Ex-OHCHR director: 'US is not mediator but party to Gaza genocide'
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According to Craig Mokhiber, every individual in the United Nations knows that the possibility of a "two-state solution" is not a valid option for peace.
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Former Director in the New York Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, in an undated photo. (United Nations)
During an interview with Sputnik following his resignation, the former Director of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber said that the United States is not playing the role of a mediator but that of a party in the aggression on Gaza, standing by "Israel".
"Part of the problem is that for years you had the United States and Europe put out as mediators in the conflict. And that has always been a gross misrepresentation, we have to recognize, for example, that the United States is a party to the conflict on the side of Israel," he said, noting that billions of dollars in military aid and intelligence are being given to the Occupation.
"That provides diplomatic cover, including in the Security Council, to prevent any action to hold Israel accountable," he continued, adding, "It's just an illusion to suggest that they can play any other role."
Mokhiber went on to say that that applies to Europe as well.
"As we've seen in the recent onslaught in Gaza, instead of seeing European leaders standing up, including the leaders of the United Kingdom, and of the European Union, standing up to defend human rights, we've seen them stand up to defend the aggression, the gross violations and the breaches of humanitarian law that Israel has been committing in the occupied territories," he stated.
'Two-state solution' not sustainable
More importantly, according to Mokhiber, every individual in the United Nations knows that the possibility of a "two-state solution" is not a valid option for peace.
"You know, in the UN, you have this kind of a smokescreen. Everyone in the corridors knows that there is no longer a possibility of a sustainable two-state solution... Yet, if they speak in public or to journalists, they just keep repeating the mantra of the two-state solution. Everyone in the UN knows that the Quartet had effectively not existed and yet they refer to the Quartet."
He continued to describe the current situation as a struggle between an "occupier and the occupied" and between the oppressor and the oppressed, "between one of the most powerful states and militaries in the world on the one hand, and dispossessed and disempowered, civilian indigenous population on the other hand," he said.
'Turning a blind eye'
According to Mokhiber, international human rights organizations recognize "Israel" as a system of apartheid, which "has been affirmed by every international human rights organization, Israeli human rights organizations, Palestinian human rights organizations, and by a number of UN Human Rights mechanisms."
However, no action is taken and the repercussions are given a blind eye.
"And yet in the approach of the United Nations, the political side of the United Nations, all of this is ignored," he said.
This comes after Mokhiber sent a letter on Tuesday to Volker Turk, High Commissioner for Human Rights, resigning in protest due to the UN's perceived inability to prevent the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
"This will be my last communication to you," Mokhiber wrote in his resignation letter to the UN high commissioner in Geneva, Volker Turk on October 28.
Read next: 'Israel' blinded by vengeance; seeks desolation, calls it peace: WaPo
"We are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organization that we serve appears powerless to stop it," he added. Mokhiber has expressed concern over the unfolding genocide and called for efforts to combat apartheid and establish a single, secular, democratic state in historic Palestine based on human rights for all its people.
