(WAFA) – Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Minister Riyad al-Malki stated Monday that Israel’s impunity has been fuelled by the lack of punishment and accountability.
Addressing the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva via the video-conference, al-Malki stressed that the Israeli occupation authorities’ crimes against the Palestinian people continue unabated due to the Israel’s impunity besides to the lack of accountability and clear international action to end such impunity.
He reiterated that the occupation authorities were exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to consolidate their expansionist settler-colonialism of Palestine, and refusing to assume their responsibilities in terms of providing Covid-19 vaccine doses to the Palestinian people, particularly in the besieged Gaza Strip.
He cautioned against giving in to the attempts to stop dealing with Israel under Item 7 at the HRC meetings, which would effectively silence the Palestinian victims and grant war criminals immunity from prosecution and impunity.
The top Palestinian diplomat urged the international community to comply with the principles and rules of international law with regards to the realization of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights, confront the Israeli settler-colonialist system by all legal means, refrain from funding this system and put an end to the construction of colonial settlements.
He also urged it to boycott and ban the entry of products coming from Israeli colonial settlements, prohibit trade with settlements, as he called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to update the database of companies dealing with Israeli settlements.
Reflecting on the International Criminal Court’s ruling that it has jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the Palestinian territories, he welcomed the court’s ruling and called for expeditious opening of a criminal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in the territories of the State of Palestine.
He expressed regret over the issuance of politicized statements by some states against the ICC ruling and slammed such statements as a flagrant interference in the court’s work with the ultimate goal of granting Israeli war criminals immunity against punishment and impunity.
Highlighting the importance of holding general elections, he considered this step as an integral part of the efforts aimed at the revitalization of the democratic life and achieving national reconciliation and unity as he urged the international community to help remove any Israeli obstacles to the elections, particularly in East Jerusalem.
