Former CIA director and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has sparked backlash after saying the narrative of Israel’s war on Gaza must be shaped so that future history books “do not write about the victims of Gaza”.
Speaking at a public online event on 13 January at the pro-Israeli organisation, the MirYam Institute, Pompeo argued that the way the war is documented will determine how it is remembered, stressing the need to “make sure that the story is told properly”.
On its website, the MirYam Institute is described as “a forum for leading Israeli experts of diverse and varied perspectives”. Benjamin Anthony, a former Israeli army combat veteran who took part in many military operations in occupied Palestine, is the CEO and co-founder of the MirYam Institute.
Pompeo’s remarks appeared to dismiss the centrality of Palestinian civilian suffering, despite the scale of destruction and the extraordinary death toll in Gaza. The war on Gaza has been declared a genocide by the United Nations and genocide scholars, with over 71,400 dead.
Pompeo’s comments come as international human rights organisations, UN agencies and journalists continue to document widespread civilian casualties, displacement and humanitarian collapse in the besieged enclave.
“There were victims in Gaza, there are civilian casualties in every war that’s ever been fought. But the victims were the people of the nation-state of Israel. The aggressor was the Iranian regime in the proxy of Hamas,” Pompeo said.
Critics online have widely said his statement reflects a broader effort by US and Israeli officials to control the historical narrative in favour of Israel while sidelining Palestinian experiences.
The remarks quickly circulated on social media, drawing condemnation from activists and commentators who accused Pompeo of openly advocating for erasing victims from historical memory, rather than addressing accountability for the war’s human cost.
Palestinian journalist Motasem A Dalloul said, “They even are working to continue the genocide inflicted on us after their death!” in a post on X, referring to Israel’s continuing genocide in Gaza.
This is not the first time the former secretary of state has made headlines for his remarks on the Palestinian issue. Pompeo demonstrated his open support for the Israeli army before, as shown in a video from November 2024, showing him dancing with Israeli soldiers.
In another video posted on social media in February 2024, Pompeo and his wife are shown visiting an Israeli “rejuvenation centre”, where soldiers return from Gaza to relax and regain their energy. As he addressed the soldiers, Pompeo affirmed that “America stands with you”.
Many social media users called Pompeo’s latest remarks a denial of the genocide.
One social media user said, “They don’t even hide their hatred of Christian and Muslim Palestinians”.
The war on Gaza started after Israel responded to the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by launching a ferocious assault on the enclave. On 10 October 2025, the US brokered a ceasefire under which Israeli forces pulled back to the “yellow line”, allowing them control of more than half of Gaza, roughly 53 percent of the strip.
Israel has repeatedly violated the ceasefire, killing at least 439 Palestinians in three months in nearly 1,200 violations, including air strikes, shelling and the demolition of homes.
