In comments to the Human Rights Council
in Geneva - which stopped short of supporting a call for an
international probe into the escalation in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory and Israel - Ms. Bachelet condemned
indiscriminate rocket attacks by Gaza’s de facto authority Hamas,
which claimed 10 lives in Israel, and strikes inside the enclave
by Israeli Security Forces that left 242 dead.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights also welcomed the 21 May
ceasefire but warned that it was only “a matter of time” until
the next flare-up, unless the root causes of this latest
escalation were addressed.
War crimes question
Addressing the issue of possible war crimes, Ms. Bachelet
reminded the Council’s 47 Member States that Israeli airstrikes
in densely populated areas had “resulted in a high level of
civilian fatalities and injuries as well as the widespread
destruction of civilian infrastructure”.
Such attacks may constitute war crimes ‘if found to be
indiscriminate and disproportionate in their impact on civilians
and civilian objects”, the High Commissioner explained via video
link to the Geneva-based forum, meeting in special session at the
request of Pakistan on behalf of the Organization of Islamic
Cooperation.
The “heavy rocket barrage towards Israel” by Hamas and other
armed groups also constituted “a clear violation of international
humanitarian law”, Ms. Bachelet said.
Also addressing the Council, the Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied
since 1967, Michael Lynk, repeated
his call for the latest escalation – the most serious since 2014
- to be investigated by the International Criminal
Court.
‘Open-air prison’
Describing Gaza as “the world’s largest open-air prison”, Mr.
Lynk added that the enclave was nothing more than a “tiny sliver
of land, holding more than two million people under occupation,
cut off from the outside world by a comprehensive and illegal
air, sea and land blockade”.
Israel alone had the authority to determine “who and what enters
and leaves the (Gaza) Strip”, insisted the Special Rapporteur,
who is independent of the UN and answers to the 47 Member States
of the Human Rights
Council.
“When intensive violence revisits the Palestinians in Gaza, as it
regularly does, there is no escape. That this medieval
restriction on basic freedoms has gone on for 14 years, and
counting, is a harrowing stain on our humanity.”
Israel would not end its occupation “without decisive
international action” that is grounded in the framework of
rights, the independent rights expert continued.
He insisted that Israel’s “occupation has become as entrenched
and as sustainable as it has because the international community
has never imposed a meaningful cost on Israel for acting as an
acquisitive and defiant occupying power”.
Human cost
Highlighting the human cost of the recent escalation, the Special
Rapporteur pointed to the killing of Dr Ayman Abu Alouf, head of
internal medicine at Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical
centre.
“He was killed last week by an Israeli missile strike on his
apartment building along with 12 members of his extended family,
including his parents, his wife, and his 17-year-old son and
13-year-old daughter”, said Mr. Lynk.
“Dr. Abu Alouf was also in charge of the hospital’s response to
the COVID-19 pandemic, which has
ravaged Gaza during the past several months. The valiant but
badly under-equipped health care staff that he has left behind
have vowed to redouble their efforts to fight the pandemic in his
memory.”
Outside Gaza, the rights expert also noted how occupied East
Jerusalem had also witnessed intense confrontations between
Palestinians and Israelis over access to Al Aqsa Mosque to pray,
during the last days of the holy month of Ramadan.
There had also been “a sustained campaign” by Israeli settler
organizations to continue to evict Palestinian families from
their homes in Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah, which Mr. Lynk described
as the “ember” that started the latest violence.
West Bank fragmentation
Echoing the High Commissioner’s concerns over violence in the
occupied West Bank, the Special Rapporteur also noted that
demonstrations since 10 May at events in Gaza and in East
Jerusalem had led to 27 Palestinians being killed by Israeli
security forces and 6,800 injured.
“The 2.7 million Palestinians on the West Bank live in 167
fragmented islands of land, separated from the world and each
other by Israeli checkpoints, walls, settlements and settler-only
roads,” said Mr. Lynk. “Their collective future is being devoured
before their eyes by the 240 Israeli settlements expanding on
their lands.”
Justified defence
Defending its actions, Israel’s delegation justified attacks on
Gaza, claiming that more than 4,400 rockets had been fired “at
Israeli civilians” by Hamas over a 10-day period beginning 10
May.
