The signatories are very disturbed by the “particularly egregious violations of international law taking place” in the Palestinian territory. Although the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take measures to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, thus far, the country has made no efforts to implement any such measures, the letter said. That the Dutch government is not holding Israel accountable for this is a thorn in their side.
“Starvation and bombing civilian targets are war crimes, and should be immediately stopped to prevent a genocide.” They write that there is “a serious risk of genocide”, not that one is already taking place, that there is genocidal violence, as more and more experts, researchers and institutions such as Amnesty are now doing. The Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies (NIOD) recently spoke of genocidal violence by Israel. The term was also used by Maastricht University in its messaging on UMployee and Instagram after last week’s pro-Palestinian protest and occupation of University College Maastricht. Recently, the board of the Faculty of Law, who co-signed the open letter to Schoof, posted a message to UMployee about the serious violations of international law, that “genocidal violence” has been confirmed “by statements from UN bodies and a converging consensus in scientific analysis”.