UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a new report that options to protect Palestinian civilians under Israeli occupation range from establishing an armed military or police force to deploying civilian observers or beefing up the UN’s presence on the ground.
Every option would require the cooperation of Israelis and Palestinians, “a sustained cessation of hostilities and additional resources,” Guterres said in the report circulated on Friday evening, adding that the prospect of getting Israel’s consent, especially for a UN or non-UN armed force, remains highly unlikely.
Guterres was responding to a request in a Palestinian-backed resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in June that blamed Israel for violence in Gaza and deplored its “excessive use of force.”
It asked the secretary-general for proposals to protect Palestinian civilians and recommendations “regarding an international protection mechanism.”
In the 14-page report, Guterres said that the combination of more than 50 years of Israeli military occupation, “constant security threats, weak political institutions and a deadlocked peace process, provides for a protection challenge that is highly complex politically, legally and practically.”
Guterres stressed that the solution to protecting Palestinian civilians is a political settlement to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Until that is achieved, he called on the 193 nations in the General Assembly to explore “all practical and feasible measures that will significantly improve the protection of the Palestinian population,” adding that the measures “would also improve the security of Israeli civilians.”
Guterres focused on four options.
He said that additional UN human rights, political and coordination experts could strengthen UN prevention capabilities, increase the organization’s visibility and “demonstrate the international community’s attention and commitment” to protecting Palestinian civilians.
He also said that expanding current UN programs, and humanitarian and development assistance could more effectively address Palestinian needs.
However, a UN appeal for about US$540 million for basic services and support to 1.9 million vulnerable Palestinians is currently only 24.5 percent funded, Guterres added.
Major cuts in funding to the Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, “have created an increasingly complicated and desperate socio-economic environment,” he said.
That was a reference to the US cutting about US$300 million in funding for UNRWA earlier this year, which has resulted in a US$217 million budget shortfall.
Establishing a UN or non-UN civilian observer mission with a mandate to report on the protection of Palestinian civilians and their well-being “would particularly be relevant in sensitive areas such as checkpoints, the Gaza fence and areas near settlements,” Guterres said, adding that observers could provide local mediation.
The UN could provide armed military or police forces if given a mandate by the Security Council, “to deter and, if necessary, ensure the safety of the civilian population,” he said, adding that alternatively, a group of “like-minded” countries operating under a UN mandate could provide physical protection rather than a UN mission.
A UN civilian observer mission or a new military or police mission established by the UN, or operating under a UN mandate, would require Security Council approval, Guterres said.
He also said that UN missions currently operating in the region do not provide for the protection of civilians and it would be up to council members to expand mandates to include protection.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon responded to the report by saying that “the only protection the Palestinian people need is from their own leadership.”
The Palestinian Authority “incites its people to demonize and attack Jews, and Hamas, a terrorist organization, exploits those under its control by intentionally putting them in harm’s way,” Danon said.
The Trump administration has been a strong defender of Israel in the council and vehemently opposed the resolution approved by the General Assembly in June that called for Guterres’ proposals, making the chances of a US veto in the council on any armed force to protect Palestinian civilians or a civilian observer mission very high.
Guterres sharply criticized Israel’s expansion of settlements, saying that the building “continues unabated and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”
The high number of Palestinian casualties, including children, since protests began at the Gazan border on March 30 “reflects an alarming trend of the use of lethal force by Israeli security forces against individuals who may not pose a threat of imminent death or serious injury,” he said.
However, he also criticized that “the indiscriminate launching of rockets, mortars and incendiary devices from Gaza by Hamas and other Palestinian militants towards Israel” and the building of tunnels into Israel, saying that such acts threaten the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike.
“Incitement, provocative rhetoric and the glorification of terror attacks by Palestinian factions perpetuate the conflict, breed mistrust and diminish hope for constructive dialogue,” Guterres added.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS