Benjamin Netanyahus Other Charges: Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 March 2019 01:46; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1779 ... March 6, 2019
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Benjamin Netanyahu’s Other Charges: Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza

Chiara Cruciati

Benjamin Netanyahu’s bad day Thursday got off to the worst possible start: before the Israeli general prosecutor Avichai Mandelblit officially called for the indictment of the Israeli Prime Minister for corruption, the UN accused him of much more serious crimes. He stood accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which, according to the UN, Israel has been shamefully perpetrating in the Gaza Strip over the past year.

This was the result of an investigation by the Independent Commission of Inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council, tasked with examining what has been happening on the border lines between Gaza and Israel for almost a full year: namely, Israel’s repression of the... Great March of Return, the initiative launched on March 30, 2018, to demand the right of return for Palestinian refugees (in accordance with UN Resolution 194/1948), and to call for an end to the Israeli siege of the region, which has been ongoing for the past 12 years.

According to the UN investigation, the indiscriminate fire aimed at unarmed civilians by Israeli snipers “may constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity.” The death toll has been devastating: more than 250 killed (including 48 children) and more than 26,000 injured, with many permanently disabled, compounded by the fact of being in Gaza, where the health system is already in a state of collapse because of the state of siege and the lack of drugs and electricity. Here, people have to live with just two to four hours of electricity a day.