Just 48 hours after the veteran international law scholar and antiwar leader Richard Falk wrapped up the final proceedings of the Gaza Peoples Tribunal in Istanbul, Türkiye, he was Helena Cobban‘s featured guest on our video podcast “Gaza & the World”, where he shared numerous deep insights into the relevance of the GPT and its findings.
You can see the whole 57-minute video of this conversation here, or listen to the audio of it on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. (You can download the transcript, here.)
The Istanbul session of the GPT was the third, following earlier sessions conducted in London in late 2024, and in Sarajevo, Bosnis, in May 2025. The Istanbul session considered and presented testimonies and analyses from scores of eyewitnesses, legal specialists, and scholars. At its conclusion the six leading scholars and activists from all around the world who constituted the GPT’s “Jury of Conscience” issued a powerful Final Statement (PDF here,) which Falk and Cobban discussed in some detail. The six Jurors of Conscience were:
- Prof. Sami Al-Arian
- Prof. Christine Chinkin
- Dr. Ghada Karmi
- Author Kenize Mourad
- Prof. Chandra Muzaffar
- Prof. Biljana Vankovska
During the conversation, Falk discussed the tribunal’s conclusion that Israel had indeed been committing genocide– and not just in the two years since October 7, 2023. Indeed, he cited the testimony of Gaza-based legal scholar Dr. Haidar Eid to the effect that, whereas prior to that date Israel had been committing “incremental genocide” in Gaza, after October 7, 2023, it shifted to committing “intensified genocide.” He also noted that the genocide was continuing in Gaza despite the ceasefire of October 10, through Israel’s creation of a “toxic wasteland,” its the failure to deliver anything close to the levels of urgently-needed aid that were stipulated in the ceasefire agreement, and the immense psychological trauma still being inflicted on the surviving population.
He noted that the GPT organizers had issued a special, supplementary paper under the title “The Tribunal concludes, but the genocide continues.” (PDF here.)
Falk and Cobban explored the tribunal’s findings on the multiple forms of genocide Israel had been committing in Gaza, including domicide, ecocide, scholasticide, and others as listed in the Final Statement. They also noted the Statement’s references to the complicity of the United States and other Western government in the genocide.
Later in the conversation Falk analyzed the failures of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council, contrasting it with the more principled stances of the International Court of Justice and UN Special Rapporteurs. He argued that despite Israel’s military dominance, it had lost the “legitimacy war,” which he believed would ultimately be the decisive factor, drawing parallels to past anti-colonial struggles.