A member of the International Association for “Genocide Scholars” (IAGS) has accused the organization’s leadership of pushing through a resolution labeling Israel’s actions as genocide without holding the group’s customary debate and using unreliable data, the Times of Israel (TOA) reported

The International Association of “Genocide Scholars” (IAGS) passed a resolution on Monday claiming that Israel’s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide.

In response, Israel’s Foreign Ministry called the resolution “disgraceful.”

“The statement of the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) is an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” a ministry statement said. “It is entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others. The IAGS did not do the most basic task in research, which is to verify the information. It even manages to misrepresent what the ICJ has said.”

“Above all, the IAGS has set a historic precedent – for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide—despite Hamas’s attempted genocide against the Jewish people, murdering 1,200 people, raping women, burning families alive, and declaring its goal of killing every Jew.”

“Disgraceful,” the statement concluded.

Sara Brown, a genocide scholar and an IAGS member for over 10 years, is also the American Jewish Committee’s regional director in San Diego. She said the resolution marked a troubling break from the association’s standard practice, with IAGS leaders issuing the resolution without holding a prior discussion on the matter.

“The content of the resolution and the way it was forced through speak to an embarrassing absence of professionalism,” Brown said, noting that the measure relied on groups such as Amnesty International that broadened the definition of genocide to encompass Israel.

Internal emails seen by TOA show that IAGS leadership initially promised a town hall to discuss the resolution but scrapped the plan days later. The association also barred dissenting opinions from its listserv and refused to disclose the names of those who drafted the text.

Only 129 of the association’s roughly 500 members voted, Brown said. While members were notified in advance, many abstained because they did not feel qualified to weigh in.

“That favors those activists seeking to advance a false narrative about Israel,” she said.

Brown also raised concerns about the fact that the association recently expanded its membership, with almost no qualifications to become a member. Formerly comprised of mainly scholars, the association now includes activists and artists.

“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,” she said. “The leadership, in my opinion, had an agenda.”

The result, Brown warned, is that the public will believe that “genocide experts agree.'”

“No, we don’t, and we were deliberately silenced.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)