Occupied Palestine
The United Nations should take the necessary action to the Israeli occupation’s Banning of UNRWA.
Shalaby: Israel’s membership must be immediately frozen and given a few days to refrain from banning the UN agency
As the knife of the Israel’s aggression against the bodies of Palestinian civilians proceeds in the northern Gaza Strip, the occupying Powers decided this morning to ban the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which stands on behalf of the international community to provide the support of the approximately 5.6 million Palestinian victims of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, including 3 million Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories in 1967.
Although the prohibition of UNRWA activity was the culmination of an escalating series of repressive measures and extrajudicial killings of approximately 200 UNRWA staff, it was neither possible nor acceptable to recognize this decision falsely described as “legislation” by an illegal occupying Power.
The Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) calls on the United Nations to act immediately and expeditiously to respond effectively to this resolution against it, which constitutes an unprecedented violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations, and by a State that has obtained its legitimacy.
In press statements this morning, lawyer Alaa Shalaby (Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the AOHR) said that the resolution “constitutes an aggression against the United Nations and the international system and requires an urgent and robust response”. “The United Nations, which unfortunately set the foundation of the State of Israel on the ruins of occupied Palestine, today receives a fatal stab wound by banning the work of one of its agencies, which constitutes a dangerous precedent that cannot be allowed to pass.”
“The AOHR calls on the General Assembly of the United Nations to act urgently to immediately freeze Israel’s membership and give it a few days to refrain from banning the United Nations agency or revoking Israel’s membership in the international organization, while taking progressive punitive measures in the event of non-compliance,” Shalaby said. “The AOHR is convinced that tolerance or failure to rise to the required level of response will constitute a projection of all the protection and immunity granted to the programs and agencies of the United Nations and its staff”, Shalaby added.
The AOHR again calls upon Arab Governments to expedite support for investigations by the International Criminal Court and Palestinian rights organizations, to accede to South Africa’s claim under the Genocide Convention before the International Court of Justice, and to call for the convening by the High Contracting States Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 of their emergency conference to determine international protection measures for Palestinian civilians and hold perpetrators accountable.