List of experts and organisations describing Israel’s attack on Gaza as genocide, or warning there is a serious risk of genocide
by Ian Sinclair
21 December 2023
“…the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes. I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians” – Raz Segal, an associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University and the endowed professor in the study of modern genocide, 13 October 2023.
“As scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies, we are compelled to sound the alarm about the possibility of the crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip” – 790 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies, 15 October 2023.
‘There is a plausible and credible case that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in the occupied Gaza Strip. In their public statements and speeches, Israeli officials have used dehumanizing language, describing Palestinians in Gaza as “human animals.” They have also been unequivocal in the goal of maximum harm, stating that the “emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy” using “fire of a magnitude that the enemy has not known”’ – US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, 18 October 2023.
“We are sounding the alarm: There is an ongoing campaign by Israel resulting in crimes against humanity in Gaza. Considering statements made by Israeli political leaders and their allies, accompanied by military action in Gaza and escalation of arrests and killing in the West Bank, there is also a risk of genocide against the Palestine people” – United Nations Experts (seven Special Rapporteurs), 19 October 2023.
“A text-book case of genocide” – Craig Mokhiber, Director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 28 October 2023.
“As a historian of genocide, I believe that there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place in Gaza, although it is very likely that war crimes, and even crimes against humanity, are happening… in justifying the assault, Israeli leaders and generals have made terrifying pronouncements that indicate a genocidal intent… My greatest concern watching the Israel-Gaza war unfold is that there is genocidal intent, which can easily tip into genocidal action” – Omer Bartov, professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University, 10 November 2023.
“Given the high threshold to establish a case of genocide under the UN convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (December 1948), particularly because of the requirement to prove an ‘intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such,’ it is remarkable… that much evidence points to the crime of genocide in Israel’s attack on Gaza after October 7, 2023” – Dr John Cox, Director of the Center for Holocaust, Genocide & Human Rights Studies, UNC Charlotte, Dr Victoria Sanford, Professor of Anthropology, Lehman College, and Dr Barry Trachtenberg, Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Wake Forest University, 13 November 2023.
“Many of us already raised the alarm about the risk of genocide in Gaza. We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel’s strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide” – 41 United Nations Experts, 16 November 2023.
“I’ve warned three times [about] the risk that Israel might be committing the crime of genocide in Gaza… there has been calls to flatten Gaza, to erase Gaza from Earth, and to kill the Gazans because they are ‘also responsible for what Hamas has done’ and there is no distinction here between civilians and militants” – Francesca Albanese, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories, 20 November 2023.
‘Slaughter of civilians on such an industrial scale may well have taken Israel to the verge of committing genocide, “the crime of all crimes”.’ – Avi Shlaim, Professor of International Relations at Oxford University, 6 December 2023.
“We, scholars of the Holocaust, genocide, and mass violence, feel compelled to warn of the danger of genocide in Israel’s attack on Gaza” – 60 scholars of the Holocaust, genocide, and mass violence, 9 December 2023.
“The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) recognises that Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people constitute an unfolding genocide. States and individuals who provide assistance to Israel are hereby rendering themselves complicit.” – International Federation for Human Rights, 12 December 2023.
“As public health and humanitarian professionals, we the authors state emphatically that the grave risk of genocide against the Palestinian people warrants immediate—and now overdue—action” – six public health and humanitarian professionals, 18 December 2023.
“Genocidal intent is assumed to be the most difficult element to prove, but Israelis in charge of prosecuting this conflict have made a plethora of statements that easily prove the requisite intent to ‘destroy in whole or in part’ the Palestinian population in Gaza” – Susan Akram, Director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University, 29 December 2023.
“The UN’s top court has ordered Israel to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, but stopped short of telling it to halt the war… South Africa had asked the court to order Israel to stop military action straight away pending a decision on whether Israel has committed genocide… The ICJ found it did have jurisdiction on the matter, and decided there was a plausible case under the 1948 Genocide Convention, and that the Palestinian population in Gaza was at real risk of irreparable damage.” – International Court of Justice, 26 January 2024.
Ian Sinclair journalism 