[There are daily protests across the street from the United Nations. Protesters also gather regularly outside the New York City residence of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.]
SARAH LEAH WHITSON, via [email protected], @DAWNmenaorg
Whitson is executive director of DAWN, which is urging the UN General Assembly to deploy an international protection force to Gaza.
The group cites the “formal request of Minister Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, during the August 10 Emergency UN Security Council Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question, for ‘an immediate international protection force to save the Palestinian people from certain death.’”
Whitson said today: “Now that Palestine has formally requested protection forces, the UN General Assembly should move urgently to mandate such a force under a Uniting for Peace resolution. Israel has made clear for the past two years that no amount of pleading, pressure or negotiation will end its atrocities and deliberate starvation in Gaza; only international peacekeeping forces can achieve that.”
Raed Jarrar, DAWN’s advocacy director, added: “Israel’s murder of some of the last remaining journalists in Gaza yesterday, including Al-Jazeera’s Anas Al-Shareef, is an important signal that it’s moving to fully eradicate Palestinians there under cover of darkness. It’s more important than ever now to have international eyes and ears on the ground to stop their final advance on Gaza.”