According to a widespread view, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s invasion of Gaza are two comparable military interventions. It is argued that these two wars constitute two flagrant violations of international law. Putin and Netanyahu are evenly accused of war crimes, as both face arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). Both are also accused of violating the right to self-determination of peoples: the Ukrainian people’s right in the case of the Russians, and the Palestinian people’s right in the case of the Israelis. It is essential to dispel these artificial, superficial, and misleading generalizations. We examine a series of key points.
To compare is not to equate
The differences are numerous, however. Two basic facts make the situations incomparable. First, Russia is the largest country in the world and does not need new territories, while Israel, since its origins as a settler colony, has constantly practiced territorial expansionism at the expense of its neighbors.
Furthermore, political and demographic realities distinguish Russia and Israel. A population of Slavic origin, 80% of whom are ethnically Russian, has been present on the territory of present-day Russia for approximately 1,500 years. [1] Conversely, Jewish Israelis are mostly from outside Palestine. Unlike Russia, a nation that is historically rooted on its territory, Israel is essentially a settler colony, and as such, a relatively recent transplant. [2] The former is stabilized, while the latter is very openly seeking demographic and territorial growth.
It is not enough to simply observe that an army has invaded a country and then take a position. The circumstances, the underlying causes and the responsibilities are determining factors. They must be taken into account. Concerning the conflict in Ukraine, the instigator of the confrontation is NATO, under the direction of the United States. It is threatening Russia by expanding to its borders and instrumentalizing Ukraine. In Palestine, the source of the conflict lies in the denial of Palestinian national rights, the Zionist occupation and colonization that have oppressed Palestinians for over a century. The Israeli assault on Gaza is merely a continuation of this reality. While Russia reacted to an external threat to its security, Israel has pursued a self-generated policy for decades to realize the Zionist colonial project. Russia is on the defensive; Israel is on the offensive.
One shrinks, the other grows
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Russia, its successor state, had a considerably reduced territory. The USSR dissolved into 15 republics, including Russia. Conversely, Israel has consistently sought to expand its territory: first through the conquest of the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights, but also through the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza. It remains in Syria and is pursuing its plan to occupy southern Lebanon, all with the aim of creating a Greater Israel encompassing most of the Middle East. Heavily supported by American imperialism, a minority entity would exert its dominance over the vast majority of the region’s population.
Borders constantly preserved for one and constantly transformed for the other
In addition to these initial general observations, several factors highlight the differences between the two situations. The dissolution of the USSR provides an example of a situation respecting the principle of uti possidetis. The internal borders of the USSR became the borders of the 15 sovereign republics. Disruptions at these borders occurred in Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, but they were the result of color revolutions fomented, fueled, and financed by external interventions from the CIA, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Nevertheless, overall respect for existing borders prevailed. On the contrary, the borders of the State of Israel have been constantly shifting and remain fluid and expandable to this day. Israel does not have a constitution, partly because such a constitution would require it to define its borders.
Recognition of the Ukrainian state by Russia and non-recognition of the Palestinian state by Israel
The Budapest Memorandum [3], signed in 1994, led to Moscow’s recognition of the Ukrainian state. In contrast, Israel has never recognized the existence of a Palestinian state.
One is against apartheid and the other is for it
NGOs, international experts and UN representatives consider that Israel imposes an apartheid regime on its territory. No one makes such accusations against Russia. On the contrary, Russia has always opposed the apartheid regime that prevailed in South Africa at the time. This also explains why it has consistently opposed the discriminatory measures imposed by Kiev against the Russian-speaking minority in eastern Ukraine.
One is facing an army and the other a guerrilla force
In Ukraine, we are indeed dealing with a war between the Russian and Ukrainian armies. In Gaza, the Israeli army, equipped with financial and military support from the United States, is facing resistance from small groups of guerrillas.
A war in Ukraine, a genocide in Gaza
The proportion of civilians killed in Ukraine reflects the usual characteristics of war. Determining exact figures is difficult. For political and psychological reasons, the warring parties do not provide them. We only have estimates, and these must be treated with caution. Losses in Ukraine are primarily military; civilians also pay a secondary price, but they are neither the primary targets nor the primary victims.
In Gaza, the objective is not war understood as military combat, but the destruction of a society, “ethnic cleansing,” and the genocide of a population. Although it is difficult to determine the exact number of deaths (a correspondent writing for The Lancet suggested there were nearly 200,000 [4]), we know that the victims are first and foremost civilians. The Israeli army deliberately and primarily bombs civilians. It even authorizes their mass killing, even if it is only to kill a single Hamas leader. [5] At the height of the genocide, hundreds of civilians died every day. Half of the civilian victims are children under 18. War crimes, in the sense of serious violations of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, are the rule, not the exception.
According to the unanimous opinion of international experts, as well as the UN, NGOs and several countries, most notably South Africa [6], we are facing the genocide of Gazans. [7] They are being deprived of food, water, gas, and electricity. Schools and hospitals are being destroyed. Journalists, medical personnel, and intellectuals are being targeted. Trucks carrying essential supplies are blocked at the borders. Genocidal intentions have been openly and repeatedly expressed by the Israeli authorities. In armed conflicts, in Ukraine as elsewhere, war crimes are undoubtedly committed by both sides, but they are not the norm, and no one claims that the Russian army is committing genocide against the Ukrainian population.
Alleged criminal intentions for one and openly displayed for the other
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicated that it had reasonable grounds to believe that Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova allegedly committed war crimes. In this case, they would be responsible for ” the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children.” [8] It must be said that these were sometimes orphans and, as the arrest warrant indicates, primarily children living in areas occupied by Russia and therefore, essentially, Russian-speaking children. Is the aim then truly to assimilate them into Russia? If they were primarily Russian-speaking children, what would be the point of such assimilation? The Ukrainian authorities insist that these Russian speakers are Ukrainian. One then wonders why these same authorities denied the Russian-speaking aspect of these children’s identity by legislating to make the use of the Russian language illegal in public spaces.
Russian authorities deny accusations of forcibly abducting children. They claim to have moved them away from combat zones and placed them in safe holiday camps.
First, it should be noted that when the accusation was made, the Russian speakers in the four oblasts had already become Russian citizens. Admittedly, the Russian-speaking minority, as a national minority, was merely an extension of a neighboring people and did not constitute a people in its own right. It was a national minority, not a minority nation. As a minority fragment of a people, it therefore did not possess an inherent right to internal self-determination, like populations forming distinct peoples who do enjoy such a right, and even less so a right to external self-determination. The fact that Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves sovereign changed nothing and did not sway Moscow.
However, having suffered under Russophobic laws and through a civil war, the Russian national minority acquired a right to internal self-determination in the form of a right to reparations. They thus had the right to a constitutionally enshrined autonomy within Ukraine, as stipulated in the Minsk I and II agreements. [9] The right to political autonomy was not inherent, but remedial. But since Ukraine refused to implement these agreements, their only remaining option was to claim the right to external self-determination, once again understood as a right to reparations for the refusal to redress the injustice suffered. Having also voted in a referendum in favor of annexation to Russia, the constitutionalization of these annexations was not imposed upon them. The four oblasts are now part of Russia. The children of these four oblasts, who constituted the vast majority of those transferred, were therefore Russian.
That being said, the ICC’s accusation is very important and must be taken seriously, especially if some children were transferred without their parents’ consent. One still wonders however why those responsible for the bombs dropped by Ukraine on civilian populations in Donbas since 2014 have not also faced criminal prosecution by the ICC. This question is all the more relevant given that these bombs may be one of the main reasons why the plan to relocate children was able to gain traction with the Russian leadership.
Russia is also accused of committing crimes against humanity. Its adversaries accuse it, in particular, of destroying Ukrainian civilian infrastructure that provides the country with electricity. This would certainly constitute a war crime. It should be noted, however, that the indictment to this effect was issued by the ICC in June 2024. Thus, the Russian interventions were reprisals following Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy facilities, attacks which Washington itself criticized. [10] We are still awaiting the ICC’s issuance of arrest warrants against Volodymyr Zelensky in this matter.
The ICC’s accusation against Benjamin Netanyahu and the then-Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, is far more serious. A warrant was issued against them for “the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.” [11] Surprisingly, the ICC still refuses to use the term genocide. And yet, what could a planned famine on the scale of an entire population possibly mean if not the eradication of that very population?
The difficulty in attributing the commission of genocidal acts is generally closely linked to the difficulty of determining the existence of genocidal intent. However, the Israeli authorities clearly announced their intention to destroy everything, to make Gaza uninhabitable and to deprive its citizens of the resources necessary for their survival. They did not abduct 20,000 children. They killed them. They forced the displacement of more than a million people. Information from Gaza on this subject circulated widely on social media. Each and all have been direct witnesses to acts of genocide.
No matter how serious the accusations against Vladimir Putin may be, it cannot be claimed that between him and Netanyahu, it’s all the same.
[1] https://www.historyworld.net/history/Russia/611?section=Origins
[2] https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/7/7/israel-is-a-settler-colony-annexing-native-land-is-what-it-does
[3] Memorandum on security assurances in connection with Ukraine’s accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Volume 3007, I-52241, December 5, 1994, volume-3007-I-52241.pdf
[4] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/8/gaza-toll-could-exceed-186000-lancet-study-says
[5] https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-loosened-rules-of-engagement-after-oct-7-allowing-more-civilian-deaths-ny-times/
[6] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20260313-pre-01-00-en.pdf
[7] https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/israel-opt-israeli-organizations-conclude-israel-committing-genocide-against-palestinians-in-gaza-in-another-milestone-for-accountability-efforts/
[8] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
[9] https://www.unian.info/politics/1043394-minsk-agreement-full-text-in-english.html
[10] https://www.politico.eu/article/report-us-urges-ukraine-stop-attacking-russian-oil-refineries/
[11] https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-state-palestine-icc-pre-trial-chamber-i-rejects-state-israels-challenges
