UN accuses Israel of genocide; Jewish groups denounce ‘flawed, biased’ report

UN report “laundered Hamas propaganda,” Israel claims, as NGOs blast “legally flawed” methodology of probe accusing Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

By World Israel News Staff

A United Nations commission accused Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip in a 72-page report published Tuesday, drawing criticism from Israel and Jewish groups that accused the UN commission of systematic anti-Israel bias.

The UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory argued in its latest report that Israel has committed four of the five different genocidal acts laid out in the UN’s 1948 genocide convention.

“The Commission urges Israel and all States to fulfill their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it,” the UN declared.

The investigation into allegations of genocide in the Gaza Strip “concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.”

Commission chairwoman Navi Pillay said Israel demonstrated a clear “intent to destroy” Gaza’s population, thus meeting the basic requirement for genocide.

“The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza,” said Pillay. “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”

Shortly after the report’s publication, Israel denounced the commission, accusing it of relying “entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others.”

“These fabrications have already been thoroughly debunked, including in an independent, in-depth academic study by BESA, which refuted every single false claim regarding genocide,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, referencing a study by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.

“Needless to say, the three authors made no attempt to address the clear findings of the BESA study,” it added.

“In stark contrast to the lies in the report, Hamas is the party that attempted genocide in Israel — murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and openly declaring its goal of killing every Jew.”

The Israeli foreign ministry noted that all three of the commission’s members announced their resignations prior to the report’s release.

In July, Pillay said she would be stepping down from the commission as of this November, after which Miloon Kothari and Chris Sidoti announced their plans to resign.

“Miraculously, all three authors of this fabricated report have recently resigned. They should not be replaced,” the foreign ministry said.

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana (Likud) denounced the report as a “modern-day blood libel” and called the UN a “despicable institution where truth is a lie and a lie is truth.”

Hours later, the World Jewish Congress, an international organization representing Jewish communities in 100 countries around the world, blasted the UN report and the Human Rights Council commission of inquiry.

“This report is yet another example of the COI failing to uphold basic standards of impartiality and avoiding the politicalization of its work,” the WJC said. “The Commission’s conclusions continue to reflect one-sided narratives rather than objective investigation.

“As the current COI members depart, any new appointees, if selected, must be thoroughly vetted to prevent the continuation of the Commission’s past flaws, antisemitic narratives, or politically biased work.”

The monitor group UN Watch accused the report of nine major flaws that invalidated the commission’s findings.

“Today’s UN report accusing Israel of ‘genocide’ is based on deeply flawed reasoning, its evidentiary base unreliable, and its methodology unsound,” the group said Tuesday.

Among other things, UN Watch said the report failed to prove “dolus specialis” – the “specific intent” on the part of Israeli leaders and the military to commit genocide.

The report also relied on faulty statistics provided by Hamas and treated normal wartime casualties as intentional criminal acts, UN Watch said.