Israel is committing Genocide, say top scholars | Expert Witness | Middle East Eye

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Uploaded: 20 Aug 2025 (12 months ago) · Shared: 11 Feb 2026

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Who are Middle East Eye?

Middle East Eye (MEE) is a United Kingdom-based media website and channel that primarily focuses on news related to the Middle East, North Africa, and the broader Muslim world.

What is Genocide?

Genocide is intentional action to destroy a people. People are defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. The hybrid word "genocide" is a combination of the Greek word genos ("race, people") and the Latin suffix -cide ("act of killing"). The United Nations Genocide Convention, which was established in 1948, defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group". The Political Instability Task Force estimated that, between 1956 and 2016, a total of forty-three genocides took place, causing the death of about 50 million people. The UNHCR estimated that a further 50 million had been displaced by such episodes of violence up to 2008.

The Holocaust is a specific instance of genocide. It refers specifically to the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jewish people by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

What is Israel?

Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East. Located on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest.

Video Description (from Youtube)

Israel's military offensive on Gaza is nearing the two-year mark. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, if not more, have been killed and nearly the entire population forcibly displaced multiple times. Rising starvation deaths amid an Israeli blockade and aid sites described as "killing sites" accompany increasing warning bells from international humanitarian agencies describing this as genocide.

Yet, many countries seem reluctant to use the word. Last year, UK foreign minister David Lammy suggested that not enough people had been killed for it to warrant the term. Others have said it’s a matter for legal courts to determine.

So is what’s happening in Gaza a genocide? And who gets to decide that? In this episode of Expert Witness, we asked ten leading scholars. Here’s what they said.

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