This article belongs to And That's the Way It Is column.
The fact that the UN Human Rights Council has voted that the UN war crimes inquiry findings into the Israel-Hamas conflict as being factual and valid now opens the doors to a host of legal as well as other options in relation to this conflict by both Israel as well as Hamas.
The inquiry, conducted by well-respected South African Justice Richard Goldstone, gave a more than adequate picture as to what was done and by whom and his findings more than adequately gave an overviews as to some of the goings-on, some of which were highly illegal in International Law as well as contrary to the various conventions and agreements.
The vote to accept the report in its own right was rather interesting.
The US and The Netherlands voted against accepting the report highlighting that the US still appears to shackled to the US Jewish lobby which, in my view, has hampered any positive paths towards peace at Israel's behest.
Certainly, the time has come for the US to cut itself free from these influences which have cost it its international reputation and has cost the US taxpayers billions of dollars in terms of the supply of US military hardware alone.
In the case of the Netherlands, I was not surprised.
The human rights reputation of the Dutch has dwindled to near-naught this given the way the country has treated asylum-seekers as well as the way the country has treated its own nationals, regardless of whether they live in Holland or in third party countries such as Australia.
The Netherlands is the only country in the world that is breaching international law in terms of denying Dutch-born citizens their automatic birthright nationality status.
France and Germany abstained. In fact they did not turn up; the reason given that they were in consultation with the Israelis at the time of the vote. The other main players, Russia and China voted for acceptance of the report.
The next steps in the UN process are multiple.
The report will go to UN General Assembly where it may be insisted upon that both Israel and Hamas conduct their own independent and monitored inquiry into the incidents as described. The UN General Assembly may also put the allegations directly to the International Criminal Court.
Given that the inquiry has been found to be valid, direct individual legal action may also be pursued and it is known that several human rights organisations are now seeking arrest and investigation warrants against individuals, which depending on the country where such warrants are sought and served, may well be a highly effective process. In fact, regardless of whether or not UN processes proceed as planned, there is nothing stopping anyone from having an arrest warrant served on a person on war crimes allegations. It is now known that the International Law Compliance Forum, ILCF, is thus far preparing 23 arrest and investigation warrants.
The whole gambit of measures, possibilities and opportunities that this inquiry has presented the international community with in terms of how to deal with a rogue states such as Israel and rogue organisations such as Hamas would have repercussions in terms of compliance of International Law directives and UN resolutions.
Israel has a bad reputation in terms of non-compliance with UN resolutions and once progress is made in this case with either the UN or privately, the opportunities exist for Israel to be forced to comply with UN resolutions regardless of UN veto-power provisions. It could even force Israel to disclose the fact, even though the details are more than generally known and proven, that it has nuclear weapons as well as the means to deliver such weapons.
In overall terms though, the process has shown the hypocrisy of some countries, mainly the US, just for the sake of a few votes, while on the other hand is shows when the same situations crop up time and time again, as in Israel's case, sooner or later a stop must be put to those abuses.
As I mentioned previously, Israel would make much better progress in terms obtaining of peace by withdrawing behind its pre-1967 lines, by handing back the Golan Heights, by officially disclosing the status of its nuclear weapons to the IAEA, by removing settlements off stolen lands and by handing back all stolen property.
And like it or not.
My name is Henk Luf.
And That's The Way It Is.
The inquiry, conducted by well-respected South African Justice Richard Goldstone, gave a more than adequate picture as to what was done and by whom and his findings more than adequately gave an overviews as to some of the goings-on, some of which were highly illegal in International Law as well as contrary to the various conventions and agreements.
The vote to accept the report in its own right was rather interesting.
The US and The Netherlands voted against accepting the report highlighting that the US still appears to shackled to the US Jewish lobby which, in my view, has hampered any positive paths towards peace at Israel's behest.
Certainly, the time has come for the US to cut itself free from these influences which have cost it its international reputation and has cost the US taxpayers billions of dollars in terms of the supply of US military hardware alone.
In the case of the Netherlands, I was not surprised.
The human rights reputation of the Dutch has dwindled to near-naught this given the way the country has treated asylum-seekers as well as the way the country has treated its own nationals, regardless of whether they live in Holland or in third party countries such as Australia.
The Netherlands is the only country in the world that is breaching international law in terms of denying Dutch-born citizens their automatic birthright nationality status.
France and Germany abstained. In fact they did not turn up; the reason given that they were in consultation with the Israelis at the time of the vote. The other main players, Russia and China voted for acceptance of the report.
The next steps in the UN process are multiple.
The report will go to UN General Assembly where it may be insisted upon that both Israel and Hamas conduct their own independent and monitored inquiry into the incidents as described. The UN General Assembly may also put the allegations directly to the International Criminal Court.
Given that the inquiry has been found to be valid, direct individual legal action may also be pursued and it is known that several human rights organisations are now seeking arrest and investigation warrants against individuals, which depending on the country where such warrants are sought and served, may well be a highly effective process. In fact, regardless of whether or not UN processes proceed as planned, there is nothing stopping anyone from having an arrest warrant served on a person on war crimes allegations. It is now known that the International Law Compliance Forum, ILCF, is thus far preparing 23 arrest and investigation warrants.
The whole gambit of measures, possibilities and opportunities that this inquiry has presented the international community with in terms of how to deal with a rogue states such as Israel and rogue organisations such as Hamas would have repercussions in terms of compliance of International Law directives and UN resolutions.
Israel has a bad reputation in terms of non-compliance with UN resolutions and once progress is made in this case with either the UN or privately, the opportunities exist for Israel to be forced to comply with UN resolutions regardless of UN veto-power provisions. It could even force Israel to disclose the fact, even though the details are more than generally known and proven, that it has nuclear weapons as well as the means to deliver such weapons.
In overall terms though, the process has shown the hypocrisy of some countries, mainly the US, just for the sake of a few votes, while on the other hand is shows when the same situations crop up time and time again, as in Israel's case, sooner or later a stop must be put to those abuses.
As I mentioned previously, Israel would make much better progress in terms obtaining of peace by withdrawing behind its pre-1967 lines, by handing back the Golan Heights, by officially disclosing the status of its nuclear weapons to the IAEA, by removing settlements off stolen lands and by handing back all stolen property.
And like it or not.
My name is Henk Luf.
And That's The Way It Is.
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