Israel predictively dismissed UN body report as ‘fake’: Israeli ex-diplomat
Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, has told Al Jazeera that he wishes the Israeli public would be “more aware of not only the moral implications, but also the political implications” of the UN inquiry’s landmark findings that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide.
Israel’s official position has been to “predictively” call it “fake” and “bogus” with “built-in anti-Israeli bias”, he said, adding that most Israelis have been in denial around what is happening in Gaza.
The UN has always been seen in Israel as somehow a “nemesis, and its organisation or affiliate bodies are seen as possessing anti-Israeli sentiment”, he said.
He said it is important for the Israeli public to realise “there’s nothing in it for Israel to occupy Gaza. There is nothing in it for Israel in launching a new military offensive … The Israel Defence Forces [Israeli army] chief of staff said things to that … extent, and he’s a bigger authority on military issues than I am.”
Palestine welcomes ‘irrefutable’ UN genocide finding
Palestine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has called the UN commission’s finding of genocide this morning a “stark warning” for the international legal system even as it welcomes the report.
The findings “reveal the nature of the criminal war that threatens to undermine the foundations of the entire international legal system,” the ministry wrote on X. “International law experts and independent investigators have unanimously agreed that what our people in Gaza are enduring amounts, without the slightest ambiguity, to a fully realized crime of genocide, amid growing international consensus on this evident truth.”
“The situation in Gaza today portends a humanitarian catastrophe that cannot tolerate any leniency or delay,” it added.
The commission’s report – which Israel was quick to reject as “fabricated” – adds to previous United Nations findings that Israel is committing “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
Irish president suggests Israel, allies supplying arms should be excluded from UN
Michael D Higgins says the UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is an “important” document that should spark international action.
“I believe myself that the kind of actions that are necessary now are the exclusion of those who are practising genocide, and those who are supporting genocide with armaments,” the Irish president told reporters.
“We must look at their exclusion from the United Nations itself, and we should have no hesitation any longer in relation to ending trade with people who are inflicting this on our fellow human beings.”
Ireland, where many see parallels between the country’s struggle for independence from the United Kingdom and Palestinians’ push for self-determination, recognised Palestinian statehood last year.
The country has also formally backed South Africa’s case at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of genocide.
