The head of an independent United Nations commission that concludes Israel has committed genocide in Gaza argues that countries supplying weapons to Israel, like the United States, are also complicit.
Navi Pillay — who chairs the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory including East Jerusalem, and Israel — spoke with All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang on Tuesday about the release of a new report, which Israel has rejected as "distorted and false."
"If you say nothing and do nothing and think you are being neutral, you are not," Pillay told NPR. "You're being complicit."
The United States has been among the biggest suppliers of weapons to Israel. As of March, the Trump administration had approved nearly $12 billion in foreign military sales to Israel.
In a statement to CNN, the State Department denounced the report, which was commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
"Accusing Israel of genocide is the height of hypocrisy," a State Department spokesperson told CNN.
"October 7 was a genocidal event undertaken by a terrorist organization with openly genocidal ambitions," the spokesperson said.
President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council in February, the same day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting the White House.
The report "urges Israel and all States to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it."
Israel, which refused to cooperate with the commission, continues to reject allegations of genocide and says its target is Hamas.
On Tuesday, Pillay told All Things Considered that she wished Israel, "would look at the facts we set out and point out what is not true. Or open up and let us into the country so we could investigate even more fully and talk to Israeli victims."
This report comes as the Israeli military launches a new large-scale ground offensive into Gaza City.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity
Interview highlights
Ailsa Chang: Give us an overview of what your commission investigated in order to arrive at the conclusion that Israel has committed genocide under this definition that you just laid out?
Navi Pillay: You know, this is an 80-page report, so I'll just give you a small idea.
For instance, the destruction of cultural, religious and educational structures and facilities. Have nothing to do with Hamas, but all that's been destroyed.
The siege, starvation and blocking of humanitarian aid is not keeping Hamas hungry but the whole population.
This is now the conflict where the largest number of journalists have been killed.
It moved me so much that children have had to endure amputations without anesthetic. That they targeted the only fertility clinic in Gaza — its only one — so now all the embryos are destroyed. And we drew a conclusion from that about destroying the Palestinians' life and their future.
Chang: And what specific statements by Israeli officials gave you enough confirmation that Israel intended to commit genocide of Palestinian civilians?
Pillay: There are very many, but let me give you a few.
As early as 7 October 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to inflict, let me quote him, "mighty vengeance" on "all of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble."
So, although Netanyahu's statement carefully directed the call for vengeance at Hamas locations, his use of the phrase wicked city in the same statement implied that he saw the whole city of Gaza as responsible and a target for vengeance.
He told Palestinians in Gaza to leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere, making no distinction between combatants and civilians and knowing that Palestinians in Gaza had nowhere to go.
Then you have Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On the 9 October 2023, he announced a complete siege on Gaza, claiming that Israel was fighting human animals and Israel must act accordingly.
Chang: I want to talk a little bit about the United States' role here. The U.S. is, of course, the major weapons supplier to Israel. The U.S. State Department has repeatedly rejected accusations that Israel is committing genocide.
But do you and your commission believe that the U.S. is complicit in genocide?
Pillay: You know, I've already made a statement out there saying even if you say nothing and do nothing and think you are being neutral, you are not.
You're being complicit.
Under the Genocide Convention, they would fall into the category — those who are helping with arms, military weapons and other support.
Chang: You believe that states that continue to help supply arms to Israel...
Pillay: Yes.
Chang: ... are complicit in genocide?
Pillay: Yes.
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