Reports indicate that the U.S. government is pushing for a vote in the UN Security Council today on a resolution it drafted. UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber commented: “A distorted U.S. draft that would (1) divert diplomacy from the UN to a U.S. controlled process (2) compel Hamas to accept but not Israel (3) dictate to the Palestinians who will govern them (4) ignore Palestinian prisoners (5) return to the failed two-state ruse (6) NOT demand a ceasefire.”
FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He represented Bosnia at the International Court of Justice in its Genocide Convention case against Yugoslavia. He has been interviewed by MSNBC, CBS News and other outlets on the South Africa case. See a recent interview by Rachel Blevins.
Boyle said today: “As part of South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, the ICJ Ordered Israel to stop its Rafah offensive on May 24. That Order was formally turned over to the UN Security Council for implementation and the Algerians drafted a resolution to implement the Order.
“Then the U.S. government set up a ploy to sabotage the rule of law. Biden announced this alleged Israeli ceasefire proposal and is insisting that that be voted on by the Security Council. It’s riddled with problems and it’s clearly a maneuver by the U.S. government to run interference again for Israel so international law is not properly applied. Biden had said he didn’t want Israel to invade Rafah but kept claiming the invasion hasn’t started as hundreds of thousands of people were driven out. The ICJ stated in its ruling that the ‘military ground offensive’ started on May 7.
“A resolution based on the ICJ Orders should be put before the Council immediately. If the U.S. vetoes it, then the General Assembly should take control of the issue using Uniting for Peace, since the U.S. veto has been preventing the Security Council from preserving peace and security.” See by Sam Husseini: “‘Uniting for Peace’ is Next Step in Invoking Genocide Convention Process to Protect Palestine.”
ROBERT JERESKI, mutualaid10@gmail.com, @codepink
Jereski works with the peace group CODEPINK and has been organizing protests and outreach to UN missions of various countries. He stresses that other nations should ensure they are living up to their obligations under the Genocide Convention, the Geneva Conventions and other legal obligations by enacting military and economic sanctions against Israel.
Protests are happening at the U.S. mission to the UN (which is directly across the street from the UN building) every weekday from 4:45 to 6 p.m. The group organized a protest in front of the German mission.
Common Dreams reports: “Thousands Protest Gaza Genocide in ‘Red Line’ White House Rally.”
CODEPINK video commentary: “Four Israeli hostages for 200+ Palestinian civilians killed, three other hostages killed, and 400+ civilians wounded. How is that a ‘successful operation?'”
Branko Marcetic notes that the Israeli military “admitted they might have killed four other hostages in the process of killing everything that moves in Gaza.”
Mokhiber asks: “Was the U.S. ‘humanitarian’ pier used as a launching point for the Al-Nuseirat massacre (which could not happen without U.S. collaboration)? And what role did U.S. forces play on the ground (besides arming and providing diplomatic cover for the IOF)? #complicity”
Jeremy Scahill writes: “For eight months, the Biden administration has worked diligently to excuse, defend & facilitate the most heinous war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. U.S. forces aided in this operation and also bear responsibility for the mass killing of scores of Palestinian civilians it entailed.” He added: “U.S. Special Operations forces have been operating MQ-9 Reaper drones in intelligence missions over Gaza. Their use was initially focused on locating Israeli hostages but was expanded to aid other Israeli operations.”
