By Carlos Aznárez on December 27, 2016
Photo: Aram News
The behavior of the Israeli government is beyond unpunished. Not only has the Zionist country not complied with any of the UN resolutions throughout the years but now it dares, with complete impudence, to raise the stakes by threatening and sanctioning each and every one of the countries that voted against the illegal settlements that Israel is building on occupied Palestine land.
Twelve countries (Britain, France, Russia, China, Japan, Ukraine, Angola, Egypt, Uruguay, Spain, Senegal and New Zealand) have finally had success in passing a UN resolution that establishes the illegal nature of the Israeli colonization of Palestine. This was allowed by the fact that the United States didn’t use its veto power as usual.
Netanyahu is outraged because he perceives the endorsement of this UN resolution by his sponsor, the United States, as a betrayal. Nevertheless, throughout the years Obama has been the greatest ally of Israel in every aspect, especially on the military level. He was by Israel when thousands of tonnes of Israeli bombs fell on Gaza, and when he used his veto power in the Security Council to block the condemnation of illegal settlements in two separate occasions.
Many may wonder; What can we do with this far-right Israeli government, which punishes twelve countries for refusing to enable its criminal behavior? What can the world do with a country with imperialist desires, which seeks to colonize other nations? What should we do when we witness genocide occurring in the XXI century? And what happens when the country that is committing these crimes decides to punish the ones that seek to protect human rights and international law?
This timid resolution doesn’t even contemplate sanctions for Israel’s actions. But it’s nevertheless a step forward. In 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, after the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Arabs after the Israeli invasion. The resolution established that “refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
The Zionist entity not only ignored the UN resolution but continued to expel, massacre and humiliate the Palestinian people. It was the time of the Nakba or Catastrophe, as these events were known worldwide. The beginning of a genocide that changed (or ended) the lives of every Palestinian man, woman and child.
Two decades later, on November 1967, another resolution was unanimously passed by the Security Council, six months after the Six-Day War. Resolution 242 demanded “just and lasting peace in the Middle East” through the “withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict” and “respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force”. This resolution is at the core of all posterior negotiations, and was supposed to be the cornerstone for peace in the Middle East, once Israel withdrew from the occupied territories and the Arab states acknowledged Israel’s right to peacefully exist within the borders that the Western powers established for it.
Shielded behind a victimization strategy that labeled anyone that dared to denounce Israel’s crimes as anti-Semitic, using the horrendous Holocaust as a justification for even more murders, Israel refused to comply with any of the UN’s recommendations and instead chose to establish relations with Arab governments that joined the genocide and helped the Zionist government commercially and even militarily.
UN resolutions kept coming, each more strongly-worded than the last, but none of them binding, rendering the recommendations useless.
A remarkable moment was the passing of Resolution 3379, in 1975. With the promotion of Arab countries and the support of the Soviet bloc and the Non Aligned countries, this resolution likened Zionism to racism and to South African apartheid in particular: “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” the majority of the countries established, and added that “that the racist regime in occupied Palestine and the racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin, forming a whole and having the same racist structure”.
The Israeli Ambassador, who would later become President of Israel, threw a fit and tore apart the document in front of the Assembly. In 1991, Israel demanded this resolution to be annulled, or else they wouldn’t participate in the Madrid Conference. The world had changed by then, and it obsequiously obliged by passing Resolution 4686.
Resolutions to try to stop at least some of the crimes committed by Israel continued to be issued: in 2000, Resolution 1322 condemned “acts of violence, especially the excessive use of force against Palestinians, resulting in injury and loss of human life”.
But the recent events prove that Israel doesn’t seem to understand good-willed suggestions, even if they come from the United Nations. Therefore, we reaffirm the need to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement, to create an effective opposing force against Israel’s war crimes and violations of international law. This is the only hope Palestinians have to be able to live with dignity.
http://www.thedawn-news.org/2016/12/30/what-can-be-done-with-israel-by-carlos-aznarez/
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano