[News] Palestinian Human Rights Organisations urge UN Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect, that Immediate and Effective Measures are Needed as Genocide is Unfolding in the Gaza Strip

[Anti-Imperialist News]

addameer.org <https://www.addameer.org/news/5241>
Palestinian Human Rights Organisations urge UN Special Advisers on the
Prevention of Genocide and Responsibility to Protect, that Immediate and
Effective Measures are Needed as Genocide is Unfolding in the Gaza Strip
December 2, 2023
------------------------------

It is with great urgency that we, the undersigned Palestinian civil society
organisations, address this letter to the Special Adviser on the Prevention
of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu and the Special Advisor on the
Responsibility to Protect, George Okoth-Obbo, with regards to Israel’s
actions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including and especially in
the Gaza Strip. We alarmingly take note of the statement
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/2023-10-15_Statement_SAPG_situation_Middle_East.pdf>
of Ms Nderitu issued on 15 October 2023, as further elaborated below, which
has not alerted the international community to the risk of genocide against
the Palestinian people. We  urge you to take all measures at your disposal,
as required by your mandate
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.49_Framework%20of%20Analysis%20for%20Atrocity%20Crimes_EN.pdf>,
to prevent the unfolding genocide in Gaza, including by mobilising the
international community, particularly Third States, to uphold their legal
obligations and urgently intervene for this end.

For the past eight weeks, Israel has carried out a revengeful military
campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip—one of the most densely populated
areas in the world with over two million inhabitants, half of whom are
children—on an unprecedented scale. According to the Palestinian Government
Media Office, the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October as
of 1 December 2023 has reached at least 15,000 Palestinians—almost 70% of
whom are children and women—and at least 37,000 more injured. Given the
thousands of unretrieved bodies still trapped under the rubble in Gaza, we
have reason to believe that these figures will drastically rise. In the
West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, 245 Palestinians have been killed
and over 3,300 injured by Israeli occupying forces and settlers, since 7
October and the ‘deaths’ of six detainees were announced by the Israeli
occupying authorities. In Gaza, there has been extensive targeting of
civilian objects and the massive widespread and systematic destruction of
infrastructure—it is estimated
<https://www.ochaopt.org/sites/default/files/Gaza_casualties_info-graphic_22_Nov_2023%20final.pdf>
that at least 60% of all housing units in the Gaza Strip have been
completely destroyed or partially damaged. At present, the number of internally
displaced
<https://www.ochaopt.org/content/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-56>
Palestinians in Gaza is estimated at more than 1.8 million—nearly 80% of
the population.

Against this backdrop, your silence on the risk of genocide in Palestine,
Ms. Nderitu and Mr. Okoth-Obbo, is deafening. Meanwhile in that same time,
your office has issued warnings on the rights of Armenian refugees
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/Statement_Armenia_Azerbaijan_10%20October_2023.pdf>
to return, on the heightened risk
<https://twitter.com/UNOSAPG/status/1711756567748481209> of genocide and
atrocity crimes in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, Oromi and on the risk of genocide
in Darfur, Sudan
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/UN_Special_Adviser_statement_Sudan_14_Nov_2023.pdf>.
For the past 56 days, there has been an absence of decisive diplomatic
measures to uphold international law and to end the genocide unfolding
against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Indeed, the deliberate failure of
the international community to hold Israel responsible for its 75-year-long
settler colonialism, 56-year illegal occupation of Palestinian territory,
and 16-year-long closure of Gaza, and its impunity over decades for its
international crimes, including apartheid, has culminated in the past weeks
of horrific violence—including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
incitement to genocide.

We, Palestinian civil society organisations, have, as early as 13 October
2023—two days prior to the day you issued your statement—warned
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21898.html> and urged
<https://mezan.org/en/post/46315/PHROC-Calls-on-the-State-of-Palestine-and-Third-States-to-Intervene-Taking-Concrete-Measures-and-Legal-Action-to-Prevent-Genocide-in-Gaza>
States to intervene to protect the Palestinian people against impending
genocide. On 15 October 2023, some 800 scholars and practitioners of
international law and genocide studies, including prominent Holocaust
scholars, signed
<https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/>
a public statement warning of the possibility of genocide being perpetrated
by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The warning was
echoed on 19 October 2023 by UN Special Rapporteurs stating
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/gaza-un-experts-decry-bombing-hospitals-and-schools-crimes-against-humanity>,
“We are sounding the alarm […] there is also a risk of genocide against the
Palestinian People”. That alarm has been sounded by the UN Special
Rapporteurs on two more occasions since, with increasing severity
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-running-out-time-un-experts-warn-demanding-ceasefire-prevent-genocide>
that the risk has escalated beyond a risk of genocide to that of a genocide
in the making, as alerted
<https://www.un.org/unispal/document/gaza-un-human-rights-experts-call-on-international-community-to-prevent-genocide-against-the-palestinian-people-ohchr-press-release/>
by a full cohort of 36 UN human rights experts. On 27 October, the UN
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination triggering its early
warning urgent action procedure, warned
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/occupied-gaza-strip-un-committee-calls-immediate-ceasefire-and-urges-end>
that it was “Highly concerned about the sharp increase in racist hate
speech and dehumanization directed at Palestinians since 7 October,
particularly on the Internet and in social media, including by senior
officials, politicians, members of the Parliament, and public figures,
particularly the statement of 9 October made by the Israeli Minister of
Defense, Yoav Gallant, in which he referred to Palestinians as ‘human
animals’, language which could incite genocidal actions”.

On 20 November, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence on Women and Girls
issued in a statement
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/women-bearing-brunt-israel-gaza-conflict-un-expert>
that: “reproductive violence inflicted by Israel on Palestinian women,
newborn babies, infants, and children could be qualified as violations of
the human right to life under Article 6 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights and as acts of genocide under Article 2 of the
Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, several articles of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
and Article 6 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
including “imposing measures intended to prevent births within a group””.

Craig Mokhiber, your former colleague and Director of the New York Office
of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24103463-craig-mokhiber-resignation-letter>
that what is currently ongoing in Gaza “is a text-book case of genocide.”
Since then, we, as well as other civil society organisations and human
rights defenders, including the International Commission of Jurists
<https://www.icj.org/gaza-occupied-palestinian-territory-states-have-a-duty-to-prevent-genocide/>,
have repeatedly warned that the dehumanising and genocidal rhetoric openly
shared by Israeli officials <https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22188.html> in
recent weeks would lead to even more atrocities and loss of civilian life
if left unchecked, and made public statements, calling upon the
international community to act on their responsibility to prevent atrocity
crimes, including genocide, in Gaza. The exponentially climbing death toll
and internal displacement; civilian infrastructure under constant attack,
including homes, hospitals, and UN facilities; and complete siege have only
confirmed our worst fears.

As you certainly know, genocide means any of the following enumerated acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national,
ethnical, racial or religious group, such as (a) killing members of the
group; (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to
bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and (e) forcibly
transferring children of the group to another group. It is clear that
Israel is deliberately inflicting on the Palestinian people conditions of
life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.

Our organisations have already warned
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22188.html> that the cutting off of water,
electricity, and internet in Gaza, and the denial and restrictions of entry
of humanitarian convoys of food, medicine, and other supplies necessary for
the survival of the population, are all evidence that Israel is taking
steps to act on its inciteful genocidal statements. At the same time,
Israel has attacked “safe passage routes”, killing and maiming Palestinians
seeking refuge, such as the 70 Palestinians killed on Salah-al-Din street
<https://www.dci-palestine.org/724_palestinian_children_killed_in_gaza_as_israel_targets_civilians>
on 14 October 2023. Israel has bombed the Rafah crossing
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/israeloccupied-palestinian-territory-un-experts-deplore-attacks-civilians>,
bombed UNRWA-run shelters <https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143237>,
and failed to establish humanitarian corridors and quarters for civilians.

On 24 October 2023, a document produced by the Israeli Ministry of
Intelligence was revealed
<https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/rj2mplngp>, detailing a
plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza, forcibly transfer its inhabitants and
deport them to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. Notably, Omer Bartov, one of the
world's top scholars on holocaust and genocide studies, warned
<https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/10/bartov_genocide_apartheid> that
forced displacement and ethnic cleansing usually precede genocide.
Similarly, 36 UN independent experts have pointed to the forced
displacement of Palestinians in Gaza as one of the main indicators of “genocide
in the making
<https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/gaza-un-experts-call-international-community-prevent-genocide-against>”
in Gaza.

The plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza
<https://mezan.org/en/post/46319/Urgent-action-is-needed-to-stop-the-forced-displacement-and-transfer-of-Palestinians-within-Gaza-and-prevent-mass-deportation-to-Egypt>,
embodying Israeli annexationist aspirations, squarely aligns with Israel’s
settler-colonial project. Indeed, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians
and the dispossession of Palestinian land on both sides of the Green Line
serve as quintessential evidence of Israel’s decades-long desire to expel
Palestinians and replace them with Jewish-Israelis—as is exactly what
Palestinians mean by ‘an ongoing *Nakba*’.

In the past 12 months alone, for example, this was manifested by the
Israeli government's explicit declar
<https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/37_govt_position_paper_Eng_100123.pdf>
*ation* of their intent to annex the occupied West Bank, culminated into
its *de facto* annex <https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21265.html>*ation*; by
the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, brandishing
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-brandishes-map-of-israel-that-includes-west-bank-and-gaza-at-un-speech/>
a map that showed the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the occupied Syrian
Golan as part of Israel, during his speech at the UN General Assembly in
September 2023; and Israeli officials—across the entire Israeli political
spectrum—calling for the forcible transfer of Palestinians in Gaza,
including by stating
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-west-should-welcome-gaza-refugees-asylum-seekers-hamas-terrorism-displacement-5d2b5890#cxrecs_s>
“[w]e simply need a handful of the world’s nations to share the
responsibility of hosting Gazan residents”.

In the midst of Israeli attacks against Gaza, since 7 October 2023, various
Third States—particularly the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada,
and several European States—and international officials—including those
representing European institutions, including the European Commission—have
not only failed to uphold their legal obligation to prevent genocide but
further enabled and encouraged the unfolding genocide, through, *inter alia*,
repeatedly reiterating their unwavering support for Israel, despite ample
evidence of international crimes being committed in Gaza; wrongfully
invoking
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/17/does-israel-have-the-right-to-self-defence-in-gaza#:~:text=%E2%80%9CIsrael%20does%20not%20claim%20it,belligerent%20occupation%2C%E2%80%9D%20Albanese%20said.>
Israel’s right to self-defence; publicly objecting
<https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142507#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20on%20Wednesday,aid%20to%20millions%20in%20Gaza.>
to a ceasefire; and continuing <https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/22123.html>
to supply additional military equipment or ‘fast-track’ the supply of
military equipment to Israel, in spite of Israel’s decades-long record of
human rights violations and breaches of international humanitarian law.
These States utterly ignored the moral and legal imperatives to prevent the
commission of genocide and end impunity for genocide. Regrettably, instead
of resorting to indispensable preventive diplomacy, they actively took part
in fanning the flames, and by doing so, they may even be directly complicit
in the ongoing genocide Israel is committing.

With this said, we are also deeply alarmed by the analysis, approach and
rhetoric expressed
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/2023-10-15_Statement_SAPG_situation_Middle_East.pdf>
in the sole statement you issued on 15 October 2023, Ms Nderitu. Failing to
contextualise seventy-five years of oppression and domination by the State
of Israel over the Palestinian people as a whole, the statement exclusively
placed the onus of condemnation on Palestinian armed groups. Excluding any
condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza—despite the fact that at the time
the Israeli senior leadership had already made several statements inciting
genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and that at least 2,000
Palestinians had already been killed as of 15 October 2023—reveals two
truths: first, that the international political double-standards penetrated
the UN system inadvertently; second, that the UN and your mandate remain
oblivious to the root causes of the Palestinian struggle: decades of
Israel’s settler-colonialism, apartheid, and occupation. This, in
combination with the failure to acknowledge Israel’s sixteen-year blockade
and closure of Gaza—an illegal form of collective punishment, an act of
persecution and apartheid, and a potential act of genocide
<https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzAtGThgZ1r/>— signifies that your
statement utterly failed to properly contextualise the operation  that took
place on 7 October 2023.

We would also like to remind both your respective mandates Ms Nderitu and
Mr Okoth-Obbo, that in July 2014, your predecessors issued
<https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/media/statements/2014/English/2014-07-24-Special%20Advisers%27%20Statement%20on%20the%20situation%20in%20Israel%20and%20the%20occupied%20Gaza%20strip.pdf>
a public warning in response to Israel’s conduct against the protected
Palestinian population which was accompanied by inciteful and dehumanising
language against them. We are deeply alarmed that at this point, with
stronger evidence and a significantly more desperate and severe
humanitarian situation in terms of human suffering than in 2014, you have
not issued a single statement publicly condemning Israel’s genocidal
rhetoric, along with the continued infliction of atrocities on the
Palestinian population of Gaza.

By the time you had published your statement on 15 October, the world heard
Israeli officials publicly dehumanising Palestinians and proudly expressing
genocidal rhetoric. Some of the remarks of Israeli officials have included
Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, stating “We are imposing a complete
siege on [Gaza]. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is
closed. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly”. Gallant was
further recorded, rallying the troops and promising
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkCo1UXbvOc>, “Gaza won’t return to what
it was before. We will eliminate everything”. The Coordinator of the
Government in the Territories (COGAT) Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian announced
<https://twitter.com/cogatonline/status/1711718883323752586?t=UAM2bzjS-PRdJv1hIQY-Wg&s=09>
that “Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza, no electricity, no
water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell”. Similarly, Israel
Katz, Israel’s Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, warned
<https://twitter.com/Israel_katz/status/1712083122227909116?t=nd9aPqyMtpUXy4A0HhqFMw&s=09>,
“For years we supplied Gaza with electricity, water and fuel. Instead of
saying thank you, they sent thousands of human animals to slaughter,
murder, rape and kidnap babies, women and the elderly - that’s why we
decided to stop the flow of water, electricity and fuel and now their local
power station has collapsed and there is no electricity in Gaza”.

Since then, Israel’s intent was only made clearer by both further genocidal
statements as well as the actions of the Israeli military. Notably, the
dehumanisation of Palestinians, and describing them as “human animals”
continued, as the Palestinian people were further described
<https://www.newarab.com/news/netanyahu-deletes-palestinian-children-darkness-tweet>
as “children of darkness”, by Prime Minister Netanyahu. The Israeli
President, Isaac Herzog, observed
<https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/30/you_need_to_choose_dr_mads>, “It’s
an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true, this
rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.
They could have risen up against that evil regime, which took over Gaza in
a coup d’etat. But we are at war. We are at war. We are defending our
homes. We are protecting our home. That’s the truth. And when a nation
protects its homes, it fights. And we will fight until we break their
backbone”. Israel’s Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, urged
<https://twitter.com/QudsNen/status/1723784790682358189?s=20>, “To be
clear, when we say that Hamas should be destroyed, it also means those who
celebrate, those who support, and those who hand out candy– they’re all
terrorists, and they should also be destroyed!”.

Now, it is an inescapable fact that the root causes of the current reality
must be recognised, acknowledged, and meaningfully addressed to disrupt
this cycle of violence. Following seventy-five years of displacement,
dispossession and deprivation of the Palestinian people’s rights of
self-determination and return, we implore the international community to
adopt a paradigm shift in its approach to the Palestinian struggle:
Stability through Accountability.

Our shock and disappointment with the past inaction, which constituted a
missed opportunity to try to halt the accelerating loss of civilian life,
does not diminish our hope that you, as the UN Special Advisor on the
Prevention of Genocide, will fulfil your moral and legal duty to prevent
the unfolding genocide. It is our genuine belief that the Genocide
Convention is neither disingenuous nor discriminatory in its
implementation.

As such, we implore you to acknowledge this genocide for what it it and to
promptly exert all means at your disposal to act accordingly. Specifically,
we call on your respective mandates, as Special Adviser on the Prevention
of Genocide, Ms Nderitu and Special Advisor on the Responsibility to
Protect, Mr Okoth-Obbo, to:

   1. Acknowledge and publicly recognise that Israel’s conduct in the Gaza
   Strip is tantamount to an unfolding genocide; condemn the genocidal
   rhetoric of Israeli officials, which has increased in the past weeks, and
   remind the international community of the danger such rhetoric carries;
   2. Condemn the accompanying atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza and
   the resulting massive loss of civilian life and destruction of civilian
   infrastructure;
   3. Call on Third States to act in line with their obligations under the
   Genocide Convention, in the face of a serious risk that Israeli occupying
   forces are perpetrating genocidal conduct against Palestinians in Gaza, by
   unilaterally and collectively taking all feasible action to urgently and
   definitively ensure that Israel refrains from further incitement to
   genocide and from the perpetration of conduct prohibited under Article II
   of the Convention;
   4. Call upon the competent organs of the UN (including the General
   Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, and the
   International Court of Justice) to take the necessary action under the UN
   Charter to prevent and suppress acts of genocide or any of the other acts
   enumerated in Article III of the Convention;
   5. Call on Third States to investigate, arrest and prosecute persons on
   their territory or nationals who may have committed or contributed to acts
   of genocide against the Palestinian people; and
   6. Call upon States to take all available measures to avoid complicity
   in Israeli conduct through the provision of materials, arms, economic and
   diplomatic support to a regime responsible for ongoing and persistent
   widespread and systematic violence and abuse of the Palestinian population
   amounting to genocide.

Yours Sincerely,

   1. The Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ)
   2. The Community Action Center / Al-Quds University

Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC)

   1. Addameer Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association
   2. Aldameer Association for Human Rights
   3. Al-Haq
   4. Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
   5. Defence for Children International-Palestine
   6. Hurryyat Defense for Civil Liberties and Human Rights
   7. Independent Commission for Human Rights (Observer)
   8. Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
   9. Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (Observer)
   10. Ramallah Center for Human Rights Studies
   11. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
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