UN: US plan for Gaza violates international law and human rights
Association for Defending Victims of Terrorism- UN experts have called the US President's proposed plan to take control of Gaza a violation of international law and human rights, and called on all countries to stand firm against Trump's threats.
The UN experts warned that the US proposal to control Gaza violates the basic rules of the international order.
According to the UN website, the UN experts condemned US President Donald Trump’s unprecedented threats to take control of Gaza and transfer the Palestinian population to other places, using military force if necessary.
They stated that such a blatant violation of the law by a great power breaks the global taboo on military aggression, emboldens other predatory countries to seize foreign territories, and will have devastating consequences for peace and human rights worldwide.
The implementation of the US proposal would shatter the most fundamental rules of international order and the UN Charter since 1945, returning the world to the dark days of colonial occupation, the UN experts said.
The invasion and annexation of foreign territories by force, the forced expulsion of their populations and the denial of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the preservation of Gaza within an independent Palestinian state, are patently illegal, the UN experts said.
They further stressed that such violations would replace the rule of international law and the stability it brings, while international law is intended to prevent the violent colonization of foreign territories and the subjugation of their populations by predatory states, which inevitably leads to gross violations of human rights.
UN experts stressed: Just as more than half a century of Israeli occupation of Palestine has not brought peace or security, the US occupation will be equally destructive, fueling perpetual war, death and destruction.
According to the UN experts’ statement, the mass expulsion of civilians from occupied territories was recognized as a war crime under the Geneva Conventions in 1949 after World War II to prevent a repetition of actions such as the expulsion of Nazi German populations from European countries, and it remains a crime against humanity today.
They said: The US proposal would accelerate the forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, which began in 1947-48 and has since included the demolition of homes, expulsion, destruction and theft of natural resources and the criminal construction of illegal Israeli colonial settlements.
UN experts said: If the US president is truly concerned about the well-being of the Palestinians, he should mediate a lasting ceasefire, resume funding to UNRWA, compensate Palestinians for losses from US arms and ammunition to Israel due to the serious risk of violations of humanitarian law, and end arms transfers; he should also pressure Israel to provide reconstruction and reparations for violations, prosecute those responsible for international crimes, and meaningfully support a Palestinian state.
The UN experts, while pointing to Trump’s actions during his previous presidency, including recognizing the illegal annexation of East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights to the occupied territories despite opposition from the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly and Security Council, and an overwhelming majority of countries, called on the US to support multilateral institutions that protect human rights in Palestine, including the Human Rights Council and the International Criminal Court.
They also stressed that all countries that care about human rights and the rule of international law must resolutely confront the illegal threats of the US President; the world must never again accept a lawless world dominated by brute force that endangers us all.
At the same time, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, warned about the expulsion and forced displacement of residents of the Gaza Strip.
According to Al Jazeera, he said: “It is the Palestinians who determine their own destiny and we must insist on the continuation of the ceasefire in Gaza; the forced displacement [of Palestinians] is a violation of international law and the expulsion of residents of the Gaza Strip is a war crime.”
