Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish son of Holocaust survivors, recently joined Tucker Carlson for an interview and drew attention to the number of children who have died in Gaza, concluding that it’s reasonable to call Israel’s actions a “genocide” and comparing it to the Nazi Holocaust.
“Of the current statistics we have [from] the Gaza Ministry of Health, the percentage of children killed is put at 30%, roughly 30%. In the Nazi Holocaust, the estimates are 6 million Jews were killed, of whom 1.5 million were children. So roughly 25% of those killed – children,” Finkelstein said.
“If it’s correct, and I believe there’s certainly a plausible argument that the number of children killed, the percentage, is an indicator of whether we’re dealing with a war or whether we’re deal with a genocide – I would say if we’re all agreed what happened during the Nazi Holocaust was a genocide, and 25% of the victims were children, then certainly, by analogy, a plausible case is, in Gaza, if 30% are children – that’s a strong argument that it’s a genocide.”
Finkelstein has spent much of his academic career criticizing the Israeli government.
His parents both survived the Warsaw Ghetto; in addition, his mother survived the Majdanek concentration camp and his father, Auschwitz.
Finkelstein received his PhD in political science from Princeton University in 1988 and his dissertation was on the topic of Zionism. His concern with actions committed by the Israeli government began in 1982 when he and other Jews in New York assembled to protest Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. During those protests, he held a sign that read, “This son of survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Auschwitz, Maijdenek will not be silent: Israeli Nazis – Stop the Holocaust in Lebanon!”
Speaking to Tucker, Finkelstein argued the cumulative effect of Israel’s actions constitutes a genocide.
Norman Finkelstein has been telling the truth about Gaza longer than anyone else in academia. Naturally the media have dismissed him as an antisemite or ignored him completely.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 14, 2026
0:00 The Gaza Concentration Camp
11:37 The Military and Intel Operations Focused on Destroying Gaza… pic.twitter.com/yPY94BZUhD
Finkelstein told Tucker that “the intensity and rate of destruction is higher in Gaza” than in Dresden and other cities during World War II, and that Gaza has experienced the largest concentration of child deaths in a combat zone in the world from the years 2020-2025.
Gaza also has the highest concentration of amputees in the world per capita, and also stands alone as having the “largest group of child amputees in modern history.”
More than 95% of the schools in Gaza have been damaged, with about 30% completely leveled.
Finkelstein also called attention to the targeting of medical personnel, hospitals, journalists, and UN workers by Israeli military action.
“So then what are you to conclude when you add up, as I said – you take the cumulative picture? I don’t see how you can possibly reach any other conclusion,” than a genocide, Finkelstein stated, clarifying that he doesn’t believe Israel’s primary goal is genocide, but rather to clear out the people from Gaza. Genocide is the result of that goal.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, recently emphasized that “Gaza is a disaster” after a visit there.
“The cities have been razed to the ground, leveled, wiped out. Rafah no longer exists. What strikes me most is traveling along makeshift roads, through tents and sewage. This is where the people of Gaza live,” he said in an interview.
“One thing the images do not convey is the smell. And one of the greatest scourges right now is the rats, which bite. They bite children above all, and Gaza is full of children—you see them everywhere, but instead of going to school, they play, dirty, beside the sewers.”
Pizzaballa added that healthcare workers have told him that they need trained staff “to handle the psychological trauma experienced by children and mothers.”
“This is an issue that must be handled with the sensitivity it deserves. I’ll say it in a not-very-diplomatic way, but I feel profound sorrow. I just can’t understand,” he lamented.
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