- Former UN official Richard Falk warns in Istanbul that failure to act against Israel’s Gaza offensive would mark 'historic failure of humanity'
- Citing lessons from Vietnam War, Falk argues that public mobilization can make 'unlikely initiatives' realistic in stopping Gaza’s destruction
- Falk praises Türkiye’s stance on Gaza, while warning that 'emergency responses are necessary' to prevent catastrophe for besieged population
ISTANBUL
The Gaza Tribunal on Monday called for an urgent international armed intervention to stop what it described as Israel’s "most lethal phase of genocide" in Gaza, warning that failure to act would mark "an historic failure of humanity."
At a press conference held in Istanbul, the president of the independent tribunal, Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at the US' Princeton University and the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories (2008–2014), urged governments to bypass the Security Council and empower the UN General Assembly to authorize armed intervention.
"If we do not take action of a serious and drastic kind at this time, anything done in a more moderate fashion will be too late, too late to save the surviving people who have already been traumatized by more than 22 months of genocide," Falk said.
"The eyes and the ears of the world have been exposed, as never before, including the Holocaust, to the transparency of genocide carried out in real time. It challenges our humanity."
Falk criticized Western democracies for what he called "complicit behavior," while noting shifts in public opinion.
"We are trying to address the conscience of all people and encourage the kind of activism that will produce changes in government ahead, particularly an arms embargo and various forms of sanctions … including the kind of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle that proved so effective in the anti-apartheid campaign," he said.
'Not only for Gaza but for well-being of the world'
Handed over to Anadolu, the tribunal’s emergency statement, titled Time to ACT: Mobilizing Against Israel’s Planned Conquest on Gaza City and Central Gaza, highlighted Israel’s Aug. 7 National Security Cabinet decision, which Falk said was "opposed by Israel’s own military high command," to press forward with the conquest of Gaza City, where nearly 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
"The imminent escalation deeply challenges member governments of the UN … to take drastic action now," Falk declared, citing legal pathways such as the 1950 Uniting for Peace Resolution and the Responsibility to Protect framework adopted at the UN’s 2005 summit.
Quoting Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour’s appeal for immediate protection forces, the tribunal declared: "We, as the Gaza Tribunal, join with those who treat silence in the face of genocide as complicity."
Falk also condemned what he called systematic efforts to silence truth-telling. He pointed to sanctions against UN human rights rapporteurs and the "August 10th assassination of Assas al-Shafir and his Al Jazeera colleagues in another violent deliberate effort to silence truth tellers."
"Part of the Gaza Tribunal is to strengthen the role of truth or conceptions of reality. And that is of strategic importance not only for Gaza but for the well-being of the world," he added.
The tribunal is now preparing to raise the issue at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York next month. "We hope to have laid the groundwork for doing that by the action of releasing this statement today," Falk said.
'Faith in people, not governments'
During a Q&A session following the press conference, Falk was asked by Anadolu about the practicality of calling for a UN protective force, given the repeated Security Council deadlocks and contradictions among Western governments that recognize Palestinian statehood but simultaneously suppress pro-Palestinian activism at home.
"Well, I think that's a very difficult question," Falk said.
"It's as realistic as the political will that is present is motivated to really stop this genocide. And one of the ways that it could be made realistic is by exerting enough pressure on the Israeli and US governments so that they consent to a protective force being sent to Gaza.
"Now that seems unlikely at the moment to be realized, but the situation in Gaza is sufficiently desperate that only unlikely initiatives have any chance of really rescuing the population from near certain tragedy."
He stressed that mobilizing popular activism could shift what seems politically unrealistic.
"Therefore, I think it is an appropriate kind of undertaking to support as a matter of conscience and to mobilize as much pressure as possible to make it realistic. Realism reflects the political atmosphere, and that could be changed by people. The real underlying faith of this kind of tribunal is in people, not in governments."
Recalling his own experience in the US during the Vietnam War, Falk pointed to historical precedent for unexpected public influence.
"It hopes that the mobilization of people will have a desirable political impact, historical impact. As has happened often, I've experienced the impact of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam period, which surprised many people in the US by changing what seemed like a very deep, Cold War commitment of the US government to carry on with the war. So things happen that are not predictable and seem unlikely, but are worth struggling to make happen."
"And I suppose that's the faith that guides the Gaza Tribunal," Falk concluded.
'Situation desperate for entire Gazan population'
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Anadolu after the press conference, Falk emphasized that the tribunal welcomed Türkiye’s stance.
"Those of us in the Gaza Tribunal have welcomed the Turkish government's condemnation of the Gaza genocide, which has been more consistent and more powerful and influential than almost any other government, certainly in the Global North, and that's to be commended," he said.
He explained that the tribunal aims not only to document atrocities but also to mobilize global solidarity.
"I think that we hope to compile an authoritative archive on the criminality of what has taken place. And we already had this meeting in Sarajevo at the end of May that compiled considerable evidence.
"Because it's a jury of conscience, it's not as narrowly delimited as a normal court of law. It's interested in justice more than the technical application of legal rules and legal evidence. And so it gives a more complete picture."
According to Falk, the tribunal’s second primary goal is to legitimize "global solidarity initiatives, to exert pressure on governments to do more to stop the genocide, to use the UN Peace Resolution or the responsibility to protect instruments to challenge what Israel is doing, and to hope that that has an immediate effect, or an effect as early as possible."
"We proceed on the assumption that grows stronger every day, that the situation is desperate for the entire Gazan population, and that emergency responses are necessary. Otherwise, even well-intentioned acts, including our own, may be too late to have any influence," he warned.
Falk underlined that the UN General Assembly remains a viable path for immediate intervention.
"I think we would like to see the recognition of this sense of desperation and emergency, combined with the idea that the UN, if it's empowered through the General Assembly, can take meaningful, immediate action.
"It has the legal and political instruments to do this by way of the UN Peace Resolution and the R2P (responsibility to protect) procedures. So, it is a further attempt to challenge the notion that the UN is paralyzed when it comes to genocide prevention."
What is Gaza Tribunal?
The Gaza Tribunal was launched in London in November 2024 by nearly 100 academics, intellectuals, human rights advocates, and civil society figures, citing "the total failure of the organized international community to implement international law" in Gaza.
Since then, it has convened multiple sessions, including a February 2025 chamber meeting in London and a strategy gathering in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul to brief the international public.
In May, the tribunal held a four-day public session in Sarajevo, Bosnia, hearing testimony from witnesses, journalists, academics, and experts.
That session culminated in the Sarajevo Declaration, which formally accused Israel of genocide, war crimes, and apartheid.
There will be a final hearing in October in Istanbul, where the "Jury of Conscience will deliver a moral verdict based on all testimonies and evidence," noted another statement handed to Anadolu by the tribunal.
Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, which is facing famine.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
