'Genocide is happening in Gaza' say leading genocide experts

UPDATED: Jun 20, 2025 23:15 IST

A growing consensus among the world's leading genocide experts has emerged: what is happening in Gaza constitutes genocide. Scholars who have studied Rwanda, Bosnia, Armenia, and the Holocaust are now speaking with unprecedented clarity about Israel's campaign since October 2023.

Dr. Melanie O'Brien, a prominent genocide scholar, explains the systematic nature of what is unfolding: "In genocide studies, we call genocide a process, not an event, and that's why we look beyond today, beyond yesterday, going back several years to see what has happened in terms of human rights abuses, and particularly persecution and discrimination of a particular targeted group."
The destruction in Gaza has crossed every threshold that genocide scholars use to identify such crimes. "We are seeing indiscriminate bombing, long-term indiscriminate bombing that is killing people, that is destroying livelihoods, that is destroying infrastructure, that is destroying healthcare facilities and healthcare workers," Dr. O'Brien states.

Particularly troubling to experts is the deliberate starvation being employed as a weapon. "Denial of humanitarian aid, including food, healthcare, and medicine, is leading to a high likelihood of death. Therefore, you have to say their intent must be to destroy, at least in part, the Palestinian people of Gaza," she explains.

Dr. Shmuel Lederman, an Israeli academic and genocide expert, represents a particularly significant voice in this chorus. Initially cautious about applying the genocide label, he has now reached a definitive conclusion: "The accumulated effect of what Israel has been doing in Gaza was basically genocide in terms of the harm done to the Gazans as a group."

His assessment evolved as the destruction mounted: "Until mid-2024 it was somewhat possible not to say that what Israel is doing is genocide, but over time, Gaza was simply being destroyed."

Both scholars point to the legal definition's limitations. "Genocide scholars for a long time have been engaged in a discourse that is critical of the legal definition because it's very narrow and originated partly in the political interests of the states that formulated it," Dr. Lederman notes. "The legal definition of genocide actually serves to block us from preventing genocide when it actually takes place—like in the case of Israel and Gaza."

The international community's failure to act has not surprised these experts. "The Security Council system, with the veto power of the permanent five members including the United States, essentially prevents any action from being taken regarding this situation," Dr. O'Brien observes.

Dr. Lederman is blunt about American complicity: "Without American support, Israel could not have done what it did." He adds that "the international system has been broken for a long time when it comes to the crimes of powerful states or their allies."

The scholars emphasise that this assessment transcends politics. As Dr. O'Brien notes, "Even if Israel had a right to self-defence against an armed attack from Hamas, there is certainly no justification for the commission of genocide."

The world's genocide experts have spoken with remarkable unanimity. The question now is whether the international community will listen.