NEW YORK, Tuesday, October 17, 2023 (WAFA) - A draft resolution drafted by Russia in the UN Security Council Tuesday failed to obtain the minimum required 9 votes in the 15-member council.
The resolution calls for a ceasefire for humanitarian reasons in the war waged by Israel on the Gaza Strip.
The draft text condemns violence against civilians and all terrorist acts without naming any party.
The draft resolution received five votes in favor and four against, while six members abstained from voting.
Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Gabon, and Mozambique voted in favor of the resolution, while the United States, Britain, France, and Japan voted against it, and Albania, Brazil, Ghana, Malta, Switzerland, and Ecuador abstained from voting.
“We are deeply concerned about the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza,” The Russian Permanent Representative to the Security Council, Vasily Nebenzia added.
Palestine’s United Nations Permanent Observer Riyad Mansour said that what's happening in Gaza is not a military operation but a massacre against Palestinian civilians.
"For 10 days, you have been watching Israel assaulting 2 million Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, being killed, injured, displaced. Israel has not spared a single Palestinian family in Gaza. No one should forget that Palestinian lives matter too and no one should entertain the illusion that killing more Palestinians will make Israelis more secure," he said.
"Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip for 17 years, has launched repeated assaults against our people there. Did it make it more secure? How can it convince anyone that killing more Palestinians, more innocent Palestinians is the answer?
I came to this Council many times telling you: “The Palestinian people no longer believe help is on the way. Prove them wrong. Restore hope in collective action.”
You now have important decisions to make, decisions that determine how the next days will look like for the Palestinian people, for the region, and the entire world. Be guided by the rule of international law, with no exception or exceptionalism allowed.
Don’t send the signal that Palestinian lives don’t matter. And don’t anyone dare say Israel is not responsible for the bombs it is dropping over their heads. Don’t entertain the illusion that killing Palestinians will make Israelis more secure. Don’t.
What is happening in Gaza is not a military operation, it is a full-scale assault against our people, it is massacres against innocent civilians. Nothing in natural law and international law allows for targeting of civilians and indiscriminate attacks against them. Israel has killed till now 3000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians. Half of them are women and children. 1000 Palestinian children have been killed so far. Israel has killed entire families, several generations at a time, How do you justify that? You can’t. You can’t whitewash Israeli crimes by proclaiming that Israel is not the one responsible for the Palestinian civilians it kills or that such actions would in any manner be considered as self-defense. This is inhumane and irresponsible, and it undermines the most fundamental rules of our international-law based order.
Everyday there are Palestinians killed, for years now, and yet you always press us to choose the peaceful path forward. You ask us to show restraint, you tell us that violence is not the answer, even as Israel continued colonizing our land and maiming and killing our people. And when Israelis are killed, why would anyone condone unhinged violence being unleashed against our people?
Why would this Council be unable to call for a ceasefire, to stop the assault and the massacres? The humanitarian and health system in Gaza are collapsing, 1 million people have been displaced, people can’t even bury their loved ones and mourn them. Lifting the siege and ensuring immediate and unhindered humanitarian access are equally important.
I told this Council months ago “regardless how hard taking the necessary decisions may seem now, the consequences of not taking them are infinitely higher.” Taking these decisions then would have saved many lives now. Further delay will only condemn more people to a certain death.
You know what is worthy of your unconditional support, it is the rule of international law and peace. So no Palestinians and no Israelis are killed anymore. So our people can finally live in freedom and dignity in their ancestral land, and two States, Palestine and Israel, can live side by side in peace and security, in line with your resolutions and international law.
We stood in the midst of the storm and stated, no civilians should be killed. International law has to be upheld.
At the same time, Israeli officials were speaking of mighty vengeance. Don’t you think Palestinians have much to avenge, including 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip whose lives are being shattered once again as we speak? This logic will destroy us all. It should not be tolerated. It is not enough to state that you disagree with it, you need to actually stop it.
Israeli officials said justifying their assault on our people in Gaza that they were fighting “human animals”. How would you have reacted if any Palestinian official had done the same? They said they would cut water, electricity, fuel and food on 2 million Palestinians and did so, in an inhumane and unlawful collective punishment, as bombs were destroying every remaining aspect of life in Gaza.
We came to you and asked for three things, things that should have been obvious from a legal, moral and political perspective. 1) stop the assault on our people, now. 2) allow immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access throughout the Gaza Strip. 3) Stop the forced transfer of our people.
Civilians should be protected wherever they are. Israel has no right to force them to choose between death and forced displacement. And in reality, there is nowhere to flee Israel’s bombs.
Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Families embrace every night not knowing if it is for the last time. You have the staggering numbers of those that were killed. I wish you could take a look at their lives, how they pursued it with courage and creativity despite monumental hardships, a blockade and repeated assaults, only to see it taken away. Think of the pain of those who survive. Think of how the rest of their life will look like.
In the next hour, Israel will kill 12 Palestinian civilians, including 5 children. And then the next, and the next and the next, until you decide to act. Failing to call for and to enforce a ceasefire at this stage is humanely unjustifiable, and politically disastrous. It is important to recognize the need to protect civilians and to respect international law, it is far more important to actually provide such protection and uphold the law.
Nothing can justify the killing of civilians said all of you repeatedly a few days ago. Regardless of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people, their legitimate grievances, the pain and suffering they endured and continue to endure, regardless of the occupation, the colonization, the blockade, the killing, the mass imprisonment, they can’t resort to violence to free their land or protect their people. Then, by the same logic, nothing can justify the killing of Palestinian civilians.
Discrimination and double standards are not only unjust, they undermine the rule of international law everywhere. Think of your credibility the day after. Think of the deepening divide between the Western world and the Arab and Muslim World, between North and South, between communities.
Our conflict is a political one, not a religious one. That is what makes it solvable. But it has an impact, given its significance, regionally and internationally, on coexistence across the world. If you don’t want a regional spillover, an international spillover, stop the massacres, start there.
We appreciate the efforts of all those who are mobilizing to stop the carnage, to allow humanitarian access and to put an end to the forced transfer. We will continue working with them. Every minute counts and the Palestinian people in Gaza have no time to lose."
K.T.
