UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, International Court of Justice President: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Indigenous Palestinian People.
Your Letters to the UN
Thanks to your generous donations, we were finally able to create a demo letter that you can use to send to United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor, demanding they investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people. Please send your letter right now.
UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, International Criminal Court Prosecutor, International Court of Justice President: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Indigenous Palestinian People
Before this, many of you sent your own letters to the offices, and we are proud to display them here.
1 July, 2015
Dear UN Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide,
herewith I urge you to urgently conduct an enquiry as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide and crimes against humanity (apartheid, colonialisation).
Furthermore I urge you to publish results of this enquiry and recommendations with the aim to prevent present and future war crimes and genocide commited by the State of Israel.
Direct and public incitement to genocide by Israeli political, religious and parliamentary leaders have been well documented.
The former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT, Prof. Richard Falk, separate Arab League- and UN-led investigations into Israel’s 2008/9 war on Gaza, and the 2014 Russell Tribunal on Palestine special session on Israeli violations of international law in Gaza and elsewhere in the OPT, have confirmed that Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated with impunity.
Therefore I am urging you to investigate if Israeli official representatives are responsible for the crime of genocide, including the crime of incitement to genocide.
The aim should be to prevent the risk of a future Israeli genocide against (all or parts of) the Palestinian people.
Israel has been founded due to compassion with the Jewish people and their relatives, having experienced terrible crimes against them during 2nd world war. Unfortunately, the government of Israel seems not to respect the victims of these war crimes commited against Jewish people, since they are since 1948 conducting a regime of colonialism, apartheid and occupation against the palestinian civil population, including ethnic cleansing and mass killing of civilians.
The crime of genocide, the crime of apartheid and colonialism are internationally prohibited.
This leads to legal responsibilities of all democratic states and international organizations, such as the United Nations: Israeli apartheid and colonialism should be suppressed and responsible individuals have to be brought to justice.
Full reparation should be guaranteed for the Palestinian victims.
Equivocal statements made by UN officials in relation to the issue of possible genocide in 2014 have confused many people.
Making equivocal statements is harmful and damaging, and I would like to propose that an apology for such statements is in order as soon as possible.
This concerns especially the statement made by the UN office on the 24th of July 2014. At this time, Israel had already massacred 697 Palestinians in Gaza, of whom at least 170 were children.
It is incomprehensible when the israeli mass destruction is compared with the comparably meagre damage inflicted by the resistance of the victims of what I would call a genocide, especially, when the incomprehensible numbers of the dead, and the staggering destruction to civilian infrastructure to the besieged Gaza strip, which the UN itself has described as “uninhabitable” even before Israel’s latest onslaught, has been fully recognized by the UN.
Therefore I urge you to conduct an immediate enquiry concerning those possible war crimes (genocide, apartheid, colonialisation) commited by the State of Israel and to publish results.
I would very much welcome the rectifying of possible equivocal statements, since they cause damage and harm.
Yours sincerely,
Cordula
Germany
2 February, 2015
To the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I read a letter this summer written by Ayelet Shaked, lawmaker in Israel : “They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there. “
Today, I read a letter from Ariel Sharon’s son : “We need to flatten entire neighborhoods in Gaza. Flatten all of Gaza… The Americans didn’t stop with Hiroshima”.
This must stop. This is a genocide.
Please stop them, Israel was created in 1948 by compassion, but themselves have no compassion. They want only the territory !
I invite Israel genocide to add my letter to its website.
Dear UN Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide,
I urge you to urgently conduct an enquiry as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide. After conducting the enquiry, I urge you to please publish its findings and recommendations for preventing present, and/or gradual, and/or future genocide by Israel.
In light of earlier and alarming findings of independent experts, in particular since Israel’s hermetic siege and separation of the occupied Gaza Strip in 2007 and the consecutive waves of mass killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, this investigation, which should be the responsibility of UN personnel, is important and timely.
The former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the OPT, Prof. Richard Falk, separate Arab League- and UN-led investigations into Israel’s 2008/9 war on Gaza, and the 2014 Russell Tribunal on Palestine special session on Israeli violations of international law in Gaza and elsewhere in the OPT, have all confirmed that Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity have been perpetrated with impunity and, furthermore, that direct and public incitement to genocide by Israeli political, religious and parliamentary leaders have been well documented. Therefore, the UN Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide should investigate if Israeli officials are responsible for the crime of genocide, including the crime of incitement to genocide, and to assess and prevent the risk of a future Israeli genocide against (all or parts of) the Palestinian people.
Israel should be held accountable for its regime of colonialism, apartheid and occupation, including the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in this context against Palestinians since 1948, such as ethnic cleansing and mass killing of civilians. The urgent need to hold Israel accountable is strongly supported by factual evidence as well as international law. Like the crime of genocide, colonialism and the crime of apartheid are internationally prohibited. They also result in similar legal responsibilities: all states and international organizations, such as the United Nations, are to isolate and suppress Israeli apartheid and colonialism, bring responsible individuals to justice, and ensure full reparation for the Palestinian victims.
In addition, I am extremely disturbed by equivocal statements made by UN agencies in relation to the issue of possible genocide in 2014, in a situation which was almost as far from equivocal as it could possibly be. I urge you to investigate and consider that making equivocal statements is harmful and damaging, and I propose that an apology for such statements is in order immediately. In addition, a specific policy against making equivocal statements in such situations should definitely be instituted immediately. The following paragraph clarifies the problem of the equivocal statements:
On the 24th of July 2014, when Israel had already massacred 697 Palestinians in Gaza, of whom at least 170 are children, Adama Dieng and Jennifer Welsh of the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide published a statement*, which I find very troubling, especially when coming from the highest authority on the subject of the Crime of Genocide. While acknowledging the incomprehensible numbers of the dead, and the staggering destruction to civilian infrastructure to the besieged Gaza strip, which the UN itself has described as “uninhabitable” even before Israel’s latest onslaught, The Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide saw fit to equate the comparably meagre damage inflicted by the resistance of the victims of what very may well be genocide, to that of the perpetrators of this possible genocide, as they execute massacres alongside a campaign of mass destruction.
Therefore, please take all steps to rectify the damage caused by such equivocal statements, and please conduct an immediate enquiry and publish its findings and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide.
Yours sincerely,
Kathryn Goodman
Wellington, New Zealand
Member, Palestine Working Group, Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand
Member, Aotearoa BDS, Aotearoa New Zealand
5 December, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Come indicate that I am deeply shocked by the genocide done by israel. A clear and impartial investigation of what really happened in Gaza is required.
best regards
Mohamad Yiossuf
Portugal, Lisbon
4 December, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I am ashamed to be a citizen of a government and member state of a world organization that condones and legitimizes Zionist murder, oppression and land theft.
ICC and UN investigations now.
Stef MCK
Melbourne, Australia
2 December, 2014
Madame/Sir,
I am writing to you, very disturbed that the UN was created to govern nations of occupying other nations illegally. For 66 years, Israel has committed from single war crimes atrocities to massive massacres since it has been illegally created as a state.
From previous attacks on a civilian population of Palestinians, unarmed, and helpless, from Gaza To The Westbank, Israel has gotten away with acts of war crimes, most recent “Operation Protective Edge”…evidence has been proven the bombing campaign that Israel claimed it did to “defend itself” and destroy tunnels is absurd when UN officials, UNICEF employees and Amnesty have repeatedly told UN that Israel has attacked schools, shelters and hospitals, including arresting and detaining children under the age of 11, wrote reports of the torture and sexual assaults on these children held in Israel prison.
Why isn’t Israel held accountable for breaking these resolutions set forth? Thus far it has repeatedly broken 65 and have not faced repercussions or sancations. Yet any nation that has broken just ONE seems to be held accountable.
We demand an investigation, not only for Israel bombing of Gaza in 2014, but the attacks before. The illegal use of white sulfur on the population of Gaza that many people working with the UN have seen with their own eyes, seen snipers with their own eyes target Palestinians, seen the beating and torture of Palestinians, seen illegal settlers kidnap, beat, kill, run over Palestinians and yet we ask why Palestinians retaliate.
By UN Resolutions, we the Palestinians under illegal occupation have the RIGHT and LAW to resistance occupation.
Asking you again to open a criminal investigation against Israel for their war crimes and do not let the murder of over 2000 people in 2014 in 50 days murders go in vain, as well as the silent holocaust that Palestinians are facing since the illegal creation of Israel.
Thank you.
Wafa Shahadeh
USA/Ohio
28/11/2014
Dear sir/madam
If the separate laws for Jews and non-Jews, financing of illegal settlements, displacement of the original occupants, building of walls enclaving a people, demolishing of historical and religious foundations, and the increasing death toll of Palestinian children is not evidence enough of Israel committing genocide, then I don’t know what is. More and more activists, journalists, humanitarian organisations, officials and people in general are beginning to speak up about the atrocities faced by the Palestinian people. If the UN does not investigate these claims then there is a risk that the credibility of the UN will be undermined. So in saying this I strongly suggest that you conduct an enquiry and publish it’s finding and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide.
Regards,
Kamariah
Australia
25 November, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Months after Israel’s assault on Gaza, we are still extremely concerned about the situation in Palestine. As we still haven’t seen any official actions being taken, we are asking you to investigate the possibility of genocide taking place against the Palestinian people.
The declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations defining the crime of genocide should be a guide for the proceeding actions and not used as a justification against the Human Rights of the Palestinians.
Impunity for crimes committed against the native people of Palestine are the source of the conflict leading to countless negative side-effects in the region. We don’t accept the continuation of these crimes and the impunity of the perpetrators that have been tolerated for decades. It is time to apply the justice system and legality to Israel and to start holding accountable those who have been committing crimes against international and humanitarian law.
Dear Adama Dieng and Jennifer Welsh, Members of the Committee of Prevention Against Genocide:
We recently watched with horror the 3rd onslaught on Gaza in the last 6 years conducted by Israeli Forces. That means that a child 6 years and older have already lived through 3 wars!! Where in any part of the world is this acceptable before action is taken to prevent and stop the slow Genocide of a Nation? In total, the Palestinians have been living in a brutal Occupation for over 60 years and Gaza living in total Siege since 2005!
I looked up what “Genocide” means and I can tell you that Gaza qualifies hands downs in this instance! There is no doubt in my mind that Israel is performing ethnic cleansing on the Palestinians and if left unchecked will succeed in wiping out the entire Palestinian population.
These are the last Operations that Israel has conducted on Gaza:
2008/09: OPERATION CAST LEAD
2012: OPERATION PILLAR OF DEFENSE
2014: OPERATION PROTECTIVE EDGE
Each so called OPERATION that Israel performed killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and over 400 children!! This is insane! This time Israel killed over 448 innocent children and many are still succumbing to their wounds or are blind, handicapped and paralyzed for life! Why are we not stopping this? The next one will be lethal for all Gazans! And I say this with extreme concern for my Gazan friends. Israel dropped over 700 tonnes of explosives on Gaza in 2014 up from 50 tonnes in 2008! Israel also used white phosphorus which is illegal and many outlawed weapons and chemicals in each attack on Gaza! They also left behind over 5 tonnes of unexploded Israeli bombs which Gaza had to detonate which was extremely dangerous and cost many their lives!
Israel attacked and destroyed over 18,000 homes and many are left to face the harsh winter without shelter and warm clothes. Besides many hospital and schools, and their only power plant destroyed– 161 Mosques were reduced to rubble while many were praying inside!!!
All this devastation is causing extreme hardships on the Gazan people with food and water shortages! They will surely die soon if we do not help them!
Palestinian society as a whole, are being persecuted on a daily basis and not only in Gaza. Israel arrest, shoots and imprison Palestinians daily and many as young as 5 years old are imprisoned. Reports of sexual abuse committed against detained Palestinian children are common. Where are the Human and Children Rights Organizations? Have they fallen asleep? Or do they simply not exist for Palestinians! Israeli soldiers do nothing to stop the attacks of armed Settlers on children on their way to school or who fire on civilians. Israeli citizens are constantly chanting “DEATH TO ALL PALESTINIANS!”. An Israeli teacher texted to a student “Good Arabs in Graves!”.
Where does this all End? It doesn’t matter where it began because we know that the Israeli violence came first before any homemade Hamas rockets.(which by the way have only killed 3). Israel was killing Palestinians long before Hamas came on the scene!
This is abominable in my eyes, in the worlds eyes and especially in Gods eyes! What have we become as a society that a people who were once persecuted themselves are committing these unspeakable atrocities and without remorse. What does that say about us as a society that we are allowing this to go on and are doing nothing to stop this?
I can only ask you, what if this was your child? or your mother or family member this was happening to? Would you speak out and find it morally wrong! IT IS IMMORAL!
Palestinians have a right to resist and to defend themselves and their land! Their land is dwindling down to almost nothing as Israel continues to build its illegal settlements all over and try to squeeze the Palestinians out of their very existence! We strongly believe that Israel’s goal is destroy all Muslim and Christian Holy sites and make Israel a Jewish only racist nation.
Please have mercy and compassion and stop this slow Genocide on Gaza and Palestinians!
I pray with all my heart and soul that you will give this matter your utmost attention!
Sincerely,
A. Layla Bruckner
Los Angeles, California
19 Novermber, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I demand you to conduct an enquiry and publish its findings and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide.
Nina
13 Novermber, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I demand you fulfil your obligations and conduct an enquiry and publish its findings and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is guilty of committing the Crime of Genocide in Gaza and other part of Palestine / occupied territories.
Kevin McAree
Belfast, Northern Ireland
7 November, 2014
Dear Madame, Sir
Israel calls it MOWING THE GRASS. Sounds like an ecological act.
It is not.
For how much longer will Israel continue its war crimes with Impunity?
For how much longer will Israel hide behind US skirt?
Is there is a ceiling for the number of Palestinian deaths below which Israeli crimes are not a genocide?
The UN has issued good sounding declarations signaling it’s disapproval, and?
The world is watching and realizing that there is double standard system when it comes to punishing pariah states. Such can only lead to the conclusion that the UN is complicit to Israeli war crimes.
Save your reputation and carry out an investigation of Israeli IDF savagery that can only be described as a Genocide.
Truly Yours
Said El-Said
Geneva, Switzerland
23 October, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948, Israel has been committing crimes of genocide against the Palestinian people with malice aforethought beginning with the Nakba up to the present day. Not a day goes past where Israel doesn’t add to its existing crimes of genocide.
Through its UN vetoes and supply of arms to Israel for use against a captive, occupied population and for weapons testing purposes, the US is complicit with Israel’s crimes of genocide. Please act now, and shore up confidence in the UN and international law, which should protect the powerless against the powerful – conduct an inquiry, investigate Israel’s crimes and bring its, and its accomplice’s criminals to justice.
Jin Jirrie
Australia, Sunshine Coast
22 October, 2014
Dear Madam/Sir,
Events of this summer leave no one in doubt. Israel is engaged in a ruthless nearly seven decades long war against the very notion of the Palestinian people, a war that now pits a nuclear power against a captive population in which refugee camps, hospitals, UN shelters and power stations are the main targets of F-16, white phosphorous and drone attacks. Add to this incomprehensible slaughter of innocents the seven year inhumane siege of Gaza – which now has no clean water or viable power source – and Israel’s militaristic, legal and bureaucratic stranglehold over the West Bank – including house demolitions, administrative detention, child arrest and torture, the deaths of birthing mothers at checkpoints and the routine murders of peaceful protesters – and the picture is brutally clear. If this is not genocide, what is?
Israel’s aim is clear: to take and control all of the land that rightfully belongs to the Palestinians. Israel has never been punished for its flagrant abuses of human rights and violations of international law. This desperate, tragic situation has to stop. Now. The world can wash and wring its hands no more. Truth and reconciliation may yet be possible, but only once the perpetrator is disarmed and shamed into change. Only international pressure, truth and justice can effect that transition. One million people marched this summer against the third massacre of Palestinians in six years. But popular resistance is not enough. If international law is to count for anything it must address this grotesque injustice, this massive trauma, this stain on the conscience of the world. I demand a genuine enquiry from your office into the question of Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people.
Yours truly,
Naomi Foyle
Brighton, United Kingdom
21 October, 2014
Mr Dieng and Ms Walsh
I was disturbed to read Tali Shapiro’s capable and thorough analysis of the failures of your office to discharge its responsibilities in relation to the prevention of genocide and related violations of international law and applicable human rights conventions, particularly in relation to recent events in Gaza. Ms Shapiro’s analysis is available here:
Ms Shapiro demonstrates carefully and at length the profound inadequacy – if not, indeed, complicity – of the statement from your office of 24 July 2014, which goes to exceptional lengths to maintain a familiar, unconvincing and immoral “balance” among parties involved in or affected by the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation and blockade, and the ongoing oppression and persecution of, and discrimination against, Palestinians.
Please add my name to the growing list of people demanding a consistent and morally defensible stance from your office, and an official, urgent, public inquiry into the possibility that Israel is guilty of committing crimes of genocide against the Palestinian people. You owe this to us and to the troubled world that finds no peace while there is no peace in Palestine. It is the key.
Regards
Willy Bach
Peace scholar, poet, anti-war activist
Brisbane
Australia
17 October, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I am an Ethiopian & very concerned about the Palestinian people. I strongly believe that the so called Israel is making genocide against palestinians. I hereby request the office of Genocide Prevention make an enquiry in Palestine as soon as possible. I am waiting to hear of your actions.
Abdulkarim Mohammed
To: The UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
Following Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in summer 2014, and following the findings of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP), I strongly demand that you conduct an urgent enquiry into the possibility that Israel is committing the crime of genocide.
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (http://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com) is an International People’s Tribunal created by a large group of citizens involved in the promotion of peace and justice in the Middle East, in the spirit of the International War Crimes Tribunal initiated by Lord Bertrand Russell and constituted in 1966 to investigate crimes committed in Vietnam and judge them according to international law.
“28. The evidence received by the Tribunal demonstrates that the state of Israel is failing to respect its obligations to prevent and to punish the crime of direct and public incitement to genocide.”
According to the 1948 Genocide Convention, individuals who attempt or who incite to genocide ‘shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals’. The evidence submitted to the RToP points overwhelmingly in this direction and it is imperative that the UN to hold its own enquiry and, if coming to the same findings, to hold the state of Israel to account. Failure to do so is a betrayal of the principles on which the UN was originally founded.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Casey
Brussels
October 2014
15 October, 2014
To whom this concerns
As a citizen of a UN member state, I wish to demand action on the recent attack on Gaza by Israel.
As a background to the violence, I wish to note and remind that the people of Gaza are not only being collectively punished through siege but denied even the most basic of human rights such as freedom of movement, access to health care, education, nutrition, clean water, the right to make a living and have personal security. Most of the people of Gaza are refugees who are still being denied their right of return decades after expulsions by zionist militia.
The global audience was exposed to entire apartment blocks being leveled to the ground with families sleeping inside, UN schools attacked while women and children sought shelter, children blown to pieces while playing on a beach, vital infrastructure purposefully damaged such as hospitals and rescue crews attacked, allegations of deliberate assassinations even of a disabled girl, entire neighbourhoods obliterated. My list is by no means exhaustive as this serves merely as giving brief examples.
Is this not evidence enough to merit a very thorough and impartial investigation into the possibility that Israel does not want to end its occupation of Gaza (or the rest of Palestine) and that this captive population is being destroyed with intent? Many examples exist of top Israeli figures in the political and academic world who used racist incitement to argue for the destruction of Gaza.
I am dismayed that the United Nations whose purpose it is to protect and advance humanity is not extending this responsibility to cover the Palestinian people and their long walk to freedom. I urge the United Nations to bring justice to a people who have suffered catastrophe through mass murder and expulsions and attacks on their culture and basic rights. If the people of Israel and Palestine are to have any hope of a peaceful, mutually beneficial future, it must be built upon justice and done so immediately. Too much time and too many lives have been lost already. Please support ‘never again’.
Yours faithfully
Monique Buckner
England
11 October, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
As a citizen of the world and as a Jew whose family suffered the Nazi Holocaust, I call on you to immediately initiate an inquiry as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide, and publish your findings and recommendations.
Michelle Berkon,
Sydney, Australia
8 October, 2014
To the Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, for the attention of Mr. Adama Dieng, and Ms. Jennifer Welsh:
While your statement that ‘the ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza’ could ‘demonstrate disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces’ is to be welcomed, your drawing an equivalence between Palestinian resistance groups and the Israeli military is most problematic and indeed contradicts the right to resist as enshrined in international law.
It is imperative that the United Nations do all in its power to end the illegal, immoral Israeli blockade of Gaza which is strangling everyday life there. Even outside of the murderous attacks such as that which we have just witnessed, the siege causes extreme damage to the entire infrastructure of Gaza, it impacts health, education, nutrition, farming, fishing, employment, culture, trade, every aspect of life. How can the UN stand by while this continues? It is an affront to humanity.
This summer’s attack on Gaza, the third such military assault in a six years, caused barbaric loss of life, with over 2,100 Palestinians dead, around 500 of whom were children, thousands were maimed, hundreds of thousands made homeless, more than 87 families were completely obliterated, wiped from the civil register. The pain and trauma is immeasurable, the destruction catastrophic. Homes, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, farms, factories, the electricity plant were destroyed. It was a criminal and murderous few weeks, and there cannot be impunity for such war crimes.
Israel’s deliberate targeting of schools, hospitals, farms, the electricity plant and so much of the infrastructure required for basic living, make it an imperative that the UN conduct an enquiry as to whether Israel is committing the act of genocide against the Palestinian people.
While the focus of this letter has been on Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of so much of the West Bank, the constant killing of Palestinians, the apartheid regime they are subjected to, also demand that the spotlight be put on Israel for its crimes and that finally some concrete action is taken to protect the Palestinian people and uphold their inalienable rights.
Yours sincerely,
Zoë Lawlor and Mags O’Brien,
Co-ordinators Gaza Action Ireland
7 October 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I’m calling on the United Nations to investigate the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinian people. Since 1967 Israel has occupied territories mandated by the UN as Palestinian, it has deprived Palestinians of access to basic needs such as medicine, food, shelter, and the means to earn a living, has incarcerated without charge hundreds of Palestinians including children, and has repeatedly conducted military attacks against Palestinian civilians, most notably in Gaza in 2008-2009, 2012 and early this summer. My understanding is that by international law, Israel as an occupying power has the obligation to protect the people in the territories it occupies, but Israel has, in fact, done the opposite. Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, have literally nowhere to escape the measures Israel has inflicted on them and there seems to be no action Palestinians can take to effect a change in Israel’s actions and policies towards them except to disappear altogether. Certainly this situation demands investigation by international authorities with findings made available to the global public and with sanctions and other actions deemed appropriate implemented as quickly as possible before conditions worsen.
Thank you,
Colin MacWhirter
Montreal, Canada
30 September, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Gaza and world justice demand a consistently moral stance from your office claiming authority on the Crime of Genocide – and an an enquiry of yours publishing its findings and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide.
Dino Barberini
Italy
29 September, 2014
To the Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, in particular Mr. Adama Dieng, and Ms. Jennifer Welsh:
I have read your statement on the situation in Israel and in the Palestinian Occupied Territory of the Gaza Strip dated 24 July 2014. I notice that you have drawn an equivalency between the government of Israel and Hamas, which does not have a military. I think that is the first point I would like to make. You have drawn an equivalency between a government of a country, one that has one of the biggest and most powerful militaries in the world, and the government of a stateless population, one that is and has been living under perpetual occupation since 1967, has been subjected to a prolonged siege lasting many years, and whose population largely consists of refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their homes and villages in what is now Israel, a government that does not have a military and has never had a military.
You call on that government, Hamas, to protect the people of Gaza. In consideration of the fact that the siege on Gaza is an act of war and is causing the deaths of many civilians in Gaza over a long period of time and which promises to only get worse, with the resultant deaths of many more civilians as long as it is in place, how is Hamas to protect its population if not by confronting the government of Israel with the only means at its disposal? And furthermore, how is it that you call on Hamas to protect the people of Gaza, but you don’t speak out against the siege on the people of Gaza, the very thing that Hamas must try to protect the people of Gaza against?
How can you, in good conscience, call upon Hamas to protect the people of Gaza while at the same time denying it the only means it has to even make an effort to do so? How can you responsibly tell Hamas anything at all about what it should or shouldn’t do if you will not even condemn the very thing that is causing the slow death of the population of Gaza.
Israel, as the power that occupies Gaza has sole responsibility, according to international law, to protect the people who live under its occupation. Why do you not take Israel to task for violation international law when it deprives the people of Gaza of the necessities they need in order to live? And when it drops bombs on civilians in Gaza even when Hamas is upholding a ceasefire and not sending any rockets into Israel, something that happens with great regularity.
Your equivalencies are false equivalencies. And your silence on the cause of the real problems for the people in Gaza makes you complicit in what is surely a slow genocide of the people of not only Gaza, but of all of the people of Palestine. Please take the principled stance of upholding international law and stop aiding and abetting Israel’s war crimes, crimes against humanity, and incremental genocide of the Palestinian people. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Carol Dale
28 September, 2014
Dear Special Adviser on The Prevention of Genocide
I welcome your statement regarding the killing of civilians in Gaza, in particular that you recognise that ‘the ongoing Israeli operations in Gaza’ could in your words ‘demonstrate disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli Defence Forces’ .
However, I find it incomprehensible that you effectively equate this action with that of the Palestinian groups by saying, ‘At the same time, the launching of rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups into Israeli residential areas constitutes indiscriminate use of force’. Consequently you conclude that “both parties are in violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and these acts could constitute atrocity crimes”
In the light of the massive loss of lives and destruction of property in Gaza compared to the negligible loss of lives of Israelis, I urge you to reconsider your statement in favour of one which states clearly and unambiguously that you will be conducting an inquiry into “the possibility that Israel has through it’s actions committed the Crime of Genocide against the Palestinians”. And that you commit to publishing the findings of the inquiry.
Regards
Sidney Luckett BSc, MPhil, PhD
South Africa
28 September, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
I as a Christian, I demand a direct and immediate action to condemn the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.
In the last 66 years the Palestinian population has been systematically tortured, humiliated, deprived of their most basic human rights, forced to survive under a fierce occupation who arresting children as if they were criminals by the mere fact of being Palestinian.
The last Israeli military operation in Gaza has killed more than 2000 innocent people, 70% of them children between 0 and 14 years, women and elderly, has destroyed every one of the basic structures for life, condemned to 1.800.00 people to live in a state of poverty, despair and anguish that reminds me the worst moments of Nazism. Where is the Justice? Where are the rights of the real owners of Palestine?
I need an answer and millions of Palestinian parents also needed. The answer is in your hands …… Israel should be condemned for their criminal actions against a defenseless population.
Justice will prevail over war crimes in the day we see child murderers in jail.
Fabiana Ezcurra
Barcelona, Spain
28 September, 2014
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Please , would take an official stance on what happened on Gaza and would you, please, conduct an enquiry and publish its findings and recommendations as to the possibility that Israel is committing the Crime of Genocide.
Martine Ndiaye
France
To the U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide,
Israel was initially accepted by your organisation on condition it adheres to the 67 borders and on instituting the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees; Neither of these two conditions have been adhered to, and 66 years on, the genocide carries on with the whole world watching supine. How much longer are you going to pretend to be representing the people? How many more have to die before you are spurred into concrete action? It is through your ineffectiveness that the blood of countless innocents taint your hands.
Sandra Watfa
London, United Kingdom
September 8, 2014
Mr Dieng and Ms Walsh,
I was disturbed to read Tali Shapiro’s capable and thorough analysis of the failures of your office to discharge its responsibilities in relation to the prevention of genocide and related violations of international law and applicable human rights conventions, particularly in relation to recent events in Gaza. Ms Shapiro’s analysis is available here:
Ms Shapiro demonstrates carefully and at length the profound inadequacy – if not, indeed, complicity – of the statement from your office of 24 July 2014, which goes to exceptional lengths to maintain a familiar, unconvincing and immoral “balance” amongst parties involved in or affected by the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation and blockade, and the ongoing oppression and persecution of, and discrimination against, Palestinians.
Please add my name to the growing list of people demanding a consistent and morally defensible stance from your office, and an official, urgent, public inquiry into the possibility that Israel is guilty of committing crimes of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Sincerely,
John Treat
Johannesburg, South Africa
20 July, 2014
Dear Madame/Sir,
We are citizens of Israel who oppose our government’s policies of colonialism, occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people and its actions which may amount to genocide. We write to you following thirteen days of an ongoing massacre, which is being perpetrated by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip. As the death toll is rising, it now stands at 400 casualties and 3100 injured. The UN has declared, via UNICEF, that over a third of the victims are children. As you well know, this massacre was preceded by a month of massive Israeli violence and political persecution in the occupied West Bank, including the arrest of hundreds of so-called “Hamas-affiliated” men and boys. Meanwhile, Israeli mobs run wild in the streets of our cities, shouting the chilling “Death to the Arabs” chants (as well as “Death to the Leftists”).
You cannot ignore the fact, especially during this UN-declared “year of solidarity with the Palestinian people”, that two similar massacres have already been perpetrated by Israel in the short span of six years; that Gaza suffocates under Israel’s hermetic siege; that Israel has been perpetrating an ongoing ethnic cleansing against the indigenous people of Palestine since 1948 and up to this day; and that Israel believes it may exterminate hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza every two years and do so with full impunity.
The UN states that “Where genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity do occur, the International Criminal Court, which is separate and independent from the UN, is empowered to investigate and prosecute those most responsible if a state is unwilling or unable to exercise jurisdiction over alleged perpetrators.” Israel is well beyond the point of prevention and we, its privileged citizens, are hereby charging it with genocide.
We demand that your office will do everything in its power to halt Israeli genocide as it is taking place. We demand that you take immediate action to prevent Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. We will be following your conduct on this matter.
Sincerely,
BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
20 July, 2014
To UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
Gaza – 16 July death on the beach – funeral procession. 17 July, 2014 – The 4 boys slaughtered on the Gaza beach whilst playing football
We are witnessing genocide in Gaza, Iraq, Syria, we are witnessing the use of illegal weapons, the bombings of hospitals, schools, a home for the disabled, the trauma of children, ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. We have heard the statements re Gaza of a desire that mothers are killed so no more children will be born. WHY are you silent? The UN has lost all credibility. Ban’s “concern” and “regret” are weasel words, pathetic – but you, “Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide” leave one speechless at your silence. Shame on you.
