusalem Post. 1 Right · 2He said the world faces a "severe crisis" of international courage, with many leaders proclaiming values but few willing to defend them, and accused some of knowingly lying and cynically backing false propaganda to win fleeting electoral support and calm in their streets. 1 2

Right · 2Ohana invoked the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack, saying civilians were not "caught in the crossfire" but were the targets. JNS reported he said there was "no 'NAZA'" on that day, a reference to a recently released documentary that accused Israeli authorities of indifference to civilian deaths in Gaza. 1 2 Right · 2He held up a book he said sits on his desk, in which the word "Jew" is printed six million times; The Jerusalem Post identified it as And Every Single One Was Someone by Phil Chernofsky, running to 1,250 pages. "This is what real genocide looks like," Ohana said, referring to the Holocaust in Europe. 1 2 Right · 1According to The Jerusalem Post, he described the war as a "global confrontation between civilizations" and urged leaders to "stand on the right side of history – alongside us", adding that some member states have a "particularly dark chapter" in their history. 1

Right · 1The meeting was the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament, held under the auspices of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at Italy's Chamber of Deputies in Palazzo Montecitorio. Organizers said about 70 speakers or deputy speakers and 500 delegates attended, and its themes were threats to democracy, artificial intelligence and the international rules-based order. 2 Right · 1JNS reported that PACE President Petra Bayr thanked Ohana in Hebrew after the speech, drawing applause. The coverage does not report other reactions from attendees. 2 Right · 1On the sidelines in Rome, Ohana was expected to meet speakers and delegations from countries including Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, Montenegro, Cyprus and Croatia, to strengthen inter-parliamentary ties and present Israel's positions, the Knesset spokesperson's office said. 1

Right · 1In a Jerusalem Post opinion piece (JTA), Menachem Rosensaft and James McAuley wrote that Israel's conduct in Gaza does not meet the legal criteria of genocide, which require intent to destroy a group. They argued that rejecting the charge while saying nothing more avoids the reality that Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe. They cited the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay, whose UN commission concluded in 2025 that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, and polls showing about half of the British public and three in 10 American voters believe the charge. 3