ISTANBUL

Speakers at the Gaza Tribunal's final session in Istanbul on Saturday urged more inventive and coordinated forms of global solidarity with Palestinians, warning that traditional activism and fragmented legal efforts have failed to halt what they described as Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

Addressing the session on “Solidarity,” representatives from Norway, Türkiye, and international legal groups outlined initiatives they say can broaden public engagement and strengthen accountability mechanisms.

Charlotte Qvale from The Oslo Solidarity group said she turned to new forms of activism after feeling that conventional protests were falling short. “It had become clear that a man-made Israeli catastrophe was taking place in Gaza,” she said.

“I started going to demonstrations… but what we were doing had no effect at the time.”

Qvale, an Icelandic-Norwegian pop artist, said she teamed up with Norwegian physician and academic Dr. Mads Gilbert to combine culture with evidence-based advocacy. “I make music… but I felt that I lacked knowledge. So I joined forces with Mads,” she said.

Gilbert, who has documented the humanitarian consequences of conflict since Beirut in the early 1980s, argued that information alone cannot drive change. “Knowledge alone has no wings and may be left behind in dusty rooms and libraries,” he said.

“Could art and science be new allies in voicing and lifting the knowledge to many more people to amplify the resistance of the Palestinian people?”

The pair highlighted public events blending research, performance and dialogue, including a 90-minute forum featuring Palestinian and Israeli scholars, and a major concert that raised $75,000 for the Palestinian Medical Relief Society.

“Solidarity strengthens the just struggle in occupied Palestine,” Gilbert said. “We can all be influential agents of change… because time is a critical factor.”

- Global action through UN General Assembly

In a video message to the tribunal, American anti-war activist David Swanson called on governments to use the UN General Assembly’s Uniting for Peace mechanism to bypass “the veto-privileged Security Council” and take decisive action to stop the war on Gaza.

Swanson is also co-founder, executive director, and board member of World BEYOND War.

He urged states to arrest officials sought by the International Criminal Court, impose a full arms embargo, end diplomatic and financial ties with Israel, deploy unarmed civilian protection teams with humanitarian support, and back global education efforts to counter war propaganda.

Swanson also pushed for expelling Israel from the UN and recognizing Palestinian statehood.

“Were the world to pass all fourteen measures,” he said, “the genocide would end and the world would be remade in various ways.”

He cautioned against proposals to insert armed intervention into Uniting for Peace, calling it “nonsense” and stressing the need to defend civilian-based protection.

- ‘Gaza became the unifier of the Ummah’

Representing the Anatolian Civil Society Platform, Metin Dogan said the war in Gaza had galvanized more than 2,000 associations across Türkiye into near-daily actions and humanitarian initiatives.

“In other words, Gaza became the unifier of the Ummah,” he said. “We realize that we are much more than we thought. Gaza told this to us.”

Dogan said Turkish activists had organized flotillas and land convoys attempting to break the blockade and deliver aid.

“We will continue the resistance until Gazans and Palestinians are free,” he said, adding that those who fight in the Israeli military should face prosecution. “They violated international law, killed Gazan women, children and a civilization. They must be prosecuted.”

- Global legal coalition urged

Members from the Worldwide Lawyers Association (WOLAS) called for a coordinated, long-term legal strategy to challenge what they described as genocide, apartheid and “systematic denial” of Palestinian rights.

“International law… was built for it,” Turkish board member Hasan Basri Bulbul said, referring to structures he says protect state power. “Yet, it can be turned against its origins through coordinated, critical practice.”

Turkish Vice President of WOLAS Huseyin Disli warned that Gaza’s legal system itself was being destroyed.

More than 200 lawyers were killed, 220 were injured, 907 law offices were destroyed, and courts were completely suspended, he said, adding: “To destroy lawyers, Palestinian lawyers, is to destroy the very capacity for self-determination and liberation.”

He called for “international legal accompaniment” to protect legal workers and renewed efforts to rebuild Palestinian legal institutions.

“Protection of the world is not charity, it is a cause and struggle,” he said.

- Gaza Tribunal

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

Saturday's sessions of the Tribunal focused on complicity, international systems, resistance, and solidarity.

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.

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

Its panel of jurists and observers is expected to issue a final opinion on Sunday, summarizing findings on genocide, apartheid, and systemic violations in Gaza.