Statement on Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Genocide Denial at the Israel Hayom Summit

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security feels called to point out that former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s recent remarks at the Israel Hayom Summit on 2 December amount to outright genocide denial.

During her remarks, the Secretary correctly noted that the recent deterioration of Israel’s standing among U.S. voters is not a “Republican versus Democrat kind of divide” but rather a generational one. Nevertheless, she incorrectly diagnosed the reasons for the shift as a matter purely of optics, stating that “Israel [has] the worst PR of any group” and accusing social media, particularly TikTok, of presenting “pure propaganda” that American youth are uncritically ingesting.

Secretary Clinton’s framing is not at all an accurate reflection of why Americans are growing more critical of Israel. Young Americans of all political stripes have not fallen prey to propaganda, though that is always a legitimate concern. Rather, they have consumed two years of videos depicting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians that have been uploaded by Palestinian journalists, ordinary people trying to survive in Gaza, IDF soldiers, and ordinary Israelis themselves. There has been no convincing refutation of the sheer amount of raw evidence of genocide coming out of Palestine. Young people in the U.S. are not stupid or gullible. They simply reject genocide – something the Secretary might consider doing as well.

Secretary Clinton appears not to be bothered by the reality of genocidal violence – in fact, she did not mention anything about it. Her concern is, rather, in her words, “the narrative” – the fact that these crimes are no longer hidden and are now being live-streamed and documented in real time, making it harder for her and others to control it. TikTok cannot be blamed for the fact that many members of Gen Z understand that Israel is committing genocide, since so many other people, including those who never look at TikTok, also hold that view. Apart from the Lemkin Institute, the vast majority of large, mainstream human rights organizations, the UN, and many scholars as well as international legal bodies have denounced Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide. Many carefully researched reports by international organizations have established that Israel’s crimes meet the international legal threshold for genocide. We encourage the former Secretary to read them.

It is in fact highly ironic to blame TikTok for the dissemination of content laying bare the realities of Israel’s genocide in Palestine. Like many other social media conglomerates, TikTok has been accused of systematic censorship of pro-Palestinian content. In July of this year, TikTok appointed an ex-IDF instructor as its new manager of hate speech. This person can hardly be accused of pro-Palestinian views given her background and stated opinions. It appears that what Secretary Clinton really means to say is that TikTok is not being effective enough at censoring the truth.

What truly seems to unsettle Secretary Clinton is not “misinformation,” but rather the fact that younger generations are no longer consuming a single, state-controlled narrative. They are accessing unfiltered images and testimonies that challenge decades of political messaging. This helps explain why TikTok has become a target, not because it is misleading students, but precisely because the content uploaded by its users allow them to see beyond official propaganda.

When former Secretary Clinton calls this “a serious problem for democracy,” it sounds less like a defense of democratic values and more like concern for the weakening of a long-standing political and ideological agenda, one that, it must be stated, is highly undemocratic.

Secretary Clinton did get one thing right, although quite inadvertently: When you do not have the truth on your side, all you left with is indeed optics and “the narrative.” But she is wrong to think that any amount of PR – even really great and expensive PR – is going to hide this genocide. Israel would be better served by advice to end the genocide, engage in a transformational process that brings the perpetrators to justice, and build a future with Palestinians. That is the only way to change its image.

America’s young people are no longer fooled by genocide denial – whether it is being presented by Israel, the United States, Sudan, Myanmar, Russia, or Secretary Clinton herself. They are tired of and appalled by the continued genocides around the world and are willing to risk their degrees and their careers to let the world know it.

The Lemkin Institute continues to support students and young people worldwide for having the courage to stand up for their convictions, to speak truth to power, and to fight against the scourge of genocide in Palestine and elsewhere.

Secretary Clinton’s remarks are not only inaccurate – they are also a shameful example of the lengths to which people complicit in genocide will go to to deny its existence.