27 Winter 2026 happening [in Gaza] is a genocide.” The experts, Hasan says, help right-thinking people to “avoid being gaslit by apologists for Israel.”14 Even Pope Frances in November 2024 said that “According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”15 Some of the experts are truly experts, such as William Schabas, who has written the critical book on genocide case law.16 With them one can respectfully disagree. Others are simply activists posing as experts. Ten days after the October 2023 attack, over 800 scholars claiming expertise in “international law, conflict studies, and genocide studies,” issued a statement concerning “the crime of genocide” in Gaza. The signatories included scholars of medieval art, “racial” capitalism, veterinary medicine, chemical engineering, IT business administration, Chilean street art, forests in India, Kurdish feminism, classics, linguistics, Irish philosophy, and performance theory, plus nearly 40 graduate students.17 Others simply fake consensus. In August 2025 the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) issued a resolution to the effect that Israel’s “policies and actions meet the legal definition of genocide” per the UN Genocide Convention, and that international courts should act accordingly.18 The statement, which made global headlines, represented itself as having the entire association’s agreement. In fact, less than 30% of the membership participated in a rushed online poll, with no discussion allowed beforehand.19 Discussion might have been useful; the resolution contained numerous factual errors.20 The most important person claiming expertise is Francesca Albanese, since 2022 the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967. She has become the face of the genocide accusation against Israel. But she is also the face of ideology posing as expertise. Albanese’s credentials are exaggerated. Though she has neither practiced law nor taken the exams that would allow her to do so, she claims to be an “international lawyer.” She earned a master’s degree in law from the University of London’s School of Oriental and Asiatic Studies (SOAS). This program adopts a postcolonial approach to international law. In 2024, Albanese thanked SOAS faculty for providing her “with the foundational knowledge to comprehend the original sin of international law and its use as a tool of colonization and imperialism.”21 As of this writing Albanese has submitted three reports concerning Israel since October 7 to the UN Human Rights Commission, the most important of which is “Anatomy of a Genocide,” completed in March 2024 and submitted in final form in July. It proceeds from settler colonial theory. “Erasing the Indigenous Arab presence,” she argues, “has been an inevitable part of the forming of Israel as a ‘Jewish State.’”22 October 7 was a pretext for the final genocidal steps. But again, facts had to fit theory. Albanese accordingly used a flawed evidentiary basis. For fatalities, she employed the “impact snapshots” from the UN’s Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which in turn relied on statistics from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Gaza Government Office of Information, Hamas’s propaganda office. Albanese thus argued that 70% of Gaza’s fatalities had been women and children to allege a genocidal 14. Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan), X (May 23, 2025), available at https://x.com/mehdirhasan/status/1925997390810464666 15. Giada Zampano, “Pope Frances Calls for Investigation to Determine if Israel’s Attacks in Gaza Constitute Genocide,” AP (Nov. 17, 2024), available at https:// apnews.com/article/pope-vatican-gaza-israel-genocidebook-62907898cead13dbcfd603592263904c 16. William A. Schabas, GENOCIDE IN INTERNATIONAL LAW: THE CRIME OF CRIMES (3rd ed. 2025). 17. “Scholars Warn of Potential Genocide in Gaza,” TWAILR (Oct. 17, 2023), available at https://twailr.com/publicstatement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/ 18. “IAGS Resolution on the Situation in Gaza,” IAGS (Aug. 31, 2025), available at https://genocidescholars.org/wpcontent/uploads/2025/08/IAGS-Resolution-on-GazaFINAL.pdf 19. “Another Reason Not to Trust the ‘Experts,’” THE FREE PRESS (Sept. 3, 2025), available at https://www.thefp. com/p/another-reason-not-to-trust-the-experts; Sara E. Brown, “I Joined the Genocide Scholars to Prevent Atrocities: Here’s How They Failed,” AJC (Sept. 26, 2025), available at https://www.ajc.org/news/i-joined -the-genocide-scholars-to-prevent-atrocities-heres-howthey-failed 20. Robert Satloff, “A Charade in Academic Garb,” WASHINGTON INSTITUTE (Sept. 2, 2025), available at https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/ charade-academic-garb 21. SOAS University of London, “Imperialism, Colonialism and Human Rights: The Litmus Test of Palestine,” 16:11 YOUTUBE (Nov. 20, 2022), available at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=v9_mzAzWnXA 22. “Anatomy of a Genocide,” UN Doc. A/HRC/55/73, ¶¶ 2, 10, 97(d) (March 25, 2024).
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