The IAGS, the world’s largest professional association of genocide scholars and including Holocaust experts, said Israel’s conduct satisfies the Genocide Convention’s legal test. Of about 500 members, 28% voted and 86% of voters backed the three-page resolution.
The measure cites what it describes as systematic attacks on survival-critical personnel and facilities—healthcare, aid and education—and references U.N. children’s agency UNICEF’s figure of 50,000 children killed or injured.
It also points to near-total housing destruction, backing among Israeli leaders for expelling Gaza’s population, and statements dehumanizing Palestinians and promising to “flatten Gaza” and make it “hell.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry dismissed the resolution as based on “Hamas lies” and “poor research,” calling it an “embarrassment to the legal profession” and asserting Israel is the victim of genocide.
Israel has repeatedly denied genocide allegations and says its actions are lawful self-defense.
The scholars said the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack—about 1,200 killed and 251 taken hostage—was itself a crime, but argued Israel’s response has targeted Gaza’s entire population, not only Hamas.
The 1948 Genocide Convention defines genocide as acts committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Several rights groups, including two Israeli organizations, have also said they believe Israel is committing genocide. The U.N. and some Western governments say only a court ruling would be authoritative.
The International Court of Justice is hearing a case brought by South Africa in 2023 alleging Israeli genocide; it has not ruled and has given Israel until January 2026 to present its defense.
Israel has labeled the case antisemitic, calling it a “blood libel.”
The IAGS said its resolution has no bearing on any court case.
On Monday, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said 63,557 people had been killed and 160,660 injured in the war; its figures, widely regarded as reliable, do not separate civilians from fighters.
In August, the U.N.-backed IPC said famine exists in parts of Gaza. Israel is accused of causing famine by restricting food and medical aid.
Israel controls all Gaza border crossings and, as the occupying power, bears responsibility under international law to protect civilians, including preventing starvation.
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Source: BBC, Reuters