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international law
The Global Future Hinges on Holding Israel Accountable for Its Crimes in Gaza
Should Netanyahu's actions succeed in normalizing genocide in the 21st century, this horrific crime could become a sanctioned political strategy for tyrants and regimes worldwide.
Sep 27, 2025
Every day brings new indictments for Israel. The early accusations of genocide by South Africa are now quickly becoming an accepted legal definition among international bodies and governments alike. The latest indictment came from the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"The Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have had and continue to have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip," the UNHRC's Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) report unambiguously stated. While this may seem obvious to those watching the Israeli genocide unfold in real time, the step is historic nonetheless.
According to professor Triestino Mariniello, an international law expert and a member of the legal team representing Gaza victims before the International Criminal Court (ICC), the report is of "historic importance" and "unprecedented." Though previous UN commissions had repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes in Palestine, "they had never gone so far as to say that Israel is also responsible for what represents the most serious crime at the international level: the crime of genocide."
Desperate to see enough international pressure to force Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist government to end their mass extermination of Palestinians in Gaza, many wonder if such reports are enough to hold Israel to account. Navi Pillay, a South African judge who headed the International Tribunal for the 1994 Rwanda Genocide, admits that justice "is a slow process," but does not consider it "impossible that there will be arrests and trials" in the future. For those eager to see some measure of justice, the specific references to arrests and trials are of some comfort. The images of thousands of innocent people, mostly women and children, being slaughtered are simply impossible to bear.
This struggle is not solely for the sake of Gaza; it is for the very soul of humanity.
The report is particularly important as it ties into the ICC's ongoing actions against accused Israeli war criminals, Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant.
Though the report is not binding on the ICC and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), it provides a strong legal foundation for their investigations. For example, similar reports were taken into account during the war crimes investigation in Sudan. The credibility of the UNHRC, the COI, and its reputable judges is of immense value.
Equally important is that the report is not an isolated conclusion; it is the culmination of two years of extensive research and aligns with the findings of other well-regarded international legal and human rights bodies, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
The latest of such significant statements was the resolution by the world's leading organization of scholars on genocide, the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS). In a resolution that passed by an absolute majority on August 31, the reputable body concluded that Israel's "policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition" of genocide.
Many hope that all of these conclusions, reports, and resolutions will ultimately push the ICJ to speed up its investigation into Israel's conduct in Gaza. But even if the ICJ continues to drag its feet under pressure from the US and other European allies of Israel, the report is still of great value. Now, individual governments and civil society organizations can use the findings of the report to take independent action, thus continuing to mount pressure on Israel and its supporters. In fact, this process is already in motion.
A group of lawyers on September 19 filed a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and leading officials, including arms trade executives, for "openly and repeatedly boasting about their unconditional and unlimited support" for Israel. "Given the undeniable, genocidal consequences of this support," they argued, they should be held accountable.
Similar efforts for accountability are underway in Italy. The Italian movement Alleanza Verdi-Sinistra (AVS) has filed a complaint against its government, not in an Italian court but with the ICC—an indication of the globalized nature of the legal struggle against Israel. The group asked the court to investigate possible Italian complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
Within the same time frame, Spain's attorney general has authorized an official investigation into Israel's war crimes in Gaza. The investigation is a direct response to a request by the Chief Prosecutor for Human Rights and Democratic Memory, Dolores Delgado.
These are just a few examples of how the label of genocide by UN-linked and independent organizations can propel direct actions by legal experts, national police, and attorneys general across the world.
Though Netanyahu continues to act with the same old arrogant attitude that he, his government, and country are above the law, including international law, it is incumbent on all of us to remind him and other war criminals that no individual, no entity, and no government is immune to accountability when it comes to the blood of the innocent.
This struggle is not solely for the sake of Gaza; it is for the very soul of humanity. Should Netanyahu's actions succeed in normalizing genocide in the 21st century, this horrific crime could become a sanctioned political strategy for tyrants and regimes worldwide. The world cannot afford to let this happen. The future of global justice hangs in the balance.
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Why I Am Joining the People’s Hunger Strike for Gaza
I have joined the hunger strike in grief at the annihilation of Gaza, and to protest the use of my tax dollars to transform the Gaza Strip into a graveyard for its people and international law.
Sep 25, 2025
On September 25 I will begin a weeklong water-only fast as part of The People’s Hunger Strike that was launched outside the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Federal Building in Boston on September 4.
Its goals are to raise consciousness about the deliberate starvation of the people of Gaza and to pressure Massachusetts senators, whose offices are in that building, to sponsor a version of the House "Block the Bombs" bill (HR 3565) that would stop the US from sending Israel the kind of high-impact weaponry being used against civilians in the Gaza Strip in violation of international law.
The Horror of Forced Starvation
The People’s Hunger Strike is the brainchild of a Boston physician Miriam Komaromy. She had not previously been actively involved in organizing for Palestine. But “when forced starvation was imposed on the Gaza population it brought me up short,” she told me. “I said this cannot be. The reality of parents starving and watching their child starve to death—I couldn’t bear it.”
Responding to a Palestinian call urging people of conscience around the world to join a solidarity hunger strike initiated in the West Bank, Dr. Komaromy reached out to members of Boston’s Doctors against Genocide and Healthcare Workers for Palestine-Boston as well as the Boston chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Soon they had numerous cosponsoring groups supporting the planned hunger strike, and some 35 people had pledged to undertake one-week fasts.
Many of those who joined the action were new to the issue; others had long been involved in organizing for Palestinian rights. All were affected by what Jeannie—a hunger striker whose Irish heritage taught her something about deliberately manufactured famine—described in the following way: “For almost two years, we’ve seen the images of the displaced, whose homes, schools, hospitals, water, and entire society have been bombed, as they walk through the rubble seeking food and shelter. The woman whose milk has dried up screaming with grief over her dead baby; the face of a skeletal child, crying and holding out an empty pot; a father weeping over the shrouded corpses of his entire family. These images don’t stop coming.”
The Gaza I knew
Those images and the unfolding genocide that has been meticulously documented by human rights organizations including Israeli groups, genocide scholars and, on September 16, the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry, have overwhelmed me. I have a personal relationship with the Gaza Strip going back to my first visit in 1988 as part of a human rights delegation when Israel was using “force, might, and beatings” (Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s phrase) to suppress the first Intifada, an unarmed uprising of the entire civil society.
"We have a duty to do all that we can to stop the genocide that is funded and promoted by our government.”
During the more than a dozen visits I subsequently made to Gaza as head of a foundation supporting its mental health services, I made many friends and experienced this tiny piece of land as a place of extraordinary hospitality. I saw firsthand how its population was demonized by Israel, imprisoned in what has been called an "open air prison" since 2007, and subjected to repeated sustained military bombardments well before the seismic events of October 7, 2023.
I have joined the hunger strike in grief at the annihilation of Gaza, and to protest the use of my tax dollars to transform the Gaza Strip into a graveyard for its people and international law.
Our Duty to Stop Genocide
Several people I work with in the Boston-based Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine have also joined the fast. Judy, who recently finished her week without food, says she fasted because “I am angry and heartbroken watching the people of Gaza endure forced starvation and seeing what it does to their bodies, spirit, and to their future. I joined the strike to pressure our government to stop sending Israel weapons.”
Jude, who is in treatment for cancer herself, hopes to personalize and make visible the impact of the Israeli-created famine and the long-term harm it is causing. She adds: “I can retreat from this strike at the first sign of harm. This is not true for our counterparts in Gaza who are exhausted; without food, water, medicine, or shelter; and under constant attack. We have a duty to do all that we can to stop the genocide that is funded and promoted by our government.”
Kathy hopes that the hunger strike will send a loud message to her elected representative, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), who has not signed onto the House "Block the Bombs" bill despite “countless calls from her constituents over the last two years concerning the weapons the US has sent to Israel with Massachusetts tax dollars. The result has been the extermination of entire generational families living in Gaza, as well as the killing and maiming of massive numbers of civilians including babies, children, courageous journalists, and doctors. We want her to stand with the Congressional Progressive Caucus which has endorsed the Block the Bombs Act.”
It is too late to save the lives of more than 65,000 Palestinians, many slaughtered with US weapons and 83% of them civilians according to the Israeli army’s own data. It is too late to bring back the hundreds of children who have already died from forced starvation. But we hope that the hunger strike will amplify our message: Let Gaza Live!
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Italy Deploys Naval Ship to Aid Sumud Flotilla Following Drone Attack
"States have a responsibility to ensure the safe passage of the flotilla," said Amnesty International.
Sep 24, 2025
The Italian government says it has sent a naval ship to assist the Global Sumud Flotilla after it was attacked by several drones.
Organizers of the flotilla said that the boats, which are carrying humanitarian aid for the starving people of Gaza, were attacked by a swarm of 15 drones early Wednesday morning, with the convoy in the Mediterranean Sea about 600 nautical miles from the enclave.
According to Drop Site News, at least eight attacks and six explosions were reported as flash bang grenades hit at least six of the boats. One person has been injured, and two of the boats have been damaged. They also reported that an "unidentified chemical device" was dropped onto one of the boats before falling off into the water.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Italy's defense minister Guido Crosetto said: "Regarding the attack suffered in recent hours by the Sumud Flotilla vessels, which also include Italian citizens, carried out using drones by currently unidentified perpetrators, we can only express the strongest condemnation. In a democracy, even demonstrations and protests must be protected when they are conducted in compliance with international law and without resorting to violence."
"To ensure assistance to the Italian citizens on the flotilla," Crosetto said that he had "authorized the immediate intervention of the Italian Navy's multi-purpose frigate Fasan," which he said was "already en route to the area for possible rescue operations."
The deployment comes after labor unions in Italy led a nationwide strike in solidarity with Gaza on Monday, with hundreds of thousands of people in 75 cities and towns rallying to support Palestinians as well as the Global Sumud Flotilla.
Hundreds of other elected representatives to the European Union also issued calls on Wednesday for their own governments to provide protection to the flotilla.
While the perpetrator of the attack is not yet known, the flotilla organizers have suggested that "Israel and its allies" were responsible. Israel blocked two other efforts by activists to reach Gaza earlier this summer.
The flotilla's roughly 350 participants—which include humanitarians, doctors, journalists, lawyers, and other activists from at least 44 countries around the world—have repeatedly insisted that they are unarmed and that their goal is to peacefully protest Israel's siege of Gaza and deliver about 250 tons of food and medical aid to the people of Gaza, who are starving en masse under a near-total blockade by Israel.
On Tuesday, Israel's foreign ministry threatened to take "the necessary measures" to prevent what it described as the "Hamas flotilla" from breaking what it called a "lawful" blockade of Gaza.
In a statement posted to Instagram, the flotilla organizers said, "We welcome the recognition by Minister Crosetto of the democratic and non-violent nature of our mission, and his condemnation of the recent attacks on our vessels."
The group called on other UN member states, "in particular those whose nationals are aboard our ships—to ensure and facilitate effective protection, including maritime escorts, accredited diplomatic observers, and an overt protective state presence." The group emphasized that "such measures must remain protective and facilitative in nature, consistent with the principles of non-interference and the humanitarian purpose of our mission."
Israel ordered the group to turn over its humanitarian aid to Israel for it to be distributed in the strip. Organizers have refused to do this, arguing that Israel's blockade of aid, which has allowed only small amounts of aid into the strip, is illegal under international law.
Brazilian organizer Thiago Ávila, has said there is no reason to believe Israel's promises to distribute aid.
“We can never believe an occupying force who is committing genocide that they will deliver aid–it’s not in their interests,” Ávila said on his Instagram.
Last week, a commission of independent experts at the United Nations released an extensive report concluding that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. This has included its blockade of aid entering the strip, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 400 people, including at least 145 children, with many dying in recent months.
At least 65,419 Palestinians have also been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2023, and at least 167,160 have been wounded.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Amnesty International condemned the attacks on the flotilla and Israel's "threatening and dehumanizing statements" against its organizers, which it described as "a shameless attempt to intimidate them and their supporters."
"States have a responsibility to ensure the safe passage of the flotilla, especially as they have repeatedly failed to get Israel to comply with its most basic obligations to ensure Palestinians in Gaza have adequate access to food, water, medicine, and other supplies indispensable to their survival," Amnesty said. "They must step up pressure on Israel to ensure safe passage for the flotilla and to lift the blockade once for all."
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