The United States voted against a U.N. resolution that sets a 12-month timeframe to end Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.
Most of the World Agrees Israel’s Occupation of Palestine Must End. The U.S. Is Fine With It.
All States are under an obligation not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. They are also under an obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It is for all States, while respecting the Charter of the United Nations and international law, to ensure that any impediment resulting from the illegal presence of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory to the exercise of the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination is brought to an end. In addition, all the States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have the obligation, while respecting the Charter of the United Nations and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.
WEOG, the UN grouping anchored by the Anglo countries, Israel, and European states, wields disproportionate power to undermine human rights and international law.
On the Need to Dismantle the Settler-Colonial Bloc at the UN
Mokhiber described Israel as holding “the world record for breaching UN resolutions”.
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) Meanwhile, a push by some Palestinian civil society groups to suspend Israel from the UN lacks a key element: A country to lead the initiative. Yet, the calls to oust Israel may intensify during the opening session of the General Assembly in September.
Israeli forces using ‘war-like’ tactics in occupied West Bank: UN
The speed at which the UN and ICJ is operating favors Israel not the Unity of Nations,
I imagine that many of us grew up assuming that Australia was a good international citizen, setting an exemplary example for other countries. I have no doubt that a great number of us are now ashamed of our country’s response to the ICJ opinion, and wonder where we went wrong, and how we became beholden to the rogue state, Israel, and indeed, compromised our sovereignty to it and its Zionist supporters.
Recalling its resolution 1904 (XVIII) of 20 November 1963 … that “any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous” … [The General Assembly] Determines that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” – United Nations, 1975.
December 1973, the General Assembly condemned, inter alia, the unholy alliance between South African racism and zionism,
Elimination of all forms of racial discrimination: Zionism as racism – GA resolution
The mandate of the independent commission of inquiry has always been under attack by Israel and its powerful allies, and its conservative approach may be a response to such pressure. The commission’s findings will likely prove useful in ongoing accountability efforts, but they represent an opportunity missed.
Source: Opinion | Those Who Violate the Rights of Children in War Must Be Held Accountable | Common Dreams
More of doing nothing but posturing
So if the Israeli government has committed war crimes, it has to investigate them and punish those responsible. Otherwise, the High Commissioner warns ominously, “Member States must support accountability measures at the international level, including through the International Criminal Court.”
Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant had better enjoy Israel in the summer, because their future ability to travel will be circumscribed when they are convicted of war crimes by the ICC.
Insanity Reveals itself
We owe an ironic debt of gratitude to Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gilad Erdan for advancing the cause of the State of Palestine at the United Nations.
By delivering a speech to the U.N. General Assembly that was so unhinged, absurd, vulgar, insulting, undignified and undiplomatic, Erdan helped to secure a lopsided vote of 143-to-9 in favor of Palestine’s U.N. membership (the rest abstained or did not vote).
Source: Israel’s Doomed-to-Fail Strategy
The outcome of the vote further isolates the United States precisely as much as the Israeli genocide in Gaza has also exposed and isolated Washington.
The United Nations’ human rights chief on Tuesday called for an international investigation into mass graves discovered at two Gaza hospitals that Israeli forces recently assailed and destroyed, further imperilling the enclave’s barely functioning healthcare system.
Source: Here’s What Pramila Patten’s UN Report on Oct. 7 Sexual Violence Actually Said – ScheerPost
Clearly, there is growing evidence that the supposed anti-Israel bias of the UN is a myth concocted to benefit Israel. Evidently, if there’s any bias at the world’s preeminent international institution, it is against the Palestinians rather than the other way round.
The Gaza war, however, is confronting the world with an unprecedented challenge, specifically to governments’ relationship with international law and their obligations to international institutions, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and others.
Biden votes to let the killing go on
“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.”
Source: ‘Disgraceful’: US Abstains After Watering Down UN Gaza Resolution
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu seems to love waving around cartoonish props at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. This year his theme was the likelihood of an Israel-Saudi rapprochement, which is being pushed by the Biden administration despite the abysmal Saudi human rights violations and despite Netanyahu’s ongoing destruction of the last vestiges of Israeli democracy.
Source: Israel’s Netanyahu at UN Wipes Palestinians off the Map, Menaces Iran with “Credible Nuclear Threat”
John Howard voted against what 143 Nations voted for and shamed this nation
The 13th of September 2007 was an important day in the history of Australian diplomacy although few people have heard of it.
The 13th of September 2007 was an important day in the history of Australian diplomacy although few people have heard of it. That was the occasion when veteran Aboriginal activist Les Malezer addressed the U.N’s General Assembly as the Chair of the Global Indigenous Caucus and introduced the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.
It was, he declared, a momentous and historic occasion for both the Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations. ‘It was a tool for peace and justice, based on mutual recognition and mutual respect.’ The Declaration passed with the support of 143 nations. Eleven nations abstained while Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States voted against it, a decision reversed by the incoming Rudd government in April 2009.
Source: The Rights of Indigenous People – Pearls and Irritations
Criticism of U.S. policies on Cuba from within the United States is usually brushed aside due in large measure to the low priority Washington officials assign to Cuban affairs.
Source: UN Forcefully Hits at US Blockade of Cuba and Prison in Guantanamo – scheerpost.com
Civil society groups in Israel and Palestine face serious human rights violations by Israeli authorities seeking to perpetuate an illegal occupation and apartheid regime, according to a report published Thursday by the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Source: UN Report Accuses Israel of ‘Silencing of Civil Society’ to Repress Palestinians
The United Nations this week slammed corporate “greenwashing” and said organisations cannot claim to be net-zero while supporting fossil fuel projects.
Source: ‘Toxic cover-up’: 6 lessons Australia can draw from the UN’s scathing report on greenwashing
Friday marked 100 days until the critical COP26 United Nations climate summit starts in Glasgow and the milestone was marked by renewed urgency in climate action. Alok Sharma, the Conservative UK cabinet minister who will be the formal host of the Glasgow talks, used it to write to relevant ministers around the world and call upon them to raise ambitions. “Although significant progress has been made, we must be honest that collectively we have not yet delivered at the scale and pace that science requires,” read his letter. “The world will be watching in Glasgow and it is our shared responsibility to rise to the challenge.”
This week, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres presented a report to the 75th General Assembly on the “Promotion and protection of the rights of children: promotion and protection of the rights of children: Children and Armed Conflict” It had a damning section on the situation in Israel and Palestine The report notes some violations by the Palestinian Muslim fundamentalist party-militia, Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, but the number is minor compared to the violations charged against Israel. The Guterres’ report begins,
Source: United Nations Accuses Israel of ‘Grave Violations’ against Palestinian Children
Trump walks Alone: Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions
Trump walks Alone: Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions
This entire act of gross miscalculation did its fair share of harm, though not in the sense understood by Pompeo and his officials. It spoke to a clumsy unilateralism masquerading as credible support; to great power obstinacy misguided in attaining a goal. It was not the UN Security Council that had failed, but the US that had failed it, an effort that many at the UN are reading as directed at torching the remnants of the Iran nuclear deal. The assessment of the US effort by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was sharp and relevant. “You got the Dominican Republic on board (how much did that cost the US taxpayer?) Not a single other nation voted with you! The shining city on the hill has been reduced to a glow, like the embers of a dying fire.”
New York (Human Rights Watch) – Israeli forces’ repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip since March 30, 2018, against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli forces have killed more than 100 protesters in Gaza and wounded thousands with live ammunition.
The United Nations General Assembly should support a resolution that calls for exploring measures to guarantee the protection of Palestinians in Gaza, and a UN inquiry mandated to investigate all violations and abuses should identify Israeli officials responsible for issuing unlawful open-fire orders. The killings also highlight the need for the International Criminal Court to open a formal investigation into the situation in Palestine. Third countries should impose targeted sanctions against officials responsible for ongoing serious human rights violations.
via Int’l Criminal Court must investigate Top Israeli Officials for Gaza War Crimes: HRW
In a blow to the Trump administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted, by 120 votes in favor, a resolution introduced by Algeria and Turkey condemning Israel for deploying excessive force against Palestinians at rallies near the border of Gaza.
After a thorough investigation, Human Rights Watch concluded that there are credible grounds for charging Israeli officials with war crimes at the International Criminal Court over the tactic of sniping at unarmed civilians who posed no immediate danger to Israeli troops (while over 100 Palestinians were killed and thousands injured by live ammunition since March, no Israeli troops appear to have been so much as injured).
The resolution was backed by 12 European states, including France, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Portugal, and Greece. 16 European countries abstained, but none voted against the resolution.
The UN human rights chief has slammed Israel’s deadly reaction to protests along the Gaza border as “wholly disproportionate”, backing calls for an international investigation.
Opening a special session of the UN Human Rights Council that could set up a commission of inquiry into recent Israeli violence that has resulted in deaths of more than 100 Palestinians in six weeks, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned that “killing resulting from the unlawful use of force by an occupying power may also constitute wilful killings, a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”
He went on to say that Israel has systematically deprived Palestinians of their human rights, with 1.9 million in Gaza “caged in a toxic slum from birth to death”.
via UN rights chief backs calls for inquiry over Gaza killings | News | Al Jazeera
Leader of the free world? More like a miscreant whose overbearing megalomaniacal ego is no longer tolerable to virtually everyone else.
Even close US allies among the NATO military alliance voted against Washington’s position. Britain, France, and Germany joined with other international powers, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Brazil, to repudiate Trump’s decision taken earlier this month to recognize Jerusalem.
via Washington’s humiliation at UN is sign of a washed-up superpower — RT Op-Edge
Australia came under fresh criticism over its treatment of its Indigenous population on Tuesday as a UN investigator examined the impact of a government takeover of remote communities and as Canberra pushes its bid to join the UN Human Rights Council. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up just three percent of Australia’s population of 23 million people but have disproportionately high rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and imprisonment, tracking near the bottom in almost every economic and social indicator.
Source: Australia again denounced for treatment of First Australians as UN investigates | NITV
After US demands, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reportedly told Rima Khalaf to suppress the report.
Source: UN official resigns after pressure to withdraw Israel apartheid report | The Electronic Intifada
The attacks from Syrian groups supported by the U.S. were described as “relentless and indiscriminate” while targeting civilians and killing children.
Source: United Nations Finally Acknowledges US-Backed Rebels in Syria are Murdering Civilians
The United Nations has delivered a blistering indictment of Nauru and Australia’s failure to help children in detention-like conditions, especially those driven to attempt suicide and se
Source: UN slams Australia’s regional processing centres in Nauru
OK, well I guess you’ve all heard the news by now. Cory Bernardi is being seconded to the United Nations for three months. Apparently this is a regular thing. Well, not Cory going to New York, but a government and opposition member going to the UN to work with people over there. Given Bernardi’s comments…
A United Nations panel has officially concluded WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” and should be allowed to walk free. Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for more than three years. He wants to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations, which he has repeatedly denied and for which he has never been charged. He fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face trial for WikiLeaks’ revelations. We air reaction to the U.N. decision from Assange and his attorney, Melinda Taylor, and speak with Mads Andenæs, U.N. special rapporteur on arbitrary detention.
Source: “A Significant Victory”: Julian Assange Hails U.N. Panel Calling for His Freedom | Democracy Now!
UN rights chief says air strike on MSF hospital that killed 19 is “inexcusable” as US president extends his condolences.
Source: UN says Afghan hospital bombing may be war crime – Al Jazeera English
The United Nations has postponed a planned visit to Australia because the federal government has failed to guarantee no one would be charged or intimidated for talking to its special rapporteur about asylum seekers and migrants.
![The largest demonstrations coincided with the move of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Monday, which saw Israeli forces kill at least 60 Palestinians [AFP]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/5/15/21741b99731c4cf3854b5344de5114e9_18.jpg "UN rights chief backs calls for inquiry over Gaza killings")
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