The New York Times marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day by publishing an illustration that placed a Holocaust survivor at the center of an attack, accusing Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza. The image, created by Olivier Kugler, portrayed Stephen Kapos holding a sign accusing Israel of “genocide in Gaza,” while accompanying text charged the Jewish state with exploiting the Holocaust to justify its actions. On a day meant to preserve the truth of the Nazi genocide, the paper elevated a narrative that distorts it.
The Kugler illustration presents Israel, the state established in the aftermath of the Holocaust as a haven for Jews, as morally equivalent to the perpetrators of that genocide. This is a textbook case of Holocaust inversion, the practice of turning the Holocaust against the Jews by portraying them as Nazis. Major definitions of antisemitism, including those used by governments and institutions, identify such comparisons as a clear form of antisemitism. When Israel is accused of “genocide” while defending itself against a terrorist organization like Hamas, the charge is not merely political criticism. It is a rewriting of history that empties the Holocaust of its meaning.
The founding of the State of Israel in 1948 was a direct response to the systematic annihilation of six million Jews in Europe. Survivors emerged from the camps and displaced persons centers with nowhere to go. Israel became a refuge, a place where Jews would no longer be dependent on the mercy of foreign governments. That reality makes the spectacle of Holocaust survivors publicly aligning against Israel deeply unsettling.
The irony is stark. The State of Israel was founded as a refuge for Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust, a place where Jewish survival would no longer depend on the goodwill of others. Yet here, a Holocaust survivor is depicted aligning with narratives that delegitimize that refuge. The illustration’s slogans, “Free Palestine,” “Stop bombing Iran,” “Hands off Lebanon”, place Israel alongside its enemies, including regimes and groups openly committed to its destruction.
The text embedded in the illustration claims that Israel invokes the suffering of six million Jews to place itself “beyond criticism.” That accusation is false on its face. Israel is among the most scrutinized nations in the world, routinely condemned in international forums. More importantly, the Holocaust is not a rhetorical shield; it is a historical reality of industrialized extermination. Equating Israel’s military actions, however debated, with the systematic murder carried out by Nazi Germany is explicitly defamatory.
The figure of Kapos is presented sympathetically, with biographical details emphasizing his survival and family losses in Auschwitz. His political statements are given prominence without challenge or context. There is no mention of Hamas terrorism, no acknowledgment of Israel’s security realities, and no balancing perspective. The viewer is led to see Israel through the lens of a single voice framed as morally authoritative because of his survivor status. That is not journalism. It is advocacy.
History makes that alignment even more troubling. The Palestinian national movement’s early leadership included figures such as Haj Amin al-Husseini, who collaborated with Nazi Germany and supported the extermination of Jews. He met with Adolf Hitler and promoted the Nazi cause in the Arab world. This is part of the historical record. To see a Holocaust survivor invoked in support of a narrative that erases this history and condemns the Jewish state is a profound inversion of reality.
The illustration’s own wording embeds explicit political accusations and slogans about Israel and its military actions, framed through the authority of a Holocaust survivor. One of the most direct statements appears in the right-side text attributed to Kapos:
“What Israel is doing in Syria and Lebanon, and what it is doing in Gaza, is claiming impunity for its actions based on the exceptional great suffering of the Holocaust, saying that because of six million deaths, it is beyond criticism.”
This sentence asserts that Israel systematically uses the Holocaust to place itself “beyond criticism.” That is not a descriptive claim. It is an accusation of moral manipulation at a national level, tied directly to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state formed after the Holocaust.
The illustration then reinforces that framing by attributing to him another sweeping conclusion:
“In the opinion of many Jews like me who are critical of Israel’s actions, that is completely distorting the proper meaning of the Holocaust.”
Here, Israel is accused of “distorting” the Holocaust itself. This moves the message from political disagreement into the realm of historical and moral indictment.
The most explicit political framing appears in the sign placed in his hands:
“THIS HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR SAYS: STOP THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA!”
The use of the term “genocide” is the central claim. It is a maximal moral accusation, equating Israel’s military campaign in Gaza with the Nazi genocide of the Jewish people. That comparison is precisely what makes the illustration highly contentious, because it places Israel in the role of perpetrator of the Holocaust-scale crime that Kapos himself survived.
This framing is further reinforced in the bottom banner:
“STOP BOMBING IRAN
Hands off Lebanon
Free Palestine”
These are political slogans disguised as facts, associated with active geopolitical conflicts involving Israel and its adversaries. “Free Palestine,” in this context, is presented without a countervailing context, while Israel’s actions are listed in accusatory terms.
Even the structure of the illustration matters. Kapos’s Holocaust biography, “Fifteen members of my family perished in Auschwitz,” is placed directly above these political assertions, creating a visual and rhetorical sequence that links the Holocaust experience to contemporary condemnation of Israel.
The New York Times chose to publish this illustration on a day dedicated to preserving the integrity of Holocaust memory. That decision signals to readers that such comparisons are legitimate, that the language of genocide can be casually applied to Israel, and that Holocaust remembrance can be repurposed into a political weapon.
The illustration published by The New York Times placed a Holocaust survivor at the center of a political message that turns the legacy of the Holocaust against the very state created in its aftermath. The image of Stephen Kapos holding a sign accusing Israel of genocide is jarring.
Labeling the war against Hamas as a genocide and comparing it to the Holocaust against the Jews is absurd. Consider these facts:
1. Number of Jews Before the Holocaust (1939)
- Estimated global Jewish population in 1939:
≈ 16.6 million - World population in 1939:
≈ 2.3 billion - Jews as a percentage of the world population in 1939:
≈ 0.72%
2. Number of Jews Murdered in the Holocaust
- Estimated Jews murdered by the Nazis:
≈ 6 million - Percentage of global Jewish population killed:
≈ 36% (Some estimates place it higher, around 40%) - Percentage of European Jews killed:
Over 60% of Europe’s pre-war Jewish population was exterminated.
3. Number of Jews in the World Today (2024–2025)
- Estimated global Jewish population today:
≈ 15.7 million (including those with partial Jewish ancestry) - World population today:
≈ 8.1 billion - Jews as a percentage of the world population today:
≈ 0.19%
Note: The global Jewish population still has not returned to its pre-Holocaust numbers, even after more than 80 years.
It should also be remembered that the term ‘genocide’ was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin during World War II, in 1944, specifically in response to the Holocaust. So I was mightily confused when South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023, alleging that Israel was breaching the Genocide Convention in its actions in Gaza.
In comparison, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, over 45,000 people, including 17,500 children, have been killed in the war, and 11,000 Palestinians are missing and presumed dead. It is important to note that the figures provided by Palestinian sources do not differentiate between combatants and civilians. So any claim of genocide includes Hamas terrorists
Even by Hamas’ estimates, less than 3% of the Gazan population has been killed in this “genocide”. And the numbers provided by Hamas are notoriously unreliable, unsubstantiated, frequently revised, and defy all logic.
