Al Jazeera English Lack of ‘political will’ to hold Israel accountable for Gaza war crimes: Human rights lawyer

There are “paths” that could lead to accountability for the perpetrators of war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in Israel’s war on Gaza, Omar Shakir, a human rights lawyer, has told Al Jazeera.

“What’s been lacking has been the lack of political will,” he said via videolink from Amman, Jordan.

Shakir, who is also the former Israel-Palestine director of Human Rights Watch, said actions such as the International Criminal Court indicting Israel’s prime minister and former defence minister, as well as sanctions on a number of Israeli officials, are “a drop in the bucket compared to the sea of atrocities that has taken place”.

When it comes to a future Gaza, he said, the vision put forward by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner is simply not viable, as “the Palestinians have the right to self-determination” and “should determine … their future”.

“We cannot even begin to talk about this kind of rebuilding as long as the crimes are continuing every day. Palestinians are being unlawfully killed in Gaza … destruction is continuing, so there needs to be an end, not only to these crimes [but] to Israel’s illegal occupation,” he said.

Kushner’s proposal, which was contrived without any consultation with Palestinians in Gaza, necessitates the total erasure of the bombarded territory’s existing urban fabric.

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