Raji Sourani, founder and director of the NGO Palestinian Center for Human Rights, and a member of the South African legal team in the genocide trial against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), asked on Monday in Spain that the government takes all necessary steps to ensure that “its leadership role is complemented” by a total arms embargo against Israel, which also prohibits the transit of war materials through Spanish ports.
The lawyer, who managed to leave the Gaza Strip in November, spoke at an event at the Congress of Deputies, under the title “The role of military embargoes in peacebuilding processes” and took the opportunity to thank civil society groups. and the political parties in Spain which – he assured – play a fundamental role in supporting the Palestinian people and against the genocide that Israel has been committing in Gaza for thirteen months.
“We are sitting here while people are being murdered in Gaza with American and European weapons, and this has been going on for thirteen months,” he denounced. “We are witnessing this genocide in real time and the world continues as if it were normal. “No one reacts, no one acts, this is the greatest crime that can be committed against civilians and no one lifts a finger.”
Sourani lamented that the Palestinians did not receive the same support from the international community as the Ukrainians did when Russia invaded their country in February 2022. “When Russia invaded and occupied Ukraine, it was a big scandal , and everyone said that the Ukrainians had the power. right to defend and resist against the Russians, by all means available. Russia has been subjected to unprecedented sanctions to end [la guerra]“Europe and the United States activated the ICJ and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and did everything possible to hold Russia accountable,” recalled the lawyer.
However, regarding the Israeli offensive against Gaza – during which nearly 44,000 people have died since October 2023 – the United States and Europe have not acted in the same way against the Jewish state. “Europe lives in a very deep divide and must awaken its conscience, as Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, etc. have done. These countries have, from the beginning, adopted independent positions and declared “we are against war crimes and crimes against humanity and in favor of the recognition of the Palestinian state”; “Spain even requested the suspension of the association agreement between the EU and Israel. »
But the lawyer stressed that the Spanish executive has not yet taken all possible measures to prevent genocide in Gaza, such as suspending the transit of weapons destined for Israel through Mediterranean ports, which elDiario. es recently revealed in a survey. “I hope that Spain’s leadership role will be completed and that these small things can change,” Sourani said during the event organized by the “End Arms Trade with Israel” campaign.
Hundreds of social organizations participating in this campaign presented last July a parliamentary initiative aimed at reforming the law on the trade in foreign arms (53/2007) and including the figure of an “embargo” for countries that violate human rights or who are under investigation for war. crimes, crimes against humanity or the crime of genocide, as is the case in Israel.
At this Monday’s event, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, also participated electronically, saying she has dedicated herself to documenting the genocide over the past year and that she “has no doubt about what Israel is doing.” to the population of Gaza since October 2023,” when the brutal assault on the Gaza Strip began.
Albanese recalled that the ICJ ruled that all states have an obligation to prevent weapons from being used to violate the Genocide Convention and that, therefore, “imposing this arms embargo is an obligation of all States” which recognize the highest jurisdiction of the UN. Furthermore, the rapporteur stressed that the embargo must include imports, exports and transfers of military and dual-use equipment. “The embargo is the most fundamental thing, the next step is to end all academic, economic and military ties that could harm Palestinian rights,” he added.
