Istanbul: The Gaza Tribunal final session, held at the Istanbul University campus on Sunday, concluded with a powerful statement of indictment of Israel and its backers by experts, witnesses, and the Jury of Conscience, calling for global solidarity to support and protect the Palestinian people. The Tribunal presented abundant evidence for the international legal judgment of genocide charges against Israel and its allies, such as the US and Germany. The discussions also illuminated the ideological roots that have led to the legitimization of Israel’s genocidal actions by its European and American supporters.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Gaza Tribunal emphasized that the current genocide is part of a century-long process beginning with dehumanization and ending with erasure. This process, initiated by European imperial regimes and the Zionist project of Israel, involved violence, segregation, and systematic weakening of Palestinian populations, ultimately leading to mass annihilation, denial, and erasure. The Tribunal highlighted that, beyond international law, genocide should also be understood through a state crime paradigm focusing on human rights violations committed to achieving state organizational goals.
The Tribunal further pointed out that the Israeli state was established as a settler colonial project, imposed by European imperial expansion into the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire. This was symbolized by the British Empire’s Balfour Declaration of 1917. Experts at the Tribunal emphasized that Israeli settler colonialism operates on an internal logic of genocide towards indigenous populations, perpetuated by Zionist propaganda. This logic has resulted in the expulsion and erasure of native Palestinian populations to ensure Zionist majority domination, a process normalized since the beginning of British colonial rule in Palestine.
Moreover, the Tribunal revealed how Israel and its allies have attributed the cause of the genocide to the Palestinian victims themselves, portraying them as undeserving of self-defense against settler colonial rule. The Israeli regime justifies its genocidal actions as necessary for state security, presenting mass destruction in Gaza as collateral damage. Participants argued that the destruction of Palestinian identity is integral to the genocidal process, with Israel employing strategies such as the Judaization of Palestine through archaeology to erase the historical presence of indigenous Arab natives.
The Tribunal also exposed the moral hypocrisy of Israel’s claim to build a homeland for Zionist settlers by destroying Palestinian homes. It highlighted the specific targeting of Palestinian educational institutions, intellectuals, and journalists while Israel continued to receive Western support for its universities. The Tribunal criticized the global community’s betrayal of the “rules-based international order” established after WWII and the support for Israel’s portrayal of Palestinians as deserving of erasure.
Additionally, the Tribunal focused on how Israel denies genocide in occupied Palestine by juxtaposing Palestinian erasure with narratives of change and revival. This is exemplified by the myth that Israel made the desert bloom, ignoring the pre-existing Palestinian agriculture and society. The Tribunal noted how Israel planted trees over destroyed Palestinian villages to erase Palestinian memory while building a museum for Holocaust victims on the same lands.
The Tribunal also addressed the weaponization of the Holocaust’s uniqueness by Israel and its allies to defend the genocide of Palestinians. By emphasizing the unique victimhood of European Jews, Israel and its supporters argue against Israeli guilt for similar crimes. The Tribunal highlighted objections from genocide scholars who note similarities between the Holocaust, the Palestinian Naqba, and other forms of racialized mass violence by European empires.
Lastly, the Gaza Tribunal rejected attempts to frame the genocide in Gaza as a “battle of civilization against barbarism,” a narrative commonly used in colonial genocides. It dismissed the notion of a thousand-year conflict between Islam and Judaism, emphasizing that the language of “civilization versus barbarism” serves to dehumanize Palestinian victims.
The Gaza Tribunal has become an essential platform for examining the global community’s failure to morally condemn and prevent genocide in the 21st century. It underscores the moral responsibility to prevent genocide, regardless of the victims or perpetrators involved.