• Haider Eid, Radwan Abu Muammar, and others recount bombing of homes, executions of youths, sexual abuse at borders, and detention of medical staff

ISTANBUL

The Gaza Tribunal’s final session continued Thursday at Istanbul University with harrowing testimonies from survivors and scholars accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians and dismantling the foundations of international law.

Joining remotely from exile in South Africa, genocide survivor Haider Eid, an associate professor of literature and cultural studies formerly at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, delivered a deeply personal testimony describing his multiple displacements, the devastation of his community, and what he called “an absolute evil” unfolding in Gaza.

“I spent the first four months of the genocide itself where I was displaced three times,” Eid said. “After being evacuated in December 2023, I went from Gaza to South Africa via Egypt. South Africa has become my fourth displacement.”

Eid described the systematic annihilation of Gaza’s population and infrastructure as a deliberate policy rather than a collateral consequence.

“Israel’s political and military leaders have deliberately unleashed a genocide by war to wreak havoc on Gaza, my hometown,” he said.

“Making Gaza literally unlivable, Israel has severely punished its population — especially women, children, and the elderly — for daring to challenge its colonial invincibility.”

Detailing the loss of his own family and colleagues, he said: “Personally, I have lost 54 relatives, 39 colleagues from Al-Aqsa University, and more than 280 of my students, including some of my best literature students. I have also lost my neighborhood, my family home, my children’s school, and my university.”

Eid cited data showing the scale of destruction, noting: “The current level of devastation in Gaza is equivalent to 17 times the combined wreckage of all Israeli wars against Gaza since 2008.”

He concluded with a reflection on the broader historical context, tracing the violence back to the Nakba of 1948.

“This ongoing genocide can be traced back to 1948,” he said.

“I am a son of refugees from the Zalmunda village, which was ethnically cleansed back then. Both my parents died dreaming of the day they could return. Israel is a colonial state based on the extermination or displacement of the indigenous population.”

'A graveyard of international law'

Following Eid, Noura Erakat, Palestinian human rights attorney and associate professor at Rutgers University, addressed the tribunal remotely under the title “We Charge Nakba: Colonial Genocide of the Palestinian People.”

“The genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza is quintessentially the colonialist phase of our republic,” Erakat said.

“Between 1947 and 1949, Zionist militias, and later Israel’s army, conducted operations that collectively targeted Palestinians, destroying over 500 villages and expelling 80% of Palestine’s native people. No one was punished then — and no one has been punished since.”

Erakat argued that Israel’s impunity is rooted in what she called “the normalization of legal exception” — a framework established during the formation of the state and perpetuated through international complicity.

“The international community accepted Israel’s claim for legal exception in 1948,” she noted. “The newly established UN had the opportunity to condition Israel’s recognition on compliance with Resolution 181, but chose not to. The past is the present.”

She also critiqued the Genocide Convention and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for what she described as their structural incapacity to address the colonial dimensions of genocide.

“The Convention failed to connect a group’s biological life to the land upon which they lived,” Erakat said.

“It excluded the destruction of a group’s political, cultural, and linguistic existence — the very essence of colonial annihilation. As such, the treaty effectively excised colonialism and its instituted violence from the scope of international criminal law.”

US' political cover for Netanyahu

Citing cases from Bosnia to Nagorno-Karabakh, Erakat underscored how the ICJ’s narrow definition of intent has “reinforced Western prerogatives” and shielded powerful states from accountability.

She accused the US of enabling Israel’s actions through repeated vetoes at the UN and political cover for Prime Minister Netanyahu.

“The Biden and Trump administrations have systematically used their vetoes to block resolutions to prevent genocide,” she said.

“They have undermined the ICJ’s authority, dismissed its rulings on Israel’s unlawful occupation, and allowed Prime Minister Netanyahu to openly defy international arrest warrants.”

Erakat concluded with a warning about the broader implications of Gaza’s devastation for the future of international order.

“Palestine is the epicenter of this struggle, where world powers are turning Gaza into a graveyard of international law,” she said. “It’s dangerous. We must defeat these forces in Palestine and save the future for everyone worthy of our children.”

Targeting of civilians

Radwan Abu Muammar, a survivor from Khan Younis, recounted one of the most harrowing attacks on a civilian home.

“We went to that house and stayed there for about 18 days or more,” he said. “On the night of Dec. 20, 2023, the house was bombed without warning. It contained more than 10 families, 51 people. Thirty of them were martyred — most of them women and children.”

He described the strike’s impact: “Suddenly, without any warning, I didn’t hear a sound or feel anything. Only the floor was shaking like an earthquake, and the floors were falling on you. The people on the first floor were all martyred.”

In the aftermath, he said: “I was calling my mother, father, Talha, Mansour, Mohammad, Amir. Unfortunately, no one answered because they were martyred.”

At the hospital, he discovered his father and brother among the dead. “It was the most painful moment of my life,” he said. “I lost my mother and my sister’s daughter, Talha. She was nine years old. Her heart stopped because of fear.”

He spoke of the horror of identifying bodies: “You go in to identify between 30 bodies — your mother, your father, your brother, your sister. The people you have loved all your life. The skin is white, but the features are hidden. You can’t know. Even now I think about this moment in my life.”

Sexual violence and mass detention

Samer Abu Foura, another witness, recounted scenes of humiliation and sexual abuse at the Gaza border.

“They forced her to come and put her in a place where those who passed by could see her,” he said. “The girl was in a very difficult psychological state. Her mother was behind her. As soon as the girl wanted to go inside, her mother would shout at her, and they would beat her.”

He described border crossings filled with “martyrs and humiliated people,” including “youths and girls chosen randomly, young and old, with no discrimination.”

Mahmoud Al-Khatib testified that Israeli forces executed young men en masse in Rafah. “They dug a big hole in the settlement of the city of Rafah, they put all the youths in a big hole, and they executed them on the ground, unfortunately, in front of their families,” he said.

Raghad Suleiman recounted beatings and attacks by dogs on detained civilians, including her uncle, a translator and medical examiner.

“The women were pushed to the side, hands on their necks, and beaten,” she said. “They unleashed the dogs at my uncle… The children were terrified. Soldiers, weapons, drones, bullets — it was a very scary sight.”

Israa Alsharif, a witness from Gaza’s medical sector, said hospitals were systematically targeted and medical workers detained.

“All medical personnel were arrested in the hospital,” she said. “Even the Israeli correspondent showed a video of my cousin, but the sound was not his voice. They are exploiting their stories — spreading lies that medical staff are terrorists.”

Gaza Tribunal

The four-day public session, held at Istanbul University from Thursday through Sunday, marks the culmination of a year-long effort by international jurists, scholars, and civil society figures to document alleged crimes committed against Palestinians.

Thursday’s session built on earlier hearings in Sarajevo and other global forums, consolidating findings across three chambers — International Law, International Relations and World Order, and History, Ethics, and Philosophy.

Presided over by Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, the tribunal aims to produce a comprehensive “people’s record” of what participants describe as genocide, apartheid, and systemic violations of international law in Gaza.

A special expert panel titled “Root Causes” examined the historical, political, and economic foundations of the conflict.

Speakers included Ussama Makdisi on historical perspectives; Avi Shlaim and Lana Tatour on Zionist settler colonialism and racism; Jeff Halper on crimes against the Palestinian people; Rania Muhareb on apartheid as a denial of self-determination; Rabea Eghbaria on conceptualizing Nakba as a legal category; and Yanis Varoufakis on capitalism and global structures sustaining the violence.

The tribunal’s jury of conscience includes Kenize Mourad, Christine Chinkin, Chandra Muzaffar, Ghada Karmi, Sami Al-Arian, and Biljana Vankovska.