by SAMAR AL-GAMAL
Chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Judge Navi Pillay, has spent the past two years documenting a genocide unfolding in real time in Gaza. In this interview with Ahram Online, the former president of the Rwanda Tribunal and judge at the International Court of Justice exposes the deliberate, organized crimes of Israeli forces.
This included the targeting of children with shots to the chest and forehead, the bombing of fertility clinics, the sexual violence against Palestinian women, and the destruction of hospitals and schools.
Drawing on thousands of testimonies, satellite images, and medical reports, along with the two other members of the committee, the human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti and the expert on housing and land rights Miloon Kothari, Pillay uncovered a methodical, orchestrated campaign of destruction, patterns leaving no doubt that this is deliberate genocide.
She says the commission identified four of the five genocidal acts defined under the UN Genocide Convention as being carried out by Israel, and the mass killings of Palestinians cannot be called accidental, nor, based on the evidence, can they be justified as military objectives.
Ahram Online: Can you walk us through the work of your commission? Specifically, when did you begin, and how did you conduct your investigation that led to this conclusion about an Israeli genocide in Gaza?
Navi Pillay: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory was established in 2021 by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. We have been investigating and gathering evidence since the beginning of the war in Gaza two years ago. And each time we investigated a killing or an episode of sexual violence, we included that in an official report to the UN, and we recorded it.
Just before writing this, we gathered all the facts that we have established. We have not included anything that we didn’t personally investigate and verify. We collaborated with numerous agencies within the UN, utilising satellite footage and expert advice from the military, including one of our team members.
We didn’t look at anybody else’s report. However, some very well-known NGOs have come out declaring a genocide, and the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian territories, Fransceca Albanessa, also concluded. Yet, this commission is different. It’s independent. We had a much bigger scope, and we have the obligation to share this information with judicial institutions that are prosecuting or holding hearings. That is why we observed the well-established methodology developed by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
We heard from NGOs inside Israel, some of which were banned or shut down because of Israel and the United States’ desire to shield Netanyahu from ICC prosecution. We called witnesses ranging from ordinary Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, to Palestinians, to doctors, most of them foreign volunteers who came into Gaza to serve and had no motive to lie or exaggerate. We cross?checked all their information. That’s an extensive process.
AO: Your commission has issued previous reports, but this is the only one concluding that Israel has committed four of the five genocidal acts under the Genocide Convention and continues to commit them. Can you explain the evidence that led you to reach this conclusion now?
NP: We did not start by applying the label “genocide”. We reached that conclusion only after examining all the evidence and connecting the statements indicating intent from leaders at the top. From my own experience, I knew that the overarching test of genocidal intent had to be proved.
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