The international community should immediately pull Israel back from its ongoing campaign of starvation and elimination in Gaza and its unprovoked aggression against Iran, and take all measures necessary, individually and collectively, in line with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, to ensure compliance by Israel with its international obligations.
The ongoing Israeli military campaigns against the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen were expanded dramatically, last Friday, with an unprovoked assault on Iran constituting an act of aggression in fragrant violation of the UN Charter.
Not only does this add a sixth’ theater of war, inflicting unprecedented death and destruction on the Iranian people, Israel’s latest onslaught also served to deflect attention away from the ongoing genocide on the Palestinian population in Gaza and the ever more aggressive attacks on the West Bank.
Only hours before initiating its attack on Iran, on June 12th, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution A/ES-10/L.34 with an overwhelming majority of 149 Member States in favour, 12 against and 19 abstentions. The resolution, entitled Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations, not only reiterates earlier demands for an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire, but also demands the unconditional release not only of the hostages held by Hamas and other groups but also of those “arbitrarily detained”, a reference to the thousands detained by Israel without charge. The resolution strongly condemns “any use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access”. Critically, the resolution “Stresses the need for accountability in order to ensure Israel’s respect of international law obligations, and in this regard calls upon all Member States to individually and collectively take all measures necessary, in line with international law and the Charter of the United Nations, to ensure compliance by Israel with its obligations.” Although the resolution as such is not binding, this call for accountability is grounded in peremptory norms of international laws that create binding obligations for all Member States.
Except for Hungary voting against, and the Czeck Republic, Romania and Slovakia abstaining, all EU Member States voted for the resolution, signifying the strongest European commitment to date towards holding Israel accountable for the wide range of atrocity crimes it perpetrated against the Palestinian People.
Against this backdrop, the expressions of support by leaders of many of the same European States for Israel’s unprovoked aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, in flagrant violation of the UN Charter, stand in stark contrast. Their stand is not just legally and morally indefensible, but outright dangerous as it might serve as encouragement to other states to join the war as is reportedly under consideration.
