Gaza Tribunal calls for ‘Israeli perpetrators and enablers’ to face justice

The Gaza Tribunal’s final findings, which state that “Israeli perpetrators and their Western enablers” should not be able to escape justice for their crimes, have been released.

Following four days of hearings in Istanbul, Turkiye, the unofficial tribunal, which was established in London in November, delivered its “moral judgment” on Sunday.

The initiative, which is led by Richard Falk, a former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, follows the Russell Tribunal’s precedent, which heard Vietnami war crimes cases in 1967.

The entire year-long process involved obtaining records, hearing witnesses, and preserving the evidence.

The tribunal’s jury ruled in favor of the genocide in Gaza and crimes like the deliberate denial of food to the civilian population, torture, and journalists’ journalists’ targets.

Post-war plans are being criticized.

The tribunal recommended that all “perpetrators, supporters, and enablers” be held accountable and that Israel be expelled from international organizations like the UN after claiming that Israel’s war against Gaza demonstrated how poorly international governance is performing its obligations.

Additionally, the jury found that Western governments, “particularly the United States,” were complicit with Israel through the provision of “diplomatic cover, weapons, weapon parts, intelligence, military assistance and training, and continuing economic relations.”

The tribunal also criticized two post-war initiatives by US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, saying they “ignored the rights of the Palestinian people under international law” while “doing nothing to rein in the genocide perpetrators.”

Members of the tribunal stated in a statement that “palestinians must lead the restoration of Gaza, and Israel and its enablers must be held accountable for all reparations.”

The tribunal should be seen as a civil society response to the Gaza war because it is not a court of law, the jury said. It does not “preport to determine guilt or liability of any person, organization, or state.”

The jurors argued that genocide must be named and documented, and impunity fuels ongoing violence all over the world. All humanity is concerned about the genocide in Gaza. Civil society is able to and must do so when states are silent.

At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa has brought allegations of genocide against Israel.

Although it will likely take several years before the ICJ will rule, it determined in an interim judgment in January 2024 that Israel’s violation of the UN Genocide Convention is “plausible.”