GENEVA (Dispatches) -- A senior official with Iran’s UN mission in Geneva has taken the floor of the Human Rights Council to denounce Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip, calling on the world body to take urgent action to stop the regime’s atrocities.
“Over the past seven decades, Palestine has endured countless crimes, including massacre, ethnic cleansing, demographic change, systematic torture and arbitrary killing, in addition to all forms of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. It seems as though they have become Israel’s routine practice ever since the onset of its endless occupation [back in 1948],” Muhammad Sadatinejad said at the Council’s 48th regular session.
Sadatinejad, who is in charge of human rights affairs at Iran’s permanent mission to the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva, pointed to the inhumane treatment of hundreds of Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons, saying the most common charge against the minors is stone-throwing.
The Iranian diplomat criticized the international community for its inability to force the apartheid Israeli regime to abide by international law, saying such a failure underlines the need for UN human rights mechanisms to take immediate, decisive and effective measures to help end Israeli crimes against Palestinians.
Sadatinejad said justice-seeking and accountability for crimes committed against Palestinians should be part of the international community’s demand for an end to the catastrophe unfolding in the Palestinian territories.
“Advocates of Israel, including the United States, European states and Canada, which provide financial, military and political support to the regime, should also be held accountable for encouragement of crimes against Palestinians and obstruction of justice,” he said.