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Collective Punishment is a War Crime, OHCHR Warns Israel (www.telesurenglish.net)
submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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No place is safe. Israel has intensified attacks including in the central and southern Gaza Strip.

On Friday, the United Nations Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) warned that Israel's "collective punishment of the entire Gaza population" constitutes a war crime that must be immediately stopped.

"For nearly three weeks, Palestinian civilians have endured relentless Israeli airstrikes by air, land, and sea; thousands of them have perished, some amidst the ruins of destroyed homes, mosques, or bakeries," OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said, and revealed that the families of two organization workers had perished in the attacks.

"We have received harrowing accounts of parents writing their children's names on their arms to identify the bodies in the future," she emphasized, adding that 57 UN workers have lost their lives in the hostilities that began on October 7.

The spokesperson for the office led by Volker Türk also deemed Israel's forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans, through evacuation orders, a war crime. This comes at a time when "no place is safe" in Gaza.

read more: https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Collective-Punishment-is-a-War-Crime-OHCHR-Warns-Israel-20231027-0001.html

archive link: https://archive.ph/bQdMj

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[-] [email protected] 76 points 8 months ago

People complain about the UN doing nothing, but it's also important to remember it was literally designed to not be able to do anything if one of the security council nations -- USA, UK, France, Russia, or China -- vetoes it. And USA always vetoes anything against the Israeli government.

Considering the UN's hands are tied, I'm very glad they're at least using their figurative microphone and international influence to call attention to how fucked up the treatment of Palestinians is.

I don't know for others, but growing up American, Israel and its friends in Washington had done a terrific job of conflating any criticism of Israel with anti-semitism. What finally got me to re-evaluate my stance on the Israeli government a few years back was when well-known, respectable organizations like the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International started using the word "apartheid" to describe the situation of Palestinians.

Hearing sources like the UN Office for Human Rights, the UN Secretary General, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International calling out the Israeli government's actions in strong, unequivocal terms like "war crime" and "apartheid" is a start. I wish they could do more, and I sure as heck am angry with US foreign policy in this, but I'm just glad the UN has the balls to actually call this a war crime.

[-] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago

No what's worse is they used the attack as an excuse to go to war. I'd argue that 9/11 was just incompetence but this is too nefarious. They had a warning multiple times including by Hamas. Israel is a terrorist state and will always be one after these events.

[-] [email protected] -5 points 8 months ago

They wouldn't condemn Hamas or the Oct 7th attacks, however.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Hamas isn’t a state.

[-] [email protected] -1 points 8 months ago

Aren’t they the leading political “party” if you will in Gaza? Weren’t they elected like over a decade ago? (Before they got rid of elections.) Or maybe I’m not remembering correctly.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

Gaza isn't a country either

[-] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago

Amazing how the west has built up this whole narrative of liberal western societies being the champions of human rights in the world, and Israel just demolished it all in three weeks. All of a sudden every one can see that the west doesn't give a shit about human rights, civilians being killed, and an actual genocide unfolding. The west stands firmly on the side of genocide and US is now willing to turn this conflict into a regional war if any country attempts to intervene to stop the genocide. The masks have finally fell off.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

I wouldn't be so confident. This will never stick in people's memories; the talking points will change and everyone will be back to being good patriots. Iraq, Vietnam, etc should have been clear enough (for Americans at least), but it's all long forgotten.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

That's true in the west, but I think this sort of stuff is convincing the rest of the world that the west has no moral authority over them. It's no longer going to be possible for western diplomats to go around the world and talk about supposed human rights abuses in China as an argument for why countries need to align with the western camp. We're already seeing this happening, as one western diplomat admitted recently:

“We have definitely lost the battle in the Global South,” said one senior G7 diplomat. “All the work we have done with the Global South [over Ukraine] has been lost . . . Forget about rules, forget about world order. They won’t ever listen to us again.”

At the end of the day, the west is just a small part of humanity, and the golden billion enjoyed having disproportionate sway over the rest of the world. Those days are finally coming to an end.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 8 months ago

Israel is one unending war crime, they don't give a shit what anyone says. Neither do the owner/operators of most nations, which support them no matter what they do.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I think it's mainly the US that supports them unconditionally, often with UK and sometimes Canada. The rest of the world just don't want to be in a trade war (or worse) with the US.

For example, look at the different nations voting records on these resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly last year.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And my compatriots get indignant about, absolutely * can not fathom why we’re known as The Great Satan.

Edited for formatting and clarity

[-] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Consider yourself warned, mister!

[-] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Tut-tut, tut-tut old chap

this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
362 points (95.9% liked)

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