Consensus is clear: it is genocide. Now will international law die in Gaza as well? | Raji Surani

ISrael has committed and continues to commit the genocide in Gaza. This is the conclusion of the report of the United Nations Committee. Since the report was issued last week, Palestine has been recently recognized as an independent country by the United Kingdom and a number of other countries. In his weekend announcement, Kerr Starmer called death and destruction in Gaza “completely unbearable.” This recognition comes after it is too late and still conditional, but has the UK government already stopped bearing the destruction of Israel in Gaza? Did anything change for people who are starving and bombing? Far from that.

Although the United Nations publishes the results reached by its independent committees, and the flag is raised outside the Palestinian mission in London, the mass displacement and killing is still taking place in Gaza City as the attacks of Israel. As a lawyer who spent my life in the faith of the rule of law, this makes me wonder: Will the destruction of Gaza also lead to the death of international law?

From the beginning, everything he did to look at the words of Israel Leaders To see that the intention of committing the genocide was there. Israeli ministers and politicians promised that Gaza would be settled and placed under siege and starvation. The bombing was unforgiving and widely targeted, as it targeted schools, homes and hospitals. The majority of Israel’s victims Children and women. Divorce, hunger, lack of medical care and death were daily experiences of people in Gaza. No one behaved to stop him.

The Palestinian suffering was subjected to the world’s live broadcast to see it. Israel showed exactly what it is doing for the trapped Palestinians. Although many brave journalists were killed, others continued to show reality: the genocide was broadcast directly to your screen at home. However, governments have not stopped all over the world.

Palestinian groups documenting atrocities-including the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCR), which I was director, the Libra for the Human Rights Organization and the Palestinian Rights Organization- Targeted by Israeli air strikes and punishment By the US Treasury to document legal evidence for crimes. until un singdorteur Francesca officials Albaniz and International Criminal Wisdom (ICC) – including chief prosecutor Karim Khan They are threatened and agreed to talk about them about their findings. These results match those in The latest PCR report: The intention of committing the genocide was there as of October 2023, as it is clear, as evidenced by the testimony of the survivors and the victims that we should have been protected.

The United Nations Committee is now joining the wide consensus that the Palestinians in Gaza suffer from genocide. This is welcome. But it is important to remember that the purpose of the genocide agreement is its full name: The agreement To prevent and punish the crime of genocide. It was philosophy to be preventive and Punitive – which means that we are at a crossroads now. This genocide has not been prevented, but it can still be stopped. Will this be enough for people to act? Or does the bombing of Gaza also turn the principles of international law into ruins?

I am not only speaking as a Palestinian, but as a lawyer that has spent the past 48 years in the practice of law, and believe in the sake of law. I devoted my life and experience in this, because I felt in my heart that there should be something to protect, and that the law will serve the most vulnerable people. But what we have shown in the inaction and collusion of governments is an ugly fact. We may look at a new world where international law is selective and misfortune.

Genocide in our time with this level of mass murder, destruction, pain and suffering indicates the fragility of the rule of law. The arrest orders issued by the International Criminal Court did not prevent genocide. There is another institution that finds that Israel is committing the genocide that has not stopped it. The law can only exist if it is imposed and applied to everyone. The facts there, the law exists. No one can claim that they do not know. As a society, we cannot allow international law to die in Gaza by allowing Israel to escape.

Since more institutions have reached the same conclusions, I can only hope that more pressure on governments that still help and provide weapons to Israel. For these statements and recognition to provide any concrete hope to the people of Gaza, it must come with comprehensive measures. You must follow the countries that were hesitant to Spain In taking a clear position By inciting weapons ban. The cover and partnership of the United Kingdom and the United States must stop Israel to exterminate sexual intercourse.

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Let this report not just another work that is added to a cellar. Let there be Palestine and a people, left to confess. Let all these words, statements and advertisements help all of us to what is at stake – not only for Gaza, but for the common values ​​in the world of the rule of law, democracy, human rights and dignity. Please, let her excite the world to work and stop this genocide.

• Raji Surani is the director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, the Palestinian Legal Coordinator in the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a member of the Legal Team in South Africa in the case of genocide against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

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