The targeting of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including school premises, is a violation of international law in which Israel indulges routinely. Only this time, the international community is not even attempting to feign the usual concern. What happens to upholding education as a basic human right, when Israel’s bombing of Gaza becomes a normalised routine, you…
Tag: UN
Delaying publication of the settlement blacklist exposes the UN’s false narratives on human rights
The UN is openly flaunting its priorities and, sadly, human rights are far from a major concern for the international organisation. Since its creation post-World War Two, and having established itself as the platform which determines what constitutes a human rights violation and which countries can be considered as perpetrators, several trends have emerged within…
The UN persists with obsolete frameworks for Israel’s political benefit
Years after the two-state paradigm was declared obsolete, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process has informed the Security Council that, “The possibility of establishing a viable, contiguous Palestinian state has been systematically eroded by facts on the ground.” The statement is an attempt to transform what has been patently obvious for years into…
UN General Assembly charades offer publicity stunts but nothing for Palestinians
While speculation about Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s speech to the UN General Assembly continues, the trends unfolding on the sidelines are indicative of increasing restrictions, to the point that it will no longer be plausible to claim the UN podium to make the case for Palestinian rights. After all, the UN’s motives are procured…
The blocking of Palestinian rights at an international level is endorsed by the PA
As the UN General Assembly meeting approaches, the entire international community is engaged in a collective spectacle discussing the obsolete two-state compromise as the only way forward for Palestinians. There is no debate about how the facts on the ground contradict the diplomatic hyperbole. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is reportedly holding a side meeting…
Exploiting Gaza tops the UN’s humanitarian agenda
What would prompt the UN to assert, without reservations or calculated statements, that Gaza has collapsed in terms of humanitarian necessities? So far, the international organisation has relied on projecting extended timeframes; the result being that Gaza was forced into a currently irreversible situation while the UN saves face, or believes it does, by stepping…
BOOK REVIEW:Life Lived in Relief — Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics
Refugee narratives beyond those which reach the mainstream media are fraught with complexities, while humanitarian aid remains insufficient. Ilana Feldman’s treatise “Life Lived in Relief — Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics” (University of California Press, 2018) focuses on the discrepancies between the political and purportedly apolitical dynamics of the humanitarian sector. Feldman’s overview of…
Humanitarian aid is overtly politicised, just not in favour of the Palestinians
The 2019 humanitarian plan for Palestinians in the occupied territories will allocate $350 million for aid intervention, according to Ramallah’s Minister of Social Development Ibrahim Al-Shaer and UN envoy Jamie McGoldrick. The people of Palestine remain divested of their legitimate human and civil rights in order to retain the imposed status of near-total aid dependency….
A Fragmented Palestinian Resistance
Whether in Gaza or the occupied West Bank, Israel has perfected its strategy of normalising violence against Palestinians. As attention shifts away from the Great Return March protests in Gaza, in which participants continue to be injured or murdered by Israeli forces on the border, there is a lull in the frenzied reporting about Palestinians…
Seeking protection for the Palestinians at the UN empowers the criminals
The debate on whether Palestinians should be granted international protection continues. Adalah’s November 2018 Report to the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territories says that, since Israel “failed to exercise its criminal jurisdiction over those responsible for the violation of such serious crimes”, thus upholding impunity, there is a…
RAMONA WADI 