Currently Online 
UN rights body adopts resolution on war crimes accountability
The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty-eight countries voted in favour and 13 abstained, while six voted against the resolution.
Yes:
- Algeria
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Burundi
- Chile
- China
- Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Cuba
- Eritrea
- Finland
- Gambia
- Ghana
- Honduras
- Indonesia
- Kazakhstan
- Kuwait
- Kyrgyzstan
- Luxembourg
- Malaysia
- Maldives
- Morocco
- Qatar
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Sudan
- United Arab Emirates
- Vietnam
No:
- Argentina
- Bulgaria
- Germany
- Malawi
- Paraguay
- United States
Abstained:
- Albania
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Costa Rica
- Dominican Republic
- France
- Georgia
- India
- Japan
- Lithuania
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- Romania
UN rights council demands halt of arms sales to Israel
The resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council has also demanded a halt to all arms sales to Israel, highlighting warnings of “genocide” in its war on Gaza.
The vote marked the first time the UN’s top rights body has taken a position on the nearly six-month war.
Biden’s ‘tough’ stance just ‘smoke and mirrors’
As we have reported, the White House has said Biden pressed Netanyahu during their phone call to implement “specific, concrete and measurable” steps to protect civilians and aid workers in Gaza.
Saul Takahashi, a former deputy head of office at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in occupied Palestine, told Al Jazeera that the narrative until now that the US president has been “getting tough” on the Israeli prime minister has “really just been smoke and mirrors”.
“It’s seemingly directed at the hope that somehow this will increase Biden’s very desperate support amongst a lot of voters in the United States,” said Takahashi, who is a professor of human rights and peace studies at Osaka Jogakuin University.
“Up till now, nothing much has come of it,” he added.
Takahashi said what Biden really has to do is not ask for some kind of concrete measurable plan but to stop immediately the unending flow of weapons and the political support that the US gives to Israel.
“Talk is cheap,” he added, also calling on Western countries to impose sanctions on Israel.
“[They must make] sure that the situation of impunity that Israel has enjoyed for decades and decades as it flouts international law systematically [is] brought to an end.”
Gaza plight ‘not a humanitarian issue but an issue of genocide’
Takahashi has also commented on Israel’s announcement that it would open a crossing in northern Gaza to allow in much-needed aid, warning against “falling into the trap” of thinking about the devastating situation in Gaza as a humanitarian issue.
“First and foremost we have to remember that this is not a humanitarian issue primarily – this is an issue of genocide,” the professor told Al Jazeera.
“The Israelis are committing genocide, they are committing massacres left and right, they are forcibly displacing as many Gazans as they can,” he said.
“And as long as the Americans and many of the Europeans keep on enabling Israel in doing this international crime, then all the aid in the world is really not going to make that much of a difference.”
UN Human Rights Council resolution ‘significant, but not impactful’
The adopted resolution calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip is important but will have little effect on the ground, says Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor of Middle East Studies at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University.
“Symbolically, it’s very significant – this is the first time the top UN human rights body has taken a position on the conflict,” Owen Jones told Al Jazeera.
“But this is probably not going to have a significant impact, although what is interesting is that it could in theory pave the way for this resolution to be tabled by UN Security Council members,” he said.
Such a resolution though would unlikely pass at the 15-member UN Security Council – where Israel’s ally the US has a veto power – and Israel will continue to proceed with its war on Gaza as long as it can count on Washington’s unequivocal support, Owen Jones added.
Lawyers sue German government to stop supply of weapons to Israel
A group of lawyers are demanding an immediate halt to the supply of weapons and ammunition to Israel. Ahmed Abed, a lawyer representing Palestinian families, said they have filed an “urgent application” amid alleged Israeli war crimes and potential genocide in Gaza.
“Germany has a constitutional responsibility to protect human life. The German government must stop its arms exports to Israel, as they are in violation of international law. The government cannot claim that it is not aware of this,” he told a news conference in Berlin.
The German government approved $354m worth of weapons exports to Israel in 2023, the majority of which were approved after October 7, 2023 – a tenfold increase compared to 2022.
