THE HAGUE: The world's biggest academic association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said. Eighty-six per cent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution declaring Israel’s "policies and actions in Gaza" had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN convention on genocide.
Israel's Foreign Ministry called the statement disgraceful and "entirely based on Hamas' campaign of lies". Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self-defence. It is fighting a
case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide.
Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Palestinian Hamas attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israel's military action has killed 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once. A global hunger monitor relied on by the United Nations says parts of the territory are now suffering a man-made famine, which Israel also denies.
The three-page resolution calls on Israel to "immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including deliberate attacks against and killing of civilians including children; starvation; deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other items essential to the survival of the population and forced displacement of the population."
It also states that the Hamas attack on Israel, which precipitated the war, constituted international crimes. "This is a definitive statement from experts in the field of genocide studies that what is going on on the ground in Gaza is genocide," the association's president, Melanie O'Brien, a professor of international law at the University of Western Australia who specialises in genocide, said. "There is no justification for the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, not even self-defence," she added.
Since the genocide scholars' association was founded in 1994, it has passed nine resolutions recognising historic or ongoing episodes as genocides. The IAGS publishes a journal and holds regular international conferences of scholars studying genocide, and is considered the largest academic group in the field. Another group, the International Network of Genocide Scholars, also holds conferences and publishes a journal but does not issue similar resolutions.
Ismail al Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, welcomed the resolution's "prestigious scholarly stance", which he said "places a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take urgent action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the leaders of the occupation accountable". — Reuters
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