Israel remains a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratifying it in August 1991. Israel is also a party to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in October 1991.
This public record underscores the breaches of international law by an occupying power (Israel) of a stateless occupied people (Palestinians), that has dramatically worsened since the Israeli response to the heinous attack on Israel by the military wing of Hamas in October 2023.
The most extreme religious-nationalist government in Israel’s history has eliminated any pretence of a two-state solution with a homeland for Palestinians, pursuing instead a territorial expansion well beyond 1967 once-were-borders. This has led to flagrant abuses of its military power or any obligations it have – under laws their own state ratified - to treat Gazans, including children, with the care mandated. (Fifty per cent of Palestinians living in Gaza are aged 18 or less.)
Stephanie Dowrick Australian doctors protest Israel’s destruction of health rights in Gaza, P&I