Palestine mass grave
© Yousef Masoud/NYTA Palestine mass grave in southern Gaza: Over 63,000 Palestinians killed since Oct. 7 with many more believed buried under rubble
The world's largest group of genocide scholars has overwhelmingly approved a resolution asserting that Israel's actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide. "The government of Israel has engaged in systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure," said the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), joining a growing list of institutions and governments who've reached the same conclusion.

About a quarter of IAGS members participated in the balloting, with 86% voting to approve the resolution. IAGS second vice-president and University of the Bundeswehr Munich professor Timothy Williams told the Financial Times that "the association believes there is considerable merit to the largest group of genocide scholars saying: 'Yes, we do believe this is genocide'." As defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention, the term applies to actions taken with the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group."

Israel's foreign ministry swiftly condemned the group of academics, saying their "disgraceful" resolution is "entirely based on Hamas' campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others...IAGS has set a historic precedent - for the first time, 'Genocide Scholars' accuse the very victim of genocide."


Linking to sources, the three-page IAGS resolution includes a list of points offered to substantiate the overall conclusion. Among them:
  • "Israel has forcibly displaced nearly all of the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip multiple times, and demolished more than 90 percent of the housing infrastructure in the territory"
  • "Israel has destroyed schools, universities, libraries, museums, and archives, all of them essential to the continued existence of Palestinian collective well-being and identity"
  • "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed the current US President's plan to forcibly expel all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with no right of return"
  • "The deliberate destruction of agricultural fields, food warehouses, and bakeries and other violence that prevents food production, in conjunction with denial and restriction of humanitarian aid, indicate the intentional infliction of unlivable conditions"
  • "The actions of the Israeli government against Palestinians have included torture, arbitrary detention, and sexual and reproductive violence; deliberate attacks on medical professionals, humanitarian aid workers and journalists; and the deliberate deprivation of food, water, medicine, and electricity essential to the survival of the population"
Sara Brown, an IAGS member who also leads the Center for Holocaust, Human Rights & Genocide Education and is a member of the American Jewish Committee, criticized IAGS for bringing the resolution to a vote without holding an online debate. Times of Israel says it obtained emails in which IAGS had initially told members a debate would take place. IAGS rejected Brown's criticism, saying debates aren't required by the group's bylaws, and aren't always held before votes. Brown attributed the low turnout to members who felt unqualified to address the topic. (Who are these genocide scholars who haven't been keeping up on the biggest genocide debate in generations?)

According to the IAGS resolution, other organizations and authorities who've declared that Israel is committing genocide include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Forensic Architecture, DAWN, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights, and the UN's Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

In addition to being under rhetorical fire, Israel is the subject of genocide and war-crime cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice.

In August, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on four members of the ICC.

In response to the declaration, Israel's Foreign Ministry called it "disgraceful" and "an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard" in a post on X.

Accusing the IAGS of not verifying any of the information upon which its declaration is based upon, Israel said the group's statement "is entirely based on Hamas's campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others."

The ministry also called out these "Genocide Scholars" for backing those who have openly declared the "goal of killing every Jew."

Wielding his standard Orwellian bludgeon for those who criticizes Israel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared the the Hague-based court a "national security threat.