An independent commission of inquiry set up by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council after the 2021 Gaza war said Israel must do more than end the occupation of land that Palestinians want for a state, according to a report released on Tuesday (7).
“Ending the occupation alone will not be enough,” the report said, calling for further action to ensure the equal enjoyment of human rights.
The document cited evidence saying that Israel “has no intention of ending the occupation” and is seeking “complete control” over what it calls the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which was taken by Israel in a 1967 war.
Israel boycotted the inquiry and barred its investigators from entering.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “It is a partial and biased report stained with hatred for the State of Israel and based on a long series of previous unilateral and biased reports.”
While motivated by the May 2021 11-day conflict, in which 250 Palestinians from Gaza and 13 people in Israel died, the inquiry’s mandate includes alleged human rights abuses before and after that and seeks to investigate the causes of the tensions.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated Washington’s opposition to the inquiry and said the report did nothing to assuage US concerns about “a unilateral and biased approach that does nothing to advance the outlook.” of peace”.
Citing an Israeli law that denies naturalization to Palestinians married to Israelis, the report accuses the country of offering “different civil status, rights and legal protection” for Arab minorities. Israel says such measures protect the country’s national security and Jewish character.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but, with the help of Egypt, clamps down on the borders of the enclave now ruled by the Islamists of Hamas. Palestinian authorities have limited self-rule in the West Bank, which is dotted with Israeli settlements.
Hamas, which vows to destroy Israel, opened the war in May 2021 with rocket attacks following moves to evict Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near the al-Aqsa mosque, the third-most sacred of Islam.
The fighting in Gaza was accompanied by rare street violence within Israel between Jewish and Arab citizens.
Hamas welcomed the report and called for Israeli leaders to be prosecuted in what it said were crimes against the Palestinian people.
The Palestinian Authority also praised the report and called for accountability “in a way that ends Israel’s impunity.”
The report will be discussed at the Geneva-based Human Rights Council next week. The body cannot make legally binding decisions.
The United States left the Council in 2018 because of what it described as its “chronic bias” against Israel and only fully returned this year.
Exceptionally, the three-member commission of inquiry from Australia, India and South Africa has an open term. One diplomat said his tenure was already a sensitive issue. “People don’t like the idea of perpetuity,” he said.
Source: CNN Brasil
I am Sophia william, author of World Stock Market. I have a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and I have worked as a reporter for several news websites. I have a passion for writing and informing people about the latest news and events happening in the world. I strive to be accurate and unbiased in my reporting, and I hope to provide readers with valuable information that they can use to make informed decisions.
