There is no moral argument that justifies arms sales to Israel: UN rapporteur

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Providing weapons to Israel that kill more Palestinian civilians is a "war on human rights" and nothing justifies continuing arms sales, according to the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders.

In an op-ed published Thursday by the British daily The Guardian, Mary Lawlor evaluated the continued arms sales to Israel in the face of the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, where nearly 32,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7 last year.

"There exist no moral arguments that can justify the continued sale of weapons to Israel by states that respect the principle of the universality of human rights," said the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders.

Saying that Israel has demonstrated over time that it will use such weapons "indiscriminately against Palestinians," Lawlor noted that any claims by Israel of self-defense in reaction to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas have long since been "invalidated" by the disproportionality of the response.

Noting that the concept of proportionality in conflict is included in Article 51 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, however, she stressed that now there are "ideological arguments" for continued weapons sales, “which I can only conclude place the value of Israeli lives over and above the value of Palestinian ones.”

“This is unconscionable,” Lawlor added, recalling that some Western countries including the US, the UK, Germany, France and Canada all highlighted their support for human rights defenders while continuing to arm Israel.

Citing data, she further said that between 2013 and 2022, 68% of weapons sales to Israel came from the US.

Lawlor mentioned the human rights defenders, journalists and health care workers that have been killed in the besieged Palestinian enclave over the past few months, recalling that this is a "war on women and children,” who account for a reported 72% of the nearly 32,000 Palestinians deaths in Gaza.

On journalist casualties, Lawlor said that more than 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israel.

“Recently, in remarks celebrating the work of Ukrainian journalists, the US undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs said: ‘[I]t is our commitment to continue to lift up, empower, advocate for, and resource the voices that are showing what is happening on the ground.’”

“Not, it would seem, if those voices are Palestinian,” she said.

Noting that 162 staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed, Lawlor underlined that this is also a "war against humanitarian personnel."

She emphasized that the international human rights architecture is "creaking under the weight of the hypocrisy" of countries who expressed support for a rules-based order but at the same time continue to send weapons to Israel that kill more Palestinian civilians, noting "above all, this is a war on human rights."

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Nearly 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and nearly 74,200 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war, now in its 167th day, has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in January issued an interim ruling ordering Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.