Craig Mokhiber, director of UN human rights body, accuses the US, UK, and much of Europe as ‘wholly complicit in the horrific assault’ against civilians in Gaza. Meanwhile, Turkey prepares to notify the International Criminal Court about Israel’s war crimes.
The director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has left his post, protesting that the UN is “failing” in its duty to prevent what he categorizes as genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza under Israeli bombardment and citing the US, UK and much of Europe as “wholly complicit in the horrific assault”.
Craig Mokhiber wrote on 28 October to the UN high commissioner in Geneva, Volker Turk, saying: “This will be my last communication to you” in his role in New York.
Mokhiber, who was stepping down having reached retirement age, wrote: “Once again we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes and the organization we serve appears powerless to stop it.”
He said that the UN had failed to prevent previous genocides against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Muslims in Bosnia, the Yazidi in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the Rohingya in Myanmar and wrote: “High Commissioner we are failing again.
“The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist colonial-settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs … leaves no room for doubt.”
Mokhiber added: “This is a textbook case of genocide” and said the US, UK and much of Europe were not only “refusing to meet their treaty obligations” under the Geneva Conventions but were also arming Israel’s assault and providing political and diplomatic cover for it.
“We must support the establishment of a single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews,” he wrote, adding: “and, therefore, the dismantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.”
Mokhiber has worked for the UN since 1992, serving in a number of increasingly prominent roles. He led the high commissioner’s work on devising a human rights-based approach to development and acted as a senior human rights adviser in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
A lawyer who specializes in international human rights law, he lived in Gaza in the 1990s.
In his role as director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, he has come under occasional fire from pro-Israeli groups for his comments on social media. He was criticized for posting support of the boycott, divest, sanctions (BDS) movement, and accusing Israel of apartheid – an accusation which he repeated in his retirement letter.
Journalists and academics began posting the letter’s content to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Tuesday afternoon.
Reaction to Mokhiber’s outspoken departure from such a prominent UN position was mixed. Louis Charbonneau, the UN director at Human Rights Watch, told the Guardian that he had made a powerful argument against double standards in the stance of the world body.
“You don’t have to agree with everything in the letter to see that he’s made a powerful and depressing case that the UN lost its way on human rights when it comes to Israel and Palestine, partly due to pressure from the US, Israel, and other governments. It’s not too late to turn the UN ship around, but they need to do it quickly.”
Ankara to notify ICC about Israel’s crimes
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in a pro-Palestinian rally that they would declare Israel a “war criminal” to the world. Authorities are now exploring ways to bring crimes committed by Israel against Palestinian civilians before the International Criminal Court (ICC), reported Daily Sabah, a Turkish daily.
According to the report, Justice Minister, Yılmaz Tunc, had said earlier that the UN resolution was an important statement proving Israel committed genocide and crimes against humanity. The resolution condemned “all acts of violence against Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including all acts of terror and indiscriminate attacks, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction.”
It also demanded that “all parties immediately and fully comply with their obligations under international law.”
Tunc said in a social media post that the UN resolution was “soft law”, but emphasised the legally binding nature of international law. “Such resolutions approved by a large majority have been admitted as evidence in the International Court of Justice proceedings in the past.
Turkey also slammed Europe’s double standards: while it backs Israel’s aggression and refuses to support Palestinians, it allows the Quran to be insulted and burned.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attacked European countries that banned demonstrations of solidarity with Palestine despite allowing the Quran to be desecrated in public events.
Receiving EU diplomats in Ankara yesterday, Fidan said: “Some European countries are taking steps to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations, while, at the same time allowing attacks targeting our holy book, the Holy Quran, under the pretext of freedom of speech, which is a double standard approach.”
He added that attacks targeting civilians are unacceptable, stressing the need to stop them immediately and declare a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
“We must prevent the conflict from reaching a regional level and begin the peace process aimed at a two-state solution as soon as possible, within the framework of agreed-upon criteria, and in this context, we are convinced of the possibility of using the guarantor mechanism,” he told the officials.
Fidan’s criticism came as Palestine solidarity events have been banned in a number of European countries. Despite this, pro-Palestine demonstrations were held under heavy police protection and violent intervention, and in contrast, there are no restrictions or bans on pro-Israel protests.
Fidan had previously said that those who support Israel’s actions under the pretext of solidarity with it are accomplices.
