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UN expert pans Israeli ‘crimes’ in Gaza

Palestinian fishermen welcome a boat carrying members of the “Free Gaza” group upon its arrival at Gaza port in Gaza City on Tuesday. A small boat carrying activists sailed from Cyprus to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade. PHOTO: AP

The UN expert on human rights in the Palestinian territories said on Tuesday that Israel’s policies against their people amounted to a “crime against humanity.”

In a statement, Richard Falk called on the UN to make an “urgent effort” to “implement the agreed norm of a responsibility to protect’ a civilian population being collectively punished by policies that amount to a Crime Against Humanity.”

“In a similar vein, it would seem mandatory for the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation, and determine whether the Israeli civilian leaders and military commanders responsible for the Gaza siege should be indicted and prosecuted for violations of international criminal law,” he said.

Falk said that “such a flurry of denunciations by normally cautious UN officials has not occurred on a global level since the heyday of South African apartheid.”

“And still Israel maintains its Gaza siege in its full fury, allowing only barely enough food and fuel to enter to stave off mass famine and disease,” he said.

Israel allowed dozens of trucks filled with humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the fifth such shipment permitted to enter the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory in the past month.

The military also let in diesel fuel for Gaza’s sole power plant and for the UN refugee agency.

Israel has sealed off the territory from all but limited aid since the Islamist Hamas movement — which is pledged to the destruction of the Jewish state — seized power in Gaza in June last year.

Israel also opened Gaza to foreign journalists for the second time in a month.

Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council called on Israel on Tuesday to take nearly 100 measures, from lifting the blockade on Gaza to releasing Arab detainees.

The council adopted its list of 99 recommendations by consensus at the end of a two-day review of Israel’s human rights record.

Under a new mechanism, known as the Universal Periodic Review, the records of all UN member states are to be subjected to scrutiny every four years.

“Israel remains committed to reinforcing areas in which we are succeeding and bettering those areas that need improvement,” Israeli Ambassador to the UN Aharon Leshno Yaar said.

He said the dialogue had been “positive and productive” and thanked those delegations that had acknowledged the “many complexities in our region.”

Israel is to report back to the Geneva-based forum in March on how it plans to follow-up on the recommendations.

During a heated debate last Thursday, its neighbors accused it of committing systematic violations against Palestinians in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Delegations from Syria, Egypt and Iran raised concerns about Israel’s security wall, its detentions of young Palestinians and what they called “illegal” Jewish settlements.
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