UN reviews Genocide in Gaza

The UN General Assembly will soon meet amid recent declarations by the UK, Canada, Australia, and France of intention to support recognition of a Palestinian state.

Decision time for Gaza

Navi Pillay,, chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, spoke to Host of the CBC Program, the Current, Matt Galloway about the conclusion of that UN commission investigating the war in Gaza that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians as defined by the 1948 Genocide Convention. 

Matt Galloway asked Chris Sidoti, an Australian human rights lawyer and one of the three members of that UN commission, about the issue of intent, which is crucial in a case like this. The UN ambassador for Israel in Geneva, Daniel Meron, said that the report falsely accuses Israel of genocidal intent, an allegation it cannot substantiate.

Chris Sidoti noted the Genocide Convention defines genocide first by means of five categories of act. The report found that four of those categories are acts that have been committed in Gaza by the Israeli forces since October 2023.

Israel has a responsibility to protect its own citizens and its residents. And for that reason, a response to the Hamas attacks of the 7th of October was legitimate, reasonable and necessary. But it had to be proportionate. The commission of war crimes, as we found by Hamas fighters on the 7th of October, does not justify the commission of war crimes by the Israeli forces. It justifies military action, but the military action must be proportionate and reasonable and necessary.

The Commission seeks to, through our reports, increase the prospects of accountability. The courts, both international and domestic, take our reports seriously. The International Court of Justice, for example, when it delivered its advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of Palestine last July, quoted extensively from our reports. The International Criminal Court, in issuing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, in part based their decision making on our reports. (Galloway, n.d.)

Chris Sidoti clarifies that Commission reports are addressed not to Israel and the United States, but to the other 191 countries in the world that have obligations under international law to do something in relation to what is happening in Gaza. We are reminding them of the obligations and we're urging them to act upon them.

An editorial on September 21, 2025 in the Guardian expresses the opinion that UK recognition of a Palestinian state must be a call to action, not conscience-salving.

The mass diplomatic shift is symbolic; the US will continue to block full Palestinian membership of the UN. At best, this is part of a concerted effort to end the war, revive the longer-term prospects for statehood and prevent ethnic cleansing. The UN general assembly overwhelmingly backed a motion calling for a two-state solution earlier this month.

The more cynical reckoning is that governments are scrambling to appease domestic anger at their complicity, and avoiding more substantive steps. Israel looks more isolated by the day. While the Trump administration appears unshiftable, public support in the US too is plummeting. A detailed UN report has found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Yet only two weeks ago, British ministers said that the UK had not reached that conclusion.

But formally announcing the UK’s recognition of a Palestinian state on Sunday, Sir Keir Starmer remarked: “The hope of a two-state solution is fading but we cannot let that light go out.” Canada and Australia announced recognition too ahead of the United Nations summit in New York on Monday, in a wave spearheaded by France. (the Guardian, n.d.)

Jason Burke and Jon Henley reported to the Guardian that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, according to a UN commission of inquiry. The United Nations independent international commission of inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the UN, found that “genocide is occurring in Gaza and is continuing to occur”, said its head, Navi Pillay.

The COI, set up by the UN in 2021 and staffed by three independent experts, cited the killing of civilians and children in a “scorched-earth military strategy”, starvation and deaths caused by restrictions on food and medicines, mistreatment of detainees, forced displacement and the physical devastation of much of the territory to support its finding.

The COI also accused Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister who has been accused of war crimes by the international criminal court, and other senior Israeli leaders of incitement of genocide, and said there was clear evidence of their genocidal intent, a key legal requirement. (Burke & Henley, 2025)

We are hopefully beginning to see action from the 191 countries in the world that have obligations under international law to do something in relation to what is happening in Gaza.

References

Burke, J., & Henley, J. (2025, September 16). Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, says UN commission of inquiry. The Guardian. Retrieved September 21, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/16/israel-committed-genocide-in-gaza-says-un-inquiry 

Galloway, M. (n.d.). Home | The Current with Matt Galloway. CBC News. Retrieved September 21, 2025, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent 

the Guardian. (n.d.). UK Recognizes Palestine as an Independent State. Latest news, sport and opinion from the Guardian. Retrieved September 21, 2025, from https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/21/uk-recognises-palestine-as-an-independent-state 

Three Strikes and?

The policies of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have come under scrutiny since the horrible attack of Hamas terrorists on Israeli citizens on October 7 2023. At least “three strikes” against Netanyahu have been the subject of news commentary. Is it now time to call him out of this conflict?

Calling Netanyahu Out

Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and Now Media, and a monthly contributing writer for The International New York Times in an interview with Matt Galloway on CBC The Current defines Hamas in this way.

this is a religiously millenarian group, that it is apocalyptic and that it believes that it's doing the will of God. And so all of this is divinely mandated and there's a kind of religious imperative here. So I think there is also an irrational belief on the part of Hamas that in the end, if they are sufficiently fervent that there will be some kind of divine aid as well. (Monday October 16, 2023 Full Transcript, 2023)

Ravi Nessman, Associated Press, and  Amy Teibel, Associated Press, reporting for PBS comment that many Israelis are furious at their government’s chaotic recovery efforts after the Hamas attack. STRIKE ONE!

“It has to be clear. The government is completely incompetent,” said Ruvi Dar, a clinical psychologist and Tel Aviv University professor who has been counseling survivors evacuated from their homes.

Critics have accused Netanyahu of recklessly ignoring a raft of issues. The police force is understaffed, and the military was caught off guard on Israel’s southern flank as forces were more heavily stationed in the occupied West Bank, home to half a million settlers. The government did little to address the spiraling cost of living and rampant killings in Israel’s own Arab communities, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish and pro-settlement coalition partners have received billions of dollars for pet projects. (Chehayeb & Teibel, 2023)

Evan Dyer of CBC News reports notes Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel. STRIKE TWO!

A symbiotic relationship between Netanyahu and Hamas has been remarked on for years, by both friends and enemies, hawks and doves.

Yuval Diskin, former head of Israel's Shin Bet security service, told the daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth in 2013 that "if we look at it over the years, one of the main people contributing to Hamas's strengthening has been Bibi Netanyahu, since his first term as prime minister."

In August 2019, former prime minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Army Radio that Netanyahu's "strategy is to keep Hamas alive and kicking … even at the price of abandoning the citizens [of the south] … in order to weaken the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah."

The logic underlying this strategy, Barak said, is that "it's easier with Hamas to explain to Israelis that there is no one to sit with and no one to talk to." (Dyer, 2023)

Matt Galloway on the CBC program, the Current, discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict and its deadly impact on civilians inside Gaza on Nov. 2, 2023  with Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut.

Rami Khouri observes that the situation has been disastrous. He focuses on the Palestinian territories, Middle East geopolitics and American foreign policy in the region.

But, you know, part of it is the Palestinian leadership's fault, and part of it is by design of Israel to divide and conquer the Palestinians. And they've worked that very well, including by helping entrench Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I mean, this is the plan from Netanyahu as well. I mean, it's been leaked and reported in the Israeli press that he found Hamas's governance of Gaza Strip useful to him and useful to the Israelis. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)

The lessons from past wars on terror indicate that Netanyahu’s policy to obliterate Hamas is unrealistic. STRIKE THREE!

policy to obliterate Hamas is unrealistic

The Economist International article on Fighting Hamas comments that Hamas is at the same time a religious idea, a social movement, a political party, a government and a hybrid militia wedded to terrorism. Whatever happens in Gaza, Hamas remains a powerful political force in the West Bank.

“We will obliterate Hamas. We will triumph. It might take time, but we will end this war stronger than ever.” The words of Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, are intended not only to convey resolve, but also to signal that his war in Gaza is different. No longer is Israel aiming to punish and deter Hamas. Now it wants to destroy it altogether.

In private conversations, Israeli military officials are defining the objective more narrowly: to seize the main urban centre, Gaza City; wipe out Hamas’s top political and military leadership in the territory; and destroy as much of its military capacity as possible. (Israel Needs to Resist Irrational Retaliation, 2023)

Yossi Melman, in Tel Aviv, is a defense and security analyst for Haaretz. Dan Raviv, in Washington, is a former CBS News correspondent. They write that Israel’s vow to ‘eliminate Hamas’ is unrealistic. 

Among the clearest voices saying the hostages’ welfare must come first is that of Tamir Pardo, a former head of the Mossad who was himself an IDF commando soldier. Known for thinking outside the box, he expressed to us that military rescues—even with the well-practiced expertise of Israel’s most elite fighters—would be impossible, with hostages divided into many groups in perhaps unreachable underground lairs. Pardo, and now many others in the security establishment, have reached the conclusion that negotiations are the best route to save hostages’ lives. Using Egypt and especially Qatar as mediators, four women were set free in the first releases.

While Netanyahu and the army promise to “eliminate Hamas,” that is not realistic. Hamas is an extreme Islamic ideology, a set of ideas—including total refusal to accept a Jewish state right alongside—that cannot be wiped out. But their quasi-government in Gaza can be shut down. Of course, there will then be the challenge of finding someone to govern that poverty-stricken areas needing reconstruction and a new, hopefully more positive, beginning. (Melman & Raviv, 2023)

Three strikes and you are out. The track record of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should make the insistence on policies of Gaza occupation and continuous conflict instead of negotiations toward cessation of war very likely to fail and should not be supported by the community of nations, including the United States, NATO, and the EU.

References

Chehayeb, K., & Teibel, A. (2023, October 26). Many Israelis are furious at their government's chaotic recovery efforts after Hamas attack. PBS. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/many-israelis-are-furious-at-their-governments-chaotic-recovery-efforts-after-hamas-attack 

The Current with Matt Galloway | Live Radio. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current 

Dyer, E. (2023, October 28). How Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel. CBC. Retrieved November 1, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035 

Israel needs to resist irrational retaliation. (2023, October 16). The Economist. Retrieved November 10, 2023, from https://www.economist.com/international/2023/10/16/israel-needs-to-resist-irrational-retaliation 

Melman, Y., & Raviv, D. (2023, October 28). Column: Israel's Vow to 'Eliminate Hamas' Is Unrealistic. Time. Retrieved November 13, 2023, from https://time.com/6329637/israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-strategy/ 

America and the “day after” plan

Experts with experience in Palestine conflict history have discussed the end game situation in the Israel - Gaza war in various media.

Direction to the Endgame

Matt Galloway on the CBC program, the Current, discussed the Israel-Hamas conflict and its deadly impact on civilians inside Gaza on Nov. 2, 2023  with Rami Khouri, a distinguished fellow at the American University of Beirut; and Omar Rahman, a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs.

Rami Khouri observes that the situation has been disastrous. He focuses on the Palestinian territories, Middle East geopolitics and American foreign policy in the region.

But, you know, part of it is the Palestinian leadership's fault, and part of it is by design of Israel to divide and conquer the Palestinians. And they've worked that very well, including by helping entrench Hamas in the Gaza Strip. I mean, this is the plan from Netanyahu as well. I mean, it's been leaked and reported in the Israeli press that he found Hamas's governance of Gaza Strip useful to him and useful to the Israelis.

none of Israel's partners, not only do they not hold Israel accountable for its actions, its illegal actions like settlement building and all these things which have made two states impossible, impossible, but they're shielding those actions in the international fora, preventing any kind of pressure to mount on Israel to to come to terms. And if it doesn't, if it doesn't face that pressure, it has no incentive to pull back. Because, again, you have 750,000 settlers now in the occupied West Bank. If you're going to pull those people back in a country in which you have voting rights and those people vote as well, it's pretty much impossible. They're not going to move those back. You know, Israel, its politicians need the incentive to take those kind of actions, and they have no incentive whatsoever to take those kind of actions because, you know, the Western backers of Israel, you know, America, it's driven by its domestic politics when it comes to this issue is not a foreign policy issue in the United States. It is a domestic policy issue. And that severely limits what how the U.S. can operate vis a vis the Israelis. And so it makes peace extremely difficult. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)

Omar Rahman comments that we are seeing a more accentuated variety of the kind of pain and anguish and anger that we have felt for most of our lives.

I was born in 1948 when this conflict reached its peak. And so we've seen this before. The actions by all concerned parties have seen Hamas attack Israel before. But the incredible unanimity and vehemence of the Western support for Israel to keep going with this attack and killing and killing. But the Western support is really something new and troubling. We're seeing a genocide live on TV. Starving populations and the West mostly, including Canada, has been saying, well, it's not time for a cease fire.

Clearly, attacking civilians is not acceptable, whoever does it. But the Israelis have killed far more civilians than Hamas has killed, as you know. So if people are going to discuss this issue honestly, they have to apply the same criteria to both sides. So the aim is to find the solution that allows the Jewish majority state of Israel and a Palestinian state next to it to live side by side with equal sovereignty and equal rights. The Americans give lip service to it. The Canadians used to be very good at supporting refugee rights. The Canadians were the gavel holders for the refugee issue after the Madrid peace conference. The Europeans have all become much more hard liner. The fundamental idea that Israelis and Palestinians are human beings with the same rights under law and under God is not accepted by Israel. And until it's accepted, there's going to be conflict. And if there's conflict, there's going to be all kinds of terrible things happening. (The Current With Matt Galloway | Live Radio, n.d.)

CBC News on the The National, October 31, 2023, reported on a leaked document that outlines a plan of Israel for Gaza.

Bernie Sanders offers an opinion in the Guardian that there cannot be a return to the status quo that existed in Gaza before the war.

An immediate humanitarian response is vitally important, but it is equally important for Israel to have a political strategy. It cannot bomb its way to a long-term solution. Such a strategy must include, as minimum first steps: a clear promise that Palestinians displaced in the fighting will have the absolute right to safely return to their homes; a commitment to broader peace talks to advance a two-state solution in the wake of this war; an abandonment of Israeli efforts to carve up and annex the West Bank; and a commitment to work with the international community to build genuine Palestinian governing capacity.

The United States, which provides $3.8bn a year in military aid to Israel, should make it clear that these are the conditions of our solidarity. Just as we want Israel to be a vibrant democracy, safe from terrorist attacks, we also want justice and dignity for the Palestinian people. That’s not going to happen with Hamas running the Gaza Strip. It is also not going to happen with continued Israeli domination of Palestinian life. (Sanders, 2023)

An article in the Middle East and Africa section of the Economist about Hamas and Israel suggests that Israel’s prime minister is ill-equipped for war and peace. Inside Israel a political battle is raging over the conduct of the war, its aftermath and who makes decisions. At its heart is Binyamin Netanyahu, the dominant figure in Israeli politics for over two decades, who may now be the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time.

he has become a symbol of implacable hostility to a two-state solution at a time when Israeli commitment to it in some form is essential as part of any “day after” plan. That is so as to maintain American support and to sustain the Abraham accords, which established diplomatic links with a group of Arab states. In the absence of clear government direction the Israeli defence establishment is doing all the planning. Its preferred solution is to see the PA ultimately return to Gaza, which it controlled until Hamas’s coup in 2007. The Palestinian leadership is clear that any return to Gaza would require Israeli assurances on reviving a moribund diplomatic process towards a two-state solution. (Bibi Netanyahu Is the Wrong Man in the Wrong Place, 2023)

The political process to move toward a “day-after” where the vicious war is paused and the challenges of the new governments in Gaza and Israel to maintain peace are supported by Arab neighbours and the United States and its allies in NATO and the EU.

References

Bibi Netanyahu is the wrong man in the wrong place. (2023, October 31). The Economist. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/10/31/bibi-netanyahu-is-the-wrong-man-in-the-wrong-place 

CBC News (Executive Producer). (2023). The National [TV series]. https://youtu.be/Wf_CCuDNsPw?si=CkrYZN1iV_rK4ckg&t=471 

The Current with Matt Galloway | Live Radio. (n.d.). CBC. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-63-the-current 

Sanders, B. (2023, November 2). Gaza needs a humanitarian pause. Then we need a vision of where we go from here | Bernie Sanders. The Guardian. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/nov/01/gaza-humanitarian-pause-bernie-sanders?CMP=twt_b-usopinion_c-us