April 28, 2025: Global controversies can be challenging for cultural institutions whose focus is not geopolitics but some of whose staff and supporters ardently seek to promote their political views. Since October 2023, the Gaza war has been a focus of such tensions, with film festivals and other entities commandeered to assail Israel.
At February’s Berlinale Film Festival in Germany, for instance, a government official walked out of an event in protest at allegations by a Palestinian speaker that his country was “partners in the genocide in Gaza”. Palestinian filmmakers in attendance pressed festival organizers to endorse their anti-Israel message and at least one filmmaker pulled out when organizers refused.
Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts has taken a far less neutral position in the genocide controversy, as seen in its handling of both an annual Palestinian Film Festival in October co-sponsored by the institution and a separate photo exhibit. The MFA seemingly believes it’s within its mandate and capability to judge allegations of war crimes. In multiple statements currently on the museum website, the institution itself endorses the genocide charge against Israel.
Related to the film festival, the MFA writes: “This collection of narrative, documentary, and experimental shorts captures the essence of Gaza and beyond, as its people struggle to survive through two years of genocide.” Blurbs for five short films describe stories of Arabs in Gaza and Lebanon, but none examine the complex issue of genocide.
Similarly, text written by a curator of photography about an exhibit featuring a single, staged photo of a Palestinian woman sitting peacefully in a taxi, reads “a United Nations commission of inquiry and many international scholars have concluded that the State of Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The photo has no relevance to the issue of genocide.
The MFA has chosen to attach its name and the prestige of the institution to contested charges without the slightest pretense of expertise, aligning itself with one side of a complex and controversial issue.
Yet leading military scholars refute the genocide charge, including John Spencer, Chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point. He cites four categories of evidence against the claim. First is the absence of genocidal intent on the part of Israel. Israel has said clearly it seeks the destruction of the terrorist Hamas organization, not the Palestinian people. This is evident in official statements by Israeli military officials and leaders, such as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s January 2024 assertion: “Israel is fighting Hamas terrorists, not the Palestinian population.”
Second, Spencer recounts that no military has ever implemented more measures to prevent harm to civilians than Israel has, including sending advance warnings before strikes via text messages, phone calls and leaflets. Israel has also facilitated delivery of humanitarian aid, including food, water and medical supplies, contradicting genocidal intent. Spencer states: “Israel has delivered more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any military in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime.”
Third, despite many misleading claims, the ratio of civilians killed to combatants is historically low for urban warfare. Also, the Palestinian population has long been growing and continues to grow.
Fourth, observers mistake the widely photographed ugliness and destruction of the Gazan war for genocide. Other recent conflicts inflicting high civilian losses but attracting less media attention have not been deemed genocides. Spencer notes that to apply the term to a conflict such as that in Gaza misleads as to the true meaning of genocide. It disregards the challenges of opposing an enemy like Hamas that shields itself behind innocent civilians, and uses hospitals, schools, mosques and private homes to store armaments and conceal gunmen.
Notably too, on March 12, the American government weighed in when it filed a declaration with the International Court of Justice saying: “To avoid any doubt, the United States affirms, in the strongest terms possible, that the allegations of ‘genocide’ against Israel are false.”
That a global effort is underway to engrain in audiences the false belief Israel committed genocide in Gaza is obvious. Nevertheless, in the words of John Adams, “facts are stubborn things” and their power to bring clarity and justice point to how important it is that counterfactual claims on a platform such as the MFA website be corrected.
Update, Oct. 5, 2026: This column was published originally in The Boston Herald on April 28,2026. In the wake of the publication, readers and others in the community raised concerns about the politicized MFA content, which was subsequently removed.
