Is Israel committing genocide in Gaza? While experts and legal scholars around the world debate this question, anti-Israel activists and commentators have long since delivered their verdict in a blind reflex. Setting aside potentially legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, a factual review reveals the frailty of the genocide accusation. So why does the rhetoric of “genocidal Israel” find such a willing audience? Tracing the intellectual history of the genocide charge leads us back to ancient narratives of Christian anti-Judaism, which carry a deeply unsettling resonance to this day.

From the very beginning, the Christian world depicted the Jews as inherently murderous. The Pauline epistles lament that they “killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets.” The “men of Israel,” according to the Acts of the Apostles, “crucified and killed” Christ “by the hands of lawless men.” In this structural framing, the Jews appear as puppet masters, executing their plan “by the hands of” the Romans—using them only as instruments. Add to this the infamous thirty pieces of silver and the conspiracy of Judas with the Jewish authorities: Translated bluntly into political terms, these Christian scriptures present the plot of an influential Jewish network acting as the hidden hand, using money and conspiracy to manipulate a world empire in order to destroy its enemy.

Once Jesus was worshipped as God, the charge escalated to deicide. Logically, such a monstrous crime required a pact with the Devil. Thus, the myth of the cosmic and diabolical omnipotence of the Jews was born.

From these scriptures, Christian society wove legends of host desecration and ritual murder, portraying both as cultic re-enactments of the crucifixion of Jesus. Time and again, these rumors sparked violent pogroms—most recently in 1946 in Kielce, Poland.

Amid the epochal crises of the 14th century, this deicidal delusion escalated with the advance of the plague, the “Black Death”: The Jews, it was claimed, had not only crucified Christ but had now formed an international conspiracy to exterminate all of Christendom by poisoning the wells. Because they were believed to possess the diabolical power to murder God, they were deemed capable of this monstrous act as well. In 1349, the city council of Schlettstadt reported that a convert had “confessed” that “the Jewry intended to ruin Christendom with poison.” In the 15th century, the monk Albert noted: “Many say this pestilence is the result of a corruption of the air, but others say the Jews wanted to wipe out all of Christendom with a terrible poison and had poisoned the springs and wells all over the earth.”

The Black Death pogroms of 1348–1351 marked the most devastating anti-Jewish violence prior to the Nazi era. Though occasionally instigated by bishops, they were predominantly driven by guilds, the lower clergy, and the broader populace. Hundreds of Jewish communities—among them every major settlement in what would later become Germany—were eradicated. Tens of thousands of Jews were burned at the stake or broken on the wheel, while countless others were driven into exile. Even converts were frequently shown no mercy. One contemporary chronicler emphasized that........

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