{"id":305717,"date":"2025-10-27T12:02:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T12:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=305717"},"modified":"2025-10-24T06:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:25:02","slug":"the-gaza-peoples-tribunal-exploring-palestinian-erasure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/10\/the-gaza-peoples-tribunal-exploring-palestinian-erasure\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gaza Peoples\u2019 Tribunal: Exploring Palestinian Erasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

21 Oct 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0By rewarding impunity for genocide, Trump\u2019s ceasefire proves why a civil society-led tribunal is needed to uphold accountability and document Palestine\u2019s fight for justice.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Protesters<\/figure>\n

Protesters hold signs calling for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Palestine solidarity protest in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 12 October 2025.
\n(Amel Emric\/Reuters)<\/p>\n

The Gaza Tribunal<\/a>, a people\u2019s tribunal, was formed a year ago in response to the failure of the established world order of sovereign states and international institutions to stop what experts and ordinary people increasingly recognized as\u00a0genocide in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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It will hold its final session<\/a>\u00a0from 23-26 October 2025 at Istanbul University.<\/p>\n

Our initiative was inspired by an earlier civil society effort during the Vietnam War, when leading public intellectuals Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre established the Russell Tribunal, which held hearings in 1966 and 1967.<\/p>\n

Its mission was to report on the international crimes of the\u00a0United States<\/a> and to legitimize growing anti-war sentiment in the West.<\/p>\n

The underlying premise was that when the state system fails to uphold international law or to ensure accountability for grave crimes that affect global peace and security, people possess a residual authority and responsibility to act.<\/p>\n

In the half-century since, many similar tribunals have emerged around the world. Their shared purpose is to speak truth to power and legitimize solidarity initiatives that seek to mount pressure on governments and institutions to take action.<\/p>\n

Such people\u2019s tribunals are also intended to encourage civil society activism, such as the\u00a0Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions<\/a>\u00a0(BDS) movement launched by\u00a0Palestinian<\/a>\u00a0NGOs in 2005.<\/p>\n

Unlike national or international courts, people\u2019s tribunals do not claim legal authority.<\/p>\n

They are overtly partisan, driven by moral conscience rather than formal procedure. They provide a platform for survivor testimony and expert analysis, with the aim of mobilising global activism in pursuit of justice.<\/p>\n

Their focus extends beyond legal culpability to encompass broader moral and political responsibility. The tribunal embodies these principles through its Jury of Conscience \u2013 individuals of diverse backgrounds and nationalities who share a commitment to moral integrity and to exposing the Palestinian ordeal in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Seeking truth<\/h3>\n

In certain respects, the tribunal\u2019s work resembles that of United Nations truth-seeking mechanisms, such as the reports of the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories. These have persuasively documented evidence of genocidal intent by\u00a0Israel<\/a>\u00a0and its complicit allies.<\/p>\n

Yet unlike the tribunal, UN rapporteurs operate as neutral experts, professionally bound to follow evidence wherever it leads.<\/p>\n

In an unprecedented act of retaliation, the current UN special rapporteur,\u00a0Francesca Albanese<\/a>, was personally\u00a0sanctioned<\/a>\u00a0by the US government, denied entry to the country despite her credentials and had her American assets frozen.<\/p>\n

The punitive response to UN truth-telling underscores the need for independent civil society efforts to expose the reality of human suffering caused by Israel\u2019s unlawful and immoral policies.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From its inception, the tribunal has\u00a0pledged<\/a>\u00a0complete independence from government interference, with no active politicians or officials involved in its work.<\/p>\n

It is against this background that some may argue that recent developments, particularly US President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u2018s much-publicised diplomacy and the resulting fragile\u00a0ceasefire<\/a>\u00a0in Gaza, render the tribunal redundant.<\/p>\n

They may see the tribunal as an unhelpful distraction from the supposed work of peacebuilding, or from the UN\u2019s paralysis in the face of two years of genocide in an occupied territory where it bears a special institutional responsibility.<\/p>\n

The reality, however, is that such developments make the tribunal more essential than ever. When governments and international institutions abandon justice, it falls to ordinary people to uphold it.<\/p>\n

Illusions of peace<\/h3>\n

The attention devoted in recent days to the so-called Trump\u00a0ultimatum<\/a>\u00a0to Hamas, whose acceptance led to the return of all Israeli hostages within 72 hours, reflected the coercive nature of the process.<\/p>\n

Hamas was told to comply or face a US-backed Israeli resumption of the genocide that Trump, in his fiery language, forecast as the \u201copening of the gates of hell\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hamas dutifully delivered all of the living hostages and as many of the remains of the dead as it managed to recover. In response, Israel released\u00a0nearly 2,000 Palestinians<\/a>\u00a0imprisoned without charge since 7 October 2023 \u2013 effectively hostages themselves.<\/p>\n

This prisoner exchange produced a ceasefire in Gaza, accompanied by celebrations in Israel limited to the return of the hostages, and in Gaza, expressing joy about the ceasefire, the release of detained Palestinians, and the partial withdrawal of Israeli forces.<\/p>\n

At the same time, there were many flaws in the arrangements when viewed from a Palestinian perspective.<\/p>\n

The proposed transition to a peaceful future, outlined in the\u00a020-point plan<\/a>\u00a0and boasted about by Trump in\u00a0grandiose<\/a>\u00a0terms, seems at best premature and, more likely, never to be realised.<\/p>\n

Recent statements and behaviour by Israel\u2019s leaders and public appear as determined as ever to pursue a dehumanising and punitive approach towards the still unwelcome Palestinian presence in Gaza and the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Israeli\u00a0ceasefire violations<\/a>\u00a0in the first few days resulted in at least 10 Palestinian deaths and the blocking of half of the agreed humanitarian deliveries to a population that is starving, disease-ridden, lacking potable water, and deprived of health services and medicines.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian population, stunned and devastated by two years of genocide that deliberately destroyed health and sanitation facilities as well as more than\u00a090 percent<\/a>\u00a0of residential structures, continues to suffer under catastrophic conditions.<\/p>\n

To live without bombs, even temporarily, is surely a blessing. Yet to exist in primitive tent communities without toilets or kitchens, amid rubble containing the missing bodies of friends, neighbours and relatives, should be regarded as a slowdown of the genocidal assault but hardly its end \u2013 or even its replacement by a post-genocide phase resembling the pre-7 October 2023 apartheid-style\u00a0occupation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A broken process<\/h3>\n

In this atmosphere, it remains imperative to expose Israel\u2019s harsh policies and practices that continue to impose emergency, dehumanising conditions and vulnerabilities upon the entrapped population of Gaza.<\/p>\n

Israel is reported to have given material support to anti-Hamas clans and gangs to aggravate the grave conditions that persist.<\/p>\n

While the ceasefire and the prospect of a peaceful future may be welcomed, it is notable that the positive results were achieved through reliance on an unlawful ultimatum threatening intensified violence.<\/p>\n