A Times report (“Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza, government concludes“, Sept. 8th), included the following:
More than 1,300 entertainment industry professionals, including A-list actors and directors, have signed a pledge refusing to work with Israeli film institutions which they say are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people”.
Olivia Colman, Aimee Lou Wood, Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo were among the actors to accuse “many governments of enabling the carnage in Gaza”.
“The world’s highest court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza, and that Israel’s occupation and apartheid against Palestinians are unlawful,” they said.
However, the claim in that letter, authored by Film Workers for Palestine, that the ICJ “ruled that there is a plausible risk of genocide in Gaza” is a lie that was exposed as such in April of 2024 by the former president of the ICJ, Joan Donoghue, during an interview on BBC’s Hardtalk:
We complained to The Times about their failure to note that the letter erred on the ICJ’s ruling, and we were told that they’ll consider amending the piece.
The National made the same error in a piece smearing a grassroots organisation called Scotland Against Antisemitism (“Who’s behind the lobby group accusing SNP of fuelling antisemitism?”, Sept. 8)
[The group’s] letter claims that accusing Israel of committing genocide is a “modern-day blood libel” and argues that the charge can only be proven in a court by “producing irrefutable evidence of intent”.
The International Court of Justice has ruled that there is a plausible case that Israel is committing genocide and there is a positive duty under international law for governments to prevent genocide.
We contacted the outlet’s chief editor, Laura Webster, asking for a correction, but haven’t yet received a reply.
An article in the Guardian (“US imposes sanctions on Palestinians for requesting war crimes inquiry“, Sept. 5) by their Beirut correspondent William Christou, also erred on the ICJ ruling:
In an interim judgment in January 2024, the ICJ ruled that the claim of genocide was “plausible” and ordered Israel to stop acts of genocide and to allow more aid into Gaza. A final ruling is not expected until 2027 at the earliest.
We posted on X, alerting the journalist to the inaccuracy, and complained to the Readers’ Editor, who hasn’t yet replied.
Note that we prompted several corrections last year to this false claim about the ICJ’s ruling, including two at the Guardian.
