The UN Security Council will meet Friday morning at 10 a.m. EST to consider a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire to the carnage in Gaza. Secretary General António Guterres had called for such action in his Dec. 6 letter invoking the little-used Article 99 of the UN Charter, which authorizes the Secretary General to bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter “which may aggravate existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security.”
The onrushing humanitarian “catastrophe” in Gaza, in his opinion, meets that criterion.
The resolution was drafted by the nations of the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and submitted by the United Arab Emirates, currently a non-permanent member of the Council. The official UN news agency reports that in a briefing to the press today, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour reminded media that “the number killed was in excess of 17,000, with 65,000 injured, of which 75% were women and children. It was so disgusting and so disgraceful to see such a large number of people killed.” He reported that the resolution is short, and reflects both the urgency of action expressed by the Arab/OIC group and Guterres’s letter. Mansour emphasized the importance of the fact that many ambassadors from the OIC nations joined the Arab League briefing today to show their nation’s support for the immediate ceasefire resolution, but so did ambassadors from the leadership of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
As of Thursday evening, two Security Council nations remain adamantly opposed to any ceasefire to end the slaughter in Gaza: the U.K. and the United States.
Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood, told Reuters that “the United States does not support any further action by the Security Council at this time. ‘However, we remain focused on the difficult and sensitive diplomacy geared to getting more hostages released, more aid flowing into Gaza, and better protection of civilians,’” Reuters reported late Wednesday evening, Dec. 6.
U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who came personally to Washington, D.C., to lobby the U.S. Congress to pass Biden’s military spending bill (!), also rejects any calls for a full ceasefire. From London, The Guardian today quoted Cameron for continuing the genocide saying, “If you stop this and Hamas is still in control of parts of Gaza, there cannot be the long-term solution that we want.”
The U.S. has so far vetoed any and all Security Council resolutions which contain the word “ceasefire.” But the political cost, both internationally and domestically, of the United States continuing to arm, finance, and protect the Netanyahu government’s barbaric war to eradicate Palestinians and Palestine has risen enormously as Gaza nears total destruction.
Mobilize to make those political stakes for the Biden administration unbearable!
