By Dr Marwan Asmar
More bad news for Israel with the information about the United Nations moving ahead to include Israel on its blacklist of countries and organizations harming children in conflict zones according to the Palestine Chronicle.
The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has written to the Israeli military Attaché in Washington, Major General Hidai Zilberman informing him of his decision to include Israel in the blacklist of countries that harm children.
Based on Israeli sources media sources the Chronicle added the list that includes terror groups like ISIS, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram.
Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Riyad Mansour was happy with the move to dam Israel.
“The United Nations’ decision to add Israel to the list of violations of children’s rights, often referred to as the ‘list of shame’, will not bring back tens of thousands of our children killed by Israel over decades..but it is an important step…towards ending the double standards and the culture of impunity Israel has enjoyed for far too long and that left our children vulnerable to its consequences, he said.
But Israel is already very angry about its inclusion into the blacklist with its leaders screaming about the addition alongside “uncouth” countries and terror organizations.
In an attempt to strike back, an Israeli official said he would recommend to the government it moves to classify UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees) as “a terrorist organization,” according to Anadolu.
Israeli public broadcaster KAN said Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN, made the recommendation according to the Turkish news agency.
Further, Israel may sever ties with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and deny visas to UN officials and the heads of UN agencies, and prevent them from working in the West Bank.
This is the first time Israel is being added to the “List of Shame,” despite calls by rights groups to add Tel Aviv years ago.
More than 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 7 October and most of them are women and children, and over 83,500 others injured.
The black list report which will be published next week will not explicitly mention Israel by name, but will state as written that ‘Israeli security forces’ are responsible for the situation,” as mentioned in the Palestine Chronicle.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Israel is already indicted by the International Court of Justice to stop the genocide on Gaza and by the International Criminal Court which is issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
Dr Marwan Asmar is a writer based in Amman and covers Middle East news.
8 June 2024
Source: countercurrents.org