Moral Failure at the United Nations
By Lawrence Davidson
March 24, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
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On 15
March 2017 the United Nations’
Economic and Social Commission for
Western Asia (ESCWA) published
a report
on Israeli practices and policies
toward the Palestinians.
Using international law
as its comparative criterion, the
report came to a
“definitive conclusion” that “Israel
is guilty of Apartheid practices.”
The term Apartheid was not
used in the report merely in a
“pejorative” way. It was used as a
descriptor of fact based on the
evidence and the accepted legal
meaning of the term.
Such was the immediate uproar from
the United States and Israel that
U.N. Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, in a moment of moral
failure, ordered the report’s
withdrawal. The head of ESCWA, the
Jordanian diplomat
Rima Khalaf, decided
that she could not, in good
conscience, do so and so tendered
her resigation.
Reportage
The
initial
New York Times
coverage of the incident paid little
attention to the accuracy of the
report, an approach which, if
pursued, would have at least
educated the Times’ readers
as to the real conditions of
Palestinians under Israeli
domination. Instead it called the
report, and those involved in
producing it, into question. For
instance, the NYT told us
that “the report provoked outrage
from Israel and the United States.”
The U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations, Nikki R. Haley, was quoted
as declaring that, “when someone
issues a false and defamatory report
in the name of the U.N. it is
appropriate that the person resign.”
At no point in the NYT
story was it noted that Ms Haley’s
charge that the report was false,
was itself false.
Other coverage
by the
NYT improved only slightly.
The
NYT did pay attention to the
fact that, among the authors of the
report, was former U.N. human rights
investigator
Richard Falk.
Falk served six years as U.N.
Spacial Rapporteur for the Occupied
Territories. According to the
NYT, his presence had to
“gall[ed] many Israeli supporters
who regard him as an anti-Semite.”
There is something troubling about a
newspaper that claims to represent
the epitome of professional
journalism reporting such slurs
without properly evaluating them.
Richard Falk, who is Jewish, has an
impeccable record of both academic
achievement and public service. His
reputation for honesty and
dedication to the cause of human
rights exemplifies the best
practice of Jewish values.
Thus, he has every right to say that
“I have been smeared in this effort
to discredit the report” – a study
which “tries its best to look at the
evidence and analyze the applicable
law in a professional manner.”
Israel’s Behavior
An objective consideration of
Israel’s behavior makes it hard to
escape the brutal reality of its
officially condoned practices.
On 17
March 2017, at the same time as the
forced withdrawal of the ESCWA
report, the U.S. State Department
released
a report on “grave violations
against Palestinian children
living under Israeli military
occupation.” This was part of the
department’s annual “country reports
on human rights practices.” Among
the problems cited were Israel’s
practice of unlawful detention,
coerced confessions and excessive
use of force, including torture and
killings.
Usually these annual human rights
reports are made public by the
Secretary of State. This year Rex
Tillerson, who presently holds the
office, was nowhere in sight. And,
of course, President Trump failed to
issue any of his characteristic
tweets in reference to the Israel’s
barbaric behavior.
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Earlier,
on 8 February 2017, it was reported
that
“Israel has banned anesthesia gas
from entering the Gaza Strip.”
There
is a current backlog of some 200
patients in Gaza requiring surgical
care, and some will die due to
Israel’s ban.
A week
later, on 14 February 2017, it was
reported that Israeli officials were
blackmailing Palestinian patients
seeking permission to enter Israel
for necessary medical treatment. A
17-year-old Gazan boy who suffered
from congenital heart disease and
needed a heart valve replacement
“was explicitly told that in order
to [leave the Gaza Strip and] have
his operation, he would have to
cooperate with the security forces
and spy for Israel.” He refused and
subsequently died. This is
not a new or unusual tactic
for the Israelis.
Blackmail All Around
The moral failure at the U.N.,
represented by the withdrawal of the
ESCWA report, is the result of
Secretary General Guterres’s
decision to acquiesce in a denial of
reality – the reality of Israel’s
practice of Apartheid.
On the
other hand, it probably also stems
from Guterres’s acceptance of the
reality of U.S. financial leverage
along with the
apparent threat to bankrupt the
United Nations.
This is, of course, a form of
blackmail. Significantly, U.S. use
of its financial clout at the U.N.
mimics the same practice by the
Zionist lobby in the halls of
Congress.
Obviously the United Nations, to say
nothing of U.S. politicians, needs
alternate sources of income. My wife
Janet once suggested that the UN be
awarded the right to exploit and
profit from all undersea resources.
Not a bad idea. Likewise,
U.S. politicians should agree to, or
be forced to rely upon,
government-based campaign funding
rather than be pressed into putting
themselves up for sale.
However, such changes
do not appear imminent. As it stands
now, reality in Palestine is what
the Americans and Israelis say it is
because politicians and
international leaders literally
can’t afford to challenge their
corrupted views.
Lawrence Davidson is a retired
professor of history from West
Chester University in West Chester
PA. His academic research focused on
the history of American foreign
relations with the Middle East. He
taught courses in Middle East
history, the history of science and
modern European intellectual
history.
http://www.tothepointanalyses.com
