Israel’s attack on cultural and religious sites in the Palestinian territory is equivalent to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and an independent investigation conducted by the United Nations Commission concluded in a new report.
The United Nations International Independent International Inquiry Commission conducted an investigation into the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem and Israel, investigating reports on cultural, religious and educational locations in Gaza and reports of attacks in the occupied Palestinian territories. The Committee concluded that Israel “destroyed Gaza’s education system and destroyed half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip, a statistics attributed by its authors to Israel’s “wider civilian targets and infrastructure devastating movements”.
The report noted in particular the ten religious and cultural sites in Gaza that formed “civilian objects” at the time of the attack and suffered “destructive destruction” that investigators were unable to determine legitimate military needs. The report added that in some cases artifacts are destroyed, deleted or plundered.
The list includes the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Polphilius in Gaza, believed to be the third oldest church in the world and a wartime shelter for local Christian and Muslim communities; the seventh-century Omari was destroyed in an airstrike. The epilepsy, robbery and bulldozers at the Al Mat’haf Museum, Gaza’s first archaeological museum, is home to a private ancient collection; and the bombing, robbery and “almost total destruction” of the Pasha Palace Museum, a 13th-century repository of the art tradition of the Mamluk era. Attacks at each named location occur between October and December 12, 2023.
The Commission’s legal analysis concluded that Israeli security forces “should know the location and significance of the famous cultural sites in Gaza” and, in addition, found that in most cases, most of the cases investigated – especially those involving the demolition of explosives and bulldogs” – Israeli military forces committed war crimes. The accused war crimes include “deliberate guidance on attacks on buildings that target religious and historical monuments”; “intentional attacks know that they would cause damage to civilian objects, which is related to the expected concrete and direct overall military advantage”; “widespread destruction of property, not justified by military necessity”; and “destroying the enemy’s property without the need to cause such damage”.
If an Israeli air strike was carried out in 5th-century St. Porphyrius in October 2023, killing 19 people, including women and children, the report determines that the site could be “collateral damage due to target errors”, but the incident still constitutes a war crime. The church was hit by Israeli missiles again in August 2024. Artnews At that time, one civilian was reportedly seriously injured in a second strike, and two other civilians were injured in smaller ways.
The analysis continues, the damage to the “tangible heritage” has a “catalytic effect and deeply affects intangible cultural factors such as religion and cultural practice, memory and history”. Furthermore, according to UNESCO’s huge attacks (1110 locations) since every 7 October 2023, it is shown that “the distinct disregard for the religious beliefs, culture and heritage of the Palestinian people and the destruction of the culture and identity of the Palestinian people.”
Israeli policies and behaviors in the West Bank were also investigated, including legislative attempts to establish illegal settlements at Palestinian World Heritage sites and transfer control of Palestinian archaeological and cultural sites to Israeli antiquities authority. For example, in 2023, plans to make a new settlement in Battir under UNESCO protection have been opposed by local Palestinian communities, who warned that this would make water easy to use. The Committee concluded that Israel’s development of Palestinian archaeological sites was illegal.
The report ends with the most important thing that “the Government of Israel immediately ends the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory, ceases all new reconciliation plans and activities, removes all settlers and settlements as soon as possible, and complies with the recommendations of all settlers and settlements as soon as possible. [UN’s] The International Court of Justice (ICJ) July 2024 Advisory Comments and eliminate all obstacles to the exercise of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. ”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed the court’s ruling in a statement claiming that Israel’s settlement in the West Bank is “incorrect”. The report also calls on member states to comply with a 2024 International Court of Justice ruling that holds Israel violated international law and takes measures to “ensure responsibility for international crimes against Israel and Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, serious violations of human rights and abuses”.
“We are seeing increasing signs that Israel is carrying out a coherent campaign to eliminate Palestinian life in Gaza,” committee chairman Navi Pillay said in a statement.
Pillay added: “Israel’s goal of education, culture and religious life for the Palestinian people will harm future generations and generations, thus hindering their right to self-determination.”
Article 7(1)(b) of the Rome Regulations of the International Criminal Court, which established jurisdiction over serious violations of the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, defined extinction as “the crime as a crime against humanity is part of a widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population and understands the attack on civilians.” The verbatim criteria include intentional living conditions (such as deprivation of food and medicine) to cause damage to a portion of the population. The Commission found that attacks on religious places and schools that constituted acts by civilian shelters meet these criteria.
In a statement cited by Reuters, representatives of the Israeli government called the report a report “an attempt to promote its virtual narrative of the Gaza war” and proved that its members were “more concerned about blasting Israel than protecting the people of Gaza.” Israel was dismissed from the UN Human Rights Commission in February.
