THE HAGUE: The world’s biggest academic association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish “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 (IAGS) 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 military action in Gaza 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.
The three-page resolution calls upon 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; sexual and reproductive violence; and forced displacement of the population.”
Israel sends tanks deeper into Gaza City; airstrikes claim 19 lives
“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.
Convention explained
The UN Genocide Convention was adopted in 1948, three years after the end of World War II. It defines genocide as crimes committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”.
It requires all countries to act to prevent and stop genocide.
Since the genocide scholars’ association was founded in 1994, it has passed nine resolutions recognising historic or ongoing episodes as genocides.
Ismail Al Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza government’s 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”.
Several rights groups and some Israeli NGOs have already accused Israel of committing genocide.
Last week hundreds of UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk wrote to ask him to explicitly describe the Gaza conflict as an unfolding genocide.
However, Israel continued to push tanks deeper into Gaza City and detonated explosives-laden vehicles in one suburb as airstrikes killed at least 19 people on Monday.
Residents said Israeli forces sent old armoured vehicles into the eastern parts of the overcrowded Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, then blew them up remotely.
Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2025
