Legal experts, academics and activists were hosted by the Palestinian Return Centre in London [Salma Ouaguira/TNA]
International legal scholars and human rights advocates have condemned the failure of the global community to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza, calling for explicit recognition of the genocide there.
At an international conference in London, ‘Naming Genocide: The Global Responsibility For Gaza’, hosted by the Palestinian Return Centre, legal experts, academics and activists criticised the absence of the term “genocide” in political and public discourses regarding Israel’s war on Gaza.
15 months of indiscriminate Israeli war on Gaza have killed over 61,000 people and displaced over two million others, many of them multiple times, while utterly devastating the territory.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a weapon and deliberate attacks on civilians.
However, Richard Falk, emeritus professor of international law at Princeton University, said there was little chance of that Israeli leaders would be brought to justice.
“There is no realistic prospect that arrest warrants will be enforced, he said at the conference, “Those responsible for these crimes have no fear of being held accountable.”
The case gained momentum after South Africa brought proceedings against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of genocide.
South Africa submitted a legal document claiming that Israel demonstrated a “special intent” to commit genocide in Gaza, a claim supported by an array of legal experts and human rights organisations.
But the warrants have not been enforced by the ICC’s 124 member states, which do not include Israel or its closest ally, the United States.
Lara Elborno, a Palestinian-American international lawyer, argued that Israel’s western allies including US President Donald Trump and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, are complicit in the erasure of historical and ongoing Palestinian suffering by refusing to facilitate or carry out the arrests.
“Perpetrators and their sponsors want to convince you that ‘you have not seen what you have seen in the past months’,” she said.
Elborno criticised ongoing Israeli violations of the ceasefire, which saw the final captive exchange of the first phase of the truce on Saturday. “It has not been a ceasefire at all – Israel has repeatedly violated the truce,” she said. “In the Global North, there are no red lines for Israel. A system with no accountability has no legitimacy.”
Limits of International law
Legal experts at the conference also slammed the structural barriers in international law that have shielded Israel from accountability.
Dr. Nimer Sultany, reader in Public Law at SOAS University said: “Palestinians named this genocide long ago, yet international institutions delayed even calling Israel an apartheid state. We are told human rights advocacy is about ‘naming and shaming’ – but where is the shaming of Israel? Where is the naming for Palestine?”
Numerous United Nations bodies, including UN experts, have called Israel’s actions in Gaza genocidal. Reports from Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have long described Israeli policies as apartheid and ethnic cleansing. However, experts warned that international legal mechanisms remain slow to act.
Professor Neve Gordon, an international law expert at Queen Mary University argued that despite the arrest warrants and widespread condemnation, international law remains limited in its effect.
“The law privileges the state,” he said. “It sees some things and ignores others. The apartheid system in Israel is a product of settler colonialism – yet colonialism is not codified as a crime in international law, making it beyond legal reach from the start.
“Law only looks at events, not at ongoing structures of oppression. Genocide in Gaza is not an isolated event – it is part of a broader colonial project.”
The global scrutiny comes as Israel’s Knesset has advanced a bill criminalising any cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Under the legislation, Israeli citizens and officials who provide resources to the ICC could face up to five years in prison.
Israel’s main ally the US has also imposed sanctions on the ICC, imposing asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officials and those supporting the court’s activities.
