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international law
The Gaza Genocide Reveals That the UN Needs Serious Reform
Though the U.N. was formed following the atrocities of WWII, now it stands largely useless in its inability to stop similar atrocities in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, and elsewhere.
Nov 19, 2024
Francesca Albanese did not mince her words. In a strongly worded speech at the United Nations General Assembly Third Committee on October 29, the U.N. special rapporteur deviated from the typical line of other U.N. officials. She directed her statements to those in attendance.
“Is it possible that after 42,000 people killed, you cannot empathize with the Palestinians?” Albanese said in her statement about the need to “recognize (Israel’s war on Gaza) as a genocide.” “Those of you who have not uttered a word about what is happening in Gaza demonstrate that empathy has evaporated from this room,” she added.
Was Albanese too idealistic when she chose to appeal to empathy, which, in her words, represents “the glue that makes us stand united as humanity”?
Now that the Global South is finally rising with its own political, economic, and legal initiatives, it is time for these new bodies to either offer a complete alternative to the U.N. or push for serious and irreversible reforms in the organization.
The answer largely depends on how we wish to define the role being played by the U.N. and its various institutions, whether its global platform was established as a guarantor of peace, or as a political club for those with military might and political power to impose their agendas on the rest of the world?
Albanese is not the first person to express deep frustration with the institutional, let alone the moral, collapse of the U.N., or the inability of the institution to affect any kind of tangible change, especially during times of great crises.
The U.N.’s own Secretary-General Antonio Guterres himself had accused the executive branch of the U.N., the Security Council, of being “outdated,” “unfair,” and an “ineffective system.”
“The truth is that the Security Council has systematically failed in relation to the capacity to put an end to the most dramatic conflicts that we face today,” he said, referring to “Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine.” Also, although noting that “the U.N. is not the Security Council,” Guterres acknowledged that all U.N. bodies “suffer from the fact that the people look at them and think, ‘Well, but the Security Council has failed us.’”
Some U.N. officials, however, are mainly concerned about how the U.N.’s failure is compromising the standing of the international system, thus whatever remains of their own credibility. But some, like Albanese, are indeed driven by an overriding sense of humanity.
On October 28, 2023, mere weeks after the start of the war, the director of the New York office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights left his post because he could no longer find any room to reconcile between the failure to stop the war in Gaza and the credibility of the institution.
“This will be my last communication to you,” Craig Mokhiber wrote to the U.N. high commissioner in Geneva, Volker Turk. “Once again we are seeing a genocide unfolding before our eyes, and the organization we serve appears powerless to stop it,” Mokhiber added.
The phrase “once again” may explain why the U.N. official made his decision to leave shortly after the start of the war. He felt that history was repeating itself, in all its gory details, while the international community remained divided between powerlessness and apathy.
The problem is multilayered, complicated by the fact that U.N. officials and employees do not have the power to alter the very skewed structure of the world’s largest political institution. That power lies in the hands of those who wield political, military, financial, and veto power.
Within that context, countries like Israel can do whatever they want, including outlawing the very U.N. organizations that have been commissioned to uphold international law, as the Israeli Knesset did on October 28 when it passed a law banning UNRWA from conducting “any activity” or providing services in Israel and the occupied territories.
But is there a way out?
Many, especially in the Global South, believe that the U.N. has outlived its usefulness or needs serious reforms.
These assessments are valid, based on this simple maxim: The U.N. was established in 1945 with the main objectives of the “maintenance of international peace and security, the promotion of the well-being of the peoples of the world, and international cooperation to these ends.”
Very little of the above commitment has been achieved. In fact, not only has the U.N. failed at that primary mission, but it has become a manifestation of the unequaled distribution of power among its members.
Though the U.N. was formed following the atrocities of WWII, now it stands largely useless in its inability to stop similar atrocities in Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan, and elsewhere.
In her speech, Albanese pointed out that if the U.N.’s failures continue, its mandate will become even “more and more irrelevant to the rest of the world,” especially during these times of turmoil.
Albanese is right, of course, but considering the irreversible damage that has already taken place, one can hardly find a moral, let alone rational, justification of why the U.N., at least in its current form, should continue to exist.
Now that the Global South is finally rising with its own political, economic, and legal initiatives, it is time for these new bodies to either offer a complete alternative to the U.N. or push for serious and irreversible reforms in the organization.
Either that or the international system will continue to be defined by nothing but apathy and self-interest.
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When Will the UN General Assembly Suspend Israel?
Israel’s abusive repudiation of the very idea of the United Nations; its escalating and lethal violation of countless international norms; its repeated, deadly attacks on U.N. sanctuaries and peacekeepers all justify its expulsion.
Nov 17, 2024
The biblical Book of Job chronicles a string of catastrophes relentlessly plaguing the main character, Job, who loses his prosperity, his home, his health, and his children. Eventually, an agonized Job curses his own existence as well as the god that created him. Issues of evil, justice, and divine wisdom are explored, and while the Book of Job surrenders divine wisdom to God, it recognizes that the work to be done here on Earth is our own.
Numerous interpretations of the story exist, and more than one version has circulated through the ancient Near East. One version concludes with Job avowing repentance: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and so I repent in dust and in ashes.”
The Latin root for the word “repent” is pensare—to think. “Repent” suggests an effort to rethink.
Job’s surprising repentance has been on my mind as calls increase, in 2024, for the United Nations to rethink its relation to Israel as a member state. Increasingly, civil society groups are pressuring Permanent Missions to the U.N. to eject Israel as a voting member of the General Assembly.
In a way, Israel has already removed itself from norms maintained by the U.N. Charter as it has consistently flouted U.N. treaties, resolutions, and advisery opinions.
To paraphrase Pankaj Mishra, writing for The New York Review of Books, a stunned world has watched with disbelief as the United States provisions Israel with weapons enabling a mass murder spree across the Middle East.
Palestinians in the West Bank have recently urged all organizations demanding U.N. compliance with the International Court of Justice ruling of July 2024 to sign a letter available at World BEYOND War which urges Member States of the United Nations General Assembly to fulfill their duties.
Following up on the potential of this letter, a new coalition, “Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine,” has issued a letter to His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang, the president of the United Nations General Assembly asking him to convene an urgent meeting of the General Assembly to demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire, establish and secure humanitarian aid corridors, and ensure the complete withdrawal of Israel from the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
The letter additionally requests:
- The revival of the U.N. Committee Against Apartheid to address systemic violations of international law and human rights in the OPT;
- Consideration of targeted boycotts, sanctions, and divestments, particularly against illegal operations in the OPT;
- The establishment of an arms embargo on Israel; and
- Exploration of suspending Israel from the General Assembly until it complies with international law.
To further support these efforts, the letter calls for the establishment of an unarmed U.N. peacekeeping mission in the OPT under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter to ensure the safety and dignity of all civilians.
In a way, Israel has already removed itself from norms maintained by the U.N. Charter as it has consistently flouted U.N. treaties, resolutions, and advisery opinions. We must not forget that Israel refuses to acknowledge to the U.N. its possession of nuclear weapons.
I felt startled, during an initial planning call held with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, when one of them spoke of the evacuation he and his family faced, that very day, and said, “We are facing the final solution. Israel is imposing the final solution on us.” Other participants spoke of having shuddered during bombings, day and night.
Journalist Mehdi Hasan, writes movingly in The Guardian of how absurd it is that the United Nations General Assembly agrees to seat Israel as a U.N. member nation.
Israel’s abusive repudiation of the very idea of the United Nations; its escalating and lethal violation of countless international norms; its repeated, deadly attacks on U.N. sanctuaries and peacekeepers all justify its expulsion. Hasan reminds us that Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the United Nations shredded the U.N. Charter while standing at the General Assembly podium. This is the charter that declares the U.N. mission to eradicate the scourge of warfare for future generations.
It is time for the clouds to part above the burning lands of West Asia—for the suffering there to be comforted and their pitiless accusers rebuked by the gathered voice of humanity, by the agent that created Israel and can, when it wishes, “let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” The work here is ours, and so let our United Nations demand, and not beg, humanity from Israel and from its imperial sponsor, the United States.
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As US Keeps Arms Flowing, UN Panel Says Israeli Assault on Gaza 'Consistent With Genocide'
"Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population."
Nov 14, 2024
Less than 48 hours after the Biden administration said it does not believe Israel is unlawfully obstructing humanitarian assistance in Gaza, a United Nations special committee issued a report Thursday arguing that the Israeli military's actions in the Palestinian enclave bear "the characteristics of genocide."
"Since the beginning of the war, Israeli officials have publicly supported policies that strip Palestinians of the very necessities required to sustain life—food, water, and fuel," said the U.N. committee. "These statements, along with the systematic and unlawful interference of humanitarian aid, make clear Israel's intent to instrumentalize lifesaving supplies for political and military gains."
"Through its siege over Gaza, obstruction of humanitarian aid, alongside targeted attacks and killing of civilians and aid workers, despite repeated U.N. appeals, binding orders from the International Court of Justice, and resolutions of the Security Council, Israel is intentionally causing death, starvation, and serious injury, using starvation as a method of war, and inflicting collective punishment on the Palestinian population," the panel added.
The new report examines in detail Israel's relentless and large-scale aerial assault on the Gaza Strip, which Israeli missiles and bombs—many of them provided by the United States—have rendered a "wasteland of rubble, garbage, and human remains," as one U.N. expert recently put it. Women and children have made up nearly 70% of those killed by Israeli forces in Gaza over the past 13 months.
The near-constant bombing since the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023 has devastated Gaza's civilian infrastructure, including water and sanitation systems, sparking a massive public health crisis that has compounded the humanitarian impacts of the military assault.
Israeli forces have also systematically targeted Gaza's agricultural land and infrastructure, which along with Israel's suffocating blockade has created famine conditions across the enclave.
"By destroying vital water, sanitation, and food systems, and contaminating the environment, Israel has created a lethal mix of crises that will inflict severe harm on generations to come," the U.N. committee said in a statement Thursday.
"It is the collective responsibility of every state to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem."
It is rare for a U.N. body to characterize a member nation's actions as genocidal, a fact that underscores the severity of the special committee's description of Israel's war on Gaza as "consistent with genocide."
"It is the collective responsibility of every state to stop supporting the assault on Gaza and the apartheid system in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem," the committee said Thursday. "Upholding international law and ensuring accountability for violations rests squarely on member states. A failure to do so weakens the very core of the international legal system and sets a dangerous precedent, allowing atrocities to go unchecked."
The panel's report comes days after the Biden administration said it has not assessed that Israel is illegally obstructing American humanitarian aid following a 30-day period in which the U.S. demanded improvements to conditions on the ground in Gaza. The latest U.S. assessment allows American military aid to continue flowing to Israel.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza didn't just not improve during the 30-day period—it deteriorated further, according to aid groups.
"Israel not only failed to meet the U.S. criteria that would indicate support to the humanitarian response, but concurrently took actions that dramatically worsened the situation on the ground, particularly in northern Gaza," a coalition of aid groups said earlier this week. "That situation is in an even more dire state today than a month ago."
Continued U.S. military assistance is enabling what Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called "war crimes and crimes against humanity" across the Gaza Strip. The group pointed specifically to the "massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians," which has "caused grave harm" without any "plausible imperative military reason."
"The United States, Germany, and other countries should immediately suspend weapons transfers and military assistance to Israel," HRW said. "Continuing to provide arms to Israel risks complicity in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave human rights violations."
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