Sir, – Israel is calling on its allies, including the US, to stop funding the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a move to avoid an inquiry into its actions in Palestine – its offensive against Gaza this summer and the continued building of settlements in the occupied territories. The Israeli foreign minister has dismissed the ICC as an anti-Israel institution, one that has no justification and has said Israel will do everything possible to undermine the inquiry (“Israel seeks to block Gaza war crimes investigation”, January 18th).
However, it is not just the ICC that Israel takes issue with. Israel has denied access to Gaza for respected international observers including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International amongst others, thereby preventing allegations of war crimes and other violations to be independently verified.
A commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council in July of 2014 “to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the occupied Palestinian territory” reports that it has “repeatedly sought the cooperation of the Government of Israel to facilitate access”. To date Israel has neither responded to the request nor admitted the UN commission to the occupied Palestinian territories.
The history of the occupation has shown that as long as Israel is allowed to act as a state outside the law, it will continue to violate international law. Innocent Palestinian civilians – the “protected persons” of the Geneva Conventions – continue to pay the price of Israel’s impunity. If international law, human rights and justice are to have any meaning, then Israel cannot be shielded any longer by its political allies; political attempts to subvert the course of justice must be rejected outright. – Yours, etc,
ELAINE BRADLEY,
Burj Abu Ramadan,
Gaza, Palestine.