The Director General of the New York office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human rights has resigned over the “text-book case of genocide,” unfolding in Gaza.
In a letter dated 28 October, Craig Mokhiber, states that he is writing “at a moment of great anguish,” as the world sees “a genocide unfolding before our eyes.” The general also said that the organisation appears “powerless to stop it.”
“The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicitly statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate,” the statement read.
He said that the UN had failed to prevent previous genocides against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Muslims in Bosnia, the Yazidi in Yemen and the Rohingya in Myanmar and wrote: “High Commissioner we are failing again.”
Mokhiber added: “This is text book case of genocide” and said the US, UK and much of Europe are not only “refusing to meet their treaty obligations” under the Geneva Conventions but also are arming Israel’s assault and providing political and diplomatic cover for it.
“We must support the establishment of a single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews,” he wrote, adding: “and, therefore, the dismantling of the deeply racist, settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.”
Mokhiber has worked for the UN since 1992, serving in a number of increasingly prominent roles.
