In 14-1 UN Security Council Vote, Lone US Veto Kills Gaza Cease-Fire Resolution
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
(Photo: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
The U.S. government, said one human rights lawyer, “proves once again to the world that it is fully committed to the continuation of the genocide in Palestine.”
The Biden administration faced fierce criticism on Wednesday after using its veto power at the United Nations Security Council to block a resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional, and permanent cease-fire in Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip.
The vetoed measure also called for all parties to implement a U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution passed in June—which would lead to the release of all hostages—and to enable Gaza civilians’ immediate access to basic services and humanitarian assistance.
Jess Peake, who directs the International and Comparative Law Program at the University of California, Los Angeles, condemned the U.S. decision as “absolutely unforgivable” while Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, declared that “this is absurd.”
Mai El-Sadany, executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, D.C., called it “yet another shameful abuse of the UNSC veto by the U.S. to perpetuate a war that violates U.S. law and U.S. international legal commitments.”
“Today’s message is clear to the Israeli occupying power—you may continue your genocide… with complete impunity.”
Human rights attorney Craig Mokhiber, who last year resigned as the New York director for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights over the United Nations’ response to Gaza, said Wednesday that “the U.S. has just vetoed another cease-fire resolution in the U.N. Security Council, and, in doing so, proves once again to the world that it is fully committed to the continuation of the genocide in Palestine.”
Mokhiber also called for action at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where there is no U.S. veto power.
“Even as we seek accountability for Israeli perpetrators, we must also seek accountability for complicit U.S. actors,” he said. “Israeli/U.S. impunity threatens the entire world. And the U.N. must now move to take concrete action in the UNGA.”
The 14-1 vote at the UNSC marked the fourth time the United States has blocked a Gaza resolution since Israel began its retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. All five permanent members of the Security Council—the U.S., the United Kingdom, Russia, France, and China—have veto power. The other seats are filled on a rotating basis and lack that authority.
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The 10 nonpermanent members—Algeria, Ecuador, Guyana, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, South Korea, and Switzerland—were behind the push to pass this draft resolution. Those who supported it represent “the collective will” of the international community, Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama said after the vote, according to U.N. News.
“It is sad day for the Security Council, for the United Nations, and the international community as a whole,” Bendjama said, stressing that it has been “five months since the adoption of Resolution 2735, five months during which the Security Council remained idle—remained hand-tied.”
“Today’s message is clear to the Israeli occupying power—you may continue your genocide… with complete impunity. In this chamber—you enjoy immunity,” he added. “To the Palestinian people, another clear message—while the overwhelming majority of the world stands in solidarity with your plight, others remain indifferent to your suffering.”
Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its assault on Gaza, which as of Wednesday has killed at least 43,985 Palestinians, according to local officials. Another 104,092 people have been wounded, and most of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents have been repeatedly displaced as Israeli forces have devastated civilian infrastructure.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood said Wednesday that “we made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional cease-fire that failed to release the hostages.”
“This resolution abandoned that necessity,” he argued. “For that reason, the United States could not support it.”
The U.S. government has been widely accused of complicity in genocide for arming Israeli forces over the past 13 months—including by progressives in Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday planned to force a vote on resolutions that would block American weapons sales to Israel on the grounds that they violate federal law.
Original article by Jessica Corbett republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh’s death by torture underscores brutal targeting of Palestinian health workers by Israel
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
New details have emerged in the case of the Palestinian surgeon who was tortured to death and sexually abused by Israeli forces. Meanwhile, the health situation in Gaza remains dire.
New reports have surfaced regarding the death of Palestinian surgeon Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, who was abducted by Israeli armed forces in December 2023 during an attack on Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. His case sheds further light on the abuse endured by health workers in Israeli prisons and detention camps. Palestinian prisoner associations had previously reported that Dr. Al-Bursh died as a result of torture. Now, testimonies from other detainees reveal that his abuse included sexual abuse.
These reports indicate that Israeli soldiers subjected Al-Bursh to exceptionally harsh treatment as soon as they identified him at Al-Awda Hospital. Dr. Khalid Hamouda, another physician detained by Israeli forces, recounted the severe injuries Dr. Al-Bursh sustained during his imprisonment in Sde Teiman concentration camp. At one point, Dr. Al-Bursh had difficulty walking or using the toilet without help, and feared his ribs had been broken in the beatings. Dr. Hamouda described meeting him in this state before Dr. Al-Bursh was transferred to Ofer prison.
When Dr. Al-Bursh was transferred to the new facility, fellow prisoners described his state as “deplorable.” They recounted visible injuries across his body, evidence of severe assault, and reported that he had been left naked “in the lower part of his body.” Soon after, he died.
“A doctor. A stellar surgeon. The embodiment of Palestinian ethics. Likely raped to death,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese wrote on X following the release of the new reports. She condemned the lack of reaction to the atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers, stating, “The racism of Western media who are not covering this, and Western politicians who are not denouncing this, together with the thousand other testimonies and allegations of rape and other forms of mistreatment and torture that Palestinians have suffered in Israeli jails, is absolutely sickening.”
Read more: Remember the Palestinian doctors killed by Israel
Accounts of torture and abuse similar to what Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh endured have been shared by other health workers recently released from Israeli detention. Many have highlighted that health workers represent a significant proportion—up to one quarter in some camps—of the total number of detainees held by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). This supports reports that the IOF systematically targets health workers in an effort to undermine Palestinian resistance and destroy any prospects for rebuilding.
Among those who described their imprisonment is Dr. Khaled Al Serr, a doctor originally employed at the Nasser Medical Complex, who spent six months in detention. He described following a similar path to Dr. Al-Bursh, being transferred from Sde Teiman to Ofer prison, where he endured regular beatings, including to intimate areas. “It was humiliating, but worse than that, they treated us like criminals,” he said in recent interviews. “We were just doctors trying to save lives.”
Read more: In Palestine, healthcare is also a form of resistance
Despite targeted attacks and the acute shortage of medical supplies, nurses, doctors, and other health workers in Gaza continue to provide care under dire circumstances. Recent efforts by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies finally succeeded in reaching the few remaining hospitals in northern Gaza to facilitate medical evacuations and deliver some essential supplies, including fuel, food, and medicine. However, these missions were obstructed by Israeli soldiers, who blocked parts of the deliveries. This has led to even more uncertainty about how much longer these facilities can remain operational.
The consequences of shortages and ongoing attacks in Gaza are escalating by the day. Hunger is spreading rapidly, with health and nutrition experts warning that signs of famine in the northern regions are becoming increasingly alarming. They are urgently calling for the immediate delivery of food across the Strip and an end to Israeli obstructions of humanitarian aid, emphasizing that delays will have fatal outcomes. People will die of hunger even before a famine is officially declared, and this would have “irreversible consequences that can last generations,” warned Rein Pulsen of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Read also: UN experts say, there is already famine in Gaza
The number of people hospitalized due to hunger, including many children, is rising, with their health further deteriorated by critical living conditions. Infectious diseases are spreading, compounded by the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure. Most forcibly displaced people are living in makeshift tents and are forced to rely on improvised absorption trenches for sanitation. These trenches, mostly dug by the displaced themselves, pose severe risks: children have fallen into them, collapses caused by oversaturation are not uncommon, and they have become breeding grounds for diseases like cholera. “We relieve ourselves in a pit that smells and certainly causes us disease, but we have no choice but to use it,” Abdul Salam Al-Aswad, one of the displaced, told The Electronic Intifada.
The impact on chronic diseases in Gaza is equally worrying. Cancer patients are being denied access to lifesaving care, while Israeli bombardments have exposed thousands of pregnant women to toxic materials found in explosives. Doctors have noted a troubling increase in infants born with congenital conditions, such as underdeveloped lungs, limbs, and other severe abnormalities, warning of correlations with the use of white phosphorus. Without adequate medical care in Gaza and with medical evacuations systematically denied, many of these children die.
As an immediate ceasefire is the only true solution to the destruction of healthcare in Gaza, health workers and activists are urging more international pressure on Israel. This pressure is essential not only to stop the attacks, but also to ensure the entry of medical supplies and, critically, food into the besieged Strip, offering at least some immediate relief.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscription to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.
Sanders Says US Complicity in Gaza ‘Must End’ Ahead of Senate Vote to Block Arms to Israel
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
A group of U.S. senators led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont held a press conference Tuesday urging their colleagues to support resolutions that would block the sale of tank rounds, bomb kits, and other weaponry to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used such arms to commit horrific war crimes in the Gaza Strip over the past 13 months.
“The truth of the matter is, from a legal perspective, these resolutions are not complicated; they’re cut and dry,” said Sanders (I-Vt.), who introduced the joint resolutions of disapproval in September alongside several other members of the Senate Democratic caucus.
“The United States government is currently in violation of the law, and every member of the U.S. Senate who believes in the rule of law should vote for these resolutions,” Sanders continued, pointing to U.S. statutes prohibiting the sale of weaponry to countries violating internationally recognized human rights or obstructing American humanitarian aid.
Sanders was joined at Tuesday’s press conference by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), each of whom made their case to fellow senators ahead of a scheduled floor vote on Wednesday.
“What’s unfolding before our very eyes right now is mass starvation and the spread of disease,” said Welch. “Is the United States and its foreign policy… forced to be blind to the suffering before our very eyes?”
Surrounding the senators as they spoke were photographs of destruction and emaciated children in Gaza, where most of the population is displaced and crowded into small segments of the enclave as Israeli bombs rain down and famine takes hold.
Watch the full press conference:
The resolutions will hit the floor for a vote Wednesday with the backing of a broad coalition that includes Jewish Voice for Peace Action, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, J Street, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Oxfam, and other organizations and activists.
“For over a year, the Biden administration has funded the Israeli government’s brutal genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, despite overwhelming opposition from across the country,” said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which said it has driven more than 56,200 letters and more than 20,790 phone calls to senators imploring them to support the measures.
“These joint resolutions of disapproval are one of the last chances that Senate Democrats have before Republicans take control in January to uphold human rights, honor the will of the American people, and stand on the right side of history by blocking weapons to the Israeli military,” Miller added.
“It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law, and in violation of our moral values.”
Since the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the U.S. has supplied its ally with more than 50,000 tons of weaponry and approved billions of dollars in additional arms and military equipment to be delivered in years to come. U.S. military support has helped Israel carry out a large-scale military assault on Gaza, killing more than 43,000 people so far—a majority of them women and children.
To sustain the flow of American weapons, the Biden administration has contradicted the findings of its own experts and outside analysts by declaring publicly that it has not found Israel to be illegally blocking U.S. humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, aid groups on the ground say humanitarian assistance has plummeted to an all-time low in recent weeks, with an average of just 37 aid trucks entering Gaza per day in October.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Sanders said the “most important point to be made” ahead of Wednesday’s vote is that “the United States of America is complicit in these atrocities.”
“That complicity must end, and that is what these resolutions are about,” said Sanders. “It is time to tell the Netanyahu government that they cannot use U.S. taxpayer dollars and American weapons in violation of U.S. and international law, and in violation of our moral values.”
This post has been updated to correct when Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the resolutions.
Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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Israel makes a veiled threat to attack Iraq
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-makes-veiled-threat-attack-iraq
ISRAEL issued a veiled threat today to strike Iraq in response to recent attacks by militant groups based in that country.
In a letter to the United Nations security council posted on the X social media platform, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed that his country had the right to “take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
Militants in Iraq have launched several air attacks against both Israel and US forces since Hamas attacked southern Israel from Gaza on October 7 2023.
An October 3 drone attack launched from Iraq hit an army base in northern Israel, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding 24, Mr Saar said.
In his letter, Mr Saar calls on the UN to take “immediate action” to address the situation.
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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/israel-makes-veiled-threat-attack-iraq