Foreign Ministry: Israel rejects ‘agenda-driven’ Geneva conference on Gaza war

Israel “strongly rejects” an upcoming conference in Switzerland on international humanitarian law in the Middle East, the Foreign Ministry says.

“The planned conference is part of the legal warfare against Israel,” the Foreign Ministry states in a press release, saying that “Israel will not lend its hand to this agenda-driven initiative.”

The upcoming conference of the states who have ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which governs the protection of civilians during war and occupation, is set to take place in Geneva on Friday.

The parties at the convention “have convened only three times in the past – all of them in relation to Israel – rendering this event inherently political and a blatant politicization of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law,” says the Foreign Ministry.

According to Swiss public broadcaster SWI swissinfo, the convention will be held at the ambassadorial level and a declaration is expected to be adopted.

“Some states will push for the declaration to condemn the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories,” but won’t go beyond a declaration passed by the convention in 2014, Vincent Chetail, professor of international law at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, tells the news outlet.

The convention comes at a delicate stage in Israel-Hamas ceasefire negotiations, after Israel paused the entry of all trucks carrying aid into Gaza as a response to Hamas’s refusal of what Israel called a US-proposed offer to extend the first phase of the ceasefire that ended on Saturday.

The UN General Assembly mandated Switzerland to convene the parties in September. In the past, the conference has convened in response to concerns about Israeli policies in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, with discussions often focused on the legal status of occupied territories and alleged violations of international law.