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  • BADIL’s Oral Interventions in UNHRC 59: Israeli Policies of Genocide: Weaponization of Aid, Attacks on Health, and Forcible Transfer
BADIL’s Oral Interventions in UNHRC 59: Israeli Policies of Genocide: Weaponization of Aid, Attacks on Health, and Forcible Transfer
BADIL’s Oral Interventions in UNHRC 59: Israeli Policies of Genocide: Weaponization of Aid, Attacks on Health, and Forcible Transfer

During the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights delivered two oral interventions under Item 3: Interactive Dialogues—one with the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, and another with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons. These interventions shed light on the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip and the accelerating policy of forcible transfer in the West Bank.

 

In the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, BADIL’s oral statement underscored how the destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system is central to the Israeli regime’s genocidal campaign. The targeting of hospitals, health workers, and medical infrastructure is coupled with a systematic assault on UNRWA—the primary provider of health services, shelter, and aid in Gaza. BADIL emphasized that 317 UNRWA staff have been killed and 311 UNRWA facilities attacked since October 2023. These direct assaults are compounded by Israeli policies aimed at dismantling UNRWA altogether, including the establishment of the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which seeks to militarize humanitarian aid and replace UNRWA’s internationally mandated role. BADIL highlighted that these actions violate the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures and constitute genocide, the weaponization of aid, and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.

 

BADIL called on states to end their complicity in these crimes and to impose military, economic, and diplomatic sanctions against the Israeli regime to halt the genocide and fully reinstate UNRWA’s mandate and the UN led humanitarian aid system.

 

Listen to BADIL’s oral statement here, at 36:37.

 

In the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, BADIL’s oral statement exposed the use of colonizer violence as a primary tool of Israeli forced displacement in the West Bank, which is being ethnically cleansed as Gaza faces genocide. Since October 2023, over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank have been forcibly displaced through colonizer attacks and home demolitions. Colonizers, armed and protected by the Israeli regime, carry out more than three attacks per day, the highest rate since 2006 —burning fields, stealing livestock, and seizing Palestinian land. This violence is not random. It is organized, politically sanctioned, and strategically deployed to forcibly transfer Palestinians and expand Israeli colonies.

 

BADIL emphasized that symbolic condemnations and the sanctioning of individuals are insufficient. Forcible transfer is a grave violation of international law, whether through direct military action or through state-supported settler militias. To uphold international law and protect the Palestinian people, BADIL again urged states to move beyond statements and implement full sanctions, including an arms embargo, on the Israeli regime.

 

Listen to BADIL’s oral statement here, at 1:26:26.