The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society and leader of the global BDS movement, calls for pressure on the Portuguese authorities to arrest and prosecute Israeli war criminal Tzipi Livni who is scheduled to address a UN conference in Portugal on Tuesday 26 November.
Livni has canceled trips to the UK and Belgium in the past after prosecutors in the two countries sought arrest warrants for her role in war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s onslaught in Gaza in 2008-2009. As there is no statute of limitations for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, it remains a legal obligation and priority to arrest war criminal Tzipi Livni if she enters Portuguese territory.
In addition to war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, Livni is responsible for grave crimes under international law including the expansion of Israeli settlements, maintaining an illegal occupation, and imposing apartheid against Palestinians. Such grave Israeli violations were addressed by the International Court of Justice in an Advisory Opinion which was later adopted by the UN General Assembly in a resolution that called for accountability including the sanctioning of individuals responsible for maintaining Israel’s settlements, military occupation, and apartheid.
Following the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Israeli genocide leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, it is high time to break the impunity that Israeli leaders have enjoyed. It is precisely the decades-old complicity and failure of states to hold Israel and its leaders, such as Livni, accountable for atrocity crimes that have emboldened Israel to perpetrate against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza the world’s first live-streamed genocide and to further entrench its 76-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid against all Indigenous Palestinians.
The people of Portugal must hold their representatives, especially President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel, accountable and ensure they uphold Portugal’s obligations under international, European and domestic law. Portugal has adopted universal jurisdiction into its domestic law allowing the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity wherever they may take place.
The BNC calls for the boycott of the UN Alliance of Civilizations Global Forum if war criminal Livni is allowed to take part. Other participants and especially other speakers on her panel should withdraw. This includes UN senior human rights official, Ilze Brands Kehris.
The organizers of the conference, especially Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for UNAOC Miguel Ángel Moratinos, should be held accountable for inviting to a UN conference a criminal responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.