ODVV Statement on Recent Crimes of Israeli Regime in Gaza

Unfortunately, within the past days, the Israel attacks, bombings and violent aggression in Gaza have killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians, including dozens of children and women. Hundreds of Palestinians, including children, have been killed and more than a thousand were injured. The attacks also caused extensive damage to Palestinians’ urban infrastructures. Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a 15-story building, housing international media offices, including Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, has shocked the international observers and human rights activists.
In agreement with many national and international organizations, the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence (ODVV), believes that Israel intends to maintain the Israeli Jewish domination on Palestinians throughout the occupied territories. According to Human Rights Watch, in the occupied territories, this goal has been achieved by systematic oppression and inhumane treatment of Palestinians, that amount to crimes against humanity and apartheid.
According to the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute, the crime of apartheid consists of three main elements:
1- Establishing and maintaining the dominance of one racial group over another,
2- Systematic oppression of one racial group by another and
3- Committing extensive or systematic inhumane acts by one racial group against another.
We believe that Israel has committed crimes against humanity and persecution because of the discriminatory treatment of Palestinians, confiscation of their land, the construction ban that led to their forced displacement, denial of their right to residence, violation of their right to freedom of movement and violation of all their fundamental rights.
Unfortunately, while the Israel systematically continues human rights abuses against Palestinians, forcing them to displacement for years, the Western governments not only do not condemn Israel's acts, but consider the attacks as self-defense. Meanwhile, the behavior of some Arab governments in the region is also a source of serious criticism, which by normalizing their relations with Israel, as well as their silence toward Israel crimes, have caused the officials to wage war and become more and more arrogant. Accordingly, the Organization for the Defense of Victims of Violence, while expressing serious concerns on the human rights abuses of Palestinians and condemning the crimes committed by Israel;
Draws the attention of the international community and international human rights and humanitarian organizations to the Israeli policies of aggression, occupation and organized siege of Gaza, and calls on the international community to take measures to recognize the fundamental rights of the Palestinians to self-determination and territorial integrity.
Calls on the international community and international organizations to consider Israel as a violator of international law because of the disregard for a significant number of UN resolutions, including 452 (1979) and 2334 (2016), and for Israel's failure to comply with its obligations under international law.
Calls on the international human rights community and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Territories to accurately document and condemn the recent airstrikes on Gaza.
Calls on the Islamic governments to address the current dire situation by submitting a request for a special session of the Human Rights Council. Israel has a record on the number of resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly, the former UN Human Rights Commission and the Human Rights Council on the violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as the largest number of special sessions of the Human Rights Council. Israel’s behavior in the past few days has proved that the issuance of this number of resolutions and this number of special sessions has had good reasons. This is at a time when US-backed Israel has been trying to accuse the Human Rights Council of unfair focus on Israel and has been making attempts to remove the agenda Item 7, on investigating human rights abuses in Palestine, from the Human Rights Council program of work.
Calls for a Commission of Inquiry to be established in the Human Rights Council under the supervision of the Special Rapporteur on OPT to (a) investigate Israel attacks to civilian areas and the killings of over 200 people including children (b) investigate the intentional destruction of civilian infrastructures and (c) bring all the perpetrators to justice.
Calls for a process to be established in the Human Rights Council to terminate the long run blockade of Gaza in order to pave the way for the international community to support Gaza to rebuild the intentionally destroyed civilian areas both in recent days and in the previous wars which has remained as rubbles making many Palestinians live in half destroyed buildings.