UNSC resolution on Israeli violence vetoed by US

A resolution was submitted for a vote to the United Nations Security Council by Kuwait condemning the use of violence by Israeli forces on Palestinian civilians, but was vetoed by the US, who considered it to be ‘one sided’. Since the ‘Great March of Return’ began, hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured by Israeli forces. So far, there have been no Israeli casualties.

Deutsche Welle reports:

A Kuwaiti-drafted resolution to the UN Security Council condemning Israel’s use of force against Palestinian civilians has been vetoed by the United States. The decision came the day a Palestinian nurse was shot dead.

Ten UN Security Council members voted in favor of the Kuwaiti resolution which “deplores” and calls for a stop to “excessive, disproportionate and indiscriminate force” by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians.

But, as expected, the US used its veto against the motion, saying it was a “grossly one-sided view” which did not blame militant group Hamas for recent violence. An American resolution condemning Hamas failed to win support, as 11 countries abstained and Russia opposed it.

France voted in favor of the Kuwaiti text but there were four abstentions, including the UK. To succeed, a resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes by permanent members United States, Britain, France, Russia or China.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre criticized the “disproportionate use of force” by Israel, while Kuwait’s representative Mansour Ayyad Al-Otaibi condemned use of violence “by all sides.”

Kuwait holds a non-permanent seat on the council for this term. Its resolution had initially called for an international protection mission for Palestinians, but this was dropped in favor of just condemning Israel force against civilians — which also failed.

The recent violence was the most serious escalation between Israel and militant groups since 2014, with hundreds of mortar and rockets fired into Israel and Israeli airstrikes on targets in Gaza.

Deadly protests on Gaza-Israel border

The UN decision came on the same day as further protests by Hamas against Israeli and Egyptian embargoes at the border.

A 21-year-old paramedic in a white uniform, Palestinian nurse Razan Al-Najar, was shot dead by Israeli forces as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border on Friday. A witness told Reuters: “She raised her hands high in a clear way but Israeli soldiers fired and she was hit in the chest.”

Israel said militants had attacked its troops with gunfire and a grenade. Medical officials in Gaza said at least a hundred Palestinians were wounded by Israeli army gunfire during Friday’s demonstrations.

There have been no Israeli casualties during the border confrontations, which began in March. In the protests, billed as the “Great March of Return,” Palestinians have been calling for the right to return to lands lost to Israel during the 1948 war of its creation. Israel has called the protests an attempt to breach its border and distract from Hamas’ governance problems.

Gaza: ‘Rapid collapse in humanitarian conditions’

Tuesday is the anniversary of the end of the Six-Day War, when Israeli forces occupied the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, Syria’s Golan Heights, the Jordanian-controlled West Bank and Arab sector of east Jerusalem in 1967.

While Israel left Gaza in 2005, it has maintained a strict blockade and armed border. Only a small number of people are able to move outside of Gaza and it has become an increasingly impoverished enclave, less than half the size of New York City.

In its economic review from April, the World Bank reported “a rapid collapse in humanitarian conditions, including access to medical treatment, electricity and clean water. Unemployment is high at 27 percent. Only 41 percent of those ages 15 to 29 are active in the labor market.”

Israeli fire has killed journalists, medical personnel, women, and children in what they term to be ‘defense’. Any where else in the world where protests take place, the ruling government is urged by the US to exercise ‘restraint’, and this year has seen much of this already. But Israel seems to be exempt from even the suggestion of not killing unarmed civilians and non combatants of any sort. For Israel, it’s simply open season on anyone and everyone, regardless of their activities or profession, and the US will stand beside the slaughter regardless of how unjustifiable it is.