Better late than never. Though it has been delayed, the General Assembly’s tenth emergency session, which begins this Thursday, offers hope to the peoples of the world who have been calling for an end to the Holocaust in the Gaza Strip ever since the Netanyahu-led genocide campaign began with support from the West.
After the Security Council failed to take action due to the US’s dominance and rejection of any draft resolution calling for a ceasefire,
no choice is left for these people to confront this madness except for the General Assembly to replace the Security Council and take the necessary measures, including armed force, in accordance with the United for Peace resolution.
Over the past 17 days of war, which left thousands of casualties and horrific destruction of the Gaza Strip, the US-led Western position has become more rigid and unwavering in what they call “Israel’s right to self-defense.” Throughout these days, no one has stood up to say to Biden and his allies that enough is enough. More than 170 countries, including 57 Arab and Islamic countries, have disappeared from the scene, except for some occasional fanfare.
The big test, the day of answering big questions, is coming up on Thursday. As many predicted following the war between Russia and Ukraine, do we truly live in a multipolar world? Will a global humanitarian front emerge to oppose the US-led military coalition and take strong decisions that represent the aspirations of the people to put an end to the Holocaust in Gaza?
Let us be optimistic, since we have no other choice given the cruelty of the evil alliance headed by the US. The only option left for those present on Thursday is to unite their voices and decisions to fortify the will for peace and stifle the will for war.
There are 193 members of the United Nations at the moment. There are about 23 nations whose governments formally back Israeli occupation. Though they were a tiny minority, they managed to use orgy to subvert international peace and security agreements and influence them, rendering national security and peace meaningless.
Under the auspices of the Emergency Assembly, 170 nations—including nuclear powerhouses—are able to conduct a nonviolent rescue effort for the Gaza Strip. Israel will receive a plethora of weaponry from the US and its allies, along with battleships. Why, in exchange, do certain nations not dispatch their battleships to guard rescue crews and humanitarian convoys? They can set the pace, just as they are doing in Taiwan and the Ukraine, and neither Israel nor the US will dare shoot a single shot at convoys flying their national flags alongside the UN flag.
However, geography constitutes a big problem for us, for Gaza, and for the countries that are going to meet on Thursday. Egypt, which was humiliated by Israel after bombing its border military sites and crossing, did not defend its sovereignty and instead seemed subservient and even compatible with Israel’s plan to crush the Gaza Strip based on statements made by Sisi and his Foreign Minister. The Gaza Strip was not choked to death during earlier wars launched during Mubarak’s era. Instead, international campaigns, medical teams, and humanitarian aid were passing through the Rafah crossing against Israel’s will.
In brief, these require the following from the countries convening on Thursday under the auspices of the UN:
- A decision to immediately stop the unjust Israeli war.
- Opening the Rafah crossing before the humanitarian relief convoys and medical teams under international military protection.
- Transporting thousands of injured people for overseas medical care.
- Offering immediate protection to Palestinian detainees in view of Israel’s policy of torture and arbitrary detentions.
- Bringing a genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, citing acts in the Gaza Strip and other Palestinian territories.
- Pressuring the International Criminal Court’s Public Prosecution Office to work on the files it received regarding the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.
- Finding practical mechanisms to protect the Palestinian people and the holy sites, especially Aqsa Mosque, in order to prevent such crimes from happening again.
- Since it has been demonstrated that the occupation is behind the ongoing massacres, significant steps must be taken to put an end to it permanently.
Considering the 75 years of violence and persecution against the Palestinian people, coupled with the current Gaza Holocaust, these are the bare minimum demands, which are not impossible to meet, as they are fully compatible with international humanitarian law, especially since there are forces that have the will to implement all or some of them. But the most important thing is that the voices of the guns stop.
