• Netanyahu has overseen wars in Gaza in 2008–09, 2014, 2021, and genocide launched in October 2023

ISTANBUL

As Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip enters its third year, a pressing question emerges – has Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu surpassed his predecessors to become the most notorious war criminal in Israel’s history?

The accusation is not merely rhetorical, as South Africa has brought a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also issued an arrest warrant for him on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.

With tens of thousands killed, entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble, and international bodies documenting systematic attacks on civilians, critics argue that Netanyahu may have crossed lines that even previous Israeli leaders known for their brutality did not.

History of violence and displacement

The accusation of genocide does not arise in a vacuum – it is rooted in a long history of war, displacement, and systemic violence inflicted upon Palestinians by Israel.

Under the leadership of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding prime minister, the 1948 war, which Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe, led to the mass displacement of 750,000 Palestinians and the depopulation or destruction of over 400 villages.

Plan Dalet, a military strategy devised in 1948, authorized operations aimed at securing Jewish control over contested areas, often by driving out or terrorizing Palestinian civilians. Incidents like the Deir Yassin massacre in April 1948, where over 100 villagers were killed by Zionist militias, came to symbolize the broader violence of the period.

Israeli academic Neve Gordon said that the only Israeli leader comparable to Netanyahu is Ben-Gurion, who oversaw the Nakba, during which he said 750,000 Palestinians were expelled and around 13,000 were killed.

“Here we have a situation where close to 1.9 million people have been displaced, many of them several times, some of them 10 times. We have over 66,000 people who were killed, among them more than 18,000 children. And this is without the number of people that are missing and under the rubble,” he said.

Ariel Sharon and the legacy of impunity

If Ben-Gurion laid the foundations of displacement, Ariel Sharon epitomized the use of overwhelming force and disregard for civilian life. As commander of Unit 101, Sharon led the notorious 1953 raid on the West Bank village of Qibya, where Israeli forces killed 69 civilians, mostly women and children, and demolished more than 40 houses.

Nearly three decades later, as defense minister during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Sharon again became synonymous with atrocity. After Israel’s forces encircled the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, allied militias massacred more than 3,000 Palestinian civilians, according to the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question.

Israel’s own Kahan Commission found Sharon “indirectly responsible” for ignoring the danger of mass killings and failing to act to stop them. He resigned as defense minister but later rose to become prime minister, remembered by many Israelis as “The Bulldozer.”

For Palestinians and much of the Arab world, Sharon embodied impunity: a man implicated in massacres and settlement expansion who never faced trial. His trajectory showed how Israeli leaders could be censured domestically yet remain celebrated politically, without international accountability.

Netanyahu’s record

Unlike Ben-Gurion, Netanyahu is not a founding father; unlike Sharon, he is not a military commander with a handful of infamous episodes. Rather, his notoriety stems from his longevity in power and the cumulative scale of destruction under his leadership.

Having served longer than any other Israeli prime minister, Netanyahu has overseen repeated wars in Gaza in 2008–09, 2014, 2021, and the genocide launched after October 2023.

According to UN estimates, more than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in the first year of bombardment and ground offensives, with women and children making up the majority. Civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, and water facilities, has been systematically destroyed.

Netanyahu himself, in a December 2023 speech, invoked the Biblical command to annihilate Amalek – interpreted by critics as dehumanizing Palestinians and justifying extermination.

Gordon underlined that the “level of violence, the destruction of the whole health care system in the Gaza Strip, the destruction of the education system in the Gaza Strip, the destruction of the universities, of governing apparatus, that whole level of violence is unprecedented.”

Netanyahu “is a leader who is actually carrying out genocide. And therefore, I hope he will be tried in The Hague,” Gordon highlighted.

The age of international scrutiny

What makes Netanyahu distinct is the convergence of scale, intent, and global scrutiny. In Ben-Gurion’s era, international law was embryonic; Sharon faced only a domestic inquiry in the 1980s.

Netanyahu, by contrast, operates in an age of instant documentation, with every strike filmed, every statement archived, and international courts engaged.

The ICJ has already issued provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocidal acts – measures Netanyahu has defied. Meanwhile, the ICC is investigating Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“In his case, international accountability would be that he would be first arrested and then brought to trial at The Hague, and a trial would take place where he is held accountable for the destruction of the Gaza Strip,” Gordon said.

“I imagine that a court of law will find him guilty and he would end his life behind bars. I don’t think that is very likely to happen, but I think that would be a just solution.”