Pearls and Irritations

“An almost daily occurrence. At least eight schools hit in the last 10 days, including six @UNRWA schools. The war robbed the girls and boys in #Gaza of their childhood & education. Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict. Schools are not a target. The blatant & constant disregard of international humanitarian law continues unabated. All rules of war have been broken in #Gaza. Losing our common humanity must not become the new norm.” – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UNRWA

On July 16, 17 internally displaced people (IDPs) including at least 4 children were killed in an Israeli airstrike as they gathered to buy food from a market of street vendors. On the same day, 23 Palestinians who had taken refuge in a UNRWA school were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

On July 17, 11 Palestinians, including a child, were killed in an Israeli strike at the entrance of Cairo Governmental School in Gaza City at around 1:00 p.m.

We’ve been watching Israel’s genocide against Gaza live-streaming for 10 months now. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, Palestinians in Gaza will be killed by Israeli strikes. In the streets, in schools, at homes, and in the “safe zones” that the Israeli military has designated.

A human catastrophe, a tragedy, a living hell. There are no words on earth to describe the situation in Gaza right now. Under the pretext of “destroying Hamas,” Israel is blatantly disregarding international law and attempting to exterminate the Palestinian people. For 10 months now, the world has been watching live as the Israeli military kills daily, who, where, and how. However, so far, no one has been able to stop Israeli genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The United Nations and the UN Security Council adopted resolutions for an immediate ceasefire, but they have not been implemented, and the United States and European countries continue to supply Israel with weapons and support the genocide.

On Thursday, May 9th, South Korean NGOs, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) and Asian Dignity Initiatives (ADI), and some 5,000 co-accusers filed criminal charges against seven individuals, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The co-accusers included lawmakers, academics, peace activists, refugees from Gaza, and ordinary citizens who wanted to do something.

From the outset of the massacre in Gaza, the seven suspects, including the Israeli prime minister, incited genocide by declaring a “complete siege on the Gaza Strip…. with no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel,” and using language that went beyond racism to incite extermination, saying, “We are fighting human animals.”

On May 23, PSPD and ADI filed a second complaint along with thirty-four other people, including members of the 21st and 22nd National Assembly and party leaders. The accusers also included Lee Hak-young, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly. They said that as members of the legislative body that is supposed to represent the Republic of Korea, they were troubled by the act of criminally prosecuting a politician from another country, but in the face of the miserable deaths of 35,000 Palestinians who had no reason to die, in the face of the worst kind of politics that incites their own people to become mass murderers, and in the face of the solemn constitutional mandate to devote themselves to world peace and human commonwealth, they had no choice but to act.

Following the filing of the complaint, several embassies and media outlets in the Republic of Türkiye and elsewhere have asked whether the National Office of Investigation in South Korea is expected to investigate. War crimes, including the killing of civilians, are covered by the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Convention). Article 146 of the Geneva Conventions states that “each High Contracting Party shall be under the obligation to search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, such grave breaches, and shall bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before its own courts. As a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, South Korea is obligated to investigate and prosecute those who commit war crimes, regardless of their nationality or presence in the country. However, while South Korea recognises this principle of “universal jurisdiction,” it places a limitation on it: “The perpetrator must be in the country. Since the defendants are not currently in South Korea, the accusations may not result in a substantive investigation. However, recently, the National Office of Investigation has demanded a list of specific crimes for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On July 19, the International Court of Justice recommended that “The State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful.” and “ the United Nations, and especially the General Assembly, which requested the opinion, and the Security Council, should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” As a member of the international community, we call on the South Korean government to fulfil its responsibility for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As a supporter of Palestinian membership in the United Nations and a resolution of the UN Security Council’s “immediate ceasefire”, South Korean government should take the lead in holding Israel accountable for genocide and ending Israel’s illegal presence in Gaza as soon as possible, in accordance with international law and the ICJ’s advisory opinion. We believe that the opening of the investigation of the seven Israeli war criminals by the National Office of Investigation in South Korea can be a start.

We will act to end the genocide until the end. Too many people are dying.

The 38,794 people who have died in the last 285 days are not just numbers.

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