Palestine and Israel have both accused the Security Council of hypocrisy as it relates to its response to the military confrontation between Palestinian militant groups and Israel’s Defence Force.
At her request of the United States, the Council convened an emergency session in response to the firing of 70 rockets by Palestinian militant groups including Hamas from Gaza into Israel, prompting the latter to respond with airstrikes against Palestinian positions.
The UN has condemned the rocket fire as a dangerous escalation but warned that it cannot be divorced from the broader two-month protests by Gazans against their continued occupation in the Strip.
The Council meeting came after an Egyptian brokered ceasefire and the return of relative calm.
United States Ambassador Nikki Haley accused the Council of pouncing on Israel but not on Hamas’ indiscriminate attacks against its Middle East ally.
“Hamas’s actions prove the falsehood of the idea that the people of Gaza require international protection. The people of Gaza do not need protection from an external source. The people of Gaza need protection from Hamas. It is the actions of Hamas that are putting Gazans in grave danger. Hamas’s indiscriminate attacks against Israel inevitably bring a response. As I have asked my colleagues before, I will ask you again today. Who among us would accept 70 rockets launched into your country? We all know the answer to that. No one would,” adds Haley.
Several council members condemned the rocket attacks on Israel but also recognised the grave humanitarian situation facing Palestinians in Gaza.
Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia says, “It is important to continue intensive efforts to ease the difficult humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip – the lack of hope in the situation plays into the hands of those forces who have an interest in further radicalization of that situation. Broad despair is a fertile breeding ground for extremism.”
Israel Ambassador Danny Danon called for Hamas to be labelled a terrorist organisation by the Council and rejected a proposed Kuwaiti draft resolution that calls for a protection force for Palestinians in occupied territories.
“Every member of this council needs to ask itself how you can possibly support a resolution that condemns Israel but does not even mention Hamas once. Read the resolution, read it tonight, maybe you will help me to find the word Hamas in this resolution. How many times do you mention Israel? And Hamas not even once. What hypocrisy,” explains Danon.
Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour accused the Council of a double standard arguing that Tuesday’s rocket fire could not be seen in isolation.
“It is hard to understand attempts for a Council reaction to yesterday’s events as if those events are somehow unrelated to those that preceded and when three previous attempts led by our brothers from Kuwait for an appropriate council reaction to the killing, injuring and maiming of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli occupying forces, were summarily blocked by one Council member. Perhaps some have already forgotten the slaughter of unarmed Palestinian civilians including innocent children that was committed on the 14th of May,” adds Mansour.
Earlier, Kuwait objected to a US drafted statement condemning Hamas’ actions, two weeks after the US objected to a Kuwaiti draft condemning Israel’s killing of protectors and calling for an independent investigation.
Council statements are only adopted through consensus.
It remains unclear when the proposed Kuwait draft resolution calling for a Palestinian protection force would be voted on but is unlikely to overcome a US veto.
