RNA - An inquiry by a commission of the UN Human Rights Council into last summer’s Gaza war has effectively re-written the Zionist narrative and it is this misrepresentation that has for decades dominated the Israel-Palestine narrative in the West.
There is no clearer example of how this narrative has not only attempted to revise history, but has tried to erase it. The UN narrative exists to justify the existence of the “state of Israel” and its crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine. It is the same narrative that dominates the perspectives of the governments and the mainstream media in North America.
This narrative, rather self-serving propaganda, accepts as its starting point the right of Israel to hit civilian targets in “self-defense”, offering similar interpretations on the use of overwhelming firepower against defenseless Palestinians in a crowded civilian setting.
A total of 2,251 Palestinians were killed in the war, according to the UN, 1,462 of them civilians, including 229 women and 551 children. Six Israeli civilians and 67 Israeli soldiers were killed in Palestinian rocket and mortar strikes.
Strange enough, the report goes on to assert that both Israel and Palestinian armed groups may have committed war crimes, only that Israeli officials had brought no one to account. It’s all the reason why the UN panel’s findings will never provide a basis for an examination by the International Criminal Court to determine whether there are grounds for war crimes investigation in The Hague.
The panel, headed by Mary McGowan Davis, a former justice of the New York Supreme Court, may have had other things in mind when they concluded that “substantial information points to serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law by Israel AND by Palestinian armed groups.”
Their attempt to rewrite international law to Israel’s advantage has been deliberate and knowing. They knew what they were doing when they concluded that rightful resistance by Palestinian armed groups “may have amounted to war crimes” too.
Their immaterial and biased findings could only suggest one thing: There will be no court hearing in The Hague to try and charge Israeli military leaders with war crimes. This is while the extent of the devastation and human suffering in Gaza - fully endorsed by the United States and Israel lobby - was unprecedented and will impact generations to come.
The UN commissioners should hold their heads in shame to conclude that Israel’s deliberate practice of air strikes “was not illegal,” even after their dire effects on civilians became apparent. They are only fooling themselves to advocate for governments to support a bid for the International Criminal Court to investigate the situation in occupied Palestinian territory.
No government official will ever be there for support when the commission presents its outlandish findings to the UN Human Rights Council on June 29 in Geneva, Switzerland. Even if some do, it won’t help to end the cycle of violence and/or Israeli impunity.
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