As Israel bombards Gaza and murders Palestinians, where is United Nations?


By Marzieh Hashemi

As the Israeli regime continues to commit horrendous war crimes against the Palestinian people in general and specifically those in the besieged Gaza Strip, many are wondering where the United Nations (UN) is and why it is doing nothing to stop the ongoing genocide.

Let’s analyze the reasons the so-called international community has chosen to be silent and impotent in preventing thousands of tons of bombs from raining down on civilians in the Gaza Strip or in ensuring that people there have access to basic necessities.

First, one must understand the so-called “rules-based international order” that was created to protect the interests of Western hegemonic powers by setting up certain international organizations and formulating rules that the rest of the world should follow.

The United Nations is an integral part of this so-called “rules-based international order.”

When we examine this world body and the reasons behind its creation, much can be understood. The main goals of the UN are stated to be “maintaining international peace and security and protecting human rights, along with delivering humanitarian aid.” 

For the most part, the reality seems to be quite different.

The United Nations was set up by the Allies of World War II, immediately following the war. The roots of this organization were not based on implementing equality amongst member countries or even having representation based on population, but its founding was created to protect the interests of the Allies, mainly the United States.

The UN Security Council’s veto-wielding nations are five countries that were Allies during World War II – the United States, England, France, the Soviet Union (now Russia) and China.

Having veto power means that when there are currently 193 countries, that are members of the UN General Assembly, if all of them vote for a resolution and only one of the members of the Security Council vote against it, nothing would be implemented. That resolution won’t make the headway.

It becomes clearer that the United Nations is not some egalitarian entity, trying to protect human rights and what’s best for all member states. It is an elitist body, created to protect the interests of the former Allies.

However, what ensued immediately following its creation was that the interests of these five member states changed with the existence of the Eastern Bloc led by the Soviet Union.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States basically reigned as king in the world again without much opposition from other Security Council members, pushing through its own agenda, until Russia started to reclaim its sovereignty again in the early 2000s.

And currently, there are schisms in the bloc as the world is transitioning from a unilateral to a multilateral world and there is a juxtaposition of power. Thus, we now see more of a divide among Security Council members, which for example prevented the UN from implementing sanctions against Russia for the Ukraine war, because Russia could veto any resolution in which it disagreed.

There is an innate bias to begin with at the UN and there are concrete examples of how this plays out globally, from which countries are sanctioned and which are not, to which leaders are tried at the International Criminal Court and which ones are not.

Looking at the UN’s involvement in just two countries, the bias of the organization becomes clearer.

First, let’s take a look at what happened in Iraq. In October of 1990, the Saddam Hussein-led regime invaded Kuwait. Four days after the invasion, the United Nations implemented a blockade against Iraq, not that the UN was particularly worried about Kuwaitis, but it was worried about Kuwait’s oil.

The sanctions against Iraq were severe with a total blockade on financial transactions as well as an embargo imposed by the UN Security Council’s Resolution 661.

Even later, the sanctions would increase, as the UN started calling for the removal of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) inside of Iraq, which were never found.

The initial sanctions CAME simultaneously with the implementation of a US-led military action by land and by air.  The original goal of the sanctions was stated to be for Iraq to leave Kuwait.

Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait ended in February of 1991. However, the economic blockade on Iraq lasted until after the US invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

For 13 years, the Arab country reeled under strict economic control by the so-called international community. According to UNICEF estimates, more than 1.5 million Iraqis, mostly children, died due to these crippling sanctions.

It appears that when the United Nations wants to implement force against a country, it can do so quickly and even cause extreme suffering, which is what happened in Iraq.

The UN doesn’t seem to have a problem ignoring the ramifications, even if it takes the lives of 1.5 million people. Perhaps they are just considered collateral damage.

Take the case of Libya. On February 15, 2011, the international community said a civil war began inside that country. By March 17, 2011, the UN Security Council had implemented resolution 1973. That gave way to military intervention in Libya, along with the implementation of a no-fly zone.

By October, the former ruler of Libya, Moammar Qaddafi was killed and by October 23, the war was declared over. Prior to that war, Libya had the strongest economy in Africa. After the war, the country has never been the same, spiraling into poverty, civil war and even slavery.

When it comes to the UN and crises around the world, it has been quite selective in its approach, from taking quick and severe measures to simply issuing statements of condemnation or totally ignoring a situation. 

In the case of the Israeli regime, there have been many times that the majority of the members of the UN General Assembly wanted to condemn the regime for its occupation and atrocities or implement strong measures against it but the moves were swiftly blocked.

The United States would use its veto to block any condemnation of the regime in Tel Aviv. Since 1972, there have been at least 53 times that the US has blocked anti-Israel resolutions at the United Nations.

Thus, it becomes more obvious that the UN is not really an option that can be used to ensure fairness and protect human rights across the board.

The goal is not to represent the oppressed but to protect the goals of global hegemony.

Amid the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world, there is hope that a more viable international structure can be created to truly reflect the needs of the countries in a more representative manner.

In the meantime, for the oppressed masses around the world, especially those enduring war crimes and genocide like the Palestinians, there should not be any expectations that some international resolution is going to be issued to save them and to help them regain their freedom and their land.

What history teaches us is that resistance is the only way and true negotiations and changes will only be possible when one is empowered and can alter the balance of power in a fair way.

Marzieh Hashemi is a Press TV host, producer and anchor.

‘Legitimate targets’: Israel justifies Gaza genocide by dehumanizing Palestinians

By Maryam Qarehgozlou

The apocalyptic scenes in the besieged Gaza Strip bear testimony to the genocidal campaign that is currently underway as the Israeli regime pushes ahead with its no-holds-barred aggression, legitimizing the massacre of Palestinians.

The indiscriminate bombings since last week, following the ‘Al-Aqsa Storm’ operation launched by the Hamas resistance movement in response to the prosecution of Palestinians and the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque, have been in line with the regime’s strategy of dehumanizing Palestinians.

In a press conference on Friday, Israeli regime president Isaac Herzog said there are no innocent civilians in the besieged coastal strip, essentially blaming the victims for their victimhood.

“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog noted. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”

His remark was in reference to the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, which won a huge majority in parliamentary elections over the once-dominant Fatah party in 2006.

When asked by a reporter if he implied that since Gazans did not remove Hamas from power, they are “legitimate targets” he said no, but then hastened to add: “When you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself?”

Israeli minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant also ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off the region’s access to basic utilities, including electricity, fuel, food and even water.

He basically green-lighted the suffering of 2.3 million people living in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly,” the war minister asserted, referring to Gazans as “human animals.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, while appearing on Britain’s Sky News, also dismissed the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, after being called out by the anchor.

“Are you seriously asking me a question about Palestinian civilians now? What’s wrong with you? Have you not seen what’s happened? We’re fighting Nazis,” Bennett said in a heated exchange with the host.

Such crude language and the policy of collective punishment against Palestinians is not new and the genocidal language has also been widely employed by officials in the US, the traditional ally of Israel.

Hawkish Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said Gaza should be “flattened,” while Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley implored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “finish them.”

Western media has also conveniently turned a blind eye to crimes perpetrated by the Israeli regime against Palestinians, blaming victims for being victims, and hailing the oppressors and aggressors.

Fueling the disinformation campaign, Western media outlets consciously and credulously amplified unverified claims of the beheading of Israeli children by Hamas, which was even denied by the regime.

On the other side, they didn’t deem newsworthy reports of Palestinian children being butchered in airstrikes after being ordered by the regime authorities to evacuate and move to the south of the strip.

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced on Saturday that at least 45 Palestinian families have been “wiped off the civil records,” since the regime began attacking Gaza relentlessly on October 7.

According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel dropped the equivalent of “a quarter of a nuclear bomb” since it began the onslaught in Gaza, killing over 2,700 people, including more than 700 children.

The regime also used white phosphorous munitions in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza.

Currently, with the number of dead exceeding the capacity of hospital morgues, the freezer trucks have been turned into makeshift morgues for victims of the devastating military onslaught.

Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas government media office, was quoted as saying that Gaza authorities have been preparing mass graves in the besieged strip.

“In light of the continued arrival of martyrs in their dozens as a result of the occupation’s massacres, a mass grave has been prepared to bury approximately 100 martyrs in the emergency cemetery,” he said.

The situation is becoming increasingly chaotic in the wake of the regime’s appalling evacuation orders, coming ahead of a potential ground assault by the regime.

Overnight between Thursday and Friday, the Israeli army dropped leaflets over Gaza ordering more than one million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza and Gaza City and head toward the south.

The forced transfer of Gazans is a blatant breach of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

Paula Gaviria Betancur, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, said on Friday that Israel must rescind its order for forced displacement of people in Gaza.

“Forcible population transfers constitute a crime against humanity, and collective punishment is prohibited under international humanitarian law,” she said.

And in case Palestinians are willing to evacuate their homes, with roads completely destroyed and bombs falling, how Palestinians are supposed to flee, human rights activists have been asking.

Thousands are still trapped under the rubble and more than 9,000 are nursing injuries, most of them admitted to various hospitals, according to reports. There are not enough beds, surgical beds or intensive care units and it is impossible to carry out surgeries due to the power cuts.

The outrageous and inhumane evacuation orders have also complicated the situation as the complete siege on Gaza has already crippled the health system inside the coastal region.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also condemned the regime’s order to have at least 22 hospitals in northern Gaza evacuated, where more than 2,000 patients are admitted.

“Forcing more than 2000 patients to relocate to southern Gaza, where health facilities are already running at maximum capacity and unable to absorb a dramatic rise in the number of patients could be tantamount to a death sentence,” the world health body said in a statement on Saturday.

The rampant war crimes, disinformation campaign and the blatant dehumanization of Palestinians have also encouraged hate crimes against the Palestinian diaspora.

On Saturday, a 71-year-old white supremacist landlord in the midwestern US state of Illinois stabbed a six-year-old Palestinian-American Muslim boy, Wadea al-Fayoume, to death.

His 32-year-old mother, Hanaan Shahin, a Palestinian who moved from the occupied West Bank to the US 12 years ago, is also in the hospital due to multiple stab wounds.

The Will County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that “both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”

A review of what happened over the past seven decades across the occupied territories clearly reveals that the Israeli regime continues to subject Palestinians to genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory, warned that Palestinians are in grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing and called on the international community to urgently mediate a ceasefire.

“Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war,” she said on Saturday.  “Again, in the name of self-defense, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing.”

Maryam Qarehgozlou is a Tehran-based journalist.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV)

Putin holds phone call with Assad over Gaza

Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin discussed the means of halting the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

The two presidents affirmed the necessity of immediately delivering humanitarian aid to civilians in the Strip and stopping the bombing and displacement policy that the Israeli regime is adopting against innocent people in Gaza.

According to SANA News Agency, they also emphasized the need to stop the displacement of Palestinians by the Zionist regime and the attacks against innocent civilians in Gaza.

On October 7, the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm deep into the territories occupied by the Israeli regime. The operation involved large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.

Israel responded with intensive air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 2,670 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding some 10,000 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel and internet.

According to reports, Israel also destroyed some 135,000 houses and residential units in Gaza since the beginning of its savage attacks.

SD/PR

‘Genocides are not supported’: Colombia pres. condemns Israeli crimes in Gaza

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has slammed Israel for committing crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip, saying “genocides are never supported.”

“If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we will suspend them. We do not support genocides,” Petro said on Sunday.

“The president of Colombia will not be insulted,” he stressed after Israel decided to cut arms exports to Colombia over “hostile and anti-Semitic statements” by Petro.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Lior Haiat on Sunday said Colombia’s ambassador Margarita Manjarrez was also summoned over Petro’s statements in which he likened Israelis to “Nazis” due to their brutal aggression and complete siege of Gaza.

Since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza on October 7, Petro has voiced his solidarity with the Palestinians in numerous comments on X, formerly Twitter.

Petro has said Israel must cease its systematic attacks on civilians and genocide, urging the European Union to abide by international law and condemn Israeli crimes.

That came as the EU has expressed its support for Israel in its aggression on Palestinians in Gaza, sparking widespread criticism.

Petro also stressed that the basic needs of life must be protected in Gaza, vowing to send humanitarian aid to the besieged strip.

Venezuela to send humanitarian aid to Gaza

In a post published on X on Sunday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro also condemned the “indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population by Israel, causing thousands of deaths and injuries.”

He said the Israeli aggression crossed “the line of respect for international humanitarian law.”

Maduro also noted that he told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a phone call on Sunday that Caracas would send more than 30 tones of humanitarian aid in the next few days.

According to his remarks, the two presidents agreed on the need for the establishment of a humanitarian aid corridor to help Gazans.

On October 7, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm deep into the territories occupied by the Israeli regime in reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Israel responded with intensive air strikes on civilian targets in the Gaza Strip, killing more than 2,700 Palestinians in Gaza and wounding some 10,000 others, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2.3 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel, and internet.

Anything possible if Israel continues crimes against Gazans, Iran warns

Iran has warned of the adverse consequences of the Israeli regime’s inhumane actions against Palestinians in light of its atrocious military campaign against the besieged Gaza Strip.

Speaking at a weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan’ani said the Gaza-based resistance groups are fighting the occupying Tel Aviv regime on behalf of the entire Palestinian nation.

He criticized the distorted narrative of the Western mainstream media regarding what is happening against the defenseless people of Gaza, saying they seek to exonerate the oppressors and change their place with that of the oppressed.

“Resistance is the [undeniable] right of the Palestinian nation. The Zionist regime has lost the battle, and the latest developments clearly show its resounding defeat in the face of the Palestinian resistance front. In order to make up for the defeat, the regime has employed all means at its disposal against Palestinians,” Kan’ani said.

The senior Iranian diplomat also described the Israeli actions in Gaza as a war crime, pointing to Israel’s repeated use of internationally-banned weapons against civilians in the enclave as well as its decision to cut off water, food and medicine supplies to the area.

“The world public opinion has awakened. We are witnessing that various nations are significantly throwing their support behind the Palestinian nation. Iran has repeatedly emphasized that the prolongation of the status quo could agitate the atmosphere in the region,” Kan’ani said.

He continued, “If such an inhumane policy persists, all options are possible. The resistance [front] in the region will not close its eyes to the Zionists’ crimes. The continuation of these conditions can endanger regional peace. It is everyone’s responsibility worldwide to confront the actions of the Zionists.”

Kan’ani also argued that Operation al-Aqsa Storm launched by the Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movements was purely indigenous in nature, roundly dismissing baseless US media claims about Iran’s possible involvement as part of attempts to stop the world public opinion from challenging Washington’s unconditional support for Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.

“The dispatch of [US] naval fleet to the region can be best explained as support for injustice. Any party which supports the Zionist regime bears the same level of responsibility, and has to be held accountable before the Palestinian nation,” the Iranian diplomat said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kan’ani lashed out at certain Arab states over the “unacceptable” normalization of diplomatic ties with Israel, stressing that “Normalization with the Zionist regime will not guarantee security for any party in the region. Those who once deemed that normalization could stop the Zionists’ crimes have now realized that they were mistaken.”

“If they thought they could provide their own security [through normalization], they are now witnessing that the Zionist regime is unable to ensure its own security. The Palestinian nation has demonstrated that it possesses the willpower and prowess to confront the Zionist regime and will not hesitate to take any necessary action.”

“Operation al-Aqsa Storm pulled the plug on normalization of relations with the Zionists,” Kan’ani underscored.

The spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry also said the Palestinian nation has the right to defend itself, terming the ongoing anti-Israeli operation as a natural response to the regime’s crimes and provocative measures against the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied al-Quds as well as Palestinian prisoners.

Kan’ani also said the bloody scenes coming out of Gaza have exposed the hypocrisy and insincerity of the so-called advocates of human rights more than ever.

The Iranian diplomat finally described the Israeli occupation as the “main cause of crises” in the West Asia region, stating that Palestinians view resistance as their natural right.

Palestinian resistance groups have clearly declared their readiness for a long-term battle against the Israeli military, Kan’ani said.

Israel will be gone soon as victory belongs to Palestinians

“This is a definite principle,” Ali Akbar Velayati added in a Monday meeting with Khaled al-Qaddoumi, the Hamas representative in Iran amid the Israeli regime’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

He hailed the recent achievements made by the Palestinian Resistance, saying that Hamas is moving ahead on the right path toward winning a final victory.

Velayati, who is also the secretary general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, said the ongoing Hamas’ large-scale operation against the occupation, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, was a major step that shocked the enemies.

He emphasized that Iran stands by the oppressed Palestinian people and would continue its spiritual support.

The Leader’s aide also encouraged Hamas fighters to move ahead with all their might, saying the Muslim world is strongly supporting them in the war against the Israeli regime.

Qaddoumi, for his part, praised Iran’s stance in support of the Palestinian cause, saying that as emphasized by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Palestinians must reinforce their unity to obtain their goal and defeat the criminal Israeli regime.

He said the recent unprecedented achievements made by the Palestinian people proved that the Israeli regime is in decline and that Palestinians will liberate al-Quds.

On October 7, the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Storm deep into the territories occupied by the Israeli regime. The operation involved large-scale air, land, and sea strikes.

MP/PressTV

Hamas conducts new strike on Ben-Gurion airport

In a message published on the group’s Telegram channel, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said that the shelling came “in response to the [Israeli authorities’] crimes against Palestinian civilians.”

The Israeli regime launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas Resistance group waged a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

Hamas said that its operation came in response to Israel’s violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East al-Quds and growing Israeli settler violence.

At least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday.

MNA/PR

Mohammad Al-Durrah’s father mourns brothers 23 years after son’s martyrdom


The still image taken from a video shows Jamal al-Durrah bidding farewell to his family members who lost their lives in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip on October 15, 2023.

The father of 12-year-old Palestinian Muhammad al-Durrah, who was killed in cold blood by Israeli gunfire in 2000, has bid farewell to his family members who lost their lives in the ongoing Israeli war on the besieged Gaza Strip.

On September 30, 2000, Muhammad al-Durrah and his father Jamal were filmed crouching behind a concrete block on a street corner in Gaza as Israeli forces showered them with heavy gunfire.

Moments later, the terrorized boy collapsed dead on his father’s lap whose attempts to shield his son from bullets proved to be futile.

The footage was broadcast around the world and became the defining image of the Second Intifada (uprising).

On Sunday, 23 years after his son’s murder, Jamal al-Durrah lost his brothers in Israel’s ongoing deadly bombing campaign on Gaza.

In an interview with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency in 2021, Jamal said his son’s footage is a testament to hundreds of Israeli murders of Palestinians which largely go undocumented.

My son’s martyrdom “has not been forgotten by the world,” he added. “It will never be forgotten.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group waged a surprise operation against the occupying entity.

At least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed and 9,700 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday.

The bodies of more than 1,000 people are decaying under the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israel’s relentless bombardment, according to the Gaza Interior Ministry.