The United Nations Human Rights “Report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict” has been released and the word genocide appears only once, to define what an International Crime is.
Even though the numbers speak for themselves, the treatment of the occupying army and the population it besieges as some kind of equals, with equal responsibility and military ability, in this report is glaring. We feel that the report, while detailing Israel’s individual war crimes, both in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, during Israel’s attack last summer, intentionally glosses over the context of 67 years of colonization and its subsequent on-going genocidal effects.
A crime of this magnitude- which lasted 51 consecutive days and resulted in the extermination of 89 whole families and the deaths of scores of others, and in devastating damage to civilian property and infrastructure in the context of Israel’s ever-tightening de-facto stranglehold on Palestinian land and lives and infinitely superior fire-power- cannot be assessed under the laws of war, but under the laws of genocide. We appeal to the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda to investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people.
We also call on each and every one of you, who agree with our appeal, to send this email below to the relevant offices. Seeing this report, we cannot stress enough the importance of such civil society action. Please help us preasure the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the ICC Prosecutor. Together we will end Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.