Craig Mokhiber, the former director of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights New York office, resigned after opposing what he called a “textbook case of genocide” in the Gaza Strip. According to various media sites, Mokhiber stated this in his resignation letter, along with other significant allegations.
Mokhiber has stated that this will be his final communication to the UN High Commissioner in Geneva, Volker Turk and that the UN is “failing” to execute his duties as Israel continues to pound the Gaza Strip.
He claimed that the United States, the United Kingdom, and a huge number of European countries were “wholly complicit in the horrific assault.”On October 28, Mokhiber wrote to the UN High Commissioner.
“Once again, we are seeing a genocide unfold before our eyes, and the organization we serve appears powerless to stop it,” he said, as reported by The Guardian.
Mokhiber also stated in his letter that the United Nations has failed to stop genocides in the past, citing the Rwandan genocide, Muslims in Bosnia, Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan, and Rohingya in Myanmar.
“The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in Gaza in an ethnic-nationalist colonial-settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, leaves no room for doubt.”
Mokhiber claimed that the West was not only “refusing to meet their treaty obligation” under the Geneva Conventions but was also arming Israel in addition to providing political and diplomatic cover.
“We must support the establishment of a single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine, with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews,” he wrote, adding, “and, therefore, the dismantling of the deeply racist settler-colonial project and an end to apartheid across the land.”
Mokhiber has been a member of the United Nations since 1992. He held a lot of important positions. (swagatgrocery.com) He has held prominent human rights positions in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Sudan.
The resignation letter, as expected, sparked debate on social media. Several journalists and academics have begun to distribute the resignation letter on social media platforms such as X.
According to the Guardian, a UN official stated that these were “personal views” of Mokhiber.
“I can confirm that he is retiring today. He informed the UN in March 2023 of his upcoming retirement, which takes effect tomorrow. The views in his letter made public today are his personal views,” said the spokesperson.
