The international community has been waiting for this moment of moral clarity.

After two years of watching atrocities committed in Gaza livestreamed daily, the way forward is now clear after the release of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“… we witness in real time how the promise of ’never again’ is broken and tested in the eyes of the world,” said the Commission’s chair Judge Navi Pillay, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize in November. “The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency.”

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, has determined Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide.

At a press conference in Geneva, the Commission members Judge Pillay and Chris Sidoti said that their extensive investigation has led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

These acts are: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

In an extraordinary moment of clarification, Sidoti noted that the fifth condition for genocide was not met – that is the transfer of children from one group to another. Rather, as the report noted, the genocidal intention of Israel has included the actual targeting of the children of Gaza as a way of ending any future for this community.

The Commission urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and bring those responsible to account.

The Sydney Peace Foundation calls on the Australian Government to act on our international obligations: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, restore UN-led humanitarian access, stop arms transfers and enabling inputs (like jet fuel and parts), investigate and sanction complicity. Nothing less will suffice.

“This report provides the clarity we need to courageously live up to our obligations under international law and act to stop the genocide. A failure to stand up for peace with justice in Palestine will ultimately be failure to stand up for peace with justice everywhere,” said Melanie Morrison, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Judge Navi Pillay will be in Sydney on 6 November to accept the Sydney Peace Prize at the Sydney Town Hall where she will be joined by Chris Sidoti and other experts in international justice.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.