Verdict's just in: UN has confirmed that Israel is guilty of genocide
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8641wv0n4go
Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says
2 days ago
David GrittenLondon and
Imogen Foulkes
0:40 Navi Pillay: "The committee concluded that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinian people"
A United Nations commission of inquiry says Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
A new report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023: killing members of a group, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to destroy the group, and preventing births.
It cites statements by Israeli leaders, and the pattern of conduct by Israeli forces, as evidence of genocidal intent.
Israel's foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as "distorted and false".
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
At least 64,964 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.
Most of the population has also been repeatedly displaced; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed food security experts have declared a famine in Gaza City.
Reuters
The mother of a Palestinian teenager killed by Israeli fire mourns during his funeral at a hospital in Gaza City in August
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021 to investigate all alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The three-member expert panel is chaired by Navi Pillay, a South African former UN human rights chief who was president of the international tribunal on Rwanda's genocide. The two other members are Chris Sidoti, an Australian human rights lawyer, and Miloon Kothari, an Indian expert on housing and land rights.
The commission has previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law on 7 October 2023, and that Israeli security forces have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza
The commission said
its latest report was "the strongest and most authoritative UN finding to date" on the war. However, it does not officially speak for the UN.
The 72-page document alleges that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces have committed and are continuing to commit four of the five acts of genocide defined under the 1948 Genocide Convention against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group - in this case, Palestinians in Gaza:
- Killing members of the group through attacks on protected objects; targeting civilians and other protected persons; and the deliberate infliction of conditions causing deaths
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group through direct attacks on civilians and protected objects; severe mistreatment of detainees; forced displacement; and environmental destruction
- Deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the group in whole or in part through destruction of structures and land essential to Palestinians; destruction and denial of access to medical services; forced displacement; blocking essential aid, water, electricity and fuel from reaching Palestinians; reproductive violence; and specific conditions impacting children
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births through the December 2023 attack on Gaza's largest fertility clinic, reportedly destroying around 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs
To fulfil the legal definition of genocide under the Genocide Convention, it must also be established that the perpetrator committed any one of those acts with specific intent to destroy the group in whole or in part.
'We went to the facts first," Pillay told the BBC. "So we looked at statements made by the Israeli authorities indicating genocidal intent. And we looked at the pattern of conduct of Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces to show that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference."
Israel's political and military leaders have consistently said its military's operations in Gaza are conducted in self-defence, to defeat Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and to secure the release of Israeli hostages.
They have also insisted that Israeli forces operate in accordance with international law and take all feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians.
However, the commission's report concludes that President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant have "incited the commission of genocide" in their speeches and statements.
"As early as 7 October 2023, Prime Minister Netanyahu vowed to inflict… 'mighty vengeance' on 'all of the places where Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble'," Pillay said.
"His use of the phrase 'wicked city' in the same statement implied that he saw the whole city of Gaza [Gaza City] as responsible and a target for vengeance. And he told Palestinians to 'leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere'."
Gallant said days after 7 October 2023 that Israel was "fighting human animals, and we act accordingly". Herzog meanwhile stated that "it's an entire nation out there that is responsible" for the Hamas-led attack.
