Israel: UN Head of Human Rights Asks Government “Move Direction”

O UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, today asked the next Israeli Government to “change course” and stop the “current war tendency”.

“Israel has obligations under international law, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and must respect them. I hope the next government will do just that and change course radically,” Türk said at a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

The High Commissioner was asked about the requests he had to make to the Government resulting from the legislative elections held on Tuesday in Israel, the first since the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on 7 October 2023, and the subsequent war waged by the Government led by Benjamin Netanyahu in the Gaza Strip, which already amounts to more than 74,500 dead.

According to the counting of more than 80% of the votes held by the Electoral Commission, and the calculations of the main national media, the right-wing and far-right block led by Netanyahu has 53 deputies, while the Arab parties add 19.

The coalition of the Israeli opposition headed by Gadi Eisenkot, former head of the Armed Forces, reached 48 deputies. All political forces are therefore below the 61 mandates required in parliament (Knesset) to form government.

Regardless of which block you win, Türk asked you “not to continue with the current warmonger trend”, which, in your opinion, reflects the belief that Israel is “above international law.”.

The High Commissioner argued that the UN should continue to “monitor, document and report” what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as in Lebanon, Syria and elsewhere.

Türk stressed that the United Nations is also monitoring Hamas and the Palestinian authorities' human rights actions, stating that they are “very concerned”, in a reference to information on Palestinian executions, which he described as possible extrajudicial executions.