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.”
Hellbound and Down 