States aiding 'Israel' may be complicit: UN experts
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The UN Human Rights Council formed a three-person panel in May 2021 to investigate international law violations in "Israel" and occupied territories, focusing primarily on "Israel's" commitments.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a joint statement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office on May 25, 2021. (AP)
Countries who allow "Israel's unlawful occupation" of the Palestinian territories and support it despite warnings of war crimes and possibly "genocide" in Gaza should be considered "complicit," UN experts warned on Friday.
"Israel's internationally wrongful acts give rise to state responsibility, not only for Israel, but for all states," Navi Pillay, chair of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry said on Friday.
The commission has issued a new legal position paper outlining specific steps necessary in response to the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) recent advisory judgment pronouncing "Israel's" occupation since 1967 as "unlawful". It also looks at the ramifications of last month's UN General Assembly resolution, which demanded that the occupation cease within one year.
'Nations have commitments to fulfill'
The UN Human Rights Council formed a three-person panel in May 2021 to investigate international law violations in "Israel" and occupied territories, focusing primarily on "Israel's" commitments."
The vote at the UN General Assembly meant "Israel was under an international legal obligation to cease all new settlement activity and dismantle existing settlements as rapidly as possible," and implement a plan to remove settlers from occupied territories.
According to the statement, "Israel" is also to "return land, title, and natural resources to Palestinians who have been displaced since 1967," and other nations have their own set of commitments to fulfill.
Pillay detailed that all nations are under obligation to "recognise territorial or sovereignty claims made by Israel over the occupied territories" as well as make a distinction dealing with "Israel" as opposed to occupied Palestine, further adding that countries should not recognize occupied al-Quds as the capital of the Israeli occupation or place diplomats there.
In addition, she cautioned against giving aid or assistance to the maintenance of the unlawful occupation, adding that this includes "financial, military and political aid or support."
The commission also emphasized that all states must adhere to their "obligations under the Genocide Convention" and implement the provisional measures mandated by the ICJ in the case initiated by South Africa, which accuses "Israel" of committing genocide in Gaza. It warned that "States may be complicit in failing to prevent genocide if they do not act in compliance with the court orders, and directly aid or assist in the commission of genocide."
Additionally, the commission highlighted the need for the UN to take stronger action to ensure "Israel" fulfills its obligations under international law, criticizing the Security Council for its inaction, largely due to the veto power held by one of its five permanent members, implicitly referring to the US.
The commission stated, "When peremptory norms of international law are violated, the permanent members of the Security Council should not be allowed to exercise their veto, as this is contrary to the obligation to uphold peremptory norms of international law."
Blinken, Austin letter to 'Israel' recipe for more massacres: Factions
Palestinian factions denounced, on Wednesday, the letter US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin addressed to the Israeli occupation after they demanded that measures be taken to address the deteriorating situation in the Strip amid a new Israeli attack and siege of the northern Gaza Strip.
For his part, Hamas Political Bureau member Izzat al-Rishq confirmed that Blinken and Austin's letter to the occupation regarding increasing the amount of aid provided to the Gaza Strip is "a cover for the fascist government."
Al-Rishq said that "the one-month deadline mentioned in Blinken and Austin's letter, in light of the occupation's siege and preventing sufficient aid from reaching the entire Gaza Strip and its total absence in the north, makes the US administration fully responsible for the continuation of the crimes of starvation, thirst, and death from diseases affecting thousands in the Gaza Strip."
He pointed out that "the card of increasing the amount of aid that the US administration is waving is an exposed attempt to clear its image and reputation stained with the blood of the Palestinian people."
Al-Rishq pointed out that "the US administration is not demanded to send messages to the occupation government, rather it is demanded to halt support [to Israel] and full complicity with it in the war of genocide that it has been waging against the Palestinian people for more than a whole year.”
He also called for pressuring “Netanyahu and his extremist government by all means to stop the aggression.”
It is noteworthy that Blinken and Austin's message to the occupation specified certain steps that "Israel" must take within 30 days, including allowing the entry of a minimum of 350 trucks into the Strip daily, imposing periods of cessation in the fighting to allow the delivery of aid, and canceling “evacuation orders” for Palestinian civilians "when there is no need for them."
