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Steve was an organizer of the Car Caravan from San Francisco to DNC that left Oakland on August 16,2024.

Wright, Ann  Peace Activist – former Army Colonel and foreign service officer

Updated 2024-08-30

Ann Wright- Wikipedia    A retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Wright is one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Wright was also a passenger on the Challenger 1, which along with the Mavi Marmara, was part of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. As of 2024, she is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Wright

2023-12-20 Former Army Colonel Ann Wright Condemns Israeli Weapons Sales at UN     While testifying about the evil of weapons sales and transfers, their devastating human toll, and the evil of military-industrial complexes, former colonel, U.S. diplomat, and now Veteran For Peace Ann Wright turned her testimony into a condemnation of Israels unconscionable Gaza mass murder and devastation into an appeal for a ceasefire – NOW!   Transcript https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtJg-nGM_w0

2023-12-03 Ann Wright – Genocide in Gaza, Freedom Flotillas, & The International Campaign to Save Gaza     Long-time, dear friend, Col. (ret) US Army and former State Department diplomat, returns with an update on the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Ann presents a different take on the outcome from other analysists. She insists Palestine must tell the world what its solution is and not America, the EU or others. She’s a member of the International Campaign to save Gaza, https://savegazza.com/  the US Boats to Gaza https://usboatstogaza.org/  

and the Freedom Flotilla Coaliltion https://freedomflotilla.org/2023/11/24/ffc-joins-save-gaza/    To get involved, you can donate here https://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/donate_ffc    To follow the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal  https://www.nonviolenceinternational….   https://rumble.com/v3vhyka-merchants-…    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RanjAxJkgsE

2021-10-12 “The common thing is that no one wants war” – Col. Ann Wright (ret.)    Ann Wright is a former colonel and foreign service officer who resigned her commission in protest of the second U.S. invasion of Iraq. After decades of a career in international diplomacy, she raised her concerns about U.S. foreign policy and met indifference. She now devotes those honed skills as an experienced diplomat to directly advocate and promote international peace. She is also the co-author of “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”

“I thought, well, I cannot be a part of what I know is going to be a horrific, horrific bloodbath in Iraq. And not that my resignation will make a bit of difference, but at least I won’t be a part of it. I won’t have that on my conscience. And so, I ended up resigning.” https://couragetoresist.org/podcast-ann-wright/

2018-07-18 How Ann Wright, Former US Army Colonel and Diplomat, Became a Peace Activist     From the Freedom Flotilla in Naples, Italy, Colonel Ann Wright explains her commitment to Palestinian rights  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVy3SNtqTgw&t=87s

2014-07-21 Col. Ann Wright to Israel: ‘Stop the Massacre of Innocent Civilians in Gaza’     Representatives from the “Veterans for Peace,” a national organization, staged a demonstration Monday in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. Its purpose was to deliver a letter to Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer. Before trying to deliver the letter, Col. Ann Wright (U.S. Army, Retired), read its contents in front of the entrance to the embassy. Col. Wright is a member of the Veterans for Peace and also a former official of the U.S. State Department. She resigned from that position rather than endorse the immoral and illegal Iraq War. 

Col. Wright, speaking on behalf of the Veterans for Peace delegation, demanded: Israel “stop the slaughter of the innocent civilians in Gaza.” She labeled it: “a clear violation of international laws of war and human rights.” She added: “More than 500 Palestinians have been murdered almost all of them civilians, nearly a quarter of them children…stop the massacre now!” Col. Wright had a special message for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. She said: “You can bomb the world into pieces, but you cannot bomb it into peace!”

The embassy’s officials refused to accept the Veterans for Peace’s letter when Tarak Kauff of the VFP tried to present it to them.  CODEPINK activists also took part in the demonstration. To learn more, about the Veterans for Peace, go to: http://www.veteransforpeace.org Col. Wright’s full statement can be heard on this video.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkkX0-Wtbgs

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

World Opinion Against Israel     

Updated 2024-08-30

2024-06-06 End of an Era: Pro-Palestine Language Exposes Israel, Zionism    Western Europe is finally catching up with the rest of the world regarding the significance of a strong international position in support of the Palestinian people and in rejection of Israel’s genocidal practices in occupied Palestine.   But equally important is the changing political discourse regarding both Palestine and Israel in Europe and all over the world.

Almost immediately after the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, some European countries imposed restrictions on pro-Palestinian protests, some even banning the Palestinian flag, which was perceived, through some twisted logic, as an antisemitic symbol.

With time, the unprecedented solidarity with Israel at the start of the war, however, turned into an outright political, legal and moral liability to the pro-Israel western governments.   Thus, a slow shift began, leading to a near-complete transformation in the position of some governments, and a partial though clear shift of the political discourse among others.

The early ban on pro-Palestinian protests was impossible to maintain in the face of millions of angry European citizens who called on their governments to end their blind support for Tel Aviv.     Failing to push back against the pro-Palestine narrative, the French government has, on May 31, decided to disinvite Israeli military firms from participating in one of the world’s largest military expos, Eurosatory, scheduled for June 17-21.

Even countries like Canada and Germany, which supported the Israeli genocide against Palestinians until later stages of the mass killings, began changing their language as well.

The change of language is also happening in Israel itself and among pro-Israeli intellectuals and journalists in mainstream media. In a widely read column, New York Times writer Thomas Friedman attacked Netanyahu late last March, accusing him of being the “worst leader in Jewish history, not just in Israeli history”.   https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/06/end-of-an-era-pro-palestine-language-exposes-israel-zionism/

2024-01-15 Israel’s War on Palestine and the Global Upsurge Against It    Hundreds of millions of people across the world have been deeply moved by the atrocity of the Israeli war on Palestine. Millions have attended marches and protests, many of them participating in such demonstrations for the first time in their lives.

Social media, in almost all the world’s languages, is saturated with memes and posts about this or that terrible action.

Some people focus on the Israeli attack on Palestinian children, others on the illegal targeting of Gaza’s health infrastructure, and yet others point to the annihilation of at least four hundred families (more than ten people in each family killed).

The focus of attention does not seem to be diminishing. Holidays in December went by, but the intensity of the protests and the posts remained steady. No attempt by social media companies to turn the algorithm against the Palestinians succeeded, no attempt to ban the protests—even the display of the Palestinian flag—worked. Accusations of antisemitism fell flat and demands for the condemnation of Hamas were dismissed. This is a new mood, a new kind of attitude toward the Palestinian struggle.

Never before in the 75 previous years has there been such sustained attention to the cause of the Palestinians and of Israeli brutality.   https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/01/15/israels-war-on-palestine-and-the-global-upsurge-against-it/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Wolf, Naomi

Updated 2024-08-30

2015-04-27 Naomi Wolf – Why I Would Not Move Back to Israel     Naomi R. Wolf is an American author and former political consultant. With the publication of the 1991 bestselling book The Beauty Myth, she became a leading spokeswoman of what was later described as the third wave of the feminist movement.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ7KIGggyKk

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Walz, Tim

Updated 2024-08-30

2024-08-22 Climate Crisis & Election Roundtable: From Tim Walz’s Record to Project 2025 to Israel    Climate activists disrupted a DNC-adjacent event sponsored by ExxonMobil on Wednesday, the same day that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz formally accepted his nomination as vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Walz has faced harsh criticism from Indigenous and environmental rights groups in Minnesota for his authorization of the Line 3 oil pipeline through Native treaty lands in the state. We host a roundtable discussion on the climate crisis and the Democratic Party’s response with Ojibwe lawyer and founder of the Giniw Collective Tara Houska; climate organizer Collin Rees, who was part of the ExxonMobil action at the DNC; and climate scientist Michael Mann.  Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHh_daM9cek&t=11s

2024-08-06 Humphrey Without Vietnam, but More Down-Home  Rural roots. High school social studies teacher. As coach, turned around losing high school football team and led it to state championship. Twenty-four years’ service in the state’s National Guard. Gun owner; hunts pheasants. As congressman, won historically Republican district six times. As governor, worked with the legislature and signed into law universal free breakfast and lunch program for public school students, paid sick and family leave, groundbreaking sectoral bargaining for nursing home employees, and first-in-the-nation outlawing of employers’ common practice of compelling employees to attend anti-union rants—all with just a one-vote majority in the state Senate. Coined a devastating (because accurate and simple) meme to describe Donald Trump & Co.

If you’re a Democrat who understands the need to win back some of the rural and working-class voters who’ve moved right, not to mention the need to enact major progressive populist, pro-worker, and pro-choice legislation, what’s not to like about Tim Walz?  https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-08-06-humphrey-without-vietnam-tim-walz/

2024-08-06 ‘Excellent Choice’: Progressives Applaud Harris for Picking Walz as Running Mate   Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has reportedly selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the November election, a victory for progressives who pushed for Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was believed to be the other leading contender.  Harris is expected to formally announce her choice ahead of an evening rally in Philadelphia. CNN was first to report Harris’ decision, followed by other outlets including The Associated Press and The Hill.

Progressives are energized by Walz’s searing critiques of the Trump-era Republican Party and his record as Minnesota’s governor, which includes his unequivocal championing of a universal free school meals program as well as paid family and medical leave.  https://www.commondreams.org/news/kamala-harris-tim-walz

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

Vijay Prashad – Author Journalist

Updated 2024-08-30

Vijay Prashad – Wikipedia    born August, 1967, is an Indian historian, author, journalist, political commentator, and Marxist intellectual.  He is the executive-director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Editor of LeftWord Books, Chief Correspondent at Globetrotter, and a senior non-resident fellow at Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vijay_Prashad

2024-05-28 Vijay Prashad: Three Evils    There is no ambiguity about Israel causing Gaza to suffer occupation, apartheid and genocide. To counter Israeli denialism, here is a short primer on why these terms are accurate.  

Apartheid. The Israeli government treats the Palestinian minority population within the borders defined in 1948 (21 percent) as second-class citizens. There are at least 65 Israeli laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel. One of them, passed in 2018, declares the country a “nation state of the Jewish people.”   

Occupation. In 1967, Israel occupied the three Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank. From 1967 to 1999, these three areas were referred to as part of the Occupied Arab Territories (which at different times also included Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, Syria’s Golan region and southern Lebanon).   Since 1999, they have been termed the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). In U.N. documents and at the International Court of Justice, Israel is referred to as the “occupying power,” which is a term of art that requires certain obligations from Israel toward those whom it occupies. 

Genocide. In its order published on 26 January, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found “plausible” evidence of Israel committing genocide against Palestinians.  In March, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, published a monumental report called “Anatomy of a Genocide.”  https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/28/vijay-prashad-three-evils/

2024-04-05 How Israel Weaponizes Water     Even before Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in the sole coastal aquifer of Gaza was already unsafe for human consumption, writes Vijay Prashad.

By November 2023, it was already clear that the Israeli government had begun to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to water. “Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water’, said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“Israel,” he noted, “must stop using water as a weapon of war.”   Before Israel’s most recent attack on Gaza, 97 percent of the water in Gaza’s only coastal aquifer was already unsafe for human consumption based on World Health Organisation standards. Over the course of its many attacks, Israel has all but destroyed Gaza’s water purification system and prevented the entry of materials and chemicals needed for repair.

In early October 2023, Israeli officials indicated that they would use their control over Gaza’s water systems as a means to perpetrate a genocide. As Israeli Major General Ghassan Alian, the head of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said on 10 October, “Human beasts are dealt with accordingly. Israel has imposed a total blockade on Gaza. No electricity, no water, just damage. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”   https://consortiumnews.com/2024/04/05/how-israel-weaponizes-water/

2024-01-26 Vijay Prashad discusses the ICJ ruling on Israel’s genocide in Gaza    Listen to Vijay Prashad of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research discuss with Prasanth R. and Zoe Alexandra, co-editors of Peoples Dispatch, about the significance of the recent ICJ ruling on South Africa’s case against Israel over the ongoing war on Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) announced on Friday January 26 that it ruled in favor of South Africa’s request for provisional measures in its case against Israel over the ongoing war on Gaza and rejected Israel’s request for the case to be dismissed.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2WsrGXm_Ww&t=46s

2023-11-08 What ‘From the River to the Sea’ Really Means & Why Israel Can’t Win, w/ Vijay Prashad    More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel as countries around the world withdraw their ambassadors from Israel. But when the one Palestinian member of Congress, Rashida Tlaib, speaks in support of the Palestinian people, she is censured by the House of Representatives.

Brian Becker is joined by Vijay Prashad, the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, and a prolific author, most recently publishing a new book with Noam Chomsky called “The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power.” He also spoke at the biggest march for Palestine in U.S. history last week, the November 4th National March on Washington.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIRgLtYJ-ho

2023-11-03 Vijay Prashad On The Genocide Committed Against The Palestinians By Israel And The Collective West     How is it possible that Western leaders, over and over, pray the mantra of the condemnation of Hamas’ killing 1,400 people in Israel and at the same time they defend Israel when it has already killed over 8,000 civilians in Gaza, carries out progroms and killing-sprees in the West Bank, and obviously is trying to ethnically cleans the Gaza Strip of its 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants? How can we explain this much wilful blindness and wilful support for Genocide?   Dr. Vijay Prashad is trying to approach an answer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdwoPzm4Cgw

2024-10-30 Vijay Prashad: Arab Masses Demand States Break with Israel Normalization       Vijay Prashad, the Executive Director of the Tricontinental Institute, breaks down the regional geopolitics around Palestine and the likelihood of Israel’s siege of Gaza igniting a wider war in the region.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLVVa4xcpGU

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

United States Virtual Border Wall

Updated 2024-08-29

2024-07-24 Israel’s Largest Weapons Manufacturer to Help Expand US’s Virtual Border Wall       Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, has been central in bolstering the country’s apartheid regime and, in the last 10 months, in helping the military carry out what U.N. experts have called a genocidal campaign in Gaza. In the coming months, Elbit Systems will also be critical in the expansion of the Biden administration’s virtual wall — a series of at least 479 surveillance towers along the U.S.-Mexico border that forces migrants into inhospitable terrains and likely death.

Along with the U.S. corporations Advanced Technology Systems and General Dynamics, Elbit America — a subsidiary of Elbit Systems — is expected to install 307 new surveillance towers across the U.S.-Mexico border within the next decade, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents published last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a San Francisco-based nonprofit digital rights group. To fund them, the Department of Homeland Security has requested $101.8 million from Congress for the fiscal year 2025, of which Elbit will be awarded the largest portion — $23.9 million.

“For years, Israeli companies have been at the forefront of developing surveillance technology. They test it out on Palestinians and then export it to the rest of the world,” said Petra Molnar, the associate director of the Refugee Law Lab at York University in Canada, associate faculty at Harvard University, and author of “The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” https://truthout.org/articles/israels-largest-weapons-manufacturer-to-help-expand-uss-virtual-border-wall/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

United States DOJ

Updated 2024-08-29

2024-07-24 Bay Area ER Doc Returns from Gaza; Netanyahu Faces Genocide Complaint to DOJ as Protests Mar his DC Visit      We spend the rest of our live show in Washington DC, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting for a series of diplomatic meetings starting Wednesday, with an address to congress, a meeting scheduled with President Joe Biden on Thursday, and then with former president Donald Trump this Friday in Mar-a-Lago. He’s also expected to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris during his trip. We’re first joined by Maria LaHood, the Deputy Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights who has worked on legal projects related to justice in Palestine for decades, including on the Rachel Corrie legal case nearly 20 years ago. The Center for Constitutional Rights has urged the US Department of Justice to open a federal criminal investigation into the Israeli Prime Minister during his visit to the US, for his responsibility for genocide, war crimes, and torture, saying there is “overwhelming evidence” that, under Netanyahu, Israeli forces have committed these crimes against Palestinians during the nearly 10-month assault on Gaza.

Read CCR’s complaint: https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/ahead-netanyahu-visit-dc-center-constitutional-rights-calls-doj     https://kpfa.org/episode/law-disorder-july-24-2024/

2024-07-20 Rights Group Urges DOJ to Investigate Netanyahu for Genocide  As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to visit Washington, D.C. next week, an American legal group on Friday pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into him and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes, and torture targeting Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since Israel launched its retaliation for a Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces partly armed by the U.S. government have killed at least 38,848 people and wounded another 89,459 — according to Gaza officials — while destroying civilian infrastructure and restricting the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave. “We believe ample credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being perpetrated in Gaza,” says the Center for Constitutional Rights’ (CCR) 23-page letter to Hope Olds, who leads the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) of the DOJ’s Criminal Division.   https://truthout.org/articles/rights-group-urges-doj-to-investigate-netanyahu-for-genocide/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

United States Anti-Palestine

Updated 2024-08-29

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/

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World

UN Resolution 377

Updated 2024-08-29

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 377 (V) – Wikipedia     states that in any cases where the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members (P5), fails to act as required to maintain international security and peace, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue appropriate recommendations to UN members for collective measures, including the use of armed force when necessary, in order to maintain or restore international security and peace. It was adopted 3 November 1950, after fourteen days of Assembly discussions, by a vote of 52 to 5, with 2 abstentions.[2] The resolution was designed to provide the UN with an alternative avenue for action when at least one P5 member uses its veto to obstruct the Security Council from carrying out its functions mandated by the UN Charter.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_General_Assembly_Resolution_377_(V)

2023-12-13 Yes, the UN General Assembly has held five emergency sessions in response to Israeli aggression    Five of the emergency special sessions called with Resolution 377 pertain to Israel’s actions.

The first of these, in 1956, was in response to the Suez Crisis, in which Israel, the United Kingdom, and France invaded Egypt after its president nationalized the Suez Canal. Both the United States and Soviet Union proposed resolutions in the Security Council calling for troops to withdraw; both were vetoed by France and the United Kingdom. The General Assembly used Resolution 377 to call an emergency special session, during which it passed a series of resolutions calling for a ceasefire and criticizing Israel, France, and the U.K. for the invasion.

The second was in 1967, following the “Six-Day War” between Israel and several Arab nations. During the war, Israel significantly expanded its territory, including claiming East Jerusalem. After U.S.-Soviet tensions deadlocked the Security Council, the General Assembly passed several resolutions calling for humane treatment of civilians and specifically condemning “measures taken by Israel to change the status of [Jerusalem].”

In 1980, the United States vetoed attempts in the Security Council to declare certain rights for Palestinians and call for Israel to withdraw from certain territory. An emergency special session was called, and the General Assembly passed resolutions which included “call[ing] upon Israel to withdraw completely and unconditionally from all the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since June 1967, including Jerusalem.”

In 1981, the Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israel after it effectively annexed the Golan Heights region of Syria, saying “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.” Israel did not reverse course, and in 1982 members of the Security Council aimed to take further action, but were blocked by the United States. An emergency special session was called, and the General Assembly passed resolutions strongly condemning both Israel and the United States, declaring “that Israel’s record and actions confirm that it is not a peace-loving Member State,” and recommending that UN nations sever all relations with Israel.

The current and most recent emergency special session related to Israel was first called in 1997. It was originally in response to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other Palestinian territory but has since become a general avenue for the General Assembly to debate the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike every other emergency special session, this one has never formally ended – instead it’s been adjourned and reconvened at least 16 times. In 2023, this session has resulted in several General Assembly resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, improved humanitarian conditions, and the release of all hostages held by Hamas. The Dec. 12 meeting is a continuation of this emergency special session.https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/israel-hamas-war/yes-the-un-general-assembly-has-held-five-emergency-sessions-in-response-to-israeli-aggression/536-941b2dc0-a838-4f87-925d-d02b41653c04

2023-12-11 What’s UN Resolution 377A, can it help in efforts to stop Israel-Gaza war?       The resolution empowers member states to make collective recommendations, but it is legally nonbinding.     The US veto on Friday against a proposed UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza has triggered conversation and a call to action to use a rare United Nations resolution in efforts to stop Israel’s brutal war on Gaza.

Egypt and Mauritania on Monday invoked Resolution 377A (V) to call for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday. The resolution says that if the UNSC is not able to discharge its primary responsibility of maintaining global peace due to lack of unanimity, the UNGA can step in.    

But it comes with riders, and the UNGA recommendations are legally nonbinding, which means its proposals can be ignored without any consequences. Israel has ignored several binding UN resolutions in the past, thanks mainly to the diplomatic backing of Washington.

So, what’s the resolution, what’s its history, and can it be used to get around the US veto to stop the devastating war that has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians since October 7?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/whats-un-resolution-377a-can-it-help-in-efforts-to-stop-israel-gaza-war

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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Palestine and Israel

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Specific Issues Index

from Creating Better World