Veto kills

How many Palestinians must die before Israeli atrocities are ended?

HUMANITY is dead. What else can we say when the United States chooses to veto, again and again, United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, where Israelis have killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since Oct 7. This is the fourth time that the US is exercising its veto to stop a humanitarian ceasefire resolution from being passed. The Feb 20 resolution introduced by Algeria would have passed — it was supported by 13 UNSC members — had it not been for the US veto. The least Washington could have done is to abstain, like the United Kingdom did. We ask, as one Gazan asked, how many Palestinians must die before the world puts an end to Israeli atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories? UN human rights rapporteurs, Western legal experts, Israeli historians and journalists have made public evidence of genocide being committed by the Israeli armed forces. If this isn’t enough, the International Court of Justice, the UN’s principal judicial organ, recently ruled that there was plausible evidence that Israel was committing genocide. The slow-to-act-against-Israel International Criminal Court, too, has put the Zionist regime under watch.

The US acknowledges that the Israelis are indiscriminately killing Palestinian civilians. Several official statements from Washington in the recent past hinted at such indiscriminate acts by the Israelis. Muslim nations were hoping for the US to loudly denounce the Israelis when they bombed shelters, refugee camps, schools and hospitals as it did when Russia did the same in Ukraine. The world is being asked to understand that there is a difference between things Ukrainian and Palestinian. The US also knows that the Zionist regime is dehumanising the Palestinians as Saudi Arabia told the ICJ this week. The persistent veto against humanitarian ceasefire has befuddled not only the Muslim countries, but also others. Washington’s blind support for Israel comes at a cost for the US.

Before the establishment of Israel in 1948, the world, either willingly or unwillingly, looked to the US to ensure global law and order. But with Israel growing too big for itself, largely due to the unconditional support of the US, Washington can’t lay the claim to unbiased policing. What has been unfolding in Palestine is clear evidence of this. For the last 75 years, the Palestinians have not only lost their homes and other assets, but their lives and limbs. No good cop will allow this to happen. Nations desperate for justice for the Palestinians are taking their case to international courts because they can’t get it in the UNSC. This is why South Africa filed its genocide case against Israel in the ICJ. This is why others are asking the ICJ to give an opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. This is why Malaysia is asking the ICJ to rule on the legal consequences of Israeli atrocities. If this trend continues, then the UNSC will become irrelevant. So will the US as a global cop. But there is a way out for the US. It must end its unconditional love for the inhumane regime of Israel. And as a good cop would do, the US must make Israel accountable for all the atrocities it has committed. Unconditional love leads to impunity.

(The US) must end its unconditional love for the inhumane regime of Israel.