Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, according to an official United Nations commission of inquiry.
Established by the UN Human Rights Council, the report officially confirms what the world has been witnessing: that Israel’s actions in Gaza are a genocide.
The Commission said that Israel is killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births.
“Today we witness in real time how the promise of ‘never again’ is broken and tested in the eyes of the world,” said Judge Navi Pillay, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize in November for her lifetime’s work devoted to human rights, peace, justice and equality.
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency,” she said.
Judge Pillay is also chair of the Commission who conducted the extensive investigation into Israel’s genocide.
At a press conference in Geneva, Judge Pillay and fellow Commission member Chris Sidoti laid out how their investigation has led them to conclude that Israeli authorities committed these four genocidal acts.
These four conditions are included in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which defines five genocidal acts. The fifth condition is the transfer of children from one group to another, but Sidoti said the investigation found that instead of this, the genocidal intention of Israel has included the actual targeting of Palestinian children of Gaza as a way of ending the future of this community.
Following the two-year investigation, the Commission has urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and bring those responsible to account.
The Sydney Peace Foundation has called on the Australian government to act on international obligations. This includes demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, restoring UN-led humanitarian access, stopping arms transfers and enabling inputs (such as jet fuel and parts) as well as investigating and sanctioning complicity.
“Nothing less will suffice,” the Foundation says.
Melanie Morrison, the Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, spoke on the UN report, saying it “provides the clarity we need to courageously live up to our obligations under international law and act to stop the genocide”.
“A failure to stand up for peace with justice in Palestine will ultimately be failure to stand up for peace with justice everywhere.”