In letter to Pope, Chikli slams his call to study whether Gaza offensive is ‘genocide’

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli criticizes Pope Francis for suggesting the international community should study whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza constitutes a “genocide” of the Palestinian people.

In an open letter addressed to the pontiff and published by several news outlets, Chikli says the pope’s remarks — made in excerpts published last month from a forthcoming book — amount to a “trivialization” of the term genocide.

“As a people who lost six million of its sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are particularly sensitive to the trivialization of the term ‘genocide’ — a trivialization that comes dangerously close to Holocaust denial,” Chikli writes.

Chikli, who ends the letter by calling Francis “a dear friend of the Jewish people,” asks the pope “to clarify your position regarding the new accusation of genocide against the Jewish state.”

The Vatican does not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.

Israel says accusations of genocide in Gaza are baseless and that it is solely hunting down Hamas terrorists and other Palestinian armed groups following the October 7, 2023, cross-border onslaught in Israel.