The Zionist State of Israel has flaunted political impunity and an “above the law” swag on the world stage. Despite being backed by the might, money, and global influence of America, its longtime benefactor, the chips appear to be falling hard and fast for both, but especially Israel, argue some observers and analysts.
The United Nations Security Council finally voted for an “immediate ceasefire” not blocked by America’s veto in Israel’s grueling war on Gaza. Then simultaneously, a human rights expert delivered a damning report strongly supporting the litany of accusations charging Israel of emphatically committing genocide against the Palestinian people.
“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” said Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide … has been met,” she said.
Ms. Albanese presented the report titled “Anatomy of Genocide” before member states of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 26. The report points out that Israel has committed three of the five acts constituting genocide as outlined in the Geneva Convention on Genocide.
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The convention was enacted in 1948 and defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
The crime of genocide comprises two interconnected elements, the “act” and the “intent” behind its commission. Israel has committed both acts and stated intentions to displace and eliminate the Palestinian people, according to the report. Commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met, and the report notes:
killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups’ members.
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Genocidal acts were approved and given effect following statements of genocidal intent issued by senior military and government officials.
Since Oct. 7, through lethal weapons and deliberate imposition of life-threatening conditions like starvation and disease, Israel has slain over 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The report says the number equals approximately 1.4 percent of its population.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel, which took exception to the report, attended the session. An Israeli press release stated it “utterly rejects” Ms. Albanese’s report, calling it “an obscene inversion of reality.”
“The very attempt to level the charge of genocide against Israel is an outrageous distortion of the Genocide Convention. It is an attempt to empty the word genocide of its unique force and special meaning,” said the release.
The Permanent Observer of Palestine to the UN in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, noted the report provides the historical context of genocide against the Palestinian people.
Israel “continues its barbaric aggression” and refuses to abide by the decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued in January, to take provisional measures to prevent the crime of genocide, said Mr. Khraishi.
Because Israel prohibits the special rapporteur’s visits, the report is based on data and analyses from organizations on the ground, international jurisprudence, investigative reports, and consultations with affected individuals, authorities, civil society, and experts.
The special rapporteur condemned the October 7 attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups. She urged accountability and the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas and other Palestinian Resistance groups, said the report.
However, the 25-page document doesn’t examine these events, because they are beyond the geographic scope of Ms. Albanese’s mandate. Nor does it examine the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem where 454 Palestinians, including 116 children have been killed since October.
The report also pointed out that since Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2007—which stiffened another blockade imposed in 1993—the occupying power has carried out five major military assaults before the present one.
The special rapporteur called on signatories to the Genocide Convention to act decisively.
“I implore member states to abide by their obligations, which start with imposing an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel and so ensure that the future does not continue to repeat itself,” she said. Ms. Albanese characterized the genocide as an advanced stage of a long settler-colonial process of “erasure of the native Palestinians.”
“For over 76 years, this process has oppressed the Palestinians as a people in every way imaginable, crushing their inalienable right to self-determination demographically, economically, territorially, culturally, and politically.”
She said the “colonial amnesia of the West has condoned Israel’s colonial settler project,” adding that “the world now sees the bitter fruit of the impunity afforded to Israel. This was a tragedy foretold.”
Losing on the world stage
For being exposed for egregious human rights offenses and active genocide against the Palestinian people, Israel is politically isolated and increasingly seen as a pariah state. Months into its war on Palestinians, under the guise of eliminating Hamas, Israel garnered unprecedented global condemnation, clapback, and rejection—from the streets of world capitols to the docket of the International Court of Justice where genocide charges were brought by South Africa. It’s a sign of the times, observers point out.
“We should be frank and honest in saying that Israel does not care about the United Nations … the International Court of Justice, it is absolutely a pariah state in the international community now,” said Muhammad Sankari, an organizer with the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)-Chicago. “It is able to be one because of the protection of the United States,” he added.
“If the United States decided to hold Israel accountable, Israel would be held accountable,” Mr. Sankari contends. “But America is blocking any accountability … unfortunately, these things become merely symbolic,” he said, referring to efforts within international bodies like the UN.
It is not difficult to imagine any other country where multiple international institutions, including the UN, credibly find it is committing genocide, and it would not change the reality on the ground.
But for Israel, the reality on the ground won’t change because of the support of America, said Mr. Sankari.
Israel takes a blow in Security Council vote
Ms. Albanese delivered her findings one day after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2728 on March 25, demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, an immediate and unconditional release of Israeli captives, and allowing the unhindered flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Fourteen UNSC members voted in favor of the resolution with the U.S. abstaining. Observers note in previous Security Council votes favoring ceasefire, the U.S. torpedoed them. On this latest vote—risking the anger of Israel—the U.S. did not throw up its usual veto block and abstained.
The move revealed growing chinks in the armor of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Or sort of because Washington still has not threatened any leverage against Israel financially or militarily. Its annual $3.8 billion subsidy check remains intact and U.S. weapons transfers to Tel Aviv continue.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled, then rescheduled a high-level visit to Washington in protest over the Security Council decision. He accused the U.S. of backpedaling on a “principled position” by allowing the vote through.
The tension comes while Israel threatens to execute plans to bomb Rafah in Southern Gaza where over one million Palestinians have sheltered, after occupation forces flattened their neighborhoods. It is the last area Palestinians have to escape the bombardment.
“This resolution reaffirms that Israeli occupation forces do not have free reign in perpetrating massacres against women and children,” said Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi, Yemen ambassador to the UN.
Speaking on behalf of the Arab Group, he warned that Israel’s plans to launch a ground offensive against Rafah “will cause an unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe.” He stressed Israel must be accountable for its crimes through strict sanctions on settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and on Israelis inciting or perpetrating violence against Palestinians.
No friends for America and Israel
Except for the veto power at the UN, America has been taking a shellacking over supporting Israel. The wider General Assembly of Nations sent clear messages that the genocide must end, and Israel must answer for it. The majority members, both permanent and nonpermanent in the smaller Security Council agreed, only to be consistently impeded by the United States.
Mr. Sankari said whatever value these moves have, they are “very important” to expose the hypocrisy of the “so-called rules-based order” led by the U.S.
“We’re in a critical moment right now, just in world politics,” he explained. “We’re beginning to see shifts away from U.S. hegemony on the world stage,” said Mr. Sankari, adding, “this may be one of the straws that breaks the camel’s back.”
“What kind of moral, ethical or even legal platform does the U.S. have to stand on anymore, after supporting this genocide?” he asked rhetorically. Mr. Sankari sees America and Israel on the losing side of change towards a more multipolar world, more favorable for justice and protection for oppressed and formerly colonized people.
“Now that this council has finally called for a ceasefire, all forces should ensure it is enforced,” asserted, Riyad Mansour, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN. He said the resolution must be a turning point that leads to saving lives in Gaza and signals an end of atrocities. “A nation is being murdered …disposed [and] displaced … but never at this scale since the Nakba, never this openly,” said Mr. Mansour.
However, even if the ceasefire happened now and the siege was lifted, “it would take generations to deal with the trauma and devastation,” he said.
The ceasefire only pauses bloodshed for the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan, which at the time of the vote had only two weeks left. Though highly welcomed, the resolution is only a first step, say observers. The challenge is the “immediate ceasefire” must lead to a “lasting ceasefire” in the “stick and move” environment of the Security Council.
These times were foretold in the scriptures, which say there is no peace for the wicked and the world is in a time of reaping what it has sown. Israel and America have sown trouble and are reaping the world winds of increased trouble. Warning about her fate in the Middle East has been taught by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his student, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam.
Perhaps out of a sense of blind arrogance as the world’s top economic and military power and her bent for self-deception and misadventure, America slept on the historical pattern that every nation has a term. They rise and they fall. This applies to America and Israel.
Minister Farrakhan and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad cautioned referencing the scriptures about “America’s loss of friendship” worldwide and they warned that America would lose in the Middle East.
“… As thou has done, it shall be done unto thee,” wrote the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, in his illuminating book, “The Fall of America,” quoting the biblical book of Obadiah.
“America has done the worst work of deceiving other peoples and making false friendships with them,” he continued. “Now her turn has come. No one wants to trust her for friendship, for she has deceived many nations,” he wrote.
