Omar Suleiman has urged the international community to recognise Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide in comments to Doha News at the Doha Forum, calling for moral clarity and accountability.

Omar Suleiman, president of the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, has called on the international community to recognise Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide, warning that moral clarity and accountability are being deliberately avoided.

In comments to Doha News on the sidelines of the Doha Forum 2025 on Sunday, he said the scale of civilian deaths demands that the issue be placed at the centre of the global agenda.

He criticised leaders and institutions that avoid using the term genocide when addressing Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

“It’s important that it’s put at the centre of the agenda, because. The time has come where moral clarity needs to be so defined that even someone who’s slightly evasive on this answer can be seen for who they actually are,” Suleiman said.

Highlighting the gap between public sentiment and political action, and the tendency of some to downplay their governments’ roles in Gaza’s destruction, he added: “You see, folks that even till now will evade using the word genocide or pretend like their own governments did not play roles in the destruction of Gaza.”

Suleiman believes these issues must be brought to the surface so they can be properly reckoned with, seeing the Doha Forum as a vital platform to address long-standing injustices and to promote accountability.

“I appreciate the opportunity of this forum to bring forth these conversations in a way that’s very direct, and in a way that we can actually reckon with these issues,” he said.

He called for a forward-looking approach that places justice for Palestinians at the centre of any path ahead.

“I certainly appreciate the opportunity here at the forum to challenge some of the predating inequities and injustices to the genocide that led us here in the first place,” he said.

He added that the forum offered a chance to “craft forth a path forward that actually gives the Palestinian people what they deserve all along. Which cannot be anything less than justice.”