The United Nations has declined to renew its contract with Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, after she refused to claim that Israel committed “genocide,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ noted that Nderitu published a 2022 paper asserting that United Nations officials are to “adhere to the correct usage of the term” when discussing “genocide.”
Proper usage of the term is necessary due to its “frequent misuse in referring to large scale, grave crimes committed against particular populations,” the publication quoted the paper as saying. Nderitu noted that the term comes from Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who used the word to describe the elimination of ethnic groups.
The WSJ asserted that “establishing a pattern of violence as a genocide requires demonstrating intent. Israel’s campaign of self-defense doesn’t qualify.” It went on to explain that the “war against Hamas has had many deaths, but Israel’s strategy is intended to dismantle a terrorist regime, not eliminate an ethnic group. The Jewish state has gone to great lengths to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, even as Hamas uses civilians as shields so their deaths can be used as propaganda.”
The publication went on to explain that the U.N. Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices released a report supporting claims that Israel has committed genocide. According to the report, the committee discovered “serious concerns of breaches of international humanitarian and human rights laws” and “the possibility of genocide in Gaza and an apartheid system in the West Bank.”
A U.N. spokesman told the WSJ that Nderitu is departing from the entity because her “contract is expiring.” The statement noted that “genocide is strictly defined in international law and any legal determination” comes from “appropriate judicial bodies.”
Because the “Secretary-General has the authority to extend Ms. Nderitu’s contract” and such contracts are “often renewed when their terms expire,” the WSJ explained, “Ms. Nderitu’s removal is a political choice.”
