UN experts say Israel should be held accountable for acts of ‘domicide’ by United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner

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The international community must take action to stop systematic and deliberate housing demolition and sealing, arbitrary displacement and forced evictions of Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, UN experts* said today.

… “The systematic demolition of Palestinian homes, erection of illegal Israeli settlements and systematic denial of building permits for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to “domicide”.

… “Direct attacks on the Palestinian people’s homes, schools, livelihoods and water sources are nothing but Israel’s attempts to curtail the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and to threaten their very existence,” the experts said.

… The experts have repeatedly raised concerns with the Government of Israel on these issues. No response has been received to date.

Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/02/un-experts-say-israel-should-be-held-accountable-acts-domicide

Situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967* by Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese

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In a settler-colonial context and an apartheid regime, any display of collective identity and (re)claimed sovereignty from the subjugated people represents a threat to the regime itself. On 13 May 2022, Palestinian pallbearers were attacked by Israeli forces while also carrying their national flag during the funeral of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh who had been killed two days earlier (see para. 58). In fact, Palestinian “symbols”, like the Palestinian flag, are systematically attacked and torn down, in public places, during public events, protests and even funerals, with the display of Palestinian national identity being de facto banned. In the occupied Palestinian territory, preventing the Palestinian people from expressing their collective identity in their own land has taken many forms.

This is part of a broader and deeper endeavour to “deconstruct and replace” Palestine from the collective imagination through a combination of cultural appropriation and the erasure of key cultural entities. [106] The Moroccan Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, destroyed at the beginning of the occupation to make space for the Wailing Wall esplanade, is one of the first recorded cases of Palestinian venues destroyed or seized and converted to Israeli cultural sites soon after June 1967.
Similarly, attempts to erase the Palestinian character of what is left of Palestinian ancestral land include: the elimination of Palestinian history in East Jerusalem schools, [107] the revocation of licences to Palestinian schools not adhering to Israeli curriculum policies [108] and the conversion or closure of sites representing Palestinian cultural, political and religious identity. [109]

Attacks on cultural objects of significance to eliminate all traces and expressions of Palestinian existence, and the incorporation of a revisionist view of history to assert (false) claims of sovereignty in the occupied Palestinian territory, demonstrate the occupier’s intention to permanently strip the land of its indigenous identity.

Continue reading at https://www.un.org/unispal/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/A.77.356_210922.pdf

Sabra and Shatila massacre: What happened in Lebanon in 1982? on Al-Jazeera

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Between September 16th and 18th, 1982, a campaign of killing took place at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. What happened was described by the UN as an “act of genocide”. With the backing of invading Israeli forces, a right-winged Lebanese Christain armed group, called the Phalange attacked the Palestinian camps in Beirut. According to multiple reports up to 3500 men, women, and children were killed.

Continue reading at https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/sabra-and-shatila-massacre-40-years-on-explainer

Human Rights Council holds general debate on the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories

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International-Lawyers.Org called the Council to put an end to human rights abuses occurring in Palestine.  In Gaza, unarmed civilians including children, medical personnel, journalists and persons with disabilities had been victims of live ammunition by soldiers, particularly during the great march protests.  As all actions were taken with the intention to destroy Palestinian people, the Council was urged to investigate whether Israel was committing genocide against the people of Palestine.

Continue reading at https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24354&LangID=E

Essential services on verge of shutting down in Gaza due to lack of emergency fuel by United Nations office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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“Since 16 July, the Israeli authorities have prohibited the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip, in the context of tightened import and export restrictions… The recent developments have exacerbated the existing humanitarian crisis driven by 11 years of Israeli blockade that has raised concerns over collective punishment and human rights violations, alongside an unresolved internal Palestinian political divide…
“At least one hospital has been forced to shut down for a few hours, and services are being dramatically reduced at others. Given ongoing blackouts of about 20 hours a day, if fuel does not come in immediately, people’s lives will be at stake, with the most vulnerable patients, like cardiac patients, those on dialysis, and newborns in intensive care, at highest risk.”
… hospitals have reduced diagnostic, sterilization and cleaning services, increasing the risk of infections amongst patients. Elective surgeries are being further reduced… Additionally, the reduced functioning of water and sanitation facilities risks an increase of waterborne disease and outbreaks… In addition to further reductions in water supplies, this would also potentially lead to sewerage overflowing into inhabited areas.”

Continue reading at https://www.ochaopt.org/content/essential-services-verge-shutting-down-gaza-due-lack-emergency-fuel

UN: Electricity crisis brings Gaza to verge of disaster on United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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This is another one of those rare occasions when we archive a statement that doesn’t explicitly include the word genocide. We can only guess at the reasoning behind UN OCHA’s decision to use evocative words rather than legal terminology to describe the situation in Gaza, but we archive this statement because it marks another stage of deterioration in what we analyse to be Israel’s genocide against the indigenous Palestinian people.

We hope to see, in the very near future, statements from the United Nations that are less that of damage control, and more of a strategical outline for achieving accountability, and with that, an end to crimes on a mass scale.

Emergency fuel for critical facilities in Gaza will become exhausted within the next ten days, the United Nations warned today, noting an urgent need for donor support to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe driven by the energy crisis… Currently at risk are emergency and diagnostic services, like MRIs, CT and x-rays, intensive care units and operating theatres in 13 public hospitals; some 55 sewage pools; 48 desalination plants; and solid waste collection capacity… “Hospitals have already begun to close. Without funding, more service providers will be forced to suspend operations over the coming weeks, and the situation will deteriorate dramatically, with potential impacts on the entire population. We cannot allow this to happen.”

Continue reading at https://mailchi.mp/un/0gxh7zgz0n-543817?e=20b385474c

UNCTAD Assistance to the Palestinian People: Developments in the Economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

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Despite the the United Nations‘ admission earlier this year that Gaza has in fact been unliveable for years, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development‘s latest report is somewhat ambiguous as to wether they are warning of the “impending” unliveability of Gaza, or if Gaza is unliveable already and they are setting a new goal to achieve liveability by 2020. Nevertheless, we find UNCTAD’s findings to be in congruence with article II.c of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”:
2017 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; the longest occupation in recent history. For the Palestinian people, these were five decades of de-development, suppressed human potential and denial of the basic human right to development, with no end in sight.
… UNCTAD (2015) emphasized that for Gaza to be a liveable place in 2020, enormous reconstruction efforts were urgently needed in sectors such as health, education, energy, water and sanitation. However, the humanitarian and economic situation has instead worsened since then. According to the World Bank, Gaza’s economic performance over the past two decades has been the worst in the world.
… One of the harshest consequences of occupation is an unemployment rate that is persistently among the highest in the world. In 2016, unemployment remained extremely high, at 18 per cent in the West Bank, 42 per cent in Gaza and 27 per cent in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; more than twice the regional average (ILO, 2017; World Bank, 2017). However, as high as the official rate of unemployment is, it does not fully reflect the real depth of the problem and the attendant economic suffering and waste of human resources… If the risky jobs in Israel and settlements did not exist, the unemployment rate in the West Bank would be more than 36 per cent, not much higher than the 42 per cent observed in Gaza. That is, without the problematic and vulnerable employment in Israel and settlements, unemployment in the West Bank would be nearly as high as the extremely high level in Gaza. Therefore, despite the conspicuously worse conditions in Gaza, it is crucial that with regard to the labour market, conditions in the West Bank are no less grim than conditions in Gaza. The entire economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in the West Bank or Gaza, is stifled and stripped of its capacity to produce jobs.

Continue reading at http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/tdb64d4_embargoed_en.pdf

Let’s Talk About Genocide: The United Nations Lack of Responsibility to Protect from and Prevent Israel’s Genocide of the Palestinian People by Tali Shapiro

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In the summer of 2012, UNICEF and UNRWA asked if Gaza will be liveable by 2020. At the time- five years into Israel’s siege, and post Israel’s 2008 and 2012 carpet-bombing campaigns- one might have been led to think that if the situation only had eight more stable years to go until apocalypse, then it probably doesn’t look too good already. What one might have missed is that Gaza in 2020, as in 2017, as in 2012, is what genocide looks like.

Continue reading at https://pulsemedia.org/2017/07/13/lets-talk-about-genocide-the-united-nations-lack-of-responsibility-to-protect-from-and-prevent-israels-genocide-of-the-palestinian-people/

Gaza Ten Years Later by United Nations Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory

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In 2012 the UN Country Team produced a report on living conditions in Gaza and predicted that based on the trends we were seeing then, Gaza was on track to become ‘unliveable’ by 2020. Sadly, as we check-in on those same trends again in this 2017 report, the deterioration has accelerated, spedalong not least by a devastating round of hostilities in 2014 from which we are only now starting to recover. In my fortnightly visits to Gaza I am constantly amazed at the resilience of a people who manage to get by despite such odds. For most of us, with electricity only 2 hours a day as was the case recently, and youth unemployment at 60%, the ‘unliveability’ threshold has already been passed.

Continue reading at https://unsco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/gaza_10_years_later_-_11_july_2017.pdf

Human Rights Council discusses human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories on OHCHR website

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International-Lawyers.Org called attention to the systematic violation of human rights of the Palestinian people by Israel, which warranted the continued attention of this Council.  As every Member State of this Council was aware, each State had a responsibility to respond to acts of genocide and in light of this, an investigation should be undertaken to ascertain whether the actions of Israel reached the proportion of genocide.

Continue reading at http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21774&LangID=E