The director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, has resigned in protest over the organisation’s inability to stop the "genocide" of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. “We are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the Organisation that we serve appears powerless to stop it,” he wrote in his resignation letter. Citing the genocides against Tutsis, Bosnians, Muslims and Yazidi communities, Mokhiber said that “it became painfully clear that we had failed in our duty to prevent mass atrocities and protect the vulnerable.” “And so it has been with the successive waves of murder and persecution against the Palestinians throughout the entire life of the UN,” he wrote. “The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist colonial settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs … leaves no room for doubt,” he said. Denouncing Israel's assault on Gaza as a "textbook case of genocide", Mokhiber said that the “European ethnic-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine” had entered its final phase “to destroy the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine.” He also said the US, UK and much of Europe are “wholly complicit in the horrific assault”, accusing them of giving diplomatic and political cover for Israel’s atrocities. The #genocide we are witnessing in #Palestine is the product of decades of Israeli #impunity provided by the US & other western governments & decades of #dehumanization of the Palestinian people by western corporate media. Both must end now. Speak up for #HumanRights — Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) October 30, 2023 “Not only are these governments refusing to meet their treaty obligations to ensure respect for Geneva conventions, but they are actively arming the assault, providing intelligence support and giving political and diplomatic cover for Israel’s atrocities,” he wrote. Over 8,700 Palestinians have been killed, including 3,648 children, in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7. Israel launched the strikes after Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,400 people and taking over 200 hostages.
