On December 8 the United States, using its veto power, blocked a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the relent-less Israeli assault on Gaza. Except for 1 abstention by the UK, America’s clos-est ally, all other 13 members of the Security Council had voted in favour of the resolution.
Since October 7, the whole world has looked on outraged while Israel has conducted its genocidal war against the approximately 2 million Palestinians living in the small area of Gaza. In the name of “self defence”, it has rained down bombs day and night without stop and without discrimination on homes, hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and even on the roads being used by the helpless peo-ple to try and flee from the massacre. Its troops have also marched all over these areas and killed people at random. Over 18,000 Palestinian civilians have been slaughtered. Over 7000 of them have been small children. Thousands are reported missing. The numbers of wounded and displaced persons cannot be counted. Food, fuel, water, electricity and basic medical care have been denied to the people of Gaza, who are being hemmed into an increasingly narrow space, like a concentration camp, as Israeli forces push them this way and that.
This indiscriminate slaughter of a whole population without any end in sight violates every principle of international law. It cannot be justified in any way. Every hour that it carries on means the certain death of hundreds more children and other innocent people. That is why the immediate cessation of the Israeli attack is the common demand of humanity.
In response to the unprecedented nature of the crisis, the UN Secretary General Guterres invoked the very rarely used Article 99 of the UN Charter, which allows him to bring a matter to the notice of the Security Council if it “threatens international peace and security”. Despite being totally isolated in its action, the US blocked the unanimous demand of the other members for an immediate cease-fire.
Over the last 75 years, US imperialism has been behind each and every one of the crimes committed by the Israeli Zionist state against the Palestinian people. Even as the vote was going on, the US was rushing more arms and ammunition to Israel to carry on its bloody campaign.
The cold-blooded way that the US has blocked all chances of an end to the genocide in Gaza has exposed the total hypocrisy of its slogans of defending human rights and democracy, which it keeps using to justify its attacks on countries and governments around the world Its encouragement to Israel to carry on its murderous rampage without let-up has further isolated it in the eyes of the world’s peoples and governments. As the biggest violator of all the principles governing international relations, the call by the US for a “rules based international order” stands exposed as nothing but the demand that all other countries of the world should accept the US dictate. The support provided by the US to the genocidal war launched by Israel against the Palestinian people once again shows that US imperialism is the chief sponsor of imperialist wars and terrorism on a world scale and the biggest enemy of peace.
World leaders, international rights groups and United Nations officials have criticised the United States for vetoing a UN resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and failing to halt the genocide. The Palestinian President Abbas has called out the American position as a flagrant violation of all humanitarian principles and values. Heads of state and officials of several countries like UAE, Iran, China, Russia, Oman, Greece, Turkey and New Zealand have strongly criticized the US veto of the ceasefire.
Following the blocking of the UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, the matter was taken to the UN General Assembly consisting of all 193 member states on December 12. There, an overwhelming four-fifths majority of the states, 154 countries, voted in favour of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Only ten members, including the US and Israel itself, voted against it. The UNGA resolution ex-pressed “grave concern over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and the suffering of the Palestinian civilian population.” The Indian government, which had abstained on a similar resolution in the UNGA on October 27, this time changed its stand and voted with the majority for a ceasefire.
The overwhelming vote by the member countries of the United Nations for an immediate ceasefire reflects the demand of the vast majority of peoples of all countries of the world. Millions of people have come out on the streets in all the countries of the world, including in the US and the UK, voicing this demand. The stand taken by the US is in complete contempt of world public opinion. It is an outrage against humanity.