ISTANBUL: The UN General Assembly must be empowered to urgently intervene in Gaza and send a protective military force to help its devastated population, the non-government Gaza Tribunal project said Monday.
The body, which groups international academics, rights advocates and legal experts, was set up in London in 2024 aiming to mobilize public opinion and pressure governments “to end the genocide” in Gaza.
Addressing a news conferences in Istanbul, its leader Richard Falk, a former UN rapporteur for Palestinian rights, said the tribunal called on governments to act before it was “too late.”
The aim was “the empowerment of the UN General Assembly to organize a protective, armed intervention in Gaza to overcome the disruption of humanitarian aid and the continuing devastation and destruction of the people,” said the 94-year-old American emeritus law professor.
Since the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel, Gaza has been hit by a huge Israeli military onslaught that aid agencies say has caused a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinians territory.
“We urge governments around the world to take immediate steps to empower the veto-free UN General Assembly that ... so far has been frustrated in its attempts to end the Gaza genocide,” the group said in a statement.
Israel has repeatedly denied there is any genocide in Gaza or that it blocks humanitarian aid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that calls to end the war “harden” the Hamas resolve to fight the conflict.
Falk said the move could be established through policy instruments like the 1950 “United for peace” resolution or the more recent “Responsibility to protect” (R2P) doctrine.
The first lets the UN General Assembly act when the Security Council fails to maintain international peace and security. It was adopted at US urging in the early stages of the 1950-53 Korean war to sidestep a systematic Soviet Security Council veto.
The R2P was passed in 2005 aiming to prevent a repeat of the horrors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia.
“If we do not take action of a serious and drastic kind at this time, (it) will be too late to save the surviving people,” said Falk who worked for decades on Palestinian rights and was repeatedly denounced for his harsh stance on Israel.
He said Gaza Tribunal hoped to have the issue added to the agenda of next month’s UN General Assembly in New York.
World powers are deeply divided over whether military intervention to halt atrocities is justified, with critics seeing it as a smokescreen for meddling in other nations’ internal affairs.
Amnesty International on Monday accused Israel of enacting a “deliberate policy” of starvation in Gaza — a charge Israel has repeatedly rejected.
The 2023 Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s offensive has killed more than 61,944 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza which the UN considers reliable.
Legal experts eye UN General Assembly action on Gaza
https://arab.news/5are4
Legal experts eye UN General Assembly action on Gaza
- Addressing a news conferences in Istanbul, its leader Richard Falk said the tribunal called on governments to act before it was “too late”
Lebanon approves release of former minister accused of corruption
- Salam is the only ex-minister to be arrested since the start of Lebanon’s economic crisis in 2019
- The official added that the bail was paid, with procedures ongoing to secure his release from prison
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s judiciary approved the release on bail of former economy minister Amin Salam on Tuesday after six months of detention over corruption linked to contracts deemed suspicious, a judicial official said.
Salam, who served in the cabinet of former prime minister Najib Mikati from 2021 to 2025, is the only ex-minister to be arrested since the start of Lebanon’s economic crisis in 2019.
The official, who requested anonymity, told AFP Lebanon’s judiciary “agreed to release former economy minister Amin Salam on bail of nine billion Lebanese pounds, equivalent to $100,000” and a travel ban.
The official added that the bail was paid, with procedures ongoing to secure his release from prison.
In June, another judicial official said Salam had been arrested in connection with alleged “falsification, embezzlement and suspicious contracts.”
Salam’s adviser Fadi Tamim was sentenced in 2023 to one year in prison for blackmail and personal enrichment at the expense of insurance companies.
The former minister’s brother Karim Salam was also arrested earlier this year in a “case of illicit enrichment, forgery and extortion of insurance companies,” committed “under cover of the minister himself,” the official said in June.
Many in Lebanon attribute the economic crisis to mismanagement and corruption that has plagued state institutions for decades.
President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who both took office this year, have vowed to make the fight against endemic corruption a priority, as part of the reforms demanded by international donors.
Both have vowed to uphold the independence of the judiciary and prevent interference in its work, in a country plagued by official impunity.
In September, former central bank governor Riad Salameh, who faces numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion, was released after being detained for over a year by paying a record bail of more than $14 million.
