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On Wednesday, the US used its veto in a UN Security Council Resolution to demand an unconditional ceasefire and the release of all hostages both Israeli and Palestinian.
It marks the fourth time the US has vetoed such a resolution, even as the November 20th vote saw the UK vote yes, a nation that had previously voted no or abstained.
In February, Washington’s UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield argued that negotiations with Hamas via Qatar over hostage negotiations would be jeopardized, without explaining how, if a ceasefire were implemented, and for that the US had to veto a third time.
“Proceeding with a vote today was wishful and irresponsible, and so while we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share,” Amb. Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already rejected the hostage deal before the third UN Sec. Council resolution had been voted on, and Qatar officials had also already said that the outlook of any progress was “not very promising”.
This time however, the resolution included a “demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”. The UN Security Council can issue resolutions to member states, which if violated can be responded to by military force from the UN, like in The Congo, or single nations individually, like in the First Gulf War. As such, a “demand” can be backed up by the Security Council with military force, and could, if ignored, involve Security Council members entering the Gaza siege.
This wasn’t enough for the US, who as WaL has reported multiple times, is determined to ensure the genocide in Gaza continues.
No Hope for Palestine
“We made clear throughout negotiations we could not support an unconditional ceasefire that failed to release the hostages,” said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, who cast the vote to veto the resolution.
The UN Security Council is the only body of the UN that can actually enforce the organization’s rules, which are on all levels, in most states, and in all domains, ignored routinely. No resolution passed in the Sec. Council can compel lawmakers, police officers, or soldiers in a faraway country. Woods is wrong in thinking any resolution could guarantee the release of hostages—which haven’t been released by Hamas even as their whole world is crumbling and burning around them, and the number of dead in Gaza could be reasonably believed to have crossed 100,000 civilians.
Woods and Washington cast their veto because they want the Zionists in Tel Aviv to cleanse as many Palestinians and steal as much land as possible.
In early October, 55,000 Gazans were expelled from the Jabalia refugee camp by IDF forces. In Beit Lahia, a city in northern Gaza near the Israeli border, October orders for hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate the area were enforced with a total military blockade to starve the population into leaving.
“There is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes,” IDF spokesman Brig Gen Itzik Cohen told reporters at the time.
“In [al-Atatra] and Beit Lahia, there isn’t a single house that people can return to and live in. The area looks like it was hit by a natural disaster. There are no civilians to be seen among the ruins,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in early November, adding that every night, the IDF fires artillery at random into the area. “Those who want to return can’t do so, because the army prevents it”.
Meanwhile, international food and medical aid levels, which throughout the genocide have never been as much as needed, are at their lowest levels since October 7th, 2023. Starvation and disease are reportedly rampant throughout Gaza, and for that, an association of American physicians believes that it’s reasonable the death toll now far exceeds 100,000, most of whom are women and children. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: The United Nations Security Council Chamber in session. PC: UN Photo.
