Israel is “obstructing” access to victims of the October 7 Hamas attack, UN investigators condemned on Tuesday, citing a “lack of cooperation” from Israeli authorities.
“I regret the fact that people in Israel who want to talk to us are denied this opportunity, because we cannot enter Israel,” said Navi Pillay, chair of the UN inquiry into human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
The commission, which was established in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council, reviewed the progress of its work before diplomats in Geneva, during a meeting organized by Egypt.
Reacting to the commission’s statements, the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations in Geneva emphasized that “independent institutions and mechanisms, including representatives of the United Nations, visited Israel and met with survivors and victims of the terrorist attack.”
But “1,200 murdered people, raped women and girls, hostages taken to Gaza, know very well that they will never get the justice or dignified treatment they deserve from the commission of inquiry and its members,” added the Israeli mission, accusing them of giving “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements” in the past.
In 2022, one of the UN investigators, Indian Miloon Kothari, apologized for referring to the “Jewish lobby” in an interview, comments strongly condemned by Israel, which called for his resignation or the dissolution of the commission.
– Call to victims –
Ms Pillay, a former high commissioner for human rights, former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and former judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), explained that the commission she chairs is investigating “crimes” committed during the October 7 attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on on Israeli soil, as well as those committed since then by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank.
The commission will present its findings in June, she said.
“So far, as far as Israel is concerned, we have faced not only a lack of cooperation, but also active obstruction of our efforts to gather evidence from Israeli witnesses and victims of the events that took place in southern Israel 7,” added another investigator, Australian Chris Sidoti, speaking via video conference.
“I use this opportunity to once again appeal to the Israeli government to cooperate, as well as to the victims and witnesses of the events in the south of Israel to contact the commission of inquiry so that we can hear what they experienced,” he added.
The commission was established after the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, but is also mandated to study all the root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
(with AFP)
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