Former UN official Richard Falk warns in Istanbul that failure to act against Israel’s Gaza offensive would mark 'historic failure of humanity'
The Gaza Tribunal on Monday called for an urgent international armed intervention to stop what it described as Israel’s "most lethal phase of genocide" in Gaza, warning that failure to act would mark "an historic failure of humanity."
At a press conference held in Istanbul, the president of the independent tribunal, Richard Falk, professor emeritus of international law at the US' Princeton University and the former UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories (2008–2014), urged governments to bypass the Security Council and empower the UN General Assembly to authorize armed intervention.
"If we do not take action of a serious and drastic kind at this time, anything done in a more moderate fashion will be too late, too late to save the surviving people who have already been traumatized by more than 22 months of genocide," Falk said.
"The eyes and the ears of the world have been exposed, as never before, including the Holocaust, to the transparency of genocide carried out in real time. It challenges our humanity."
Falk criticized Western democracies for what he called "complicit behavior," while noting shifts in public opinion.
"We are trying to address the conscience of all people and encourage the kind of activism that will produce changes in government ahead, particularly an arms embargo and various forms of sanctions … including the kind of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle that proved so effective in the anti-apartheid campaign," he said.
- 'Not only for Gaza but for well-being of the world'
Handed over to Anadolu, the tribunal’s emergency statement, titled Time to ACT: Mobilizing Against Israel’s Planned Conquest on Gaza City and Central Gaza, highlighted Israel’s Aug. 7 National Security Cabinet decision, which Falk said was "opposed by Israel’s own military high command," to press forward with the conquest of Gaza City, where nearly 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.
"The imminent escalation deeply challenges member governments of the UN … to take drastic action now," Falk declared, citing legal pathways such as the 1950 Uniting for Peace Resolution and the Responsibility to Protect framework adopted at the UN’s 2005 summit.
Quoting Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour’s appeal for immediate protection forces, the tribunal declared: "We, as the Gaza Tribunal, join with those who treat silence in the face of genocide as complicity."
Falk also condemned what he called systematic efforts to silence truth-telling. He pointed to sanctions against UN human rights rapporteurs and the "August 10th assassination of Assas al-Shafir and his Al Jazeera colleagues in another violent deliberate effort to silence truth tellers."
"Part of the Gaza Tribunal is to strengthen the role of truth or conceptions of reality. And that is of strategic importance not only for Gaza but for the well-being of the world," he added.
The tribunal is now preparing to raise the issue at the upcoming UN General Assembly in New York next month. "We hope to have laid the groundwork for doing that by the action of releasing this statement today," Falk said.
- What is Gaza Tribunal?
The Gaza Tribunal was launched in London in November 2024 by nearly 100 academics, intellectuals, human rights advocates, and civil society figures, citing "the total failure of the organized international community to implement international law" in Gaza.
Since then, it has convened multiple sessions, including a February 2025 chamber meeting in London and a strategy gathering in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul to brief the international public.
In May, the tribunal held a four-day public session in Sarajevo, Bosnia, hearing testimony from witnesses, journalists, academics, and experts.
That session culminated in the Sarajevo Declaration, which formally accused Israel of genocide, war crimes, and apartheid.
There will be a final hearing in October in Istanbul, where the "Jury of Conscience will deliver a moral verdict based on all testimonies and evidence," noted another statement handed to Anadolu by the tribunal.
