“Israel’s actions in Gaza meet ‘legal definition of genocide,’ scholars’ association says,” was the headline of a recent ABC News online report about events at the International Association of Genocide Scholars. (September 2, by Guy Davies and Ellie Kaufman.) An on-air report made similar claims.
But the same day, the Times of Israel reported that the resolution by the IAGS was pushed through in a way that marked a significant departure from the organization’s usual practices, with no opportunity for dissent.
A member of the International Association for Genocide Scholars says the group pushed through a resolution accusing Israel of genocide without holding a debate, as is its standard practice.
Sara Brown, a genocide scholar, says she has been a member of the association for more than 10 years and was on the association’s advisory board for two, four-year terms. Brown also serves as the American Jewish Committee’s regional director in San Diego.
She says the association typically discusses controversial resolutions in a virtual town hall that allows members to discuss the measures. For the Israel resolution, the association’s leadership declined to hold a discussion, she says.
Times of Israel further reported that it had seen emails that show, “the association’s leadership in late July said there would be a town hall discussion to discuss the Israel resolution, but backtracked days later, citing a vote by the association’s executive board. 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….”
Ms. Brown expanded on these issues in a column in the Forward the following day.
Eliminating opportunity for debate is the tactic of activists, not of scholars, indicating that the resolution lacks legitimacy. Yet, ABC omitted these facts from both its written and its on-air coverage of the resolution. Instead it repeated talking points made by IAGS spokespeople and called the group “a group made up of scholars, researchers and policy-makers, among others, and the group says it is non-partisan.” But in fact, “anyone can join the group by paying as little as $30,” as Times of Israel also reported. “The group’s website says it is open to individuals including activists and artists, and scholars in unrelated fields, such as film and literature.”
Nor was CAMERA able to locate ABC coverage of the very lengthy and detailed BESA center report published this month that “demonstrated that reports produced by UN agencies, human rights organizations, major media outlets, and scholars within the broader humanitarian ecosystem are plagued by systemic and serious methodological flaws—especially those advocating the ‘genocide’ narrative, including allegations of intentional starvation, mass killings, and targeted or disproportionate bombings.”
ABC’s coverage of the war in Gaza is selective and one-sided. This is not news, this is simply regurgitation of pro-Hamas propaganda.
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