The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday launched an international investigation into the human rights abuses committed in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Israel since April, but also into the “root causes” of the tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu immediately denounced a “shameful decision” which “encourages terrorists around the world”.
” One step forward “
On the other hand, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip, has “welcomed” the decision of the Human Rights Council and the Palestinian Authority sees it as “a step forward” in the protection of human rights. Palestinians.
Earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, argued before the Council, meeting in extraordinary session, that the recent Israeli strikes on Gaza may constitute war crimes “if they are ‘turns out’ that civilians were affected ‘indiscriminately’.She said she had seen no evidence of the presence of armed groups or military action in buildings targeted by Israel in Gaza, one of the Hebrew state’s justification for destroying them.
Michelle Bachelet had also underlined that the firing of thousands of rockets by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas “do not distinguish between military and civilian objects, and their use therefore constitutes a clear violation of international humanitarian law”.
A resolution adopted with 24 votes for
The meeting, which focused on human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, was organized at the request of Pakistan, as coordinator of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and Palestinian authorities.
A resolution adopted with 24 votes in favor, 9 against and 14 abstentions, launches an “independent and permanent international commission of inquiry” charged with examining the violations of international humanitarian and human rights law that led to recent Israeli tensions. Palestinian. The Palestinian Authority has called the countries opposed to the resolution “an amoral minority and on the wrong side of history”.
From May 10 to 21, 254 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, including 66 children and fighters, according to local authorities. In Israel, rocket fire from Gaza killed 12 people, including a child, a teenage girl and a soldier, according to police.
Root causes
The scope of the resolution goes far beyond the recent conflict. The text requests that the commission study “all the root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and prolongation of the conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious affiliation”.
The investigation should focus on establishing the facts and collecting evidence and material that could be used in legal proceedings and, to the extent possible, identifying the culprits so that they can be tried.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki, who addressed the assembly online, accused Israel of establishing “an apartheid regime based on the oppression of the Palestinian people” and their “forced displacement” “. He claimed “the right (of the Palestinians editor’s note) to resist the occupation” and asserted that “the settlers must be put on the terrorist list”. Israeli Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Meirav Eilon Shahar accused Hamas of having “initiated this conflict”.
A mandate without duration fixed in advance
This is the first time that the Council has set up a commission of inquiry with an indefinite mandate. The mandate of other commissions, such as the one on Syria, must be renewed every year. Some countries, such as France, have lamented that the commission’s mandate is “too broad” and its objective “too indeterminate”, but the resolution has garnered broad support from African and Latin American countries.
The Israeli Prime Minister sees in this vote the confirmation of “the flagrant anti-Israel obsession of the Human Rights Council”.
Israel is the only country with a fixed item on the agenda for each Council session. Nine of the thirty special sessions organized by the UN Human Rights Council since its creation in June 2006 have focused on Israel.
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