Israel hails cancellation of ‘biased’ Geneva Conventions meeting on Palestinians
Swiss government invited signatories to talk on applying convention to West Bank and Gaza, but too few participants signed up; Foreign Ministry says it worked ‘intensively’ for this
Switzerland on Thursday canceled a conference on the application of the Geneva Conventions to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, for want of participants, in what Israel’s Foreign Ministry called a “significant diplomatic achievement” for the Jewish state.
The country had invited 196 parties to the conventions to participate in the March 7 conference in Geneva on the situation of Palestinian civilians living in those areas, but then told them the gathering had been canceled, four diplomatic sources told Reuters.
“In the absence of a consensus between the High Contracting Parties, [Switzerland], as depositary State, decided not to convene the meeting,” said Swiss foreign ministry spokesperson Nicolas Bideau on X.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry credited itself with a role in the talks’ cancellation, asserting in a statement that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had worked “intensively… under the radar” to prevent the conference.
The conference was set to address the Fourth Geneva Convention, part of a series of international treaties agreed upon in 1949 after World War II, which defines humanitarian protections for civilians living in areas of armed conflict or under military rule.
Had the conference taken place, participants were likely to sign a communiqué that “include elements that present Israel in a negative light, without reference to the fact that Israel is a democratic country fighting a terror organization,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“The meeting was even expected to make anti-Israel resolutions that Israel’s enemies would have used in international forums” and in mechanisms used to “slander Israel,” its statement continued.
The ministry also took an issue with Switzerland’s calling the conference in the first place.
“A conference of countries that are signatories to the Geneva Convention is supposed to be held only for general matters related to the Convention, not specific issues,” the ministry wrote.
It noted that Switzerland has nevertheless called three such meetings, all related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The diplomatic effort [to avert the conference] succeeded, and a great number of countries decided not to take part in the biased conference,” the ministry said.
The cancellation amounted to a diplomatic blow for neutral Switzerland, which prides itself on conflict mediation and frequently hosts summits and peace talks.
Palestinians, Islamic countries said they’d skip conference
The Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told Reuters earlier that his delegation did not plan to attend the event, criticizing a draft declaration circulated among participants.
“We want the international community to take concrete measures and this fell short of expectations,” he told Reuters, saying such measures could include economic or diplomatic steps against Israel. “What we want is for the Geneva Conventions to be implemented.”
A member of The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said that the group had also planned to miss the event, saying the document “did not reflect the gravity of the situation.”
Britain felt that, along with many other states, it could not fully support a proposed declaration as a precondition for attending the conference, according to a statement from its diplomatic mission.
Diplomats from other Western states that back Israel also privately expressed concerns about the meeting, although at least some European countries had been planning to attend.
