In his 794th plea to the UN, Riyad H. Mansour exposes the unchecked horrors in Palestine, but can the UN overcome its inertia and respond, or will inaction deepen the global human tragedy?
On June 22, 2023, Riyad H. Mansour, the Palestinian-American diplomat who has been the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations since 2005, wrote a letter, his 794th, to the United Nations.
It was triggered by the recent atrocities in Jenin. The letter, addressed to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council, highlighted the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
In it, he called for the international community’s “immediate attention” to the “alarming aggression” and “war crimes” which Israel continues to perpetrate with impunity. After having described the terror tactics, the murder of civilians, including children, and the illegal annexations, Mansour cautioned.
“We warn about the rising threats in this regard, which are actually being pushed and boasted about openly by Israeli officials, including by far-right Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who is on record denying the Palestinian people’s existence and who has publicly calledlee for air and tank forces to launch attacks on Palestinian cities and for lethal force to be used against defenceless civilians under military occupation, including his call for the village of Huwwarra to be ‘wiped out’.”
“It is not coincidental that the Israeli Government has given Smotrich control over the criminal campaign of planning, construction and expansion of Israel’s colonial settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.”
Will this 794th letter, jolt the Security Council or the General Assembly into action? Will Israel’s atrocities provoke the same outrage and response that Russia’s aggression of Ukraine has? Of course not.
There will be no sanctions, no ongoing press coverage, no arming of Palestinian resistance fighters, no special criminal courts… no justice. The main reason for this is the unwavering support for Israel, including financial and military, from the United States, a permanent UN Security Council member.
However, the US is not alone in supporting, condoning or turning a blind eye to these abuses, as most of its allies follow suit, as does much of the mainstream Western media.
On June 20, for instance, the US led a 27-country block condemning a UN investigation into alleged human rights violations by Israeli. The countries, which included Canada, the UK, Austria and Italy, demanded an end to the “long-standing disproportionate attention given to Israel in the council.”
So, while the UN expresses “deep concern” and tries to ascertain obvious facts, it is powerless. And so, the world watches on, as humanity sinks deeper into inhumanity.
