Prof Robert Patman was speaking at a special seminar at a packed University of Otago Archway Lecture Theatre yesterday.
Also including peace and conflict studies professor Richard Jackson and Palestinian academic Dr Rula Talahma, the seminar was entitled "Gaza — Yes, it is genocide, and yes, it really matters".
The Israel Institute has called the very subject of the seminar "libel".
Prof Patman said on balance, the government’s stance towards Gaza had been ambiguous and failed to show "moral and legal clarity in a context in which war crimes have been committed quite regularly on October 7, 2023, and since".
"Foreign Minister Winston Peters was right to condemn the United Nations Security Council for failing to deliver the ceasefire for New Zealand and the overwhelming majority of states in the UN General Assembly.
"But the New Zealand government had no words of criticism for the US, which used its power of veto in the UN Security Council for over a year to thwart the prospect of a ceasefire."
Prof Patman said the government’s silence was "deafening" after US president Donald Trump espoused plans to own Gaza, displace two million Palestinians and turn the strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
By adopting a "softly, softly approach" to Mr Trump, New Zealand had revealed "a selective approach to maintaining international law that unfortunately offers little hope to those desperate citizens in Gaza whose rights have already been systematically trampled on", Prof Patman said.
Prof Jackson said genocide could take many forms and involve many different practices and that article 2 of the UN Convention on Genocide said it meant "intentional acts committed to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group".
"This conclusion is drawn from at least 22 major reports, statements or articles, put out by UN experts and official actors, relevant NGOs and institutes and genocide experts and scholars," Prof Jackson said.
Prof Jackson referred in particular to the South African submission alleging Israeli genocide to the International Court of Justice, while he said an estimated 85,000 tonnes of explosives had been dropped on Gaza, and 75% of the casualties had been civilian.
"All of these experiences have produced life-long bodily and mental harm on a massive scale for Palestinians."
Dr Talahma’s speech focused on the fact that the vast majority of the civilian casualties had been women and children.
Israel Institute of NZ director Dr David Cumin, when informed of the seminar, said Prof Jackson’s views were "highly disputed".
"The libel of ‘genocide’ has been used by activists, not serious academics, and they have been trying for years to make the proverbial mud stick.
"Jackson is essentially criminalising a state that is in fact acting in accordance with international law and supporting and justifying terrorism."
Dr Cumin said if the university was going to hold such events, "rather than presenting a one-sided politicised perspective, with potential for considerable harm, particularly for Jewish students on the campus, the other side and evidence should be presented also".
"Such a one-sided, biased, warped and dangerous perspective should not be advanced on a New Zealand university."
