Genocide Scholars Declare Israel Is Committing Genocide In Gaza
AP Photo/Adel Hana.
The president of the world’s leading genocide scholars’ association announced Monday that “the legal criteria have been met” to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
The resolution by the International Association of Genocide Scholars stated, “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide,” and include “crimes against humanity,” and “war crimes,” The Times of Israel reported.
Further, the group blamed Israel for carrying out “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.”
The report said that 86 percent of the 500-member association that voted backed the three-page resolution. The group’s definition of genocide was in accordance with the 1948 United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the declaration “disgraceful” and based solely on Hamas’s “lies.”
“It is entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others,” the ministry said in a statement. “For the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide — despite Hamas’s attempted genocide against the Jewish people, murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and declaring its goal of killing every Jew.”
The ministry also accused the IAGS of “not verifying any information it considered before making its designation,” the report said.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office welcomed the news, stating, “This prestigious scholarly stance reinforces the documented evidence and facts presented before international courts” and “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.”
October 7 will mark two years since Hamas attacked an Israeli music festival, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. To date, 140 hostages have been returned to Israel alive, while the foreign ministry says that dozens — some deceased — still remain in Gaza.
