ISTANBUL

As Western governments remain bent on rejecting the characterization of Israel’s assault on Gaza as a genocide, an escalating wave of international dissent backed by mounting evidence is challenging this stance.

A growing number of organizations, activists, and political leaders across the globe have not only labeled Israel’s war a genocide, but are also demanding that Israel and its allies be punished for the criminal actions.

They assert that the term reflects the harrowing realities on the ground, where Israel, following a Hamas attack last year, has now killed nearly 44,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injuring over 104,000.

Now in its second year, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has decimated the besieged Palestinian enclave, with Western-supplied bombs used to inflict wanton destruction of homes and all civilian infrastructure, while a crippling blockade on food, water and essential humanitarian aid has left millions of displaced Palestinians facing starvation and death.

Despite the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in January about “plausible” risk of genocide, countries such as the US, UK, and Germany continue to provide diplomatic cover and weapons to fuel Israel’s deadly assault.

In recent days, a series of key developments and voices have added urgency to the calls to protect Palestinians and hold Israel accountable:

UN report: ‘Consistent with characteristics of genocide’

A report released last week by a UN Special Committee investigating Israel’s actions in Gaza found that its military assault is “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”

The committee said Israel has been intentionally imposing life-threatening conditions on Palestinians, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.

“The developments in this report lead the Special Committee to conclude that the policies and practices of Israel … are consistent with the characteristics of genocide,” read the document.

“The targeting of Palestinians as a group; the life-threatening conditions imposed on Palestinians in Gaza through warfare and restrictions on humanitarian aid – resulting in physical destruction, increased miscarriages and stillbirths – and the killing of and serious bodily or mental harm caused to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are violations under international law.”

The committee said that Israel is “intentionally causing death, starvation and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population.”

International support for genocide label

As more political and religious leaders, including from the West, speak out against Israel’s brutalities in Gaza, among those to publicly use the term genocide for the first time is Pope Francis.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the official Vatican News agency cited the pontiff as writing in a new book.

“It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.

Earlier this month, Irish lawmakers approved a non-binding motion declaring that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza.”

At a recent summit of Arab countries, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said that Israel was carrying out “collective genocide” in Gaza, marking some of his strongest criticism of Israel since October 2023.

“The Kingdom reiterates its condemnation and absolute refusal of the collective genocide committed by Israel against the brotherly Palestinian people,” he said, according to CNN.

In Canada, parliamentarian Charlie Angus wrote on Facebook that while recent reports by rights organizations find Israel guilty of crimes against humanity in Gaza, the Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “won’t even say the word Palestinian.”

“The world is watching the genocide and the moral failure of the West,” he wrote.

Over in Europe, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter recently wrote on X: “Purposely starving Palestinians in Gaza is inhumane and genocidal. Open calls by Israeli Ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir for cuts to life-saving aid and fuel must not remain unpunished. EU sanctions should be considered at once.”

She emphasized that Israel’s “genocidal policies and statements should not go unpunished,” calling for sanctions on Israeli far-right ministers and settler organizations.

Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the UK’s Labour Party, wrote on X last week: “There is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza. If they did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time.”

In Australia, Aboriginal Senator Lidia Thorpe expressed her solidarity with Palestinians, saying: “We are the survivors of genocide – I stand with Palestinians. We are fighting the same fight and trying to keep our people alive.”

Italian historian Enzo Traverso, in a recent interview with Democracy Now, accused Israel of using the memory of the Holocaust to justify genocide in Gaza.

On the medical front, a team led by Italian geneticist Paola Manduca launched an appeal entitled “Condemning the Genocide in Gaza and Taking Necessary Action,” but prominent scientific journals have refused to publish it.

The appeal, shared on social media, called on medical organizations worldwide to condemn the denial of treatment to Palestinians in Gaza, asserting that institutions that stay silent on this situation “will remain complicit in the crimes committed in Gaza.”

Culture and entertainment figures

British actor Khalid Abdalla showed up at the BAFTA Scotland Awards ceremony last Sunday with the words “End the genocide” written on his hand.

Later, in a post on X, he said: “When will Arab bodies be treated as grievable? Perhaps only when the world sees us and our stories as worthy of being told and explored beyond body counts and statistics, as if we were fodder for people to argue over how to define how we are killed, and whether it is legitimate to murder us in our thousands.

“The grief that took over my body when I wrote the words End the Genocide on my hand was overwhelming.”

In recent interviews, Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, has asserted that the war in Gaza is a genocide.

On X, he supported a cultural boycott of Israel: “Israel is a raging, demented, genocidal cult. Enough! No more football, no more Eurovision, no more anything. It’s over. Israel has disqualified itself. Red card. Leave the field. The world needs a free, democratic Palestine from the river to the sea.”

Japanese-American film director Neo Sora has criticized the global cinema industry for failing to adequately respond to the genocide in Gaza.

“I questioned whether I could continue making films because what’s the point of telling stories about human dignity when we’re witnessing such horrific violence that strips people of their humanity?” he said in an interview with Anadolu.

“After reflecting on the past year, I am 100% convinced that it is indeed genocide.”

Jewish American director Sarah Friedland used her speech at the Venice Film Festival to voice support for Palestinians, describing the situation as “the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

In October, more than 1,000 writers, including Rupi Kaur, Sally Rooney, Judith Butler and Arundhati Roy, issued a letter pledging to boycott Israeli publishers and writers complicit in the war.

“This is a genocide, as leading expert scholars and institutions have been saying for months,” read the letter.

“Israeli officials speak plainly of their motivations to eliminate the population of Gaza, to make Palestinian statehood impossible, and to seize Palestinian land. This follows 75 years of displacement, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid.”

Voices within Israel

Even within Israel, voices critical of the Netanyahu government’s actions are growing louder, openly calling the Gaza war a genocide.

Ofer Cassif, a far-left Israeli politician and a member of the Knesset, was recently suspended for his scathing condemnation of the war. He described the situation as “starvation, thirst, destruction, and genocide.”

“I will not be silenced by this outrageous decision! I will never stay silent on war crimes, famine and the slaughter in Gaza. Such is the state of the so called democracy in Israel, that those who chant their support for genocide and celebrate the killing of innocents are considered heroes, while those who fight for justice and peace are persecuted as "traitors". This decision is the utmost example of political censorship amidst the escalating fascistation of Israeli society,” he wrote on X.

Israeli historian Amos Goldberg, a Holocaust expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has also said that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza.

“What is happening in Gaza is a genocide because Gaza does not exist anymore,” he said an interview with French outlet Le Monde, adding that Israel has “criminally overreacted” to the Oct. 7 attacks.