Tens of thousands of people have been killed so far during Israel's attacks on Gaza. Archive photo. Photo: Adel Hana/AP/TT
Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the influential research group IAGS states in a resolution.
Mass killings of civilians and other actions that "wiped out entire families and generations of Palestinians" are highlighted as the reason for the statement.
IAGS is an international organization that brings together around 600 members who research genocide.
With an overwhelming majority, the organization states that the Israeli government "has committed systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure".
The organization writes that Israel's policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in the UN Genocide Convention.
In addition, Israel is also considered to be committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to international humanitarian law, and the Rome Statute, which is the basis for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Dehumanizing statements
IAGS refers, among other things, to the fact that Israel has killed or injured more than 50,000 children, and that the extermination of a larger group of children, according to previous statements from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), is considered to constitute genocide.
Comments from parts of the Israeli government and military leaders that, among other things, dehumanize Palestinians in Gaza are also addressed.
Torture, arbitrary detention, sexual violence, attacks on health workers and journalists, and the deliberate deprivation of food, medicine and electricity that are necessary for the survival of the population are also taken into account by IAGS.
Affects the entire population of Gaza
Hamas' terrorist act on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war, is described in the resolution as horrific, but according to the research group, Israel's counterattack has not only been directed against Hamas, but the entire population of Gaza.
Israel has also been accused of genocide by other prominent organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, writes IAGS.
The International Association of Genocide Scholars calls on Israel to cease all acts of genocide and war crimes, and also urges all states to uphold their obligations under international law.
FACTS
This is how genocide is defined
Genocide is defined in international law as acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racially determined or religious group, as such.
In addition to killing or seriously injuring members of the group, the acts may also consist of:
+ Inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
+ Implementing measures aimed at preventing births within the group
+ Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The intent is crucial for the above acts to be defined as genocide.
The crime classification was added after the Nazis' attempts to exterminate Jews and Roma, among others, in connection with World War II.
Source: UN
FACTS
A pending legal case
A legal case has been ongoing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague since December 2023, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide.
At the end of May last year, the ICJ ordered Israel to immediately cease hostilities against Rafah in southern Gaza and to keep border crossings open for aid shipments. Israel has not complied with the court's ruling.
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide from 1948, countries are obliged to act even when there is a risk of genocide, to prevent such from happening.
The convention, which Sweden has signed, does not require a court to have determined that genocide has taken place for the outside world to act.
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