The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), the premier association of genocide scholars based in The Hague, passed a resolution on Aug. 31, 2025. The IAGS (established in 1994) resolution states that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. More than 80% of the 500-member IAGS voted in favor of the resolution. It was interesting to see that many mainstream Western media outlets, such as Reuters, DW and BBC, which have avoided publishing anything against the Israeli atrocities, have shared this news, which openly accuses Israel of committing genocide.
The resolution, using effective language, declares that “Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article 2 of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).” The IAGS resolution also “declares that Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity as defined in international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
It calls upon Israel “to immediately cease all acts that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza, including 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.”
Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 63,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women; destroyed or damaged almost all buildings in Gaza; and repeatedly forced about 2 million Palestinians to flee from their homes or from temporary settlements such as tents. In Gaza, which is experiencing famine due to Israeli attacks and blockade, 348 people, including 127 children, died of starvation.
Many other international organizations also passed decisions declaring the Israeli atrocities in Gaza as genocide. The United Nations organs, such as the Human Rights Council, International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), have directly or indirectly defined the Israeli policies as genocide. Similarly, many U.N. officials, such as Francesca Albanese, have documented and reported the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The International Criminal Court (ICC) also claims that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza and holds Netanyahu and his Cabinet for this crime.
In addition, many leading scholars of genocide, including Jewish scholars, clearly blame Israel for committing genocide in Gaza. One of the leading scholars of genocide, Omar Bartov, an Israeli American historian and expert on the Holocaust, wrote an article entitled “I’m a genocide scholar. I know it when I see it.” in the New York Times. In the article, Bartov first cites the definition of genocide and then explains that “this is precisely what Israel is trying to do” in Gaza. Ilan Pappe is another well-known Israeli scholar who holds Israel accountable for the genocide in Gaza. For Pappe, what Israel is doing in Palestine is the same as what the Nazis did in Germany.
In conclusion, there is a growing consensus on the Gaza genocide committed by Israel. The Israeli genocide has been registered by different related international bodies and leading experts as a reality that no one can turn a blind eye to. Neither Israel nor its Western supporters can escape from this reality. Sooner or later, the front that represents humanity will hold the perpetrators of this genocide accountable.
Not only by committing genocide in Gaza, but also by bombing five different countries of the Middle East and killing the Yemeni prime minister and some of the ministers, Israel continues to commit war crimes and violates all basic principles of international law. Many officials and intellectuals have begun Israel’s expulsion from the U.N., since it insistsently violates all articles and principles of the U.N. Charter. Sooner or later, different types of measures will be taken by various international actors, including Western countries.
