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UN’s Gaza report is a nail in Israel’s coffin

Justice for the Palestinians will not be easy for the international community to deliver despite this diplomatic blow to Israel.

Israel’s response to the UN rights panel report on possible war crimes in Gaza is a joke gone too far. The country, which is derided and mocked for its crimes against humanity, has stuck to the familiar script again. Tel Aviv, as expected, said the UN report is biased against the country. Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, criticised the UN Human Rights Council in harsher terms. He said: “The Human Rights Council serves as the soldiers of the Palestinians and Hamas, and this biased report is their weapon.”

For an unbiased observer though, Hamas’ reaction to the report (the UN has accused both Hamas and Israel of allegedly committing war crimes) is more genuine. As Hamas official Ghazi Ahmad said: “The report tried all the time to make some kind of comparison between the victims and the murderers, or between the victims and the killers.”

The world witnessed those 50 days of war with horror. Called by Israel as ‘Operation Protective Edge’, the regime killed 2,251 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, including 500 children. The UN has been fair in this report, one must say, even though Tel Aviv did not cooperate with the UN investigation.

Justice for the Palestinians will not be easy for the international community to deliver despite this diplomatic blow to Israel. History shows that whenever the UN tries to take on Israel, the US has been in the way, making further progress difficult. However, in the changed circumstances, with the Palestinians moving the ICC, the report could put the Israelis in the dock at The Hague. The regime has blood on its hands. There’s a heavy price to pay for decades of illegal occupation and crimes against the Palestinians. Time is not on Israel’s side, justice is nigh, and Tel Aviv will not be laughing when Palestine breaks free from the regime’s shackles one day.