Excesses in Lanka, genocide in Gaza and Israeli attack on Iran

File photo: Gaza’s health ministry says more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed

The UN which was quick to condemn Lanka failed to prevent the ongoing massacre in Palestine

The 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a Resolution on Sri Lanka “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” on  March 23, 2021. Bangladesh, China, and Pakistan voted against the Resolution. The motion was brought by Britain with the support of the US.

The Resolution pertains to our country’s 30-year civil war. It demands that “The Sri Lanka government ensures prompt, thorough and impartial investigation, and if warranted prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international human rights law.”
Around sixty-thousand Tamil civilians are estimated to have died in the military campaign which ended in 2009 with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

Our governments, despite appointing numerous commissions and panels that submitted reports on the issue, failed to punish the culprits. 
Yes, justice needs to be done for the victims of war crimes.

In the more recent present, Francesca Albanese -United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories- speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, presenting her report, titled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’ said: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met...”  She was speaking on the Israeli attacks on Gaza in Palestine since October last year.

On October 7 last year, the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israeli- occupied Palestine. The attack led to the death of over 1,000 Israelis, including civilians. Hamas also took hundreds of Israeli civilians hostage.
In retaliatory attacks, Israel has killed over 34,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza during the past six months. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health over 10,000 of Gaza’s 1.1 million children -1% of the total child population have died in the Israeli assault on Gaza’s civilian population.

By November 2023, at least 21 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals had stopped functioning because of Israel’s attack on them. Israel also imposed a total blockade of water, food, fuel, and medicine to the inhabitants of Gaza since October 7, 2023. 

Cutting off water, attacks on hospitals and use of starvation as a method of warfare are banned under International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Israel has also attacked refugee camps, schools, universities and UN compounds housing Palestinian refugees.

Sadly, the UN though quick to condemn Lanka, failed to take any action to prevent the ongoing massacre in Palestine or even condemn Israel for the commission of genocide. 
This despite its own Special Rapporteur confirming Israel was committing genocide. 
Western leaders from President Biden merely spoke of Israel’s right to defend itself, completely ignoring the ongoing Israeli atrocities amounting to genocide in Palestine.

Strangely these same rules did not apply to Israel as they did when the West judged Lanka’s right to protect itself from a group whom the US Federal Bureau of Investigations described as being a bigger terrorist menace than either al Queda, ISIS or Hamas. 

However, public sympathy in the West for Israel has plummeted amidst its ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Massive anti-Israel protests have broken out across the US, the UK, the Middle East and the EU. 
Mainstream human rights organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published scathing reports accusing Israel of apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories and finally days ago, the US did not veto a vote on a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 

Again, huge protests within Israel for the ouster of Israeli Premier Netanyahu continue across Israel. Residents are protesting the military action in Palestine and blaming the Netanyahu regime for its inability to organise the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. 

Despite having the best-equipped military in the Middle East, in its war with Hamas -whose supporters are armed mainly with bricks and stones -Netanyahu has not been able to achieve his objective of eradicating Hamas or freeing the hostages Hamas took on October 7 last year.

The international backlash against Israel for its atrocities in Gaza is making the continuation of the war unsustainable. But a retreat from his position would mean political suicide for Netanyahu and his Likud Party. The Israeli premier is caught between a rock and a very hard place.

The Israeli attack on the Iranian Consulate in Baghdad days ago comes in this background. 
With external support crumbling and internal pressure seeking his removal growing, Netanyahu is attempting to provoke Iran into a major escalation to divert attention from Israel’s crimes in Gaza and force the US and its allies to rally to the Jewish state’s defence. 

Unsurprisingly, the West limited its criticism for Israel’s breaking of international protocols in attacking Iran’s Consulate in Iraq to a few words, but the US in particular, sharply warned Iran against retaliating against the Israeli attack.

But anger in Iran at Israel’s blatant disregard of international protocols in attacking its Consulate in Baghdad was growing among Iran’s military and the general public.
And so it was, Iran’s reaction came on April 14 in the form of hundreds of drone and missile attacks on Israel. The US used its air power to down many of the incoming missiles and drones. However, a number got through. Reports spoke of Israelis running for their lives in droves.

According to a report on Sunday by ‘Axios’, Biden told Netanyahu -in a phone call- ‘Israel had essentially prevailed in this clash with Iran’ and ‘advised’ him to “take the win.” He also made it clear during the call, that any retaliatory action by Israel would not be supported by Washington.

Netanyahu, according to reports accepted Biden’s suggestion. Iran in turn said its retaliatory action was complete.
It appears Iran and Israel both gave up their aggressive posturing under US pressure.
It can only be hoped that rising international opposition to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, combined with the fear that future clashes may not have the backing of the US, helps halt Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and leads to a permanent ceasefire being declared. 

It is essential the UN proactively adopts a resolution ‘Promoting Reconciliation and Israeli accountability for its human rights violations in Palestine’. 

As in the aftermath of WW II when Nazis were tried for crimes against humanity and genocide, this time around Israeli leaders need to be taken to task for crimes against humanity and genocide against the Palestinian people.
The reality is if there is ever to be peace in Palestine and indeed in the Middle East as a whole, a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory to 1967 borders becomes a sine quo non. 
Only severe deterrent action on all those involved in human rights violations and crimes of genocide will ensure that a similar situation will not occur again.

Rubble at the site of the Israeli strikes on the Iranian Consulate in Syria’s capital Damascus (Courtesy Middle East Eye)