By IANS
Geneva : The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has called upon the international community to condemn the “massacres and genocide committed against innocent Palestinian children, women and elderly people by Israel”, WAM news agency reported Friday.
Sheikha Najlaa Al Qasimi, UAE’s envoy at the UN’s Geneva headquarters, told the UN Human Rights Council Thursday the Israeli actions in Gaza came as a result of international silence and the encouragement it derived from such silence.
“The UN stands helpless in the backdrop of such indifference,” she added.
The envoy was addressing the council session which was convened to review the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Israeli incursions.
“The Human Rights Council has been watching the plight of Palestinian people who suffer from occupation for more than half a century and are being subjected to worst kinds of discrimination and oppression while this council, like all previous UN bodies, is unable to implement its resolutions,” Sheikha Najlaa said.
The UN last Sunday condemned both Israel and the Palestinians for the heavy fighting and in particular the high toll in the Israeli attack on civilians in Gaza Strip.
“The scenes today from Gaza have been particularly disturbing,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in an address to the open council meeting. He said the intense fighting between the two sides began Wednesday with a heavy barrage of rockets fired by Palestinian militants into southern Israel.
“We condemn Palestinian rocket attacks, and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism, which serve no purpose, endanger Israeli civilians, and bring misery to the Palestinian people,” he said.
Ban said the UN recognises Israel’s right to defend itself, but “we condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children.”