Western allies face genocide if support for Israel continues
Al Jazeera :
An attack on a humanitarian convoy, killing several foreign aid workers.
The destruction of a hospital with hundreds killed inside. An air raid on a consulate in a foreign country.
These are just some of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the region this week, adding to the accusations of war crimes levelled against it, and even genocide.
But, even as Israel’s Western allies face the possibility of charges for complicity in war crimes, many continue to send weapons to Israel and withhold funds from the main United Nations agency working in Gaza, despite the very real threat of famine among its population of roughly two million people.
The charges of genocide – and the continuing case brought forward by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – have done little to shift any of this.
Late last month, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese sent a warning to Israel’s Western allies, issuing a report stating that there were clear indications that Israel was violating the UN Genocide Convention, and emphasising that complicity in genocide was also “expressly prohibited, giving rise to obligations for third states”.
On this basis, Nicaragua has already taken Germany to the ICJ for violating international law by continuing to arm Israel. Individual groups around the world are also pursuing cases against their governments.
And yet, Germany continues to provide arms to Israel. Other large-scale providers of weapons, such as the US, the UK and Australia have also stopped short of suspending weapons sales – even as more than 32,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more are killed every day.
“A failure by states such as Germany, the UK and the US to reassess how they are providing support to Israel provides grounds to question whether those states are violating the obligation to prevent genocide or could even at some point be considered complicit in acts of genocide or other violations of international law,” Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin who has previously worked at the ICJ, told Al Jazeera.
These countries are finding it harder to plead ignorance. In a leaked recording on Saturday, Alicia Kearns, a Conservative member who is the chair of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee, is heard saying that UK government lawyers have advised that Israel has breached international humanitarian law, but the British government has not announced it.
Kearns stood by the comments when later asked.
According to Charles Falconer, former UK lord chancellor, if the British government concedes that Israel has violated international law, it will have no choice but to stop sharing intelligence with Israel.
A spokesperson for the UK foreign ministry stated that advice on Israel’s adherence to international humanitarian law remained under review and that: “Ministers act in accordance with that advice, for example when considering export licenses.”
