by Susan Nicholson
On September 16, 2025, the UN published a landmark 72-page report concluding that Israel has committed, and is continuing to commit, genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. The report, entitled “Legal analysis of the conduct of Israel in Gaza pursuant to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” covers the period from October 7, 2023 to July 31, 2025.
Written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory established by the UN Human Right Council, the report is the first time a UN body has officially and formally concluded Israel is committing genocide.
The report is the result of almost 2 years of fact finding and legal analysis by the Commission, involving the review of over 16,000 pieces of evidentiary material.
In a UN press conference on 9/16, Navi Pillay, the Commission Chair, made the following remarks.
“This has been the most ruthless, prolonged, and widespread attack against the Palestinian people since 1948. Every day that passes, the killings and starvation of the Palestinians continue….The goal of the Israeli government is abundantly clear as we witness the destruction of the Palestinians in Gaza. The Commission finds that it is genocide.”
Specifically, the Commission found that Israel committed and is continuing to commit the following underlying acts of genocide:
- killing members of the group
- causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
- deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
- imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
It should be noted that any one of these 4 acts, committed with the requisite intent, is enough to constitute genocide under the Genocide Convention of 1948, to which both Israel and the US are signatories. Here the Commission finds Israel guilty of all 4. The only 1 of the 5 acts underlying genocide that the Commission did not find Israel guilty of is transferring children to another group.
On the specific topic of genocidal intent, that is, the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic or religious group in whole or in part, Pillay said there there is both direct and circumstantial evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza.
“The Commission concludes that statements made by Israeli authorities are direct evidence of genocidal intent. The Commission also concludes that the pattern of conduct is circumstantial evidence for genocidal intent, and that genocidal intent is the only reasonable inference that could be drawn from the totality of the evidence.”
Note here that Pillay does not say that genocidal intent is a reasonable inference to draw from Israel’s pattern of conduct in the Gaza Strip. Rather, she makes the far stronger statement that it is the only reasonable inference that could be drawn.
In her closing remarks at the UN press conference, Pillay states:
“The Genocide Convention was born out of humanity’s darkest chapters. Today, we witness in real time how the promise of Never Again is broken and tested in the eyes of the world…………
The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency…Member states must act now.”
Among the recommended actions for member states are 2 of particular relevance to the US: (1) to cease the transfer of arms and other equipment to Israel that have been or could be involved in genocide; and (2) to ensure that corporations within the state are not involved in aiding or assisting Israel in committing genocide.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s reaction to the Commission’s report was entirely predictable, referring to the 3 Commission members as “Hamas proxies” with “openly antisemitic opinions” and demanding that the Commission be abolished.
IFM nonsense aside, Commission members in fact bring deep experience in application of the Genocide Convention around the world. Commission Chair Pillay, from South Africa, is a former judge of the International Criminal Court and former president of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set up by the UN to adjudicate genocide charges. Commission Member Chris Sidoti, from Australia, is a prominent international human rights lawyer and former leader of a fact-finding mission relating to the Rohingya genocide, while Commission Member Miloon Kothari, from India, is a human rights expert.
The Commission’s damning report adds to the near unanimous consensus of genocide scholars and organizations of genocide scholars and UN experts and international human rights organizations that Israel is guilty of genocide, the crime of crimes, in Gaza. As such, we should make good use of it in our advocacy. We can expect the report to increase public pressure and condemnation of Israel’s actions. We can hope it will lead more political leaders and UN spokespersons to employ the accurate term for what is happening in Gaza and act accordingly. Finally, the detailed body of evidence gathered by the Commission can usefully be submitted to the ICJ in support of South Africa’s case against Israel for genocide.
Susan Nicholson is a retired health law attorney and a member of MAPA’s Gaza Israel Mideast Peace Campaign.