Ginebra. Dozens of independent UN experts on Wednesday called on states to take action against Israel to end “attacks against Palestinians” and the “illegal” occupation of Palestinian territories.
In a statement, the experts denounced the “paralysis” of States, more than 50 days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court of the UN, ruled that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories was “illegal.”
The ruling was in response to a UN General Assembly resolution adopted on December 31, 2022, well before the war in Gaza triggered on October 7, 2023 by a deadly incursion by Hamas Islamist commandos in southern Israel.
That resolution asked the ICJ for an “advisory opinion” on the “legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem.”
According to UN experts, “most States are not taking significant steps to comply with their international obligations reaffirmed by the ICJ judgment.”
“If we do not act now, the entire structure of international law and the rule of law in global affairs will be threatened,” they warned.
The statement was signed by some 40 experts, who are mandated by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the organisation.
The UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, Italy’s Francesca Albanese, one of the signatories, said on Monday that she saw “it as inevitable that Israel will become a pariah in the face of its continued and unrelenting aggression against the United Nations (and) the Palestinians.”
“States must act now” and “listen to the voices calling on them to take measures to end Israel’s attacks on Palestinians and its illegal occupation,” said the statement, which advocates sanctions, arms embargoes, investigations and trials.
“It is time to knock on the doors of all political leaders and ministries around the world to put an end to Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid, oppression and attack against the Palestinian people,” they stressed.
“The world is on a knife edge: either we move forward collectively towards a future of just peace and legality or we head full speed towards anarchy and dystopia and towards a world where the law of force prevails,” they conclude.
The UN General Assembly will adopt a Palestinian resolution demanding an end to Israel’s “unlawful presence” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank within 12 months. Via Graphic News
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– 2024-09-21 06:37:53
