UN commission of inquiry joins rising chorus that accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

By JAMEY KEATEN Associated Press GENEVA AP A squad of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza issuing a summary Tuesday that calls on the international area to end the genocide and take policies to punish those responsible for it The deeply-documented findings by the three-member gang are the latest accusations of genocide against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s cabinet by rights advocates as Israeli carries on with its war against Hamas in Gaza that has killed tens of thousands of people Israel rejected what it called a distorted and false summary FILE Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio not shown hold a joint press conference at the Prime Minister s Office during Rubio s visit in Jerusalem Monday Sept Nathan Howard Pool Photo via AP File The Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel which was created four years ago has repeatedly documented alleged human rights abuses and violations both in Gaza since the deadly Oct terrorist attacks in Israel led by Hamas and other Palestinian areas While neither the commission nor the -member-country council that it works for within the U N system can take action against a country the findings could be used by prosecutors at the International Criminal Court or the U N s International Court of Justice The review also amounts to a final message from the organization headed by former U N rights chief Navi Pillay who served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda All three of its members communicated in July that they would resign citing personal reasons and a need for change The association was commissioned by the Human Rights Council the U N s top human rights body but it does not speak for the United Nations Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission and has accused it and the HRC of anti-Israel bias Earlier this year the Trump administration a key Israeli ally pulled the United States out of the council Commission says Israel committed genocidal acts After a painstaking legal analysis examining both actions and intent the commission stated Israel had committed four of the five genocidal acts defined under an international convention adopted in known colloquially as the Genocide Convention three years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust The Commission finds that Israel is responsible for the commission of genocide in Gaza explained Pillay the commission chair It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention Related Articles In the current era in History September massacre in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps Growing protests pose the the majority serious challenge yet to Serbia s populist president Trump says the US military again targeted a boat allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela Brazil s Lula pushes back against tariff tells Trump the country s democracy is not on the table Nvidia violated antimonopoly laws China says The organization based its findings on the convention s five criteria to assess whether genocide has occurred killing members of a group causing its members serious bodily or mental harm imposing measures aimed to prevent births in the group deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group and forcibly transferring its children to another group Under the convention a genocide determination could be made even if only one of those five criteria are met and the commission reported four have been Only the criteria on forcible transfer has not been met it mentioned Pillay a former U N human rights chief declared responsibility for the atrocity crimes lies with Israeli executives at the highest echelons over the nearly two-year war Her commission concluded that Netanyahu as well as Israeli President Isaac Herzog and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had incited the commission of genocide It hasn t assessed whether other Israeli leaders had done so too Chris Sidoti one of the commission s three members commented he hoped that the review would reach people in Israel insisting they had been betrayed by the cabinet in its abject refusal to take action to rescue Israeli hostages after people were killed on Oct two years ago and its genocidal war that has jeopardized Israel s assurance We cannot understand how traumatic the th of October was for the people of Israel he reported reporters The trauma and their suffering has been ruthlessly manipulated by Netanyahu and his cronies for the last two years and it s time that it stopped And it s time that those who are responsible for this were held accountable Israel refutes the findings Israel which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust has adamantly rejected genocide statements against it as an antisemitic blood libel Israel s Foreign Ministry issued an angry response Tuesday saying it categorically rejects this distorted and false description Three individuals serving as Hamas proxies notorious for their openly antisemitic positions and whose horrific statements about Jews have been condemned worldwide disclosed in current times another fake document about Gaza it mentioned Genocide accusations are especially sensitive in Israel which was founded as a haven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust and where memories of the Holocaust still play an essential role in the country s national identity In coming to its conclusion of genocide the commission announced it pored over the conduct of Israeli defense forces and explicit statements by Israeli civilian and military personnel among other criteria In particular the experts cited as factors the death toll Israel s total siege of Gaza and blockade of humanitarian aid that has led to starvation a program of systematically destroying the robustness care system and direct targeting of children Commission calls on countries to act The commission urged other countries to halt weapons transfers to Israel and block individuals or companies from actions that could contribute to genocide in Gaza The international population cannot stay silent on the genocidal campaign launched by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza explained Pillay who is a South African jurist When clear signs and evidence of genocide emerge the absence of action to stop it amounts to complicity The current U N high commissioner for human rights Volker T rk has decried Israel s conduct of the war in Gaza and spoken out forcefully against alleged crimes but has not accused Israel of carrying out genocide His office alluding to international law has argued that only an international court can make a final formal determination of genocide Critics counter that could take years and insist that thousands of people multiple of them civilians are being systematically killed in Gaza in the meantime The International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide event filed by South Africa against Israel Other countries including Spain Mexico and Libya have inquired the U N court to join the episode