A United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded Tuesday that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, marking the three-member panel’s first such finding.
Israel immediately rejected the finding, as it has when other bodies and individuals have used the term to describe its campaign in Gaza.
In a 72-page report, the three-member panel accused Israel of committing four genocidal acts since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, including killing Palestinians and creating conditions to cause the “physical destruction in whole or in part” of the Palestinian people. They cited the destruction of a fertility clinic as evidence that Israel was “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”
The panel accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of inciting genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
“The responsibility for these atrocity crimes lies with Israeli authorities at the highest echelons who have orchestrated a genocidal campaign for almost two years now with the specific intent to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza,” the panel’s leader, Navi Pillay, a South African jurist and former U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement.
The commission had previously issued reports accusing Israel of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. The panel has no enforcement powers but may be used by the International Court of Justice as well as the International Criminal Court, which is currently weighing an accusation by South Africa that Israel is committing a genocide.
Israel’s critics have seized on the report. Irish President Michael Higgins called it a “very, very important document” and suggested that Israel and countries who supply Israel with weapons should be excluded from the U.N.
Israel, meanwhile, called the panel’s findings “distorted and false.” The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused the panel’s members, who announced their resignation in July, of “serving as Hamas proxies.”
The recent finding comes weeks after the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed a resolution accusing Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza. The resolution gained widespread coverage as well as revelations that membership in the group required only a nominal fee and no proof of credentials.
Among those to condemn the IAGS resolution were over 500 genocide, Holocaust and legal scholars who called on the association to retract its ruling, citing both the conclusion and the process used to reach it.
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