It is not the age of genocide, and yet...
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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Ministers gather at UN for delayed meeting on Israel, Palestinians
Dozens of ministers will gather at the United Nations on Monday for a delayed conference to work toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but the US and Israel are boycotting the event. The 193-member UN General Assembly decided in September last year that such a conference would be held in 2025. Hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, the conference was postponed in June after Israel attacked Iran. The conference aims to lay out the parameters for a roadmap to a Palestinian state, while ensuring Israel's security. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told newspaper La Tribune Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday that he will also use the conference this week to push other countries to join France in recognizing a Palestinian state. France intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September at the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly, President Emmanuel Macron said last week. 'We will launch an appeal in New York so that other countries join us to initiate an even more ambitious and demanding dynamic that will culminate on September 21,' Barrot said, adding that he expected Arab countries by then to condemn Palestinian militants Hamas and call for their disarmament. The conference comes as a 22-month war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza still rages. The war was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took some 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's military campaign has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. The US will not attend the conference at the United Nations, said a State Department spokesperson, describing it as 'a gift to Hamas, which continues to reject ceasefire proposals accepted by Israel that would lead to the release of hostages and bring calm in Gaza.' The State Department spokesperson added that Washington voted against the General Assembly last year calling for the conference and would 'not support actions that jeopardize the prospect for a long-term, peaceful resolution to the conflict.' Israel is also not taking part in the conference, 'which doesn't first urgently address the issue of condemning Hamas and returning all of the remaining hostages,' said Jonathan Harounoff, international spokesperson at Israel's UN mission. The UN has long endorsed a vision of two states living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territory captured by Israel in the 1967 war with neighboring Arab states. The UN General Assembly in May last year overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member by recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending the UN Security Council 'reconsider the matter favorably.' The resolution garnered 143 votes in favor and nine against. The General Assembly vote was a global survey of support for the Palestinian bid to become a full UN member – a move that would effectively recognize a Palestinian state – after the US vetoed it in the UN Security Council several weeks earlier.
NDTV
an hour ago
- NDTV
The UN, Palestinians, Israel And A Hope For Two-State Solution
Ever since the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, the United Nations has been inextricably linked to the fate of Palestinians, with the organization meeting this week hoping to revive the two-state solution. Here is a timeline on the issue: Partition In November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 dividing Palestine -- which was then under British mandate -- into Jewish and Arab states, with a special international zone for Jerusalem. Zionist leaders accepted the resolution, but it was opposed by Arab states and the Palestinians. Israel declared independence in May 1948, triggering the Arab-Israeli war which was won convincingly by Israel the following year. Around 760,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled -- an event known as the "Nakba," Arabic for "catastrophe," which the United Nations only officially commemorated for the first time in May 2023. Self-determination In the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied during the conflict, including the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. But linguistic ambiguities between the English and French versions of the resolutions complicated matters, making the scope of the required withdrawal unclear. In November 1974, Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), gave his first speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, saying he carried both "an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun." Days later, the UN General Assembly recognized the Palestinians' right to self-determination and independence. It granted UN observer status to the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people. Oslo talks, without UN One of the strongest peace initiatives did not come from the United Nations. In 1993, Israel and the PLO -- which in 1988 unilaterally declared an independent State of Palestine -- wrapped up months of secret negotiations in Norway's capital Oslo. The two sides signed a "declaration of principles" on Palestinian autonomy and, in 1994, Arafat returned to the Palestinian territories after a long exile and formed the Palestinian Authority, the governing body for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. US role UN Security Council decisions on how to treat the Palestinians have always depended on the position of the veto-wielding United States. Since 1972, Washington has used its veto more than 30 times to protect its close ally Israel. But sometimes, it allows key resolutions to advance. In March 2002, the Security Council -- at Washington's initiative -- adopted Resolution 1397, the first to mention a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, with secure and recognized borders. In December 2016, for the first time since 1979, the Council called on Israel to stop building settlements in the Palestinian territories -- a measure that went through thanks to a US abstention, just before the end of Barack Obama's White House term. And in March 2024, another US abstention -- under pressure from the international community -- allowed the Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire amid Israel's offensive on Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militants' October 7 attack. That measure came after the United States blocked three similar drafts. Towards recognition? In 2011, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas initiated the process of requesting membership of the State of Palestine to the UN, which required a positive recommendation from the Security Council, followed by a favorable vote from the General Assembly. In the face of opposition from the United States, the process was halted even before a vote in the Council. The following year, the General Assembly granted the Palestinians a lower status as a "non-member observer State." In April 2024, the Palestinians renewed their request to become a full-fledged member state, but the United States vetoed it. If the Palestinian request had cleared the Security Council hurdle, it would have had every chance of being approved by the necessary two-thirds majority in the Assembly. According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. In the absence of full membership, the Assembly granted the Palestinians new rights in 2024, seating them in alphabetical order of states, and allowing to submit resolution proposals themselves for the first time.
The Wire
2 hours ago
- The Wire
'Israel Guilty of Genocide; A Place I Will Not Want to Call Home': Gershon Baskin
Video Karan Thapar 'They have created a reality in Gaza in which human beings cannot live. That is genocide. And that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.' Palestinians mourn during the funeral of people who were killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, at Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, Saturday, July 26, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI Gershon Baskin, the Middle East Director of the International Communities Organization, who is one of the acknowledged and highly regarded voices of conscience in Israel, says: 'If it hasn't become one as yet, Israel is definitely on the fast road to becoming a pariah state'. He says Israelis increasingly feel less welcome wherever they travel. In a 25-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, to talk about his recent cri de coeur where he writes 'Israel is rapidly becoming a foreign land to me … a place that I will not want to call home, a place that I cannot call home', Baskin readily admitted and accepted that Israel is guilty of genocide. 'If you read the convention on genocide there's no question that what Israel is doing in Gaza is genocide. We're erasing a civilization. Ninety percent of the people in Gaza have no homes to go back to. They've been destroyed. Israel is now levelling half of Gaza. There are no schools, no universities, no public buildings, no libraries. Mosques are being erased. Churches were hit. Roads, infrastructure, water, electricity. They have created a reality in Gaza in which human beings cannot live. That is genocide. And that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.' The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
