Nothing to See Here

How Humanists UK and Humanists International Failed the Test of Gaza's Genocide

leo on his flight to Algiers, April 13, 2026. Photo credit: Alberto Pizzoli

Following the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, Israel's response was not just about going after Hamas, it set about causing systematic destruction of the Gaza strip, destroying almost the entire stock of homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, a church, and civic buildings. There has been the starvation of children, and the shooting of people collecting food and there has been widespread torture. It has resulted in over 70,000 Palestinians being killed—the true figure is likely to be much higher—the majority women and children. This led, in November 2024, to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing warrants of arrest for the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity.

In September 2025, a UN Commission found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza (UNOHCHR, 2025), a finding that was agreed upon by many experts on genocide, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and human rights organisations including Amnesty International as well as two Israeli organisations: B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

Genocide is the worst crime imaginable and should be of the utmost concerns to humanists. Article II of the UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as:

[A]ny of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group (UNOHCHR, 1948).

According to the evidence garnered, the UN Commission concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

Yet I, a member of Humanists UK (previously British Humanist Association) for almost 20 years, have been most disappointed, indeed utterly shocked, that humanist organisations, including Humanists UK, have entirely ignored the genocide in Gaza, seemingly adopting a “nothing to see here” approach. There has been no mention of it in bulletins and emails, no urging of members to partake in protests in London and other UK cities, perhaps behind a banner emblazoned with “Humanists oppose genocide” (doubtless, many humanists would have been present at these protests), no speaking out against this monstrous crime in the media, no encouragement to write to MPs and the government to express disapproval of both the previous Conservative and present Labour government's complicity, no opposition to the government's ban on Palestine Action, and condemnation of the arrest of more than 3,000 supporters of Defend our Juries for holding placards displaying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” In other words, there has been a moral failure concerning the Gaza genocide and, accordingly, an abandonment of universal humanist values.

Humanists must oppose and be seen to be opposing crimes against humanity and genocide wherever it occurs. This seems so obvious that it is a shame that it needs to be stressed but stressed it must—silence on the issue is a dereliction of humanists’ core duty. Furthermore, humanist organisations should be careful about whom they invite to present lectures. For example, Humanists UK invited Douglas Murray to give the 2017 Holyoake Lecture. This was a mistake: had due diligence been undertaken, they would have found that he is an uncritical supporter of Israel and, unsurprisingly, has approved of the Gaza genocide for which he was given an honorary award from the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs in April 2024. In sum, Mr Murray is the antithesis of a humanist.

In the Spring 2026 edition of New Humanist is an interview with US academic and presumed humanist Stephen Pinker who highlights the egregious problems of free speech in US universities: “[P]rofessors and students have been harassed, fired, sanctioned and censored for constitutionally protected speech” (Pinker, 2026, pp. 12-13). Among examples he gives include that “in history and politics, very little attention [is] given to the harms of political Islam.” This is correct but he fails to state that by far the greatest numbers of recipients of these assaults on constitutionally protected speech—which are in violation of the First Amendment—pertain to those who have protested Israel's genocide in Gaza, and for Palestinian rights generally. Again, an inexcusable failure on the part of a well-known humanist.

Humanists International (previously International Humanist and Ethical Union) have been no better as they have also refrained from mentioning, let alone condemning, the Gaza genocide though, in 2025, they rightly opposed the US sanctions on Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Humanists International, 2025).

Their policy position of 2014 on the Israel-Palestine conflict states:

The situation between Israel and Palestine is not reducible to a simple equation of rockets and a response to those attacks, nor to occupation and a response to that circumstance. The history of Israel's founding, prior war by other states on Israel, occupation and blockading of Palestinian territories by Israel, and the violence and threat to civilian life on both sides, means there is no simple blame game (IHEU, 2014).

This carefully worded “neutral” policy position with the get-out clause “there is no simple blame game” avoids the incontrovertible fact that Israel is a colonial-settler state that evolved into an apartheid state and is in breach of myriad UN resolutions and international laws. There should be no equivalence: Israel is the oppressor; Palestinians are the oppressed. What should be of particular interest and concern to humanists, who focus on the multitudinous harms caused by religion, is that the basis of Israel being created in Palestinian territories is religious, that is, from the Jewish holy book, hence the justification “the Bible is our mandate.” Recourse to utilising religious edicts in international law and UN resolutions is inadmissible, a foundational jurisprudential principle with which humanists will strongly concur, so this should be stressed in the policy position.

Furthermore, the position statement should have been updated to refer to the Gaza genocide and the failure to do so is, again, a resounding moral failure on the part of the leading humanist organisation in the world that should be a beacon to national organisations.

While Israel committed a genocide, US president Donald Trump threated one when, on 7 April, he warned that Iran's “whole civilisation will die tonight” if Tehran did not comply with his demands. With access to an enormous nuclear arsenal, Trump could indeed have ended Iranian civilisation and killed some 92 million people. Among many who condemned Trump for this outrage was, to his credit, the Pope (Leo XIV) who pronounced that such threats were “truly unacceptable” (Politico, 2026). Now, unsurprisingly, humanists are highly critical of Catholicism and the Catholic Church, but rather than follow his principled stand on this genocidal threat, they remained silent.

The World Humanist Congress in Ottawa, Canada, in August 2026, is on the theme of “Humanism as resistance.” This seems promising but little detail is given as to how humanism can be a tool for resistance. A good and necessary act of resistance would be for humanists to unambiguously speak out, without fear or favour, against genocide and crimes against humanity wherever and whenever they occur and make the case as to why humanism can be efficacious in this endeavour. This will help restore the moral failings of humanist organisations over the Gaza genocide.

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References

Humanists International (2025) Position Statement: Humanists International Condemns US Sanctions on UN Special Rapporteur, Calls for Ceasefire—Humanists International

IHEU (2014) 24 July, IHEU statement on Israel-Palestine conflict

Pinker S (2026) “The Q&A,” New Humanist, Spring edition, pp. 12-13

Politico (2026) 7 April, Pope Leo condemns Trump's latest threats against Iran—POLITICO

UNOHCHR (1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide | OHCHR

UNOHCHR (2025) 16 September, Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, UN Commission finds | OHCHR