Updated 2024-08-29
2024-08-29 A Movement to Suspend Israel From the UN Needs a Country to Take the Lead In the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli ambassador at the time, Gilad Erdan, used a paper shredder to destroy pages of the UN Charter, saying that countries who back Palestine’s bid to join the UN are “shredding the UN Charter with your own hands,” May 10, 2024.
Israel’s devastating onslaught on Gaza, now approaching the one-year mark, and increasing settler outrages in the West Bank are giving fresh urgency to moves to suspend the Jewish state from the United Nations General Assembly.
Palestinian civil society has long been calling for such a step, and the Gaza war, along with the two major pronouncements from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) about Israel this year, have given the initiative new traction. Yet, the calls to oust Israel may intensify during the opening session of the General Assembly in September. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-movement-to-suspend-israel-from-the-un-needs-a-country-to-take-the-lead/ar-AA1pFcIM?
2024-08-28 Israel’s new ambassador issues stark warning to UN over Hezbollah, Iran inaction The new Israeli ambassador to the United Nations has issued a stern warning to the international body amid escalating tensions with Hezbollah and concerns that Iran could be close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Ambassador Danny Danon told Fox News Digital that Security Council Resolution 1701 “said very clearly that there would be no military force in southern Lebanon besides the Lebanese military, but look what happened since 2006.”
“Hezbollah took over, they controlled the region, and they made this area a hub for terrorism with tens of thousands of rockets that, unfortunately, in the last few months, we felt the capabilities,” he argued. “I think if the U.N. is not capable of implementing the resolution, we will have to implement the resolution and push Hezbollah away from our community in the north.”
Part of tackling the various groups in the Middle East – such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Houthis in Yemen – requires dealing with Iran. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-s-new-ambassador-issues-stark-warning-to-un-over-hezbollah-iran-inaction/ar-AA1pAfVs?
2024-08-22 Israel envoy to UN calls PA ambassador ‘a terrorist in a suit’ at Security Council meeting srael’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon calls the Palestinian Authority envoy “a terrorist in a suit” at a Security Council debate in New York.
“You have spent two decades in this place proposing resolutions which: stir chaos, sow division and avoid any hope,” Danon says to Riyad Mansour during a debate on the Middle East. “You have accomplished nothing but incite hatred and violence while claiming to be an advocate for peace.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-envoy-to-un-calls-pa-ambassador-a-terrorist-in-a-suit-at-security-council-meeting/ar-AA1pgouN?
2024-08-17 UN Secretary-General Urges ‘Polio Pause’ in Israeli War on Gaza as First Case Reported “It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” said António Guterres after a 10-month-old infant became Gaza’s first new poliomyelitis case in 25 years.
Following over a month of warnings, Gaza recorded its first case of polio since the highly contagious virus was eradicated there 25 years ago, prompting a Friday call by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres for a temporary truce to enable a vaccination drive in the embattled strip.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that an 10-month-old infant in the central city of Deir al-Balah “who has not received any polio vaccine dose” has tested positive for the virus, which often causes paralysis and can be fatal. The ministry said the baby is one of “a number of children” who have presented with symptoms consistent with polio in recent days. https://www.commondreams.org/news/polio-in-gaza
2024-05-10 UN Vote Was for Palestinian Membership, Not Statehood In a blow to the U.S., the U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give Palestine, whose statehood it has already acknowledged, full U.N. membership, forcing the U.S. into another embarrassing veto at the Security Council, says Joe Lauria.
The United States will be forced into another embarrassing veto at the U.N. Security Council after the General Assembly on Friday voted overwhelmingly to ask the Council to reverse its rejection of full U.N. membership for Palestine.
The Assembly voted 143 nations in favor, to just nine against, with 25 abstentions to recommend that the Security Council reconsider its decision last month not to approve full membership. It was a message in reality only to the United States, since it was the U.S. veto in the Council on April 18 that denied Palestine full membership.
Joining the U.S. in the Assembly in voting against on Friday were Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea. Most U.S. allies abstained but several voted in favor of membership, including Australia, Estonia, France, Japan, Norway, Spain and South Korea.
Israel’s furious ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said the U.N. was founded to prevent the kind of tyranny of the Nazis who sought to annihilate the Jewish people.
“Today, you are doing the opposite … welcoming a terror State into its ranks,” he said. “You have opened up the United Nations to modern-day Naziism. It makes me sick.” https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/10/un-vote-was-for-palestinian-membership-not-statehood/
2024-04-11 UN Expert Demands EU Suspend Trade Deal With Israel Over Gaza Genocide “Europe is the main trading partner—which accounts I think for 30% of Israel’s trade—so it has a huge power and it should use that power,” said U.N. expert Francesca Albanese. Pointing out a significant “disconnect” between the European Union’s political class and the public regarding Israel’s assault on Gaza, the top United Nations expert on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday said E.U. officials must suspend trade relations with the Israeli government. https://www.commondreams.org/news/eu-israel-trade
2024-04-07 World Marks Six Months of ‘Relentless Death and Destruction’ in Gaza U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian cease-fire, the unconditional release of all hostages, the protection of civilians, and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid.”
In six months of bombardment by air, land, and sea following the Hamas-led attacks that killed more than 1,100 people in Israel—with over 240 people taken hostage—Israeli forces have killed or maimed more than 116,000 Palestinians, including people believed to be dead and buried beneath the rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed-out homes and other buildings. Gazans—especially children—are starving to death as Israel severely restricts the amount of aid allowed to enter the strip. Women are “burying their newborns every day” as they have nothing to feed them.
Around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, perhaps permanently, in what many Palestinians and international observers are calling a new Nakba, the ethnic cleansing catastrophe perpetrated by Jewish militants during the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Gaza’s infrastructure has been obliterated, with reconstruction expected to cost $18.5 billion, or nearly Palestine’s entire annual gross domestic product. https://www.commondreams.org/news/gaza-genocide-2667714326
2024-03-23 UN chief calls blocked aid for Gaza a moral outrage A long line of blocked relief trucks on Egypt’s side of the border with the Gaza Strip where people face starvation is a moral outrage, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the Rafah crossing on Saturday.
It was time for Israel to give an “ironclad commitment” for unfettered access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza, said Guterres, who also called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/un-chief-calls-blocked-aid-for-gaza-a-moral-outrage/ar-BB1kpaOG
2024-03-08 UN Human Rights Chief Decries ‘War Crime’ of Rapidly Expanding Israeli Settlements “The West Bank is already in crisis. Yet, settler violence and settlement-related violations have reached shocking new levels, and risk eliminating any practical possibility of establishing a viable Palestinian state.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-settlements-2667464747
2024-03-07 UN Expert ‘Horrified by the Depravity’ of Israel’s War on Gaza A United Nations expert on Wednesday expressed her disgust with what Israel is doing during its assault on Gaza. Paula Gaviria Betancur, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, specifically focused on the Israeli government’s evacuation orders for Rafah.
“I am appalled to hear that Israel intends to extend these orders to Rafah, the only semblance of refuge for nearly 70% of Gaza’s surviving population and the only functional entry point for humanitarian aid, should Israel’s demands in negotiations not be met by the unilaterally imposed deadline of 10 March,” Betancur said. https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-expert-horrified-by-the-depravity-of-israel-s-war-on-gaza
2024-03-02 The war in Gaza has blurred the line between the United Nations’ diplomatic and humanitarian roles Two wars in two years. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have given rise to the most demanding and exhausting period for the United Nations since the beginning of the century. Then, the war in Iraq shocked the world and lit the fuse once and for all on the new global disorder of jihadist terrorism. The old mechanism of the right of veto has rendered the Security Council — the body in charge of ensuring world peace and security — inoperative.
Thus, while the initiatives for Ukraine have been showing signs of fatigue for months (Russia has blocked them all), those it has put forward for Gaza have also been doomed to failure: the United States vetoed a permanent humanitarian ceasefire resolution for the third time last week. The Global South has criticized the West’s double standards in both conflicts, while continued fighting in the Strip is preventing humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it most. The killing of over 100 people in the enclave during a distribution of flour last Thursday was the umpteenth demonstration of the practical consequences of the organization’s paralysis. https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-03-02/the-war-in-gaza-has-blurred-the-line-between-the-united-nations-diplomatic-and-humanitarian-roles.html?
2024-01-31 UN Council Debates ICJ Israel Ruling on Genocide The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday debated last Friday’s World Court ruling that Israel must stand trial for genocide after finding plausible evidence against it.
No decision was taken by the Security Council, which could enforce the World Court’s ruling — that Israel must prevent its soldiers from committing acts of genocide — through economic sanctions, and even theoretically authorizing U.N. military action against Israel. But such moves would undoubtedly be vetoed by the United States, which maintains that Israel is not committing genocide but merely defending itself.
“The ICJ has offered a resounding rebuke to those who claimed that the case of genocide against Israel was ‘meritless’ and ‘baseless,’” said Riyad Mansour, ambassador for the Observer State of Palestine, in a clear reference to the United States, whose officials used those very words. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/31/watch-un-council-debates-icj-israel-ruling-on-genocide/
2023-12-28 Cease-Fire Now! What I Said to the UN Security Council Not many people have the opportunity to provide an oral and written statement to the United Nations Security Council. I had my chance on December 11, 2023, when I was asked as a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former U.S. diplomat to speak on weapons transfers in the Russia-Ukraine war. I introduced myself as a U.S. taxpayer who was fed up with my tax money being used by the powerful and wealthy U.S. arms industry authorized by the U.S. government for sale to countries that are killing innocent civilians.
My statement to the Security Council was simple. Wars will never end as long as weapons transfers into the conflict area continue. I noted, as the Security Council well knows, that civilians will be the primary victims of the transfer of weapons. I cited the two wars to which the U.S. is providing weapons: Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/un-security-council-cease-fire
2023-12-26 Israel Rebuked for ‘Baseless’ Visa Bans for UN Officials Over Gaza “Israel thought they could blackmail everyone, including the U.N., into collaboration with the propaganda cover of their crimes,” said one Palestinian critic.
Israel’s foreign ministry said Monday it would deny visas for multiple United Nations employees after officials and agencies within the world body—including a panel on which an Israeli expert accused the country of genocide—continued their sharp criticism of the war on Gaza.
“Baseless attacks against the U.N. only proves moral cowardice,” Albanese said in response to Cohen in a social media post. “The UN has been weakened by decades of Israeli impunity for breaches of international law, including colonization of occupied territories and Palestinian forced displacement. The UN must hold Israel to account if it is to salvage its reputation and purpose.” The alternative to accountability, she continued, “is playing itself out in Gaza today. With freedom for all, there will be freedom for none.” Albanese called for an immediate ceasefire, release of Israeli hostages as well as arbitrarily detained Palestinians, and the end of occupation in order to restore peace, full protection for all civilians, and put the region on a path towards justice. https://www.commondreams.org/news/united-nation-and-israel
2023-12-24 There Was No Cover-Up of Hamas’s Sexual Violence on October 7 The right manufactured it, the media and feminists bought in — and Israel is exploiting the outcry. There has been no cover-up. If anything, the public’s fixation on sexual violence heightens attention to the Hamas-led crimes. The scandal that unfolded in early December was largely manufactured by right-wing pundits who until this moment didn’t give a fig about rape.
On October 13 — two days after Israel cut off food, water, and fuel to Gaza while it continued its indiscriminate bombardment — U.N. Women, whose mission is to promote gender equality globally, issued its first statementOpens in a new tab on the war: “UN Women condemns the attacks on civilians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and is deeply alarmed by the devastating impact on civilians including women and girls,” it began. The 198-word statement called for “unrestricted humanitarian aid,” a restoration of the basics for survival to Gaza, and the “immediate release of hostages.” It reiterated the group’s support of Palestinian women in their fight for social, political, and economic rights. It did not say the same for Israeli Jewish women, who are already granted these rights under Israel’s Basic Laws. Hamas was not mentioned.
On October 20, the organization published Opens in a new tab a “Rapid Assessment and Humanitarian Response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Among the bullet points: 493,000 women and girls were already displaced from their homes; 668,000 were in need of protection from gender-based violence. This document did not mention Hamas’s attacks either. It did not report on human rights violations or even provide a death toll.
The first organized criticism of U.N. Women came on October 30 from the U.S.-based National Council of Jewish Women, the Israel Women’s Network, and 140-plus Jewish and Israeli women’s organizations. “It is inconceivable that a UN organization that is responsible for women’s rights is ignoring the hostages captured and held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the murder of hundreds of innocent people,” their statement Opens in a new tab declared. In fact, U.N. Women on October 13 did not mention Hamas, but neither did it ignore the Israeli murder victims or the hostages.
2023-12-22 UN Expert Says ‘Only Logical Conclusion’ Is That Israel Aims to Expel Majority of People From Gaza Israel’s tactics in its assault on Gaza indicate that it is trying to force the Palestinians who live there to abandon it, a United Nations expert warned Friday.
Paula Gaviria Betancur, special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), pointed out that Israel had ordered civilians to flee to safety in the south of Gaza two months ago, only to demand that both the new refugees and the residents of southern Gaza evacuate again. She worried that Israel was engaged in forced population transfer and collective punishment, both war crimes. “Where will the people of Gaza have left to go tomorrow?” she asked. “As evacuation orders and military operations continue to expand and civilians are subjected to relentless attacks on a daily basis, the only logical conclusion is that Israel’s military operation in Gaza aims to deport the majority of the civilian population en masse.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/mass-deportation-israel-gaza
The newly passed resolution—which was introduced by the United Arab Emirates—calls for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip for a sufficient number of days to enable full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access.” The resolutioncalls for “urgent steps… for creating the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities,” language that’s weaker than an earlier draft’s call for an “urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities.”
“Biden’s changes will help ensure that Israel’s slaughter in Gaza continues while minimizing the U.N.’s insight into what increasingly appears to be a genocide.” Also removed from the final version was language condemning Israel’s indiscriminate attacks on Palestinian civilians, tens of thousands of whom have been killed, wounded, or left missing during 77 days of Israeli onslaught. The vote came just after Russia proposed an amendment that would have restored language calling for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” to the resolution. The U.S. vetoed the amendment.
Earlier this month, the U.S. vetoed a separate Security Council resolution calling for a Gaza cease-fire. That resolution was later approved by the U.N. General Assembly in a 153-10 vote. “It is disgraceful that the U.S. was able to stall and use the threat of its veto power to force the U.N. Security Council to weaken a much-needed call for an immediate end to attacks by all parties,” Amnesty International secretary-general Agnès Callamard said in a statement. https://www.commondreams.org/news/united-nation-resolution-gaza
2023-12-13 Why is the UN genocide office silent about Gaza? Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the UN secretary-general’s special adviser on genocide prevention, is violating her mandate by remaining silent about Gaza.(U.S. Institute of Peace) Alice Wairimu Nderitu has one job that’s spelled out in her official title: She’s the UN secretary-general’s special adviser on the prevention of genocide.
Yet while human rights groups, independent UN experts and genocide scholars are ringing the alarm bells over Israel’s extermination campaign in Gaza, Nderitu has remained silent. On 15 October, Nderitu did issue a statement strongly condemning – no less than three times – Hamas for attacking Israel on 7 October. She apparently accepts as fact all of Israel’s unverified and quickly unraveling claims about that day. Nderitu even suggests that Palestinians attack Israel not because they are under a brutal, decades-long occupation, but rather “on the basis of identity” – echoing Israel’s absurd and reprehensible propaganda that it is anti-Semitism that motivates Palestinian resistance. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-un-genocide-office-silent-about-gaza
2023-12-08 ‘Disastrous’: US Vetoes Cease-Fire Resolution at UN Security Council “The Security Council was again prevented from rising to this moment to uphold its clear responsibilities in the face of this grave crisis threatening human lives and threatening regional and international peace and security,” said the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations. Nicolas de Rivière, France’s permanent representative to the Security Council, who voted in favor of the cease-fire, argued that there is no “contradiction in the fight against terrorism and the protection of civilians, in strict respect of international humanitarian law.”
The U.S. has now vetoed U.N. resolutions to hold Israel accountable for its policies in Palestine 45 times, human rights lawyer Noura Erakat said. Former U.N. human rights official Craig Mokhiber—who resigned in October over the U.N.’s response to the war in Gaza—noted that U.S. blocked the resolution on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the U.N. Genocide Convention. https://www.commondreams.org/news/us-vetoes-cease-fire
2023-12-08 US vetoes UN resolution backed by many nations demanding immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza The United States vetoed a United Nations resolution Friday backed by almost all other Security Council members and dozens of other nations demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza. Supporters called it a terrible day and warned of more civilian deaths and destruction as the war goes into its third month.
The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1, with the United Kingdom abstaining. The United States’ isolated stand reflected a growing fracture between Washington and some of its closest allies over Israel’s monthslong bombardment of Gaza. France and Japan were among those supporting the call for a cease-fire. https://www.yahoo.com/news/un-chief-many-nations-demand-202238429.html
2023-11-30 UN commission to investigate Hamas sexual violence, appeal for evidence
[MEK Note: Israel makes lots of wild claims to paint Hamas as barbaric, yet it didn’t treat the areas of attack as crime scenes by gathering evidence and it refuses to cooperate with an UN investigation.]
A U.N. commission of inquiry investigating war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict will focus on sexual violence by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel and is about to launch an appeal for evidence, its chair told Reuters on Wednesday.
Chair Navi Pillay on Wednesday said she would pass the evidence onto the International Criminal Court and called for it to consider prosecutions amid earlier criticism from Israel and families of Israeli hostages that the U.N. had kept quiet. “I’m now sitting as chair of a commission with the power to investigate this. So there’s no way we will not do so,” said Pillay, chair of the three-member commission of inquiry into abuses committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Already, she said some people are keen to provide testimonies and that these would be handed over to prosecutors.
However, a major challenge for Pillay is that Israel has not cooperated with the commission, which it says has an anti-Israel bias. The commission could struggle to gather sufficient evidence to support future charges if access is not granted. “Since the establishment of the COI (Commission of Inquiry) in 2021, Israel has made it clear: it will not cooperate with this discriminatory body and its Commissioners,” Israel’s permanent mission to the U.N. in Geneva said in a statement to Reuters on Thursday.
Hamas has denied the abuses and was not available for comment. Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva said on Thursday the commission had “pre-existing biased prejudices against Israel”. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/un-commission-investigate-hamas-sexual-violence-appeal-evidence-2023-11-29/
See video of a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Palestine, Indonesia, Türkiye, the UAE and Egypt. Russia’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya (2:08:35), blasted Western double standards for calling for two meetings a month on Ukraine and zero on Palestine. “Perhaps the fate of the Palestinian population is much less interesting for you from a domestic political perspective,” he said. Nebenzya criticized Western “hypocrites and unprincipled opportunists” who express concern for women’s rights while ignoring the fate of Gaza’s women. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/30/watch-un-security-council-debates-catastrophe-in-gaza/
2023-11-20 Palestinian Death Toll in Gaza Tops 13,000 as Israel Repeatedly Strikes U.N. Schools Housing Refugees Over the weekend, at least 82 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabaliya refugee camp, including multiple United Nations schools sheltering Palestinians. At least 85 incidents of Israeli bombing have impacted 67 facilities run by the United Nations relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the last two months. We speak with Tamara Alrifai, spokesperson for UNRWA, about the organization sheltering close to a million Palestinians from Israel’s assault, which has killed 104 of her colleagues since the beginning of the war — the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations. Alrifai says her agency is only getting half of the fuel they need to serve people in Gaza, being forced to choose between clean water, food and transport. “If UNRWA ceases to exist tomorrow, then there is a huge layer of stabilizing and stability that UNRWA usually offers in a very, very volatile area that also collapses.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/20/unrwa
2023-11-23 “Text-Book Case of Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza Hear from Craig Mokhiber, a longtime international human rights lawyer, who previously served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, on why he left his post while decrying U.N. inaction over what he calls a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Mokhiber’s letter of resignation went viral last month. He spoke to Democracy Now! shortly after. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/23/dissenters
2023-11-19 Myth Of “Western Civilization” Destroyed In 2 Minutes By U.N. Palestinian Representative United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese recently addressed the General Assembly and lit into the United States for making any claim to being a force for peace in the world. The United States is a warmongering nations, she said, with a foreign policy wholly based on the demands of the powerful military industrial complex. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx3NbXFkM1k
2023-11-18 UN Forced to Halts Aid Deliveries Into Gaza, Warns of “Immediate Starvation” On Friday the UN said that it was no longer able to continue aid deliveries into Gaza as an Israeli fuel blockade of the enclave has led to a widespread communications blackout. The World Health Organization warned that the ending of aid deliveries means the “immediate possibility of starvation” for the 2.3 million people in Gaza.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced it was forced to halt aid shipments into Gaza. “The communications network in #Gaza is down because there is NO fuel,” the agency said in a statement on social media. “This makes it impossible to manage or coordinate humanitarian aid convoys.” https://www.activistpost.com/2023/11/un-forced-to-halts-aid-deliveries-into-gaza-warns-of-immediate-starvation.html
2023-11-17 UN warns of Gaza starvation as concerns rise about safety in the south The UN has said Gaza’s civilians face the “immediate possibility” of starvation, amid mounting concerns about Israeli plans to expand military operations in parts of the south where people have sought refuge from fighting.
Fuel shortages on Friday halted aid shipments and blacked out communications across the strip. The UN said its trucks could not move and it could not coordinate deliveries. Palestinian network operators said they could no longer power the phone and internet systems. Fuel shortages have also in effect shut down water treatment and sewage systems, leading health authorities to warn about the spread of infectious diseases.
Israel said its forces were consolidating control of the north, as they continued the hunt for a Hamas command and control centre under al-Shifa hospital. A spokesperson attacked the “impatience” of demands for proof of Hamas headquarters there. Since troops entered the compound on Wednesday, the military has published images of what it claimed was one tunnel entrance and weapons found in a truck inside the compound but no further evidence of Hamasactivity. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/17/gaza-un-starvation-disease
2023-11-01 “Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza A former top United Nations official in New York joins us for an in-depth interview about why he has resigned after publicly accusing the U.N. of failing to address what he calls a “text-book case of genocide” unfolding in Gaza. Craig Mokhiber is a longtime international human rights lawyer who served as director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. His resignation letter has gone viral. In one of his first interviews since leaving his post, Mokhiber tells Democracy Now! the U.N. follows a “different set of rules” when addressing Israel’s violations of international law, refusing to utilize its enforcement mechanisms and thus “effectively” acting as “a smokescreen behind which we have seen further and worsening dispossession of Palestinians.” He says it is an “open secret inside the halls of the United Nations that the so-called two-state solution is effectively impossible,” and calls for international actors to push for a “new paradigm” in the region based on “equality for all.” We also discuss the inaction of the International Criminal Court, global suppression of pro-Palestinian advocacy, bad-faith accusations of antisemitism and more. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiGp2mvFLY0
2023-10-27 UN General Assembly Passes Resolution Calling for ‘Humanitarian Truce’ in Gaza While Israel intensified its war on Hamas that has devastated the Gaza Strip, the United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved a resolution that “calls for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”
Israel launched what some scholars are calling a genocidal assault—backed by billions of dollars in U.S. military support—after a Hamas-led attack that killed over 1,400 Israelis and Palestinian militants took around 200 hostages. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israeli forces have killed over 7,300 Palestinians, including more than 3,000 children, and wounded about 19,000 others. The three-week bombardment has also damaged or destroyed around half of Gaza’s homes, displaced a majority of the 2.3 million population, and cut off internet and communication services, heightening fears that Israel may pursue proposals to ethnically cleanse and recolonize the Hamas-controlled strip, where residents have lived under an Israeli blockade for 16 years.
The nonbinding United Nations resolution passed during an emergency session in New York City on Friday. Of the General Assembly’s 193 voting members, 120 voted in favor, 45 abstained, and 14 opposed—including Israel and the United States, which last week vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned violence against civilians and called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid into Gaza. https://www.commondreams.org/news/united-nations-general-assembly-gaza
2023-10-27 UN General Assembly Votes for Gaza Ceasefire The U.N. General Assembly on Friday voted 120 votes in favor, 14 against and 45 abstentions in a non-binding resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The [Jordanian] resolution calls for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce”, and demands all parties comply with international humanitarian law and “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of essential supplies and services into the Gaza Strip. It also calls for the “immediate and unconditional release” of all civilians held captive as well as demanding their safety, well-being and humane treatment in compliance with international law. The resolution does not mention Hamas or the events of Oct.
Gilad Erdan, Ambassador of Israel to the U.N., said in response to the resolution passing that “today is a day that will go down in infamy”. “We have all witnessed that the U.N. holds not even one ounce of legitimacy,” he said. “The U.N. is committed to ensuring further atrocity. According to the family of nations, Israel has no right to defend itself.” https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/27/watch-un-ga-votes-for-gaza-ceasefire/
2023-10-26 UN GA on ‘Illegal Israeli Actions’ in Gaza & the West Bank https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/26/watch-un-ga-on-illegal-israeli-actions-in-gaza/
2023-10-19 U.S. Vetoes U.N. Resolution Calling for “Humanitarian Pause” of Gaza Assault The United States has vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for a humanitarian pause to Israel’s relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip and its 2.3 million inhabitants. The resolution, sponsored by Brazil, called for full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for U.N. agencies to deliver lifesaving aid to the besieged territory. It included a condemnation of Hamas’s attacks on Israel and demanded “the immediate and unconditional release” of hostages. On Wednesday, 12 of the Security Council’s 15 members voted in favor of a humanitarian pause in Gaza; Russia and the U.K. abstained; while the United States used its privilege as a permanent member of the Security Council to exercise its veto. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/19/headlines/gaza_death_toll_nears_3_800_as_israels_siege_and_bombardment_enters_13th_day
2023-10-13 U.N. Warns of “Devastating Humanitarian Consequences” as Israel Orders 1.1 Million to Evacuate Gaza Israel’s army has ordered 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate “southwards” within just 24 hours — an order the United Nations called “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/headlines/competing_pro_israel_and_pro_palestine_demonstrations_raise_tensions_on_college_campuses
2012-11-29 U.N. Recognizes Palestine As Nonmember State Member Nations Upgrade Territories’ Standing, in Diplomatic Defeat for U.S., Israel; Abbas Issues Warning on Settlements. The United Nations General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a nonmember state Thursday, in a move that strengthens the government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The vote tally was 138 yeas to 9 nays with 41 countries abstaining. The United States certainly seemed in the nay camp, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling the vote “unfortunate and counterproductive,” and Ambassador Rice arguing the vote does not establish Palestinian statehood, and places “further obstacles in the path of peace.” https://crooksandliars.com/diane-sweet/un-recognizes-palestine-nonmember-stat
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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