Physical Address
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The four-day Gaza Tribunal concluded its final session on Sunday in Istanbul. Chaired by professor Richard Falk, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, the tribunal heard moving testimonies from survivors, medical professionals and experts, culminating in the announcement of its final decision.
Professor Christine Chinkin, head of the jury for the Gaza Tribunal, formally read the tribunal’s conclusions, summarizing the findings and evidence gathered since the tribunal’s inception and highlighting the urgent need for accountability and global attention to the situation in Gaza.
The tribunal, she emphasized, is a response to the ongoing lack of accountability and the commission of genocide by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Chinkin stressed that genocide must be identified, documented, and confronted, as impunity allows violence to continue worldwide. “Genocide in Gaza is the concern of all humanity,” she said. “When states are silent, civil society can and must speak out.”
The tribunal has compiled an extensive archive of evidence documenting the genocide against the Palestinian people. The jury also sought to challenge the prevailing security-focused narrative promoted by Israel and its allies, which often frames Palestinian suffering as a humanitarian disaster rather than a deliberate campaign of violence.
Chinkin noted that the jury reviewed extensive evidence, including oral and written testimonies, research and analytical papers. Personal accounts described the severe physical and psychological suffering of Palestinians, providing the basis for the tribunal’s findings.
The conclusions are grounded in international legal standards, including the Genocide Convention, human rights treaties, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and the moral imperatives of justice. The jury also reaffirmed the Sarajevo Declaration adopted in May 2025.
Condemned crimes detailed
The jury condemned Israel’s ongoing genocide and enumerated the crimes committed against Palestinians. It stressed that the genocide did not begin in October 2023 and will not end with a cease-fire.
The tribunal detailed crimes including starvation and famine through the deliberate denial of food, water, and destruction of the food system; domicide, the targeted destruction of homes and infrastructure causing displacement, trauma, and cultural loss; ecoside, the ruination of land, water, and air quality; reprocide, the targeting of reproductive health; and scholasticide, the destruction of educational and intellectual institutions.
The destruction of health care facilities and the targeting of medical personnel, long systematic under occupation, were highlighted as particularly egregious violations. Journalists documenting the genocide were systematically targeted, arrested or killed.
The jury documented instances of torture, sexual violence, disappearances and gender-based abuse at checkpoints, in detention, during house searches and in displacement. Politicide, defined as the targeted assassination and kidnapping of political and cultural leaders and the destruction of civic institutions, was cited as a consistent pattern of deliberate violence.
The destruction of homes, schools, hospitals, cultural and religious institutions, agricultural land, and ecosystems, as well as the use of hunger, denial of medical care, and forced displacement, are not collateral damage but deliberate instruments of collective punishment and genocide. These actions, the tribunal concluded, are not justified by military objectives.
The jury also held Western governments, particularly the U.S. and its allies, complicit in Israel’s campaign through the provision of weapons, intelligence, military support and economic relations. Inaction and silence in the face of genocide were described as moral failures and violations of international legal obligations.
Non-state actors were also implicated, including biased media, academic institutions and technology companies whose infrastructure enables Israeli military operations. The tribunal criticized the failure of international institutions, including the U.N., to prevent or punish atrocities effectively, while commending UN HRC special procedures and the work of special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
Systematic genocide confirmed
The jury concluded that Israel is perpetrating a systematic, technologically advanced genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, supported by a broader colonial project rooted in supremacist ideology.
The genocide is carried out on a captive population in a closed territory, highly visible despite attempts to conceal it, and continues despite ignored international legal interventions at the ICJ, UNGA, and ICC. The genocide is inseparable from a century-long campaign targeting Palestinians across all of historic Palestine and in exile.
The tribunal issued several recommendations to address the crisis. It called for ending impunity and ensuring accountability for all perpetrators, supporters, and enablers. It urged suspending Israel from international organizations and activating UNGA Resolution 377 A(V) to adopt protective measures given the Security Council’s failure to act.
The jury emphasized the right of Palestinians to self-determination, resisting displacement, and sustaining communities in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and refugee camps. It also called for a coordinated global action against the structures enabling the genocide in political, legal, economic, media, educational, technological, cultural, and social spheres.
It stressed that the struggle is against the ideology of Zionism and its supremacist system, not against Jews or Judaism. Justice, it concluded, must be rooted in equality, decolonization, restitution and the right of return.
“In solidarity with the people of Gaza, and in memory of all victims of genocide, we speak as a jury committed to justice,” Chinkin said. “Silence is complicity. Neutrality is surrender. Action is imperative.”
After the announcement of the Gaza Tribunal verdict, professor Richard Falk, addressed the audience. He said the tribunal was inspired by the Palestinian struggle, dedicated to those who have survived the devastation in Gaza, to Palestinians in refugee camps and to the memory of those who have died.
Falk expressed gratitude to the University of Istanbul, the jury of conscience, the witnesses, the experts, the journalists and all those who contributed to making the tribunal possible. He emphasized that the tribunal seeks to document the ongoing genocide in Palestine, which he described as rooted in over a century of colonization and oppression.
“Every member of the human family has a stake in Palestinian justice,” he said, warning that “if the perpetrators are allowed to escape, the world will ratify one of the worst atrocities in history.” He added, “The genocide in Palestine has not ended,” describing the deliberate attacks on civilians, hospitals, schools and aid workers, as well as the obstruction of humanitarian aid.
Falk concluded by stressing that the tribunal’s work extends beyond Istanbul, aiming to secure accountability, preserve evidence and uphold the rights of the Palestinian people.
The four-day event, titled “Gaza Tribunal: Final Session,” was held at Istanbul University’s professor Cemil Birsel Conference Hall.