Alwaght- As the largely unequal Israeli war on Gaza and Lebanon continues to unfold, over 500 legal investigators and international laws, international relations, political studies, and genocide experts have called on the United Nations General Assembly and its members to expel Israel from the UN.
The calls for expulsion of Israel are not made for the first time. Earlier, Latin American states had called on the UN to expel Israel for its crimes against the humanity, though the UN officials have so far been inattentive of them.
Records of expulsions from the UN
The United Nations General Assembly previously suspended the membership of the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1974. Researchers argue that due to such regimes' continued disregard for international law and violations of the UN Charter, Security Council resolutions, and International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders, Israel can be expelled from the UN or its membership suspended.
What resolutions has Israel violated?
Looking at the performance of the Israeli regime, we can see that Tel Aviv has violated several UN resolutions so far, including:
- Resolution 181 approved in 1947 about guaranteeing the sovereignty of the Palestinian state
- Resolution 194 approved in 1948 on guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinians,
- Resolution 273 adopted in 1949 on the terms of admission and obligations regarding Israel in the UN
- Resolution 212 of 1947 regarding assistance to Palestinian refugees
- Resolution 393 of 1950 regarding assistance to Palestinian refugees
- Resolutions 513 and 614 approved in 1952 regarding assistance to Palestinian refugees
- Resolution 2253 approved in 1967 on the status of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the joint capital of Arabs and Jews
- Resolution 446 approved in 1979 and Resolution 2334 approved in 2016 calling on Israel to stop settlement construction in the Palestinian areas of the West Bank
In addition, Israel has continuously violated the legally binding resolutions approved by the UNSC, including the resolutions related to the ceasefire in the Gaza war from October 7, 2023, and it is natural that such a defiance of the specific resolutions of the Security Council is a clear violation of Article 25 of the UN Charter, in which the punishment for guilty members is expulsion.
Legal mechanism of Tel Aviv expulsion
According to the Article 6 of the UN, the General Assembly has the power to expel a member of the UN at the recommendation of the UNSC if that member continuously violated the principles of the Charter.
The Israeli regime has also repeatedly ignored the valid legal rulings of the ICJ. In its advisory opinion in 2004, the UN court asked Israel to respect the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people. The court also declared the illegality of the occupation and annexation of the Palestinian territories including the West Bank in July 2024.
In this connection, a professor of law at Colorado University told Middle East Eye that the legal case for suspending Israel from the General Assembly is even stronger than that of South Africa, because Tel Aviv has ignored the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and occupied their land for several decades.
Beside violating international legal obligations, Israel is also blamed for violating the UN Carter's terms on the protection of peacekeeping forces and aid agencies. Last week, Israel announced ban on the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA), and some aid workers of the UN have lost their lives in the bombing of Gaza. Israel's attacks against UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in 2008 were officially confirmed by the UN chief and special rapporteurs condemned this action of Tel Aviv.
Legal reasons for expulsion
In recent months, Israel has been prosecuted by the ICJ for its rife and clear violation of the UN Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, approved in 1948. The ICJ indictment accused Israel of taking actions meant to destroy Palestinians as a ethnic, racial, and national group in whole or in part. These actions include killing, causing serious physical and mental harm, mass deportation and relocation, and denying access to food, water, shelter, clothing, health, and sufficient medical aid to Gaza war victims by Israel.
On Jun 26, the ICJ confirmed that Israel violated the genocide prevention convention and as an emergency measure it ordered Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza by the military forces. However, Israel continued the war unabated, killing over 43,000 Palestinians over the past year, 70 percent of whom women and children.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is pushing to issue arrest warrant to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and recently-fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, though after 5 months of the prosecute request, the case remains open and the arrest warrant is not issued yet.
