Thursday, June 14, 2018

Israel's Crimes

The United Nations has overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning Israel’s use of “use of any excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

By a vote of 120 to 8, the United Nations approved a resolution decrying the “use of live ammunition against civilian protesters, including children, as well as medical personnel and journalists” and underscoring its “grave concern at the loss of innocent lives”.

The measure also called for the creation of a mechanism to ensure the “protection of the Palestinian civilian population” and urged Israel to lift its economic blockade on an area ruled by the militant group Hamas. It did deplore “the firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip against Israeli civilian areas”.

The use of lethal force against Palestinian demonstrators by the Israeli military in Gaza may constitute war crimes, Human Rights Watch has said. Human Rights Watch said the majority of the dead and wounded were unarmed and posed no immediate threat to Israeli troops or civilians. As such, the group contended the use of live fire suggests a violation of international law.  

Human Rights Watch said eyewitnesses reported seeing Palestinians shot from a great distance from border fences, and others who “had not thrown stones or otherwise tried to harm Israeli soldiers” being shot from a closer range.  

Human Rights Watch’s Middle East director called on the international community to “impose real costs for such blatant disregard for Palestinian lives”. 

“The UN Human Rights Council inquiry should identify and call for sanctions against officials implicated in ongoing serious human rights violations,” Sarah Leah Whitson said.

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