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| Amb. Ammar Hijazi: "Israel is starving, killing, and displacing Palestinians, while targeting and denying access to humanitarian organizations trying to save their lives." |
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UN is threatened by Israel’s decision to cut ties with relief agency, world court toldBy Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor29/04/2025(See translation in Arabic section)Sydney-Middle
East Times Int'l: The very nature of the UN is threatened by Israel’s
refusal to accept the rights of its agencies to operate freely in the
occupied Palestinian territories, the international court of justice has
heard.
The statement was made at the start of five days of
proceedings in The Hague that may prove critical to Israel’s future
within the world body. The UN’s top court will hear from dozens of
nations and organisations in order to draw up an advisory opinion on
Israel’s humanitarian obligations to Palestinians more than 50 days into
its total blockade on aid entering Gaza.
Israel is not participating
but has submitted oral evidence claiming its decision to end all
cooperation with Unrwa, the UN relief agency for Palestinians, was
necessary because of infiltration by Hamas.
In her 30-minute opening
submission to the court, the UN under-secretary general for legal
affairs, Elinor Hammarskjöld, opted for a full-throated assertion of the
immunities and privileges of the UN and its subsidiary bodies under the
UN charter and 1946 convention on UN privileges.
She said
Israel had no right unilaterally to declare UN bodies were not impartial
and so deny cooperation or aid, adding: “When the basic elements of
this [the charter’s] legal framework are not observed, the very nature
of the work of the organisation on behalf of its member states is in
jeopardy.â€
Hammarskjöld said that, if UN member states had complaints
about the neutrality of an organisation such as Unrwa, established
mechanisms existed for this to be addressed.
Israel’s complaints had
been examined by relevant UN bodies but the full cooperation of member
states, including the furnishing of documents, was also required, she
said. This was a thinly coded assertion that Israel has not backed up
some of its claims of mass Hamas infiltration with evidence to the UN.
Independent investigations have also found that Israel had not provided
evidence for its headline allegation.
The Palestinian ambassador to
the Netherlands, Ammar Hijazi, accused Israel of breaching international
law in the occupied territories.
“Israel is starving, killing and
displacing Palestinians while also targeting and blocking humanitarian
organisations trying to save their lives,†he told the court.
“Nine
of every 10 Palestinians have no access to safe drinking water. Storage
facilities of the UN and other international agencies are empty. These
are the facts. Starvation is here. Humanitarian aid is being used as a
weapon of war.â€
In a sign of the breakdown in relations, Israel’s
foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, said on Monday that the ICJ hearing was
part of a “systematic persecution and delegitimisation of Israelâ€.
“It is not Israel that should be on trial. It is the UN and Unrwa,†he told reporters in Jerusalem.
In
its written evidence to the court, Israel argues no obligation exists
to respect the immunities of a UN agency “where the legitimate security
concerns of a member state are severely undermined by the agency in
question, whose conduct manifestly contravenes the fundamental
principles of neutrality, impartiality, and independenceâ€.
The UN
general assembly has ordered the UN to seek an ICJ advisory opinion on
whether Israel had overriden the immunities of a UN body by its policy
of non cooperation. The policy has forced Unrwa to suspend operations in
Gaza and the West Bank.
**
Hammarskjöld told the court the
proceedings were crucial to clarify some fundamental elements of the
legal framework of the UN’s status. She pointed out that Israel’s UN
membership entailed legal obligations that were essential for the
organisation to properly function and carry out the mandates. These
included “good faith and cooperation with the organisation, respect for
the safety of UN premises, property assets and personnel, and
obligations concerning the immunities of UN properties so that the UN
can fulfil its obligationsâ€.
The Palestinian lawyers injected greater
emotion into the pleadings by focusing on the impact of Israel’s
refusal to allow aid into Gaza, for instance showing the judges
Instagram postings of traumatised doctors describing conducting
amputations on children without medicines.
Israel strictly controls
all inflows of international aid for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the
Gaza Strip. It halted deliveries on 2 March, days before the collapse
of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15
months of war. Supplies are dwindling and the UN’s World Food Programme
on Friday said it had sent out its “last remaining stocks†to kitchens.
Paul
Reichler, representing the Palestinians, told judges that one of the
Geneva conventions “not only lays down that the occupying power must
agree to relief schemes on behalf of the population, but insists that it
must facilitate them by all the means at its disposalâ€.
The UN was
the first to address the court on Monday, followed by Palestinian
representatives. In total, 40 states and four international
organisations are scheduled to participate.
On Tuesday, South Africa,
a staunch critic of Israel, will present its arguments. In hearings
last year in a separate case at the court, the country accused Israel of
committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza – a charge Israel
denies. Those proceedings are still under way. Israel’s’s ally, the US,
is scheduled to speak on Wednesday.
The court will probably take
months to rule. Experts say the decision, though not legally binding,
could profoundly impact international jurisprudence, international aid
to Israel and public opinion. |
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