Volker Türk on Monday called on countries to hold Tel Aviv accountable for violating international law in its war on Gaza and escalating violence in the illegally occupied West Bank.
U.N. Human Rights Council room in Geneva. (U.N/ Photo/Jean Marc Ferré)
By Olivia Rosane
Common Dreams
Other countries must hold Israel accountable for violating international law in its war on Gaza, and its escalating violence in the illegally occupied West Bank, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Monday.
Türk’s remarks came as he opened the 57th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva with a wide-ranging warning about the rise of international violence and human rights violations worldwide.
Ending Israel’s war on Gaza and “averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” Türk said.
“States must not — cannot — accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (U.N.) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation,” he said.
In particular, Türk referenced the International Court of Justice’s advisory ruling in July that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is illegal. The ICJ also called on Israel to evacuate its settlers from the West Bank and on other nations not to recognize Israel’s occupation as legal or to render any aid to Israel that maintained the status quo.
Opening #HRC57 with a clear call: govts must urgently put human rights at the core of all policy & action.
Endless military escalation, deepening inequalities, rampant disinformation, #TriplePlanetaryCrises, & discrediting multilateral institutions cannot become the new normal.
— Volker Türk (@volker_turk) September 9, 2024
Türk on Monday called for the situation to be “comprehensively addressed.”
He said Israel’s war on Gaza had forced 1.9 million people to flee their homes since Oct. 7, 2023, many more than once, as Hurriyet Daily News reported. The war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to official figures, though experts say the true death toll is likely much higher.
Türk added that “deadly and destructive” operations in the West Bank, such as a 10-day period of raids that concluded Friday, are at a scale “not witnessed in the last two decades” and are “worsening a calamitous situation.”
He also spoke out for the rights of the likely more than 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and the 101 hostages still held in Gaza.
Beyond Israel and Palestine, Türk also highlighted ongoing conflicts in Sudan and between Russia and Ukraine, noting that the international community seemed to accept the “crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them.”
“We are at a fork in the road,” the human rights chief advised. “We can either continue on our current path — a treacherous ‘new normal ‘ — and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity, and the planet.”
In a record election year, Türk argued that committing to the protection of human rights was especially important.
“I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone,” he said.
In particular, he encouraged voters to “be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality.”
“Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society’s ills, one day your own might be next,” he said.
Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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It’s all just almost unbelievable. But until the United States changes its mind…and there is very little chance of that…all the Western US vassal states are going to fall in line and block any accountability and punishment regarding Israel and their Washington facilitators.
The white race West is much too ‘chicken’ to stand up to the Zionists!!! Much easier to keep kissing the Zionists’ ‘tuches’ than to show humanity to non-whites. I continue totally ASHAMED of my Jewish background and want no association with Zionists of any shape or form…and that includes part of what used to be ‘family’.
Israeli impunity makes a mockery of all the memorials to victims of the Nazi Holocaust as well as of pledges of “never again” and respect for the so called “human rights” demanded by the tribunals at Nuremberg following the second war to end all wars. Research is generally forbidden concerning many aspects of that war but is slowly filtering out nonetheless. The same is true concerning the myths surrounding the creation of the State of Israel, certainly a deed as evil as those perpetrated by the Third Reich. As Pete Seeger asked and many others echoed, “When will we ever learn?”
Whenever I see the words “held accountable” I think, “never happen.” So far this has been 100% correct.
None of this is going to work. Lawfare, ICC or ICJ rulings, non-violent protest, all of it’s futile in the face of disgusting Jewish supremacy.
About the only possible thing Jew supremacists respond to or react to that will get them to maybe back down from killing another 50,000 innocent Palestinians is force and violence. Hamas, the Houthis and Hezbollah understand this. It’s a sickening reality that Western activists better get accustomed to.
RE GAZA GENOCIDE: why is the death toll being held at 40,000? Why do they keep saying 40,000 when we know it has to be several hundred thousand?
Chris Hedges says it is because Hamas is afraid of losing support in Gaza if the true numbers are released. Hamas is ashamed of the death toll.
I don’t understand how there is anyone in Gaza who is still alive.
It’s also because Israel destroyed so many hospitals and clinics, which were key to reporting of fatalities.