OPINION: Schrödinger’s terrorists – the genocide scholars who can’t see Hamas

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has weighed in on Israel’s conduct in Gaza, passing a resolution that accuses the Jewish State of committing genocide in Gaza. The IAGS has claimed that ‘Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide’, according to the 1948 convention, and accuses the Jewish state of ‘systematic and widespread crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide’.

Not surprisingly, the claim has spread like wildfire across the world’s media, with near instant coverage in the BBC, the Guardian, Reuters, CNN and a host of other outlets. Hamas too was quick to react, lauding the ‘prestigious scholarly stance’ taken by the IAGS.

This resolution certainly has the appearance of scholarly acumen, considered reflection and political consensus. But the truth is very different. The majority of the 500+ scholars did not vote on the resolution. According to Sara Brown, a member of the IAGS, only 129 association members voted out of an approximate membership of 500, thus rendering nonsensical the headline grabbing claim that ‘86% of the world’s leading genocide scholars believe that Israel is committing genocide’.

The IAGS appears to have acted in an unprofessional manner, pushing through this resolution without a ‘town hall’ style debate or a discussion on its listserve site, both of which are customary measures when assessing such a grave crime.

Moreover, the Association cites sources in its resolution that are already deeply biased against Israel (and the Jews), among them Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza who has spent many years demonising the Jewish community, and Amnesty International, an organisation that has been at the forefront of twisting the very meaning of the word ‘genocide’ so that it can apply to Israel.

Moreover, it is strange that an association of scholars has a membership system requiring no vetting. Visit the IAGS’s website and you will discover that becoming a member takes only five minutes of form filling and a credit card. Indeed, one of its latest members is an ‘Adolf Hitler’ from Gaza.

The IAGS even admits that many of its members are not academics or scholars but ‘independent scholars’, ‘sociologists’, ‘artists’ and ‘literature and film scholars’. It appears that the association has been captured by activists with a twisted anti-Israel agenda, some of whom have voted anonymously for a resolution with no merit. Meanwhile, a predictably compliant western media has regurgitated their nonsense without an iota of fact checking.

The libellous claim of genocide is easily disproved in any case. For starters, it is very likely that Gaza’s Palestinian population has actually increased in size during this period of alleged genocide, despite nearly two years of horrific war.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are 160,000 fewer Palestinians living in Gaza than before the war. Israel has criticised the PCBS’ figure but let us assume that it is true. From this figure one can deduct the roughly 100,000 Palestinians who fled Gaza for Egypt via the Rafah crossing after October 7. They have received temporary refuge in Cairo, Port Said and Ismailia.

If Hamas figures are to be believed, and there are many reasons to doubt that, approximately 60,000 Palestinians, at least one third combatants, have been killed since October 7, 2023. These figures do not take into account naturally occurring deaths.

But that does not mean that there are 60,000 fewer Palestinians from Gaza than before the war. According to Save the Children, at the start of April 2025, about 130 Palestinian babies were being born daily despite the ongoing siege and war. That extrapolates to nearly 50,000 babies born each year or close to 90,000 since the war began.

Taken together, there has been an increase in the size of the Gazan Palestinian population since 7/10, something that contradicts the demographic decline one sees in all major cases of genocide. Whether it was the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor in Ukraine or the rape of Nanking, the populations affected suffered a major population collapse because of the cruelties deliberately inflicted on them.

That is not to deny the immense suffering that Palestinians have experienced. Many thousands of civilians have perished, many have starved and the majority have been subject to displacement and loss of property. These are the consequences of a horrific war launched from Gaza on 7 October with the intent of subjugating Israel.

It is of course impossible to assess the consequences of war – the destruction of property, the spoliation of the environment and the damage to hospitals and schools – without understanding the true context, namely that it is the inevitable outcome of a brutal urban war in which Hamas has turned the entire civilian population into a human shield.

Yet, those who parade the genocide libel ignore the role of Hamas altogether. They decontextualise the suffering by focusing on the horrific outcome and depict Israel as a nation intent on spilling civilian blood.

Hamas’s propagandists have therefore succeeded in making the group ‘Schrodinger’s terrorists’, either present or not in Gaza depending on who is looking.

The main reason why these scholars are wrong is that you need more than mass deaths to prove that a genocide has occurred. You need dolus specialis, a ‘special intent’ to commit genocide against a designated group.

Some argue that there were expressions of genocidal intent from figures in Israel. Sadly, this is true. Amichai Eliyahu, the Heritage minister, spoke of the possibility of using atomic weapons in Gaza, and was later suspended from the government. The pop singer Eyal Golan, popular among right wing sections of the population, was investigated by the State Attorney for reportedly calling to ‘erase Gaza’. Far right politician Moshe Feiglin declared: “Every child in Gaza is the enemy. We need to occupy Gaza and settle it, and not a single Gazan child will be left there.”

Though these remarks were abhorrent, they were made by people outside the inner security cabinet. None were central to the Israeli government’s decision making from October 7 onwards. Those entrusted with running the war made clear repeatedly that Israel’s aim was the destruction of Hamas’s terror machine and the removal of the group from Gaza. This was not a war against the civilian population, even though Palestinians were going to suffer enormously as the war progressed.

Hence, Israel took many measures to protect the population. The IDF made direct phone calls, sent text messages and left pre-recorded voicemails, all telling Palestinians to leave combat areas and move to other allocated zones.

The Israeli air force dropped leaflets on overpopulated areas of Gaza, telling citizens to move away from certain places that were about to be bombed. They implemented daily pauses, including for polio vaccination, and established humanitarian corridors in Gaza where Palestinians could flee from active war zones. It stands to reason that no genocidal state would behave this way. Moreover, this is the first alleged genocide that could end with a combatant side surrendering its power and agreeing to go into exile.

That is not to deny that there are legitimate criticisms of the war itself. The absence of a post-war strategy for Gaza, the problems in aid distribution that have beset the GHF, the ban on media access and the extremist rhetoric from Netanyahu’s coalition partners are all disturbing failures that have sullied the government. There must also be full accountability for all soldiers and commanders accused of war crimes and lesser forms of criminality.

But the claim of genocide is a defamatory and baseless slur, a lie that refuses to die. It is a strategic weapon hurled at Israel to undermine its effort on the battlefield and turn public opinion against the country. Above all, it is a malevolent defamation befitting the temper of a modern world which is desperate to assuage its guilt for past crimes against the Jews. For shame.

• Dr. Jeremy Havardi is a freelance journalist and author