UN Human Rights Council mulls imposing arms embargo against Israel
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) will look into a draft resolution for imposing an arms embargo against Israel.
The draft was brought forward by Pakistan on behalf of 55 of the 56 member states in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). It will be considered on Friday on the grounds that there is a “plausible risk of genocide in Gaza.”
The eight-page draft is co-sponsored by Bolivia, Cuba and the Palestinian mission in Geneva. It condemns “the use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects by Israel” in populated areas of the besieged Gaza Strip. It also demands that Israel “uphold its legal responsibility to prevent genocide.”
The draft resolution’s possible adoption would make it the first time the UN’s top rights body has taken a position regarding Gaza since early October.
The draft calls on Israel to end occupation of the Palestinian territory, and immediately lift its “illegal blockade” and all other forms of “collective punishment.”
For a resolution to be adopted with an outright majority, 24 votes are needed. However, resolutions can pass with fewer votes due to abstentions.
Israel has killed more than 32,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 75,500 others in Gaza since October 7. It has also cut off fuel, electricity, food and water to the Palestinians living there.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli military has so far killed more than 14,400 children in Gaza, meaning children make up more than one-third of the people Israel has killed in the territory.
Israel is deliberately starving the people in Gaza by destroying food supplies and severely restricting the flow of food, medicines and other humanitarian goods.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), the United States still remains Israel’s great benefactor, accounting for nearly 70 percent of its weapons imports between 2013 and 2022.
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