Israel Rejects International Humanitarian Law Conference On Gaza This Week
JAKARTA - Israel "strongly rejected" a conference on international humanitarian law in the Middle East which was held in Switzerland this week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
"The planned conference is part of a legal war against Israel," the Foreign Ministry said in a press release, quoted from The Times of Israel March 3.
"Israel will not lend its hand to this agenda-driven initiative," the ministry continued.
This week, countries that have ratified the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which regulates the protection of civilians during war and occupation, are scheduled to attend a conference in Geneva, Switzerland Friday.
The convention "only convened three times in the past - all related to Israel - making this conference fundamentally political and outspoken politicization of Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law," the Israeli Foreign Ministry claimed.
According to Swiss broadcaster SWI swissinfo, the conference will be held at the ambassador level and a declaration is expected to be adopted.
"Several countries will push for declarations to condemn illegal occupations in Palestinian territories," but will not go beyond a declaration passed by the 2014 convention, Vincent Chetail, professor of international law at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, to the news outlet.
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The Convention comes at a difficult stage in negotiations over the Israeli-Hamas ceasefire, after Israel suspended the entry of all trucks carrying aid to Gaza in response to Hamas' refusal to what Israel calls an offer proposed by the United States to extend the first phase of the ceasefire ended on Saturday 1 March.
It is known that the UN General Assembly mandated Switzerland to bring together the parties in September. In the past, the conference was held in response to concerns about Israeli policies in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, with discussions that are often focused on the status of occupied regional law and alleged violations of international law.