A widely-reported vote by an association of so-called “scholars” declaring Israel guilty of “genocide” was rigged to achieve a predetermined outcome, according to a member of the group.
International media reported Monday that the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) had voted overwhelmingly (86% in favor) to conclude that Israel was guilty of “genocide” in its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel firmly rejected the vote, saying that it inverted the victim and the perpetrator, given that Hamas had invaded Israel determined to kill as many people as possible, and that Israel was acting in self-defense.
Now, a member of the association is adding fuel to the criticism of the vote, pointing out several flaws. These include that the the vote was pushed through without debate; no dissenting views were permitted; the authors of the resolution were not revealed; and non-scholars participated in the vote. In fact, only one in four members of the group participated in the vote, meaning that an activist minority produced the result.
The Times of Israel quoted Sara Brown, a Jewish scholar of genocide, who said the process had been corrupt:
“The content of the resolution and the way it was forced through speak to an embarrassing absence of professionalism,” she says. Among her qualms with the resolution are that it cites organizations that have reinterpreted the definition of genocide so that it applies to Israel, such as Amnesty International.
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The association also did not allow dissenting opinions to be published on its list serve, saying the list serve was not a forum for such discussions, and declined to release the names of the members who drafted the resolution, the emails show.
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“The appearance is that this was a unanimous vote on behalf of the entirety of the association. It was not, and they refused to have a transparent, critical discussion,” Brown says. “The leadership, in my opinion, had an agenda.”
Brown added that the IAGS had added non-scholars as voting members, including political activists and artists, who contributed “diversity” but did not add anything in terms of scholarship of analysis.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.