UN Commission On Israeli Values Blocks Investigation Of Attacks October 7

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited victims of the Hamas attack at the hospital. (Wikimedia Commons/Government Press Office of Israel/Kobi Gideon)

JAKARTA - The investigation commission, which has the UN mandate to investigate violations of international rights law, sees Israel as obstructing its efforts to gather evidence from victims of Hamas attacks on the southern region of the country.

"As far as the Israeli government is concerned, we are not only seeing a lack of cooperation, but also an active obstacle to our efforts to receive evidence from witnesses and Israeli victims of events that occurred in southern Israel," Chris Sidoti, one of the three members of the commission for investigating violations committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, referred to the Palestinian militant group attack on October 7, 2023., reported by Reuters on April 17.

"We have contact with many people, but we want to have more contact with more," he continued.

Sidoti further appealed to the Israeli government, as well as the victims and witnesses of the attack, to assist the commission in conducting an investigation.

In response to Sidoti's comments, Israel's diplomatic mission in Geneva said it had carried out its own investigation into the crime, with UN representatives and other agencies having visited Israel and meeting with survivors and victims.

The victims "would never get the justice or dignified treatment they deserve from the Inquiry Commission and its members," he said, describing the commission as having "a record of anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli statements".

It is known that the UN investigation commission, which was formed in 2021 by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, was mandated to gather evidence and identify the perpetrators of international crimes.

The evidence collected by the UN agencies has become the basis for prosecuting war crimes and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Earlier this month, the commission was given the mandate to investigate two additional lines of investigation: settlers who commit violence and groups of settlers to the transfer of weapons to Israel. The findings will be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in June next year.