Who’s a civilian?
The International Court of Justice in The Hague today made an initial ruling, four weeks after an application from South Africa that accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The court ordered Israel to ensure that its military does not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians, to immediately improve humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and to prevent and punish genocidal incitement against Palestinians.
However, the court stopped short of ordering Israel to end its military operations against Hamas, a nod to Israel’s right to respond in self-defense after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. South Africa had hoped the court would order such a cessation, in effect ruling in favor of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The court did also call for the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas.
Given the dreadful toll of civilian deaths in Gaza, reportedly now topping 25,000, Israel should answer questions about its conduct. Every member of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention has an obligation to raise concerns if they have evidence that a group of people is at risk of genocide. Given previous catastrophic failures to prevent genocide—in Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur—more referrals to the court could be good news for the protection of civilians at risk. And unlike Russia, against which Ukraine made a complaint to the court in February 2022, Israel has indicated that it takes the charges seriously, attending the court to dispute the accusation.
“Dreadful toll” is certainly apt. It may be an “angels dancing on the head of a pin” matter, but “civilian deaths” is difficult to quantify when the Gaza health ministry does not distinguish between combatant “civilians” and civilian civilians. People are dying of wounds and on the edge of starving as Israeli bombs keep falling and Israeli tanks keep lobbing shells.
“Please, Israel, do not commit genocide while you are conducting your self-defense operations in a dense strip of land from which civilians are not allowed to flee” is pretty thin gruel.
Meantime, Israel charges that United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) members in the region particpated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel that sparked Israeli retaliation (CBS News):
The United States government said Friday that it was temporarily pausing additional funding for UNRWA, the United Nations humanitarian agency that serves Palestinians, as the organization said it had opened an investigation into allegations from Israel that some of its staff members participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.
Those attacks about 1,200. Canada, U.K., and Australia have also paused funding. UNRWA said it had fired the employees who were accused.
“The Israeli authorities have provided UNRWA with information about the alleged involvement of several UNRWA employees in the horrific attacks on Israel on October 7,” Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner-General, said in a statement Friday, according to the Reuters news agency. “To protect the agency’s ability to deliver humanitarian assistance, I have taken the decision to immediately terminate the contracts of these staff members and launch an investigation in order to establish the truth without delay.”
Lazzarini did not say how many UNRWA employees were accused of participating in the attack, but said “any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror” would be held accountable, and possibly face criminal prosecution. 30,000 people work for UNWRA, according to its website. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said 12 UNRWA employees had been accused of participating in the Oct. 7 attack.
What “particpating” means is left undefined in that report.
BBC offers this detail:
On Friday, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister told the BBC that the 7 October Hamas attacks had involved “people who are on their [UNRWA] salaries”.
Mark Regev said there was information showing teachers working in UNRWA schools had “openly celebrated” the 7 October attacks.
He also referred to an Israeli hostage who, on her release, said she had been “held in the house of someone who worked for UNRWA”.
Josh Holland (We’ve Got Issues podcast) expresses skepticism at Mastodon:
Unless there’s more to it than this story lays out, the allegations made by a far-right gov that sees humanitarian orgs as mortal enemies and is notoriously loose with the facts seem exceptionally thin. A teacher in an UNRA school “celebrated” 10/7 and Hamas kept hostages in an UNRA employee’s apt?
Investigating the claim is one thing, but pausing funding when 2 million people are suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in memory is horrific.
What a mess.