Leading international law scholars have made a landmark intervention by declaring that Israel’s war against Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide.
A resolution was passed on Monday by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), a 500-member body of academics established in 1994. It stated that Israel’s actions in Gaza complied with the terms of the 1948 UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
What is happening on the ground in Gaza is genocide, according to Melanie O’Brien, IAGS president and professor of international law at the University of Western Australia, in a statement that is definitive, according to experts in the field of genocide studies.
86 percent of the members voted in favor of the resolution. It demanded that Israel stop “liberate attacks on civilians, including children, starvation, deprivation of humanitarian aid, water, fuel, and other essentials, sexual and reproductive violence, and forced displacement.”
The declaration, according to Sergey Vasiliev, a professor of international law at the Open University of the Netherlands, was a result of a consensus that has shaped academia. He claimed that “this legal assessment has become widely accepted in academia, particularly in the field of genocide studies.”
The “prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts,” according to Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office. According to him, the resolution “imposes a legal and moral obligation on the international community to take immediate action to stop the crime, protect civilians, and hold the occupation’s leaders accountable.”
Israel’s growing legal issues
Israel is currently facing a separate case at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where it is accused of genocide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have been detained by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
More than 63, 000 Palestinians have been killed or damaged in Gaza since Israel’s invasion of the country in October 2023, and almost all of its residents have been forced to flee there at least once.
A UN-backed global hunger monitor has confirmed that some parts of Gaza are currently experiencing famine as a result of Israel’s bombing and blockade, which has purposefully restricted access to food, water, and medicine.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Armenia, and Myanmar have all previously been declared genocides by IAGS. Genocide is defined as crimes committed “with the intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group,” according to the UN convention it refers to.
The resolution also referred to Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel as international crimes, but stressed that such acts do not constitute genocide.
Source: Aljazeera
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