The United Nations human rights chief condemned Israel yesterday for ‘mass killing’ of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and ‘hindering of sufficient lifesaving aid’, saying the country had a case to answer before the International Court of Justice.
Volker Turk, who heads the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stopped short of describing the Gaza war as an unfolding genocide, as hundreds of UN staff had urged him to do.
But in his address to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Turk expressed horror at what he called ‘the open use of genocidal rhetoric’ and ‘disgraceful dehumanisation’ of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials.
“Israel’s mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza; its infliction of indescribable suffering and wholesale destruction; its hindering of sufficient lifesaving aid and the ensuing starvation of civilians; its killing of journalists; and its commission of war crime upon war crime, are shocking the conscience of the world,” said Turk.
“Israel has a case to answer before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the evidence continues to mount,” Turk said, referring to the ICJ’s ruling in January that Israel had a legal obligation to prevent acts of genocide.
Israel accused Turk of not bothering with ‘facts and complexities’. “Instead of addressing the rights of Israelis to live in peace and security, and the extensive measures taken by Israel to alleviate the civilian suffering caused by Hamas in Gaza, the High Commissioner continues to spread libellous rhetoric,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, said.
Turk also addressed worldwide human rights and the international order, saying they were being undermined by “disturbing trends” including the glorification of violence and the retreat of some states from the multilateral system. “Rules of war are being shredded, with virtually no accountability,” he said.
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