‘Domicide’: UN rapporteur pushes for Israel’s accountability for Gaza destruction

By Rabia Ali

ISTANBUL (AA) – The massive destruction of housing infrastructure in Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip has brought into focus the concept of “domicide,” with a UN special rapporteur leading the charge for it to be recognized as a “standalone crime” under international law.

Domicide, a concept that was previously limited to academic circles, refers to the widespread destruction of houses during conflicts, something that has been witnessed at a particularly alarming scale in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza.

Israel’s war on Gaza has destroyed more than 50,000 housing units, or more than 60% of housing, across the besieged enclave, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, told Anadolu in a video interview.

There has also been “extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and other buildings intended for civilian use, for example, religious or other buildings or public buildings that are intended for governmental use,” he said.

This, according to Rajagopal, falls under the definition of domicide that he put forward in an October 2022 report for the UN as the “deliberate destruction of homes, the rendering of homes uninhabitable or any other systematic denial of housing when such acts are carried out in violation of international law and committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population.”

“The destruction of housing (in Gaza) has been on a scale that we have not witnessed in any recent conflict including in Syria and Ukraine,” he said.

“We are talking about destruction on a scale which is quite literally incomprehensible.”

- Recognition as an international crime

The destruction of homes is recognized under the Geneva Convention but that is only for international armed conflict and there is a “protection gap” when it comes to “non-international armed conflict, that is not a conflict between two sovereign states,” said Rajagopal.

“It might very well be suggested that what’s going on in Gaza is not a conflict between two sovereign states because it’s a territory under occupation of Israel,” he said.

“It’s very important to recognize then that destruction of homes during those kinds of conflicts is also a crime,” he said, stressing the need for domicide to be official recognized as a “standalone crime.”

To make that happen, Rajagopal is pressing for countries like Switzerland to push for the recognition of the “crime of domicide.”

He named Switzerland particularly because it was the country that led the initiative in 2019 to get starvation recognized as a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“In 1998, when the Rome Statute was adopted … they left out the inclusion of starvation under crimes against humanity. This was recognized after 10 more years, and then in 2019, the Rome Statute was amended upon the initiative of states led by Switzerland to incorporate starvation also as … a crime against humanity,” he explained.

The situation is something similar right now when it comes to domicide, so it is very important for the international community to come together, he stressed.

“I see other European states and other states in the rest of the world who are very concerned about what’s happening in Gaza, particularly I’m thinking, of course, Türkiye, but also Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa,” he said.

“They all expressed their concern and some of them have approached the ICC already. I hope that they can collectively mobilize to introduce an amendment to the Rome Statute to introduce the crime of domicide, so that it’s actually possible to hold states like Israel accountable.”

- ‘Obliteration for no purpose’

About the indiscriminate nature of Israel’s attacks, Rajagopal pointed to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s statement where he made clear that religious places, schools and UN refugee camps are protected sites, along with homes.

“They are all objects that enjoy a civilian object status under international law and destruction of those is not justified by military necessity,” he said.

“Unless Israel is able to produce evidence that the attacks that it carried out still comply with the tests of proportionality and necessity, and that they are able to follow the principle of distinction under international law. That doesn’t seem to be the case at all.”

Rajagopal mentioned the destruction of a courthouse, where he had seen images of Israeli troops posing for a picture in front of the devastated building.

“So, it’s not the case that they were conducting an operation, military operation, against an existing Hamas unit inside the court, and therefore, as part of the military operation, some of the court structure has to be destroyed,” he said.

“Instead, it’s an obliteration of a building for no purpose.”

- ‘Gaza is beginning to look like it has been nuked’

One of the reasons for the scale of destruction in Gaza is because it is a “very concentrated living space,” according to Rajagopal.

He said Gaza “is a very special case of a kind” that the world has not witnessed “probably since the total destruction strategies” seen in certain bombing campaigns in the past.

“For example, the Dresden bombing during World War II, or during perhaps the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki which rendered the whole city unlivable for quite a long time,” he said.

“So, without the use of nuclear weapons, Gaza is already beginning to look like the area has been nuked.”

Rajagopal said the rebuilding of Gaza is a “very challenging prospect,” and the responsibility of that reconstruction lies with Israel and its allies.

“All states, of course, should contribute to this rebuilding process, but the particular onus for rebuilding actually falls on those who caused the damage, particularly the state of Israel, as well as other Western and other states that have actually supplied weapons and enabled the destruction of Gaza in various ways,” he said.

They bear a direct international legal, as well as moral, responsibility to rebuild Gaza and to restore the lives of the Palestinians, he added.

“It’s not just about bringing in building supplies and concrete and just putting the structures back up. The communities have been destroyed, their social networks have been disrupted, there is mass trauma, there is destruction of human capital,” he emphasized.

- ‘Winter evictions are particularly prohibited’

With Israel’s relentless attacks having already displaced some 2 million Palestinians, Rajagopal pointed out that “eviction of people into homelessness is categorically prohibited under human rights law.”

“Secondly, international guidelines, including those developed by my predecessors, clearly state … that winter evictions are particularly prohibited because you end up actually causing enormous human suffering, and often deaths result from people being exposed to the elements,” he said.

“So, it’s very important that given that winter is upon us, that for more than one reason the shooting and the bombing should stop … I don’t mean one week from now, I don’t mean one month from now. There is no time to negotiate at this stage, it needs to stop.”