Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world human rights bodies develop consensus
World
Amnesty International published its report on December 5 while Human Rights Watch on December 19
(Web Desk) – Global human rights organisations have evolved a consensus that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused the state of Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza war in reports published separately this month.
According to Reuters, Amnesty International published its report on December 5 while Human Rights Watch report was made public on December 19.
A few days after Amnesty’s report, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) stated that “there is a legally sound argument that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza”.
Médecins Sans Frontières has also reported that “its medical teams in the north of Gaza are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing”.
Human Rights Watch had in November also reported that Israel’s actions in Gaza amounted to “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”, and appeared to “also meet the definition of ethnic cleansing”.
Also in November, the international criminal court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
According to a British newspaper Guardian’s report, all these recent judgments end the year with an emphatic categorisation of the assault in Gaza as a violation of international law.
All the organisations follow the International Commission of Jurists and the UN in condemning Israel’s war. The country, and its head of state, are now, according to the courts and human rights organisations that make up the world’s legal and moral authorities, outlaws.
"This policy, inflicted as part of a mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, means Israeli authorities have committed the crime against humanity of extermination, which is ongoing. This policy also amounts to an 'act of genocide' under the Genocide Convention of 1948," Human Rights Watch said in its report.
More to read: Human Rights Watch says Israel's deprivation of water in Gaza is act of genocide
The London-based human rights group, Amnesty International, said it reached the conclusion after months of analysing incidents and statements of Israeli officials. Amnesty said the legal threshold for the crime had been met, in its first such determination during an active armed conflict.
US DEFENDS ISRAEL
The Guardian adds: But the judgments, strong language and suggested measures echo in a vacuum: there is no enforcement. The US continues to defend Israel against an emerging global consensus and to arm it. Other supporters use the language of loopholes and riddles that we have become so accustomed to since the start of the war.
The UK suspended a small portion of its arms exports, but insists that it remains a “staunch ally” of the country and would still engage with Netanyahu, but also would somehow still comply with its legal obligations. France came up with an impressive legal reading, stating that Netanyahu in fact enjoyed immunity as Israel was not a signatory to the ICC (a reading that would also extend immunity to Vladimir Putin and Omar al-Bashir).
Meanwhile, more evidence mounts that Gaza is undergoing not just a law-breaking, human rights-violating assault, but a historic one. According to Airwars, an organisation that monitors civilian casualties: “By almost every metric, the harm to civilians from the first month of the Israeli campaign in Gaza is incomparable with any 21st-century air campaign.”
The view from several months of research efforts is supplemented by the confessions and testimonies of Israeli military personnel. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz featured accounts from IDF soldiers who served in Gaza, stating that civilians, even children, are being treated as combatants. The regime of arbitrary, even competitive killing, was described as “the wild west on steroids”.
These descriptions do not only capture legal and militaristic methods of engagement, they detail killing, starvation, maiming, torture and psychological trauma that is impossible to fathom.
Also read: Amnesty report says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza
