Palestinians check the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in the Jabalia camp for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, on November 1, 2023. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)
The director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has resigned in protest against Israel’s continuing war in Gaza, saying it was a “textbook case of genocide”.
“The governments of the US, UK and much of Europe, are wholly complicit in the horrific assault,” Craig Mokhiber wrote in his resignation letter last week.
“Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations to ensure respect for Geneva conventions, but they are in fact actively arming the assault … and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities.
“It became painfully clear that we had failed in our duty to meet the imperatives of prevention of mass atrocities … we are failing again.”
Responding to Mokhiber’s assertions, former UN war crimes judge Geoffrey Robertson said genocide is not normally the term used in the current situation, since it does not apply to political groups, but to racial groups.
However, he told Al Jazeera there were “certainly war crimes on the face of it” by Israel, including indiscriminate bombing, denying fuel and food, attacks on refugee camps and hospitals.
