Country ends UNSC tenure on fiery note
WHEN South Africa was voted onto the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member last year, the country pledged to advance the interests of the Global South, and elevate the African agenda and the question of Palestine.
Our representatives made good on the promise.
In her final address to the UNSC last week, during the quarterly debate on Palestine, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor slammed the UNSC for its inaction, calling its failure to secure Palestinian freedom “a profound stain” against the UN’s objectives.
Pandor lambasted UNSC members for failing to implement their own resolutions, specifically Resolution 2334 of 2016, which declared Israel’s settlement activity in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem illegal.
The resolution demands that Israel cease settlement construction and fulfil its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“We lose credibility as an institution when words are not accompanied by action,” Pandor said.
She expressed concern about the disregard for Palestinian interests on final-status issues in the peace process such as borders, the return of refugees, the status of Jerusalem and Israel’s illegal settlements.
“Clearly, there is no intention to seek or achieve peace by those implementing these actions,” Pandor said in a fiery address. “How is it possible to believe in this Council, in peace and security, in the face of such offending breaches of this Council’s decisions?”
Last month, our ambassador to the UN, Jerry Matjila, criticised the UN for not implementing any of its 72 resolutions on Palestine since 1948.
In July, the 54 member-strong African Group called out as “double standards” the international community overlooking Israel’s refusal to comply with international law and UN resolutions at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
African calls for the UN to own the Palestine mess are on target. At the heart of UN inaction is a Security Council trapped in the past, bearing no resemblance to the global landscape – politically or demographically.
UN membership has expanded since 1945, from 51 to 193 nations. The global economy has diversified.
Yet key decisions on peace and security are the de facto domain of just five countries: China, France, Russia, the UK and the US. Africa makes up a third of the UN membership, yet has no permanent representation.
Pandor reminded the UN that South Africa’s liberation Struggle was advanced by UN action and that “we need similar vigorous international solidarity, indignation and commitment for Palestine”.
The UN has the capacity to be a powerful tool to deliver justice. However it is difficult to achieve justice when Israel is shielded by a US veto.
South Africa’s tenure at the Security Council came in the first year of the UN’s Nelson Mandela Decade for Peace, which runs from this year to 2028. Unless there are reforms to the Security Council, dedicating a decade to Mandela – who called the question of Palestine the “greatest moral issue of our time” – will be meaningless.
Words that are not backed by action at the UN indicate to Israel that it may continue its occupation, colonialism and apartheid. Peace and justice will remain elusive.