ISRAEL ATTACKS THE UN But Will They Face ANY Consequences?

Right, so whist Israel and the US continue to try to press Lebanon into giving up their sovereignty and basically hand over all the mountainous terrain Israel can’t conquer with a ground invasion, all being negotiated by the US, who sent an Israeli working for them just to add insult to injury to do that, which includes ordering the UN peacekeepers there, UNIFIL, north and out of Israel’s way, this is not now the only assault on the United Nations itself that the now clearly rogue state of Israel is engaged in, as yesterday the Knesset passed a vote which banes the UN aid agency UNRWA, the United Nations Relief And Works Agency from operating anywhere in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which Israel obviously control. Aid must get through, this has been demanded of Israel and instead, Israel outlaw the only agency with the knowledge and relationships and infrastructure in the area to be able to do it and again it is a UN member state as Israel is, blatantly attacking the UN itself, damaging it’s reputation in the eyes of the world further, when it appears to be observing this genocide continue and yet seeming to be completely powerless to do anything about it.
Just how much more will Israel do with impunity, to the people of Palestine and to insult all of it’s fellow member UN states, before the UN finally throws them out and casts them out into the cold where they deserve to be and is the UN even capable of doing such a thing?
Right, so following demands that UN UNIFIL peacekeepers get out of the way of Israeli troops who now expect Lebanon to just hand sovereign territory over to them, Israel have now outlawed UNRWA, the sole aid agency that basically has kept people alive in Gaza in the face of Israeli apartheid and atrocity going back decades. The Israeli government, the Knesset voted in favour of outlawing UNRWA by 92 votes to just 10 and if that doesn’t demonstrate just how unhinged both sides of that parliament are frankly, I don’t know what does. Another vote, that passed 87 to 9 prohibits and Israeli officials from contacting UNRWA, so Israel have also stuck their finders in their ears to any fallout and are going la la la I’m not listening. It really exposes Israel’s priorities though. They want the land, they don’t want the people, by outlawing the aid worker agency, they can say it isn’t our fault aid can’t get in, even though Israel now has responsibility for picking up where UNRWA leave off – as if that will happen when they’re the ones blocking the aid - but the UNRWA aid workers are now all Hamas, that’s the UN’s fault, not ours don’t blame us or we’ll call you antisemites. That is basically how it goes isn’t it? Naturally the condemnation of this move, always the easiest thing to do for other states isn’t it? To condemn? Well the condemnation has come from various places including Israeli allies who are looking at it in disbelief and wondering what the heck they have to do to rein Netanyahu in each and every time he throws them under the bus for still supporting him and the answer is pretty obvious really – stop supporting him - but if you’re going to sell out to those who support that regime and things are getting a bit tricky for you now, political sphincters clenching, well that’s on you, you shouldn’t have sold out.
The first condemnation I’m going to cover though, is the statement that has been put out in relation to this Knesset vote by Hamas, clearly showing they’re still very much functional, but equally try arguing against their point on this issue too:
‘"We strongly reject and condemn the vote of the Zionist enemy's Knesset on a bill to ban the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the occupied Palestinian territories, and we consider it part of the Zionists' war and aggression against our people to liquidate our national cause and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes from which they were forcibly displaced by the Zionist gangs.
The international community and the United Nations are required to take firm positions against this rogue Zionist entity that defies the international will and UN bodies, and to provide support to UNRWA to ensure the continuation of its work in providing relief to our people, especially in light of the current Zionist genocide in the Gaza Strip."’
Sounds horribly reasonable doesn’t it?
The UN itself is in the frame more than anyone else here though. UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma has said:
‘“It’s outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,”’
UN Secretary-General of the UN Antonio Guterres called the two bills ahead of the vote a catastrophe and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell called it a move that would have disastrous consequences. All trues enough, but if we’re going to talk consequences, there have to be some for Israel over this surely? The UN have to prove they are not an utterly useless entity that will allow Israel to use them as a doormat after treading in something deeply unpleasant time after time.
So can Israel be booted out of the UN?
Certainly this move should lead to Israel’s immediate suspension and this vote that has just passed is a suspension matter, so this should be carried out without delay.
By voting to block an instrument of the UN from carrying out it’s mandated work, by stripping UNRWA of its diplomatic status which it has held since 1967, Israel is now in violation of the UN Charter it signed up to as a member state.
Having passed, Israel have basically criminalised humanitarian aid and consequences must be felt, but as we know of Israel’s past track record at the UN, where it has in it’s time breached more than 70 UN resolutions and repeatedly ignored and stymied calls for a ceasefire, yet retains its UN seat because the US in it’s position on the UN Security Council has vetoed any censure against them.
Where expelling Israel from the UN is likely doomed to failure, this was tried with apartheid South Africa and got vetoed by the US, the UK and France, all permanent UN Security Council members still and it would likely be these same countries, the US certainly at least, that would block full expulsion of Israel again if attempted.
But the UN were able to deal with South Africa, were able to paint it as the pariah state it once was, ostracise it and isolate it and this led to the change that was necessary to bring about the end of apartheid and this stemmed from the suspension of their UN membership, which crucially, does not require the actions of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly can do this, essentially stripping Israel of it’s UN rights and privileges much as it has just done to UNRWA.
What we saw happen to South Africa at the hands of the UN General Assembly became to be known as the Bouteflika Ruling. The UN General Assembly President of the day, much as Antonio Guterres is preparing a General Assembly meeting that may fingers crossed see similar happen to Israel now, did something completely unprecedented as after that expulsion attempt for South Africa failed, the UN General Assembly voted, an unprecedented vote was called, which stripped South Africa of its member state rights and privileges. It could no longer sit at the UN General Assembly, could not speak, could not vote, and could not deal with other UN Assembly organs such as the Security Council.
The UN General Assembly also established a centre against apartheid and initiated international boycotts of South Africa at sporting events, and other international arena, economic or cultural meets or liaising with them at political gatherings. They were publicly shamed across the world as global pariahs and fundamentally this needs to happen with Israel too now, they are no different, they are arguably even worse in many respects, I would venture to say, but most importantly of all, this action can be taken without the likes of the US or the UK or whoever vetoing it, because at the General Assembly everyone has a voice and it’s high time the UN used it’s voice to deal with Israel. Stripping Israel of it’s voice at the UN will likely put more pressure it than straight expulsion would, because where one is a justifiable punishment, the other carries a tag of shame and whilst still being a UN member, that shame will follow them around for as long as they don’t change their ways.
This I feel is the very least that the UN must now do again. Th precedent has already been set, the proof that BDS as this basically is, works at international level and when the likes of the US and the UK amongst other nations have called Israel out for what it has done here versus UNRWA, then they can hardly try and stop this should Antonio Guterres lead the UN down such a course of action. I’ve no doubt they will, the leaderships of both countries are completely shameless, but they’ll get called out for it too.
Retaliation and consequences for Israel are something they don’t like, the same goes for the US as they’ve now faced backlash from Iran for their part in propping up the Israeli regime following their most recent strike. Where Israel got a war of words from the Iranians, the US got something equally as unpleasant. Find out all about that story in this video recommendation here as your suggested next watch and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.