On April 24, 2026, Canadian MP Don Davies took to X with a sweeping accusation: Israel, he claimed, is “committing genocide and ethnic cleansing,” along with a long list of other alleged crimes.

“Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Davies wrote. “Bombing schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues. Attacking health workers, civilians. Assassinating journalists. Occupying + seizing land. Blockading. Practicing apartheid. Time for sanctions, boycotts, divestment & isolation.”

It’s a dramatic list, and it deserves a careful unpacking.

The “Genocide” Claim

Genocide has a fairly basic, measurable symptom—population collapse. That’s not happening in Gaza.

Gaza’s population has continued to grow, even through the war. Humanitarian activity has also expanded at scale. In 2025 alone, Israel reportedly vaccinated around 500,000 Gazan children under age ten against polio—roughly 150,000 more than pre-war estimates for that age group. Whatever else is happening, populations don’t grow during an actual genocide.

Then there are casualty figures. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reports roughly 72,000–75,000 Palestinian deaths as of early 2026, out of a pre-war population of about 2.3 million.

In October 2025, President Trump stated that Hamas had lost approximately 58,000 fighters—around 81% of its own reported total casualties. If you run with the (extreme) assumption that all remaining deaths were civilians, that would leave roughly 13,667 civilian deaths.

That would imply a civilian-to-combatant ratio of about 0.24:1. For context, the UN estimates the global average in urban warfare is roughly 9:1.

In other words, by that comparison, Gaza would have the lowest civilian-to-combatant ratio in modern urban warfare history—not exactly what one would expect from a systematic civilian extermination campaign.

There’s also baseline mortality: Gaza normally records around 16 natural deaths per day. Over the course of the conflict, that alone accounts for approximately 13,500 deaths unrelated to military action.

Then there’s method. The IDF routinely issues warnings before strikes—phone calls, text messages, leaflets, radio broadcasts, and even “roof knocking” with non-lethal munitions designed to give civilians time to leave.

And finally, public sentiment complicates the narrative further. Various surveys and reports have indicated significant support among segments of Gazans for continued armed conflict against Israel, including widely cited figures such as 98% expressing pride in the October 7 attack. Other polling and governance data suggest many Gazans continue to support Hamas rule and reject disarmament, even if it would end the war. If this is a genocide, Davies has to explain why so many in Gaza support its continuation.

The “Ethnic Cleansing” / “Apartheid” Claim

Davies also refers to “ethnic cleansing” and “apartheid,” presumably in relation to Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up about 21% of Israel’s population—roughly 2.1 million people.

That population has steadily increased since Israel’s founding, when Arabs made up 13.6%. That’s not how ethnic cleansing works.

Arab citizens are also deeply integrated into Israeli civic life. They hold 10 seats in the Knesset through parties such as Ra’am and Hadash-Ta’al. Arab representation extends to the judiciary as well, including Khaled Kabub, an Arab justice on Israel’s Supreme Court.

As of 2025, Arab enlistment in the IDF—voluntary for Arabs, unlike mandatory service for Jews—has been increasing, especially among Druze communities. That’s a curious form of “apartheid,” where the allegedly oppressed population voluntarily participates in state institutions.

Demographics also don’t cooperate with the claim. Arab women in Israel now have a higher life expectancy than Jewish men, which is an awkward detail for any narrative of “systematic ethnic cleansing.”

Surveys further show that many Arab citizens report general satisfaction with life in Israel and believe opportunities have improved compared to previous generations. Around 64% report their financial situation as relatively good.

Importantly, the dominant issues facing Arab Israelis are often reported as internal—particularly Arab-on-Arab crime—rather than state persecution.

In practice, Arab Israelis serve across society: Supreme Court justices, politicians, athletes, artists, and pilots. The only structural distinction is that Jews are subject to mandatory military service, while Arabs are exempt—meaning Arabs receive equal state benefits without the same civic obligations.

That’s a strange “apartheid” system.

The “Bombing Schools, Hospitals, Churches, Synagogues” Claim

Davies also alleges Israel is bombing schools, hospitals, churches, and synagogues—an accusation that, ironically, contradicts itself on several levels.

First, synagogues in Gaza: there are none. Israel expelled all 10,000 Jewish residents from Gaza in 2005, leaving no Jewish communities or synagogues behind.

Churches: Davies is likely referencing the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, which many have blamed Israel for bombing—even after the church itself confirmed it was never bombed.

Another reference may be the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza, which was struck by an errant shell in July 2025. Israel acknowledged the incident, stating the shell fragment was fired during combat but not intended to hit the church. Three people were killed and ten injured, and Prime Minister Netanyahu issued an apology. Israel critics insist the hit was deliberate, but no evidence has been presented to support that claim. Urban warfare, tragically, produces such accidents.

For comparison, on October 17, 2023, Islamic Jihad fired a rocket intended for Israeli civilians that instead struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital. Hamas immediately blamed Israel, and much of the media repeated it—even after footage confirmed it was a misfired Palestinian rocket. Davies, notably, has not expressed outrage over that incident.

Meanwhile, Israel has conducted surgical raids on hospitals that double as Hamas military facilities. In one case involving Kamal Adwan Hospital, its director, Ahmed al-Kahlout, admitted that he was a Hamas member and that the facility was used for military purposes.

If Israel were systematically targeting religious sites and hospitals, it raises obvious questions: why are there churches and hospitals still standing in Gaza, and why are hospitals, churches, and synagogues in Israeli-controlled areas also fully intact?

The “Attacking Civilians, Health Workers, Journalists” Claim

Davies also claims Israel is targeting civilians, health workers, and journalists.

If that were actually policy, Israel could simply carpet bomb Gaza. Instead, it conducts targeted strikes aimed at terrorists embedded within civilian infrastructure.

A frequently cited example involves Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, who presented himself publicly as a doctor. In February 2026,he was identified as a Hamas colonel overseeing Kamal Adwan Hospital, which functioned as a Hamas terror base.

On journalists, similar claims appear. Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, for example, was an Al Jazeera reporter—and also a Hamas operative.

Of approximately 212 Palestinian journalists reported killed in Gaza by February 2026, about 102 (roughly 48.11%) were affiliated with terror groups.

That still leaves tragic civilian deaths in war—but not every civilian death is a targeted assassination, as Davies seems to believe.

The “Occupation and Land Seizure” Claim

Davies’ “occupation and land seizure” claim also runs into a historical problem: Israel has repeatedly reduced its territorial control in exchange for peace attempts.

Examples include the Sinai Peninsula returned to Egypt in 1979, parts of Judea and Samaria transferred to the Palestinian Authority in 1994, and the full withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. For nearly 20 years, Israel occupied no part of the Gaza Strip. Then, on October 7, 2023, Gazans invaded Israel and massacred 1,200 civilians to protest its “occupation.”

Israel is, quite literally, smaller today than it was in the 1970s.

The Blockade Myth

Davies’ claim that Israel is imposing a “blockade” on Gaza collapses under even basic scrutiny.

First, border control is not a “blockade.” Gaza’s borders are controlled by both Israel and Egypt, with each country regulating entry and exit. That alone undermines the narrative of a unilateral Israeli siege.

Second, Israel does not “seal off” Gaza from humanitarian access. Quite the opposite: it facilitates large-scale aid entry through its crossings. On average, Israel ensured the safe transfer of approximately 100 food trucks per day into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. That is not a blockade in any ordinary sense of the word. By August 2025, food prices in Gaza had fallen sharply because of the large amounts of food that had flooded the territory.

Yet Davies singles out Israel exclusively, while making no comparable criticism of Egypt, which also restricts crossings and has historically refused entry to Gazans in significant numbers.

And for years prior to the war, Israel issued tens of thousands of work permits to Gazans, allowing daily entry for employment. At the urging of the Biden administration, the number of permits under Prime Minister Naftali Bennett rose to around 15,000 daily, and by October 2023 had reached approximately 17,500 per day, with plans to expand further to 20,000.

Those arrangements ended only after October 7, when Gazans crossed into Israel and killed roughly 1,200 civilians. Some of those Gazans were later found carrying Israeli-issued work permits.

So the “blockade” narrative requires ignoring both Egypt’s parallel border control and Israel’s documented history of allowing large-scale civilian movement and sustained humanitarian flow into Gaza.

Takeaway

Davies throws around words like “genocide,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “apartheid” as if they’re interchangeable, as if they don’t have definitions, as if they don’t come with real-world benchmarks that can be checked. But the moment you check them, the whole narrative starts to unravel. 

• “Genocide” without population collapse.
• “Ethnic cleansing” alongside a growing Arab population embedded at every level of public life.
• “Bombing synagogues” where none exist.
• “Targeting journalists” when a substantial share of those cited are tied to militant groups.
• A “blockade” that somehow includes daily aid convoys and tens of thousands of work permits.

At some point, this stops being a misunderstanding and starts looking like something more deliberate.

Sources

X, World Health Organization, CIA, Henry Jackson Society, JCFA, New York Post, UN, PalWatch, Hamas, Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem Post, Shaharit, Tel Aviv University, MFA, Washington Institute, Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, Breitbart, Honest Reporting, NGO Monitor, NATO, IDF, IDF, Honest Reporting, Israeli Embassy, Honest Reporting, IDF, Jerusalem Post, UNICEF, Times of Israel, Honest Reporting, FrontPage Mag