Four hundred and twenty genocide scholars, survivors, and experts signed a statement affirming that Hamas, not Israel, is guilty of the crime of genocide. The experts also criticized their fellow scholars who falsely accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Scholars for Truth About Genocide (STAG) condemned the inaccurate accusations of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) against Israel. While IAGS asserted Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, STAG explained why this is false. “Genocide is the gravest offense known to humankind; to dilute its legal standards for ideological ends is a form of moral violence,” STAG declared. “It dishonors the memory of past victims, misleads the public about present atrocities, and obstructs efforts to avert future ones.”
Israel will even endanger its own men, sometimes leading to their deaths, trying to avoid killing civilians in Gaza, even though a majority of Gazans support jihad against Israel. In contrast, Hamas brutally rapes and murders Israelis of all ages while the Palestinian Authority financially rewards them.
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The statement’s title is “Legal, antisemitism, history, Holocaust, and genocide scholars, former prosecutors, and other authorities, including descendants of survivors, call on International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) to retract resolution accusing Israel of genocide amid clear misapplication of law and history.” Here is the key passage from the STAG experts’ statement:
On October 7, 2023, Hamas invaded Israel and acted with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, Jews and Israelis, as a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such. Further, Hamas and their allied organizations took innocent people hostage and continue to hold hostages.
Thus, Hamas committed the crime of genocide and remains the only party to legally meet the requirements of the elements of the crime of genocide.
Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of a Hamas co-founder, previously echoed this sentiment.
STAG pointed out that one of the reasons more “civilians” in Gaza have died than Israel intended is because Hamas always uses human shields, hiding terrorists, weapons, and bases in or under civilian structures such as schools, hospitals, and mosques. Furthermore, Hamas prevented civilians from leaving Gaza City. IAGS didn’t take any of this into account, especially when complaining that Israel has sometimes attacked “civilian infrastructure.”
STAG also addressed the fact that casualty numbers coming from Gaza are often unreliable or manipulated, partly because Hamas usually issues them, and also because “a significant portion of combatant casualties [are included] without differentiation between civilians and combatants.” IAGS also misrepresented the decision of the International Court of Justice, which just so happens to be biased against Israel anyway.
In Gaza, there are numerous other plausible explanations for the intent of military operations in Gaza. From Hamas’ weaponization of civilian and humanitarian infrastructure, their documented booby-trapping of buildings, the tunnels that are longer than the London Underground, to the continued holding of hostages.
Another critical failure of the IAGS resolution is that it not only fails to establish the elements of genocide, it does not set the legal standard for which genocide must be proven.
And IAGS also ignored the steps Israel takes to minimize harm to Gazan civilians, while not even mentioning that Hamas has long had the power to end the war by releasing the hostages.
The only attempted genocide was the one Hamas committed on Oct. 7, which they vowed to commit again and again.
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