The Commission of Inquiry’s vital new report documenting Israeli forces’ systematic destruction of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including educational, religious, and cultural sites, and war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, underscores the long overdue need for concrete actions to stop the Israeli government’s atrocities and hold perpetrators to account. During the last 20 months, the Commission, other UN bodies, human rights organizations and states have highlighted the harrowing situation in Gaza and called for an end to the unlawful killing, starvation, and destruction. But Israeli authorities have not only continued these crimes, but in many respects have escalated them.
The ICJ has issued three rounds of provisional measures ordering Israel to prevent genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. States that are party to the Genocide Convention risk legal liability for failing to act to prevent genocide. We have begun to see more countries with leverage taking concrete steps such as review of bilateral agreements and sanctioning of some Israeli officials. Those steps have already had some impact—they likely played a role in Israel lifting its over 11-week total blockade on the Gaza Strip—but much more action is needed to stop Israel’s extermination of Palestinians.
States should immediately: (1) impose an arms embargo on Israel; (2) adopt targeted sanctions against Israeli officials responsible for ongoing serious abuses; (3) review, with a view to suspending, bilateral agreements with Israel; (4) commit to enforce all International Criminal Court arrest warrants; (5) ban all trade and business with Israel’s illegal settlements; and (6) tackle root causes, including recognizing Israel’s crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against the Palestinians.
Words are not enough. Without clear action from world leaders and all states, Israeli authorities show no signs of ceasing their campaign to exterminate and expel more and more Palestinians. History will judge all governments for what they do at this critical juncture.
