GENEVA: United Nations rights experts warned on Monday that Israel risked becoming an international “pariah” over its “genocide” in Gaza, suggesting that the country’s UN membership should be called into question.

Several independent UN experts decried what they said was Israel’s escalating violence and rights violations in Gaza and the West Bank, its disregard for international court rulings and verbal attacks on the UN itself.

The rapporteurs, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who do not speak on behalf of the UN, also slammed Western countries’ “double standards” and insisted Israel needed to face consequences for its actions. “I think that it is unavoidable for Israel to become a pariah in the face of its continuous, relentless vilifying assault on the United Nations, (and) Palestinians,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Albanese, who has repeatedly accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and who has faced harsh criticism and calls for her dismissal from Israel, asked if the country deserved “to continue to go unpunished for its relentless attacks” on the UN. “Should there be a consideration of its membership as part of this organisation, which Israel seems to have zero respect for?” she rhetorically asked a Geneva press conference, speaking via video link from Tunis.

Tel Aviv pounds Nuseirat refugee camp as Hamas vows to keep fighting

‘Double standards’

George Katrougalos, the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of democratic and equitable international order, demanded that Israel be held to the same standards as all countries, and condemned its repeated attacks on critical UN officials or agencies. “We cannot anymore stand this kind of double standards and hypocrisy,” he told reporters.

“I trust that the progressive and democratic citizens of Israel would not let their country become a pariah like South Africa had become during the times of apartheid.” Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, the UN special rapporteur on the rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, meanwhile warned that Israel and its allies blatant disregard for findings by international courts, the Security Council and other UN bodies in connection with the conflict was undermining the organisation as a whole. “We are blowing up the United Nations if we don’t react,” he warned.

Recruitment of new generations

Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar said on Monday the Palestinian group had ample resources to sustain its fight against Israel, with support from regional allies, nearly a year into the Gaza conflict.

Sinwar, who last month replaced slain Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said in a letter to the group’s Yemeni allies that “we have prepared ourselves to fight a long battle of attrition”. Deadly fighting meanwhile raged on in the Gaza Strip, where medics and rescuers said Israeli strikes on Monday killed several people.

The latest strikes came as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant warned that prospects for a halt in fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon were dimming, yet again raising fears of a wider regional conflagration. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said at the weekend the group “has a high ability to continue” fighting despite losses, noting “the recruitment of new generations” to replace killed militants.

Deadly strikes

In central Gaza, survivors scoured debris on Monday after a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Ten people were killed and 15 others were wounded when an air strike hit the Al Qassas family home in Nuseirat in the morning, said a medic at Al Awda Hospital, where the bodies were taken. “My house was hit while we were sleeping without any prior warning,” said survivor Rashed al-Qassas.

Gaza’s civil defence also claimed six Palestinians were massacred in a similar strike at night on a house belonging to the Bassal family in Gaza City’s Zeitun neighbourhood. Emergency services later reported six more deaths, with Al Awda Hospital saying it received the bodies of three people killed in Israeli strikes on Nuseirat.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2024