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A yearlong is the Gaza genocide going on now and the question every Palestinian ask is: Why doesn’t the world interferes? The UN showed its inability to function: they refused to declare famine in Gaza and they often refuse to condemn Israeli war crimes let alone calling it a genocide. The UNRWRA, the Secretary-General, Special Rapporteur and Coordinators have all failed miserably.
The most remarkable issue of the shortcomings of the United Nations are the public comments they make: for saying things in a certain way or for withholding condemnations.
Many directors of UN organizations don’t condemn Israeli war crimes but prefer to using words as ‘deeply worrying’, ‘a tragic event’ or ‘shocking’.
When Israel attacks a humanitarian location, declared by the Jewish state itself as such, the UN should condemn this act as a war crime, but rather they say, as many states also do, ‘nowhere is safe in Gaza’.
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Beit Lahiya massacre: Euro-Med asks UN to declare Gaza a disaster zone
In the night of 19 October, the residents of the overcrowded Beit Lahiya in North-Gaza experienced a horrific, relentless attack on residential buildings that led to at least 87 civilian deaths! Rescue workers can barely work with almost no tools available.
More compelling is the fact that these people were starving for two weeks since the total siege on North-Gaza has begun.
On top of that there was no public outcry in the West and almost no attention at all, maybe because it was on a Saturday. Several United Nations directors from whom you would expect, didn’t tweet about this massacre, expressing their concern or disgust. Not Guterres, Albanese or Lazzarini. The one who did tweet and released a statement was Tor Wennesland, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He did condemn the attack on civilians but didn’t mention Israel explicitly. In the same statement he did mention Hamas explicitly, asking for the release of the hostages.
Earlier, the IDF had shelled the Indonesian hospital and with 3 hospitals that doesn’t function, the North has become increasingly uninhabitable. A beacon came from human right organisation Euro-Med Monitor that univocally condemned the massacre, criticised the international community as being ‘complicit’ and urged the United Nations to declare Northern Gaza as a disaster zone. In that case, intervention is required, and this will compel Israel to halt its genocide.
Surrender or starve policy: Why doesn’t the UN declare famine in Gaza?
It was Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, who said that “100% of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity, the first time that an entire population has been so classified.”
He also compared this dire situation with Sudan and Afghanistan, which is less dire. He said this in March of this year and since then the situation has been worsened. The total siege in North-, also called a surrender or starve policy, makes the levels of food insecurity the most catastrophic since the start of the war. Despite this fact, the United Nations has still refused to declare famine in Gaza, instead calling it a high risk of famine. About the causes of food insecurity, the UN refrains to mention that Israel is using hunger as a weapon of war. Instead of that, regional director Corinne Fleischer of the UN agency World Food Program, gives 3 reasons for the food scarcity and none of them criticises Israel. As quoted by Aljazeera:
“First, there are not enough border crossing points open. Second, once we get through, there is a problem of law and order inside Gaza that makes us have to be very tactival [about] when do we bring food in so we aren’t getting looted. Thirdly, it’s a very complicated operation”
Corine Flescher, Aljazeera
A formal declaration of famine will help to collect funds and garner more international coverage about the problem. Furthermore, it could be used as evidence of genocide. That there is already evidence showed the fact that several people have died from malnutrition. Several UN experts (special rapporteurs) have mentioned and labeled it as Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign. However, the rapporteurs function as advisers of the UN who don’t have the authority to speak on behalf of the United Nations.
Francesca Albanese doesn’t mention the complicit parties of the genocide
The United Nations was established after World War ll with the aim of preventing future world wars and genocides. As we are in the midst of a genocide the UN doesn’t acknowledge it as such. Some may say that an investigation on the ground should take place before the UN can acknowled ge it, but on the other hand, the current atrocities in Gaza are the best recorded genocide ever since we live in a highly technological (digital) society. The report of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor titled De-Gaza A Year of Israel’s Genocide and the Collapse of World Order details the most prominent crimes, the elements of genocide as well as the global community’s complicit role in allowing the genocide to continue.
Rather the UN special rapporteur on Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks about “reasonable grounds” to believe that Israel is intentionally committing at least 3 genocidal acts in Gaza. She presented this in her report Anatomy of a Genocide. Francesca is widely regarded as the most vocal person within the UN who criticizes the Israeli war crimes. But rarely does anyone mention that she is not authorized to speak on behalf of the United Nations. At the press conference at the presentation of her findings a journalist mentioned the fact that the report only cites quotes of Israeli politicians about their intent to commit genocide and it doesn’t contain written documents of the government. Albanese replied by saying that governments don’t write documents saying “I want to commit genocide, it doesn’t work like that”.
A very simplistic answer while she could have mentioned the leaked report Thinking the unthinkable on 13 October which mentioned the idea to forcibly expel 2.3 million inhabitants of Gaza to Egypt. This is a serious plan of ethnic cleansing which could be also regarded as genocide. Another question was about other countries helping Israel with the genocide. Could these countries be considered as complicity in genocide? Francesca replied by saying that she cannot conclude this at the moment while it is obvious that without the American help, the genocide cannot continue. Apart from that, she could have mentioned the genocide convention.
| The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalizes genocide and obligates state parties to pursue the enforcement of its prohibition. |
In comparison to her statements when the horrific Gaza-war was 2 weeks old, Albanese said that the inability to maintain peace and security ‘is an epic failure of the international community and the United Nations.’ Furthermore, she said: “I do not see a UN strategy. I do not see any political strategy to stop the slaughtering of civilians in line with what international law requires to prevent atrocious crimes.”
About the Israeli hostages Albanese is saying that they need to be released as well as the Palestinians who are in admin istrative detention. Many forget that there are also, and far more, Palestinians hostages who were literally abducted and placed in Israeli jails without a trial. That makes them hostages and not prisoners. By demanding their release, Albanese goes further than any other UN representative but it’s still not enough, if you consider that the Palestinian prisoners who have had a trial didn’t get a fair trial. The conviction rate of Palestinians that face military trials is an astonishing 99,7%.
Given the fact that international law demands a fair trial and these Palestinians didn’t get it, it is reasonable to ask for either their release or a fair re-trial. Francesca didn’t ask for either of them.
Secretary-General asks for ‘unconditional release of hostages’ but not for an unconditional ceasefire
When Israel bombed AlAqsa hospital on October the 14th in North Gaza where people were burned alive, the Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres didn’t condemn it explicitly nor did he make any written statement about it. Rather his spokesperson said on behalf of Guterres that he was aware of the ‘very disturbing reports, were people apparently burned alive’.
By using the word apparently, he questions the fact that people were burned alive. A visibly frustrated journalist said to the spokesperson that people in North Gaza are burning and starving to death. “It’s more than just calling it ‘disturbing’: Have the Secretary-General no more reaction to this?”
Furthermore, Guterres has repeatedly condemned the Hamas 7 October attack calling it a ‘horrific terror attack’ and also speaking out against the ‘sexual violence’ that never happened while the subsequent Israeli genocide is described in a far more neutral term: war. A much-made statement of Guterres is: “The war following the horrific terroristic attacks of Hamas”. In the one-year commemoration of 7 October he mentioned the Hamas acts explicitly and in the same speech the Israeli crimes are called: shocking violence but without mentioning Israel explicitly.
So, there is a pattern of normative statements when it comes to Hamas and neutral terms when it comes to Israel.
Maybe more appalling is the fact that he visited the family of the Israeli hostages but never visited the Palestinian victims.
What is also very remarkable are his calls for a ceasefire. Guterres, like many other UN directors connects a ceasefire to the release of the Israeli hostages. Given the terrible humanitarian situation in Gaza, they should ask for an unconditional ceasefire but so far nobody did that. On the contrary Guterres did ask for the unconditional release of the hostages.
Another remarkable statement of Guterres is about the Israeli allegations that some UNRWA staff would have been involved in the 7 October attacks. Guterres said he was horrified by the news and that any UN employee involved in terror would be held accountable. At that point in time, it was only an Israeli allegation and by using the word horrified, he gives legitimacy to the allegation. At the minimum he should have waited the result of an investigation. He could also mention that Israel is not an independent source as they have reasons to blackmail UNRWA.
While Guterres is recently declared as persona-non-grata by Israel, it should be the Palestinians to be highly dissatisfied with the work of the Secretary-General.
UNRWA: BETRAYAL OF PALESTINIANS
The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, has said that the Israeli allegations regarding the involvement of some employees with Hamas are meant to dismantle UNRWA, his most bold statement.
He mentioned two reasons why the Jewish state wants this: first in response to their allegations regarding 7 October. By giving this reason he implies that the allegations are true. The other reason, which sounds credible, is because if UNRWA is dissolved the issue of Palestinian refugees on the international agenda would be resolved, according to the Israeli logic.
When the Israeli allegation was made, Lazzarini took the exceptional and uncommon measure to fire these employees. His argument was to show that the took the allegation seriously, even though the investigation has just started. “I could have suspended them, but I have fired them. And now I have an investigation, and if the investigation tells us that this was wrong, in that case at the UN we will take a decision on how to properly compensate them”.
He admits that he could suspend them, besides that, he should have waited for the outcome of the investigation before firing 9 employees. It’s the same reversed process that several Western countries, among other the Netherlands, have used. They cut their fundings to UNRWA which also led to more people losing their lives. Let’s not forget that UNRWA is one of the few humanitarian organizations still active in Gaza.
Another allegation by Israel was made about the tunnels. The Jewish state claimed that there were Hamas-tunnels found below the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza. Lazzarini reacted by Tweeting that ‘UNRWA did not know what is below their headquarters in Gaza’, and with such a reaction, he gives credibility to the allegation. It’s very ironic that his Tweet was reacted with community notes, a feature that gives users the possibility to add context to prevent so-called fake news. In this context it’s said that the IDF found evidence connecting Hamas’ underground network to UNRWA building as quoted by Times of Israel. Both, the IDF and ToI are not independent sources, so the ‘community note’ is actually feeding fake information.
The social media platform X is full of pro-Zionist bots and fake accounts who comment in large numbers about any tweet about Gaza.
Finally, many Israeli attacks lead to dozens of innocent Palestinian lives, yet Lazzarini mostly is not even making a statement about it. Like the massacre of Beit Lahia. At other times when he makes a statement, he mentions the suffering of civilians but doesn’t mention Israel explicitly, let alone condemning.
In his statement of one year commemoration of 7 October, Lazzarini mentioned that there are 231 UNRWA members killed, the highest death toll in the history of the United Nations. Even this does not lead to a condemnation. But he does condemn, in the first line of the statement, ‘the horrendous massacre carried out by Hamas’. He also mentions, in the third line, the ‘twelve months of unspeakable suffering for the hostages in Gaza’. And after that he speaks about the suffering of the people in Gaza.
At the one-year commemoration of 7 October both Lazzarini and Guterres highlighted the Hamas attack, while it was also the same day that the genocide began. It should be also the Palestinians who are unsatisfied with UNRWA but we only hear the dissatisfaction from the Israeli side. UNRWA needs a truly independent director who sincerely place the interest of the Palestinians on the first place as the organisation is the only lifeline for them. A director who is strong enough to resist the Israeli pressures and blackmails, preferably an independent Palestinian director.
The whole international community has failed, to protect Palestinians, their lives, dignity and safety. Failed in ending the genocide which the world witnessed this kind of brutality for the first time in history. Like Fransesca Albanese has said before:
“This war will not end without political pressure from outside”.
There must be a UN strategy for ending the genocide. With withholding condemnations and sanctions, Netanyahu will continue to realize his dream: the extermination of Palestinians in Gaza. It’s for this reason that the genocide is also called: the war of extermination.
This led probably, as Lancet reported, to a quarter million deaths: the missing and indirect deaths included. That’s roughly an astonishing 10% of the total Gazan people, so it’s fair to say: an epic failure of the United Nations!
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