![CNN's Poppy Harlow had it out Wednesday with a top United Nations Human Rights official – who resigned several days ago – after he refuted claims that Hamas was carrying out genocide against Israelis and using Palestinians as human shields. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Screenshot-2023-11-01-at-12.13.24-PM-e1698855280644.png "CNN's Poppy Harlow had it out Wednesday with a top United Nations Human Rights official – who resigned several days ago – after he refuted claims that Hamas was carrying out genocide against Israelis and using Palestinians as human shields. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN’s Poppy Harlow had it out Wednesday with a top United Nations Human Rights official – who resigned several days ago – after he refuted claims that Hamas was carrying out genocide against Israelis and using Palestinians as human shields.
Craig Mokhiber first said that while he planned to leave the United Nations after 32 years, he was disturbed by the “atrocities in the occupied territories this March” and claimed Israel violated human rights.
Harlow then asked him if he concluded that Israel is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people. Mokhiber argued that while the term genocide is “often misused,” Israel has committed a host of other war crimes and crimes against humanity. Harlow then noted that Israelis are defending themselves after the horrific Oct. 7 terrorist attack, playing soundbites from several officials including John Kirby who said Israel is not engaging in genocide.
“Israel continues to say it is going after Hamas. It is Hamas that is keeping its civilians where it is. It is using them, innocent Palestinians, as human shields. Why label that genocide?” Harlow asked.
“Of course, we’ve seen these — yes, we’ve seen these claims before repeatedly by the Israeli authorities in previous large-scale attacks on civilian populations. First, claiming self-defense under international law gives no state the right to commit the kinds of atrocities that it is carrying out now,” Mokhiber argued. “You’re talking about the wholesale destruction not just of apartment buildings and homes and whole neighborhoods, but of whole sections of the already densely populated Gaza Strip. Secondly, let me respond to the U.S. officials that you spoke to. That’s particularly disturbing because the U.S. also has an obligation under international law to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions. And in this case, it’s not only not providing that support, it’s actually been supporting the onslaught in Gaza.”
“Craig, you call them —”
“You’re talking about millions of civilians.”
“Craig, you are saying these are Israeli claims. Are you refuting the fact that Hamas surrounds its militants with Palestinian, innocent Palestinian civilians, that one of the reasons that so many of them were in Jabalya at that refugee camp is because they had been told by Hamas not of the flee to the south?”
“I am refuting that absolutely. I lived in Gaza for the better part of two years in the 1990s. I can tell you it is extremely densely populated, even in the best of times the idea of moving millions of people, 1.1 million people, that half of the population of Gaza southward, in a situation where neighborhoods are bombed to rubble, where people are injured, where there are no roads, where there are no reliable vehicles, where when they move, they are still attacked by Israeli airstrikes, is really a very disingenuous claim,” Mokhiber said.
“We know from our people on the ground that that is not the situation on the ground. People are not staying put because they’re being ordered to do so–”
“They have been told!” a shocked Harlow interjected.
“They have nowhere to go. And remember, Gaza is an open-air prison in which these millions of people are locked in. They can move around within the fence, but even moving around within the fence now is a practical impossibility. So, these old tropes about the Palestinians sacrificing their own people, these don’t hold up to the facts on the ground and they contradict the requirements of international law. That was the point of my letter, Poppy, was we need to get back to a paradigm based upon international law and international human rights.”
“Do you assess the pogrom on the Jewish people on October 7th to be genocide carried out by Hamas?” Harlow asked. (RELATED: Israeli Opposition Leader Tells CNN Host To Take Her Humanitarian Concerns To Hamas)
“Well, I think one of the things that the U.N. has been very clear about and I’ve been very clear about is that civilian life is precious and attacks on civilians are prohibited by the very international law–”
“But is that a yes or no, because even the updated — Craig, is that a yes or no? Because even the updated Hamas Charter from 2017 calls for the complete — it calls Israel as entirely illegal and you know that it states from the river to the sea. So, my question is, is what Hamas did genocide? Go ahead.”
“Yeah. I think that what we need is we need an investigation to determine the scope and the nature of the crimes committed by Hamas. There’s no question that war crimes were committed. This is evident because of the large loss of civilian life that accompanied Hamas’ attacks. But the point of my letter was that the U.N. has no trouble in criticizing actions by armed groups like Hamas.”
Mokhiber then said the U.N. failed to criticize Israel and that’s where his ire lies.
The Israeli government warned Palestinian civilians to evacuate from Gaza before the commencement of ground operations. Hamas is an internationally designated terrorist group that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007.