US Secretry of defense Lloyd Austin and Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.
Beyond US Isolation at UN: What’s Not Being Done
Institute for Public Accuracy
(December 21, 2023) — John Quigley (quigley.2@osu.edu), is professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University. His books include The Statehood of Palestine: International Law in the Middle East Conflict (Cambridge University Press) and The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II.
He said today: “The US government is continuing to veto and delay at the UN Security Council as Israel violates international law with its bombing in Gaza and other actions. There’s a whole host of things that should be happening under international law that are not being done. This is partly a result of US government obstruction, but there are other factors as well.
“Any country could go to the International Court of Justice and invoke the Genocide Convention, that would produce a preliminary measures order in about three weeks.
“The General Assembly can use Uniting for Peace to get around the US veto. This is how the US was able to fight the Korean War under the UN flag. The General Assembly can call on member states to impose a trade embargo on Israel, it can even call on member states to organize a military force. It could suspend Israel.”
Jeremy Scahill notes: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken just criticized other nations demanding a ceasefire, claiming he hears almost no calls for Hamas to lay down its arms and surrender. ‘How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim?’”
The Lancet just published the piece “The Health Dimensions of Violence in Palestine: A Call to Prevent Genocide” which states: “As public health and humanitarian professionals, we the authors state emphatically that the grave risk of genocide against the Palestinian people warrants immediate — and now overdue — action.”
The UN “has received disturbing information alleging that Israeli Defence Forces summarily killed at least 11 unarmed Palestinian men in front of their family members in … Gaza City, which raises alarm about the possible commission of a war crime.”
The Huffington Post reports in “Amid U.N. Security Council Intrigue, US Privately Moves To Block Another Option For International Accountability For Gaza” that: “The Biden administration is finalizing plans to urge Switzerland to reject a request from Palestine and its supporters to hold a conference on violations of the Geneva Conventions.”
Trita Parsi notes: “Just two months ago” Biden stated: “The United States remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and to self-determination” but on Wednesday, he “voted against a resolution at the UN that recognized the Palestinian people’s right to that very self-determination. Only three other countries voted with the US.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
