There were elements of genocide in Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip, former director of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights Craig Mokhiber told Sputnik.
On Tuesday, a letter by Mokhiber to Volker Turk, High Commissioner for Human Rights, was made public, which explained that the UN high-ranking diplomat resigned over the organization's stance on the war between Israel and Hamas. Mokhiber stopped working at the organization on November 1.
Mokhiber pointed out that following the escalation in October, the world has been witnessing "the wholesale slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza", while the United Nations has totally failed to respond effectively to the situation and noted that a humanitarian ceasefire was blocked by the United States in the Security Council.
For the past 30 years, the UN "has grown increasingly weak in its approach to the Middle East," he explained.
"It has dropped its emphasis of international human rights law and international humanitarian law and the UN Charter, and instead has moved into this very amorphous political approach that defers to Israel as the occupying power, defers to Western states that are allied with Israel."
Therefore, he went on to say, there has been the continuous worsening of the situation in Israel and Palestine, especially over the course of the last 30 years.
"In March when there were a series of atrocities happening on the West Bank, and I felt that our response was too quiet. I made a series of public statements about the situation," he shared.
"That brought a blow-back and not just from Israel lobby organizations that were trying to silence me, but even from inside the UN itself. So, I wrote to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I expressed my concern for these trepidatious approaches by the UN and the need to speak more boldly based upon human rights and humanitarian law. And I indicated that I would be leaving the organization after 32 years in the coming months."
"That brought a blow-back and not just from Israel lobby organizations that were trying to silence me, but even from inside the UN itself. So, I wrote to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, I expressed my concern for these trepidatious approaches by the UN and the need to speak more boldly based upon human rights and humanitarian law. And I indicated that I would be leaving the organization after 32 years in the coming months."
