Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have submitted a resolution on the creation of a fact-finding mission that will be voted on Thursday when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) holds a special session on the matter in Geneva.
It is expected to receive the majority vote in the 47-member body.
The United Nations Human Rights Council is expected to establish a commission of inquiry into Israeli actions against Palestinians doing the period leading up to and including the 11-day Gaza war that ended on May 21.
In particular, the committee would investigate Israeli activity in Gaza and Jerusalem as well as the ethnic riots that broke out in mixed cities within sovereign Israel.
“The commission would be authorized to make recommendations, in particular on accountability measures, all with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring legal accountability, including individual criminal and command responsibility, for such violations, and justice for victims,” the Resolution states.
It would explore the “alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021, and all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.”
Israel’s mission to the UN in Geneva responded immediately, noting the absence of Hamas’s firing of rockets against Israeli cities and towns.
“No mention of Hamas. No mention of 4300+ rockets,” it stated, adding, “we call on Member States to speak up and oppose this resolution.”
Thursday’s special session will be the 30th one that the UNHRC has held since its inception in 2006, out of which nine focused on Israel. No other country has been the subject of so many special sessions.
There have been at least five fact-finding missions into Israeli military actions in the past, including one on the Hamas-led “Great March of Return” as well as on past Gaza wars. UNHRC, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Israel, Hamas
