(October 15, 2024)
One rogue nation cannot declare war on the UN itself and continue to get away with it
(October 15, 2024)
One rogue nation cannot declare war on the UN itself and continue to get away with it
)November 14, 2024)
The United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories has accused British Foreign Secretary David Lammy of being a „genocide denier“ and said the UK has done „nothing“ to prevent atrocities in Gaza.
In an interview with Middle East Eye in London on Wednesday, Francesca Albanese took aim at Lammy in response to comments he made in late October denying that Israel is committing genocide.
„I hadn‘t realised that Mr Lammy was a lawyer,“ she said, referring to Lammy‘s legal background.
„As a politician, you might say that for political convenience,“ she suggested, adding that would still make someone „a genocide denier“.
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I have three urgent requests to prevent this devastating outcome:
First, I ask that Member States act to prevent the implementation of the legislation against UNRWA.
Changes to UNRWA’s mandate are the prerogative of the General Assembly, not individual Member States.
Second, I ask that Member States ensure that any plan for a political transition delineates UNRWA’s role.
The Agency must progressively conclude its mandate within the framework of a political solution, and hand over its services to an empowered Palestinian administration.
Finally, I ask that Member States maintain funding to UNRWA, and do not withhold or divert funds on the assumption that the Agency can no longer operate.
The cost of providing critical services, including education and healthcare, during a transition will be immense.
I must also alert Member States that abruptly dismantling the Agency will cost more than half a billion dollars in staff separation indemnities alone.
(November 6, 2024)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini addressed the UN General Assembly, describing a critical moment for the agency as new Israeli legislation threatens its operations. Lazzarini urged member states to oppose the legislation, support UNRWA’s continued operation, and ensure sustained funding to prevent a humanitarian disaster.
(November 7, 2024)
“Without intervention by member states, UNRWA will collapse, plunging millions of Palestinians into chaos,” Philippe Lazzarini warned during a special session requested by Palestine after the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed on Monday two laws to ban the agency’s activity and any Israeli official’s contacts with it within three months.
(November 7, 2024)
„Der israelische Feind zielte auf ein Auto, als es den Awali-Checkpoint in Sidon passierte“, erklärte die libanesische Armee. Dies habe zum Tod von drei Insassen geführt. Bei den Verletzten handle es sich um vier malaysische UNIFIL-Soldaten und drei libanesische Soldaten.
Österreichische UNO-Soldaten seien auch im Konvoi gewesen, aber nicht verletzt worden, teilte das Verteidigungsministerium der APA auf Anfrage mit.
In its latest accusation, UNIFIL said the IDF used excavators and a bulldozer to destroy part of a fence and concrete structure at a U.N. peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon on Thursday. Peacekeepers had also observed Israeli troops this week removing a barrel that marks blue line, it said.
„The IDF‘s deliberate and direct destruction of clearly identifiable UNIFIL property is a flagrant violation of international law and resolution 1701,“ UNIFIL said, referring to a U.N. resolution that mandates a cessation of hostilities in southern Lebanon after a previous war.
Victims from airstrikes in Lebanon “overwhelmed the hospital”, the WHO official explained, insisting that it was critical to continue supporting “the only burns centre that’s available in the country. Off the 40 burns patients treated so far “25 per cent of them are children”, he said.
Initially equipped with 10 beds, the Geitaoui Hospital burns centre has had to expand to 25 beds, providing critical care to severely injured patients.
There are enough new trauma kits to treat 50 patients twice; each kit has two modules, one containing medications and other supplies, the other specialist burns treatments and dressings.
Expressing solidarity with Lebanon’s health professionals, the top UN aid coordinator in the country condemned ongoing military targeting of medical personnel and infrastructure, including ambulances which are “very much under attack”.
“We need to be supporting them with supplies, we need to be supporting them also need with advocacy,” said Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Lebanon. “There have been great violations of international humanitarian law that we are seeing. So, we need to make sure these are not happening, that health care workers can do what they‘re there for, helping people and saving lives.”
(May 28, 2024)
Thanks to their comprehensive access to Palestinian telecoms infrastructure, the sources said, intelligence operatives could capture the calls without installing spyware on the ICC official’s devices.
“If Fatou Bensouda spoke to any person in the West Bank or Gaza, then that phone call would enter [intercept] systems,” one source said. Another said there was no hesitation internally over spying on the prosecutor, adding: “With Bensouda, she’s black and African, so who cares?”
The surveillance system did not capture calls between ICC officials and anyone outside Palestine. However, multiple sources said the system required the active selection of the overseas phone numbers of ICC officials whose calls Israeli intelligence agencies decided to listen to.
According to one Israeli source, a large whiteboard in an Israeli intelligence department contained the names of about 60 people under surveillance – half of them Palestinians and half from other countries, including UN officials and ICC personnel.
In The Hague, Bensouda and her senior staff were alerted by security advisers and via diplomatic channels that Israel was monitoring their work.
(November 1,2024)
Francesca Albanese made her remarks during a session of a U.N. committee focused on the inalienable rights of Palestinians on Oct. 30, just a day after releasing a report accusing Israel of committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza.
„It is time to consider suspending the credentials of Israel as a member state of the U.N.,“ Albanese stated. She acknowledged the sensitivity surrounding the issue, emphasizing that many member states also have troubled human rights records.
NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME, 1 November 2024 – „We the leaders of 15 United Nations and humanitarian organizations urge, yet again, all parties fighting in Gaza to protect civilians, and call on the State of Israel to cease its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help.
„The situation unfolding in North Gaza is apocalyptic. The area has been under siege for almost a month, denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue. Just in the past few days, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and thousands have once again been forcibly displaced. ……….
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Signatories:
• Ms. Joyce Msuya, Acting Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• Ms. Nimo Hassan, MBE, Chair, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
• Mr. Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
• Ms. Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
• Ms. Abby Maxman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Oxfam 3
• Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (SR on HR of IDPs)
• Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Ms. Anacláudia Rossbach, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat)
• Mr. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
• Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UN Children‘s Fund (UNICEF)
• Ms. Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women
• Ms. Cindy McCain, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)
• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)
(October 15, 2024)
One rogue nation cannot declare war on the UN itself and continue to get away with it
(Nov. 13, 1974)
The vote of 91 to 22 was taken to uphold a ruling by the Assembly‘s President, Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, suspending South African participation.
The United States unsuccessfully challenged the ruling, Which was also opposed by Britain, a number of Western Europeans and South Americans, and some others. Nineteen countries abstained.
How has the UN reacted to the adoption of the legislation?
The reaction from the UN system to the bills has been swift and unequivocal. As the news broke on Monday, several of the most senior UN officials, up to and including Secretary-General António Guterres, condemned the decision.
Mr. Guterres stressed…
The acting head of the UN aid coordination office, Joyce Msuya, called the decision…
UNRWA’s Mr. Lazzarini said that…
OHCHR spokesperson Jeremy Laurence declaring that…
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calling the development…
UNICEF chief Catherine Russell also reminded that…
while James Elder, a UNICEF staffer in the region, denounced the decision, saying…
What happens next?
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Mr. Guterres informed the President of the General Assembly that he had written a letter to the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on his government …
„I do believe that the impunity that has been granted to Israel has allowed it to become a serial violator of international law,“ Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said at a news conference.
Albanese said she recommends that the General Assembly consider the suspension of Israel‘s credential as a member of the UN until it ends violating international laws and withdraws the occupation, which she said is „clearly unlawful.“
(…)
„The International Court of Justice has ordered Israel to withdraw, unconditionally, totally, rapidly as possible its military presence, dismantling the colonies, stopping the seizing the exploitation of natural resources on the occupied Palestinian territory and making also reparations,“ Albanese added.
Jordan filed a formal request Tuesday for the Arab League to convene this emergency meeting to formulate a collective response to Israel‘s ban on UNRWA.
Unrwa’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, has warned that the Knesset vote „opposes the UN Charter and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law“.
In a letter to the president of the UN General Assembly, Lazzarini added that „under such physical, political and operational attack“ Unrwa’s fulfilling of its mandate will become impossible without the intervention of the General Assembly.
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Back in 1974 the General Assembly voted to suspend South Africa from participation in its work due to international opposition to its apartheid policies.
It worked with South Africa, it will work with Israel.
(October 27, 2024)
The UN’s top humanitarian official warned on Saturday that the entire population of northern Gaza is at risk of dying, calling for an immediate stop to “blatant disregard for basic humanity” by Israeli forces.
“What Israeli forces are doing in besieged north Gaza cannot be allowed to continue,” said Joyce Msuya, acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a statement posted on the social media platform X.
Hospitals have been hit, health workers detained and first responders prevented from rescuing people trapped under the rubble, she noted.
“Shelters have been emptied and burned down…families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” she added.
(October 25, 2024)
“Under the Geneva Conventions, States have an obligation to act when a serious violation of international humanitarian law has been committed,” Türk said. “Under the Genocide Convention, State parties also have the responsibility to act to prevent such a crime, when risk becomes apparent.
“For months, I have pleaded with all parties to the conflict, as well as all States, particularly those with influence in the region, to act to stop the carnage and destruction, to ensure the prompt and unconditional release of all hostages, and to ensure international humanitarian and international human rights law are respected. But still this goes on and on and on.
“Now, the international rule of law is being progressively dismantled,” he added. “Either the world ashamedly fails those who so desperately need help, or we stand united and put a stop to this.
(October 25, 2024)
Türk erinnerte daran, dass Staaten nicht nur verpflichtet sind, gegen Kriegsverbrechen vorzugehen. „Nach der Völkermordkonvention sind die Vertragsstaaten auch dafür verantwortlich, Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um ein solches Verbrechen zu verhindern, wenn eine Gefahr erkennbar wird“, sagte er. „Ich flehe Sie an, den Schutz der Zivilbevölkerung und die Menschenrechte an erste Stelle zu setzen und dieses Minimum an Menschlichkeit nicht aufzugeben“, appellierte er an Staats- und Regierungschefs.
At least five people were killed in another Israeli airstrike on a UN-run school sheltering displaced civilians west of Gaza City on Sunday, a medical source said.
Twenty other people were injured in the attack that targeted Asma School, run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in the Shati refugee camp, the source added.
The attack was the second to have targeted the same school within days.
In the name of humanity, the Secretary-General reiterates his calls for an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, and accountability for crimes under international law.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed shock at the “harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in north Gaza amid an ongoing intense Israeli military operation, his Spokesperson said on Sunday.
The reported incident occurred on 13 October, when the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) said two Israeli Merkava tanks broke through the gates of one of its bases. The tanks left after 45 minutes, following complaints from Unifil.
The Financial Times does not specify in its report where the incident took place, but on that same day, two tanks were reported to have hit the post of a Unifil base in Ramya, a town in southern Lebanon. Unifil said its peacekeepers were being treated for skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions.
Within the next hour after the tanks left, several rounds were fired 100 metres north of the Unifil base, and the rounds emitted a „smoke of suspected white phosphorous“ that ultimately injured 15 peacekeepers.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has said that an Israeli army bulldozer demolished an observation tower and the perimeter fence of a UN position earlier on Sunday in Marwahin, in the southern part of the country.
(April 10, 2011)
The Arab League request for a no-fly zone over Gaza may have been inspired by a UN-sanctioned aerial blockade for Libya to halt forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi harming civilians.
Arab League backing for that no-fly zone was seen as crucially important by the United States when it pressed for a UN resolution that authorised it and other countries to keep Libyan planes grounded.
Article 42
Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of members of the Renewed United Nations, when peaceful solutions to the conflict, leading to freedom, personal responsibility, self-determination, increased prosperity and further implemenations of fundamental rights and freedoms for the population of the territory are simultaneously proposed or put into effect.
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told RAI television that changing UNIFIL‘s rules of engagement or increasing troop numbers could happen if Israel stopped its operations.
„The message we want to send to Israel is that if you stop your army, the U.N. can also change its approach in that part of Lebanon, so that we can peacefully achieve what you‘re now trying to do by attacking Hezbollah‘s bases militarily,“ he said.
A Steering Committee for the Lebanon Response Plan (LRP) was formed today following the endorsement of the humanitarian and stabilization response plan for Lebanon for 2024. The meeting was co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN. It was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers of Education and Higher Education, Public Health, Social Affairs, Energy and Water, Labor, Agriculture and Environment; alongside the Ambassadors to Lebanon of Canada, France, the EU, Germany and the charge d‘affaires for the US; as well as Representatives of UN Agencies and national and international NGOs.
Below are the opening remarks as delivered by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the LRP Steering Committee meeting:
Your Excellency, Prime Minister Mikati, esteemed ministers, honorable ambassadors, distinguished guests, dear colleagues, good morning.
We gather here today at a truly unprecedented time for Lebanon. This country has already faced many years of multi-layered crises. Over the past year, the escalation of hostilities has inflicted severe damage on communities in the South. In the last weeks, the violence has intensified, causing widespread civilian casualties, mass displacement, and extensive destruction across the country.
Healthcare and frontline workers have come under attack, as have civil defense centers and water supply systems, pushing essential services to the brink of collapse. This must stop.
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“Yet again we see direct and apparently deliberate fire on a UNIFIL position,” the Mission said in a statement.
“We remind the IDF and all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property and to respect the inviolability of UN premises at all times,” it stressed.
(19:06 BST)
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (Unifil) said an Israeli Merkava tank fired at their watchtower near southern Lebanon‘s Kfar Kela on Wednesday morning.
Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged, Unifil said.
The Israeli forces’ assault on Gaza has escalated to a horrifying level of atrocity. Northern Gaza is being wiped off the map. Under the guise of “evacuation,” Israeli forces have ordered the forced displacement of an estimated 400,000 Palestinians trapped in northern Gaza, including Gaza City. This is not an evacuation – this is forced displacement under gunfire. Since 1 October, no food has been allowed into the area, and civilians are being starved and bombed in their homes and their tents.
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Signatories:
– ActionAid
– Action For Humanity
– Afri (Action from Ireland)
– Amos Trust
– Bloody Sunday Trust
– Centre for Global Education
– CESVI
– Children Not Numbers
– Christian Aid
– Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)
– Comhlamh Justice for Palestine
– Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu)
– Embrace the Middle East
– Feminist Humanitarian Network (FHN)
– Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS)
– Global Justice Now
– HelpAge International
– Interpal
– Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign
– Islamic Relief
– KinderUSA
– Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)
– Médecins du Monde Spain
– Middle East Children‘s Alliance
– Muslim Aid
– Novact Institute for Nonviolence
– Oxfam
– Plan International Jordan
– Sabeel-Kairos UK
– Sadaka-The Ireland Palestine Alliance
– TDH Italy
– Trócaire
– Trinity College Dublin Students‘ Union/ Aontas Mac Léinn Choláiste na Tríonóide (TCDSU/AMLCT)
– Vento di Terra
– War Child
– War on Want
– WeWorld
– Welfare Association
The head of UN Peace Operations on Monday said ambassadors in the Security Council had given a “unanimous expression of support” to peacekeepers in Lebanon remaining in position along the Blue Line that separates south Lebanon from Israel, despite coming under fire, with five “Blue Helmets” sustaining injuries following attacks by Israeli forces.
Jean Pierre Lacroix was speaking to the media at UN Headquarters in New York after emerging from a closed door meeting on peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, amidst Israeli calls for the force to vacate the area and move further north.
Das Aussendepartement hat den israelischen Vorstoss in einen UN-Stützpunkt verurteilt.
Zuvor hatten israelische Panzer das Tor zu einer Unifil-Einrichtung durchbrochen, über ein Dutzend Blauhelme wurden verletzt.
Auch der Papst hat dazu aufgerufen, die «Friedenstruppen zu respektieren».
(Issued on: 13/10/2024 – 22:57)
„In a deeply worrying incident that occurred today, the entrance door of a UN position was deliberately breached by IDF armored vehicles,“ he added in a statement.
At least five peacekeepers have been wounded in recent days as Israel targets Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
According to the Mission, at about 04:30 (local time), while peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF Merkava tanks destroyed the main gate and entered the position.
“They requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights,” UNIFIL said in a statement.
The tanks left about 45 minutes later after the Mission protested through its liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger.
At around 06:40, peacekeepers at the same position reported the firing of several rounds 100 metres (about 110 yards) north, which emitted smoke.
“Despite putting on protective masks, fifteen peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions, after the smoke entered the camp,” UNIFIL reported.
The affected peacekeepers are receiving treatment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on the United Nations to immediately pull its peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon from areas where Israel is battling Hezbollah, saying that the terror group is using the international troops as “human shields.”
Netanyahu’s comments came as the UN peacekeeping force said two Israel Defense Forces tanks had entered a United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon position Sunday.
I used to be able to write individual articles about the individual bad things the US empire is involved in around the world. These days I’m increasingly finding it necessary to cram a bunch of them into a single daily write-up to touch on as many of them as I can.
Israeli soldiers arrested the Jewish-American reporter and three other journalists at a checkpoint in the West Bank on October 8. According to one of the jailed reporters, @the_andrey_x, the soldiers blindfolded them tightly, roughed them up, drawing guns on them at one point, and hauled them off to detention in Jerusalem.
“The soldiers… illegally requested that the journalists hand in their phones, and when they refused, the soldiers pointed a gun at one of the journalists, hit him with their hands and the barrel of a gun, then dragged him out of the car and slammed him onto the concrete. When lying on the ground, they pointed 2 guns at his head. The rest of the journalists exited the car and the military raided it, confiscating phones, cameras, and personal items,” said @the_andrey_x.
Andrey recalled that in the course of abusing the journalists, “The soldiers told the female Israeli photographer that she should have been raped by Hamas.”
While Loffredo’s colleagues were released after 11 hours, the “Judea and Samaria” division of the Israeli police opened an investigation into Loffredo for supposedly “aiding the enemy in a time of war.”
According to Israel Hayom, the free daily newspaper, the Israel Land Authority announced the confiscation of the land in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.
Dan Iloz, a Likud MP, told the paper that the „expropriation of land in Jerusalem is an important step, but not enough“ and denounced Unrwa as „a hotbed for terrorism under a humanitarian guise“.
Netanyahu has issued statements essentially calling for regime change in both Lebanon and Iran, while Israel’s boosters in the United States see in its expanding wars an opportunity to “remake” the political map of the Middle East.
Das libanesische Außenministerium warf Israel einen „absichtlichen und systematischen Beschuss der Blauhelmtruppe“ vor.
UNIFIL bestätigte auf der Plattform X, dass es zwei Explosionen nahe einem Wachturm in Nakura gab. Zwei Soldaten seien verletzt worden. Den Grund der Explosionen nannte die UN-Mission nicht.