EPAUN Secretary General António Guterres during the Security Council meeting
The relationship between the United Nations and Israel has reached an all-time low. Yesterday, UN chief António Guterres made a rare appeal to Article 99 of the organization’s charter to bring the situation in the Gaza Strip to the attention of the Security Council. Guterres’ resolution for a ceasefire just missed tonight.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the UN has mainly played a role as a humanitarian aid provider, but criticism of Israel within the organization is also becoming increasingly louder. Much to Israel’s dismay. At the end of October, Israel called for Guterres’ resignation after he said the October 7 Hamas attack had “not occurred in a vacuum.”
After Guterres used Article 99 to convene the Security Council yesterday, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called Guterre’s term “a danger to world peace.” Article 99 is the most powerful tool at the Secretary-General’s disposal and was last used in 1989.
Following Guterres’ action, the Security Council tonight voted on a call for an immediate ceasefire. The US used its veto to block the resolution. Thirteen of the fifteen members of the Security Council voted in favor. The United Kingdom abstained from voting.
Sentiment VS
The United States believes that the Security Council has not sufficiently condemned Hamas’ terrorist attack. US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood also says that a ceasefire will ensure that Hamas remains in power in Gaza.
The US is Israel’s most important ally and, as a permanent member, it has a crucial position within the Security Council. Yet sentiment is shifting in the US. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris said that “too many innocent Palestinians have died in the war.” Yesterday, the US Senate blocked an aid package for Ukraine and Israel, among others.
The role of the UN in Gaza
The United Nations is very important in the Gaza Strip, especially through one organization: UNRWA. That organization was founded in 1949 specifically for Palestinian refugees. “The Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories have a certain autonomy and political representation: the Palestinian Authority,” explains professor of humanitarian studies Thea Hilhorst. “But it has been agreed that the actual state functions such as education, health care, roads, those kinds of things will be regulated by the UN through UNRWA.”
Since October 7, the situation has changed for UNRWA. The organization shelters 1.2 million Gazans who have fled in buildings that are also hit by bombings. UNRWA has lost 133 of its own staff in Gaza since the start of the war.
News hour spoke with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Fransesca Albanese. The rapporteur is not without controversy. She previously had to backtrack on statements about the “Jewish lobby” in America.
Together with other human rights advisors, she responded to Guterres’ action. “We ask for a ceasefire, for a protected UN force in the occupied Palestinian territory, for humanitarian aid that can reach the people of Gaza.”
According to Albanese, the fact that the Security Council has not adopted the resolution proves that the UN is “lame at the helm”. “The UN’s inability to prevent atrocities is a gigantic failure of the UN.”
‘Military operation illegal’
Albanese calls it unbelievable that Hamas would only benefit from a ceasefire. “Gaza has been almost completely destroyed. 16,000 people have been killed, 90 percent of them civilians. Isn’t that enough to establish that this military operation is illegal?”
Albanese added that atrocities committed by both sides must be investigated and prosecuted, including that of Hamas on October 7. “They have murdered, raped and held Israeli civilians hostage. But not enough is being done to prevent further crimes.”
2023-12-08 21:38:35
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