THE DESTRUCTION OF PALESTINIAN BAR ASSOCIATION GAZA HEADQUARTERS:

A GRAVE BREACH OF INTERNATIONAL LAW AND WAR CRIME PALESTINIAN

Bar Association Jerusalem, 12 October 2023

 

 

On 9 October 2023, Israeli warplanes launched a missile strike that destroyed the Palestinian Bar Association (PBA) headquarters located in Al Rimal neighborhood, Gaza City, Palestine. The attack resulted in the destruction of the upper floors of PBA headquarters, severe damage to the lower floors, and the destruction of the PBA’s contents and lawyers’ records. The PBA, a democratically elected association representing over twenty-thousand lawyers, affirms that this attack constitutes a deliberate act aimed at silencing and terrorizing lawyers to dissuade them from playing their role in defending the right Palestinian people to resist oppression, colonization and apartheid by all available means and asserting such rights as recognized by international law, including human rights law, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law. This attack goes in parallel with all-out war waged by the Israeli occupation forces on the Gaza Strip, which deliberately and systematically targets Palestinian civilians and civilian installations based on a declared policy by the Israeli government, represented by its Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, who threatened to commit hostile acts that amount to genocide.

The Israeli strike on the PBA’s headquarters constitutes grave and flagrant breach of a set of provisions of customary and conventional international law. Israel has failed to observe the customary principles of proportionality and necessity when bombing the PBA’s headquarters and to observe the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets. Article 53 of the Geneva Convention IV relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war of 12 August 1949, provides that “[a]ny destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or co-operative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations”. As the PBA is a human rights, social non-governmental organization that operates under the rule of law and represents and serves the interests of thousands of lawyers, and since its headquarters contains no military object that justifies such bombing; this attack amounts to a war crime punishable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court of 17 July 1998. The State of Palestine acceded to the Rome Statute in 2015. Pre-Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) held that the Court possesses jurisdiction to investigate and punish crimes committed in the territory of the State of Palestine, including Gaza, through its decision of 5 February 2021.

The provisions of the Rome Statute criminalize acts such as those carried out by Israeli war jets in attacking PBA Gaza headquarters. Article 8.2(b)(ii) of the Statute considers as war a crime:“Intentionally directing attacks against civilian objects, that is, objects which are not military objectives”. Article 8.2(b)(iv) also criminalizing, as a war crime, “[a]ttacking or bombarding, by whatever means, … buildings which are undefended and which are not military objectives”. By the same token, Article 8.2(b)(ix) regards as a war crime: “Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science or charitable purposes”. Since the PBA headquarters contains lawyers’ roll, cases, official archives, contracts, projects, and other files, the Israeli bombardment led to widespread and long-term destruction of the properties of the Bar Association. Such destruction, in turn, constitutes a war crime under to Article 8.2(b)(iv) of the Rome Statute, namely “[i]ntentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such attack will cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects or widespread, long-term and severe damage to the natural environment which would be clearly excessive in relation to the concrete and direct overall military advantage anticipated”.

 

 

 

In light of the foregoing, the Palestinian Bar Association urgently:

1. Requests Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Mr. Karim Khan, to assume his responsibility under the Rome Statute and immediately open investigation on the Israeli air bombardment of the PBA Gaza headquarters and to file criminal charges and arrest warrants against Israeli military and political officials involved is such a crime.

 

2. Calls upon UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Ms. Margaret Satterthwaite, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders,Ms. Mary Lawlor, and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ms. Francesca Albanese, to condemn this crime and instruct Israel to bear criminal and financial liability, including compensation.

 

3. Demands the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, to investigate, document and condemn this crime.

 

4. Urges the open-ended Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry to investigate this crime and incorporate it as one of the gross violations of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories for future accountability possibility.

 

5. Calls upon the International Association of Lawyers, Lawyers Without Borders, the Arab Lawyers Union, national bar associations, international and national human rights organizations as well as law schools across the globe to condemn this criminal act and demand the punishment of its perpetrators and that such act shall not be repeated again, and that the Palestine Bar Association shall be duly compensated.

  The statement is attached Here

The statement is in Arabic Here

Palestinian Bar Association