For years, the United Nations has discriminated against the #UNRWA Palestinian local staff by excluding them from coverage under two key UN policies that apply to ALL United Nations staff in times of war.
UNRWA Palestinian local staff have been systematically excluded from the coverage under these two policies and discriminated against due to cost implications and because of their Palestinian identity.
The UN Inter-Agency Security Management Network made significant policy-related decisions and updates regarding the security of locally recruited personnel in June 2018. Furthermore, it was requested that the Designated Official at every duty station convey the policies of the UN Security Manual to all locally recruited personnel and their eligible family members.
UNRWA Palestinian local staff were not informed about the policies, resulting in them being left without vital information about their safety and protection.
The Malicious Acts Insurance Policy (MAIP) provides compensation for deaths and partial or permanent disabilities caused by acts of war and hostilities. The Palestinian local staff of UNRWA in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon are eligible for such coverage, but they have been systematically excluded from MAIP coverage.
These two policies apply to all UN locally recruited staff worldwide, except for the local staff of UNRWA in Palestine.
This week, Mr. Martin Griffiths, the OCHA Coordinator, initiated the Emergency Appeal for Gaza and appealed to member states to fulfill their obligations of USD 1.2 billion. Around 250 million dollars have already been allocated. The Emergency Appeal is expected to raise the required funds, which will likely compensate the guilt of the member states who were silent during this genocide.
Holding a minute of silence and lowering the flags is a welcome gesture, but it’s insufficient.
I ask the Secretary-General to fulfill his moral obligations and duty of care towards the 103 UNRWA colleagues who lost their lives in the service of the United Nations.
The 103 UNRWA staff killed by Israel have been enduring atrocities and suffering for decades in Gaza and despite this, they have continued to serve the United Nations with dedication, loyalty and persistence.
The UN is considering giving each bereaved family a meager $3000 USD.
Under the MAIP coverage, the families of the 103 staff killed would have been entitled to receive approximately 12 million USD, with each family receiving approximately 120,000 USD individually.
Nevertheless, the UN is suggesting that they receive $3000.
The UNRWA Palestinian local staff are being discriminated against. The MAIP covers all local staff worldwide.
The United Nations must ensure that rules and regulations are consistently applied to all staff members, regardless of their category or nationality.
It is the responsibility of the United Nations to fulfill its obligations to the families of UN staff and compensate them promptly.
A few days ago, on 11 October 2023, the Fourth Committee of the United Nations (Special Political and Decolonization) approved nineteen draft resolutions as it wrapped up its general debate on decolonization.
Unsurprisingly, the three countries that consistently voted against several of these resolutions were Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The resolution requiring the administering Powers to terminate military activities and eliminate military bases in the Non-Self-Governing Territories under their administration. Approved by a vote of 102 in favor to 3 against: Israel, United Kingdom, United States
The resolution titled “Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories requires the administering Powers to regularly transmit to the Secretary-General statistical and other technical information relating to the economic, social, and educational conditions in their Territories. Approved by a vote of 135 in favour to 2 against (United States, Israel), with 2 abstentions (France, United Kingdom).
The resolution titled “Economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories” expresses concern about activities aimed at exploiting the natural and human resources of the Non-Self-Governing Territories to the detriment of their inhabitants. Approved by a vote of 135 in favour to 2 against (United States, Israel), with 2 abstentions (France, United Kingdom).
The resolution titled “Dissemination of information on decolonization” highlights the importance of continuing and expanding efforts to ensure the widest possible dissemination of information on decolonization. Approved by a vote of 136 in favor to 3 against (Israel, United Kingdom, United States) and 1 abstention (France).
So, if there is any doubt about who advocates for a post-colonial world, Doubt No More.
The message is clear: the governments of the United States, Israel, and the United Kingdom consider themselves superior colonies and would like to see that status quo extended indefinitely.
The worst is that this is happening inside the United Nations, the multilateral international organization that embodies the universal conception of progress and human rights.
It would only seem logical then that the United States will resort to its vetoing powers to torpedo any peace efforts, particularly regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Only yesterday, those same countries butchered yet another Security Council resolution that proposed a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
It should, therefore, come as no surprise that in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the United States has provided a diplomatic shield to its main ally by casting a record veto 53 times in the UN Security Council in favor of Israel and against anti-Israel resolutions or condemnations of Israel.
Of these 53 vetoes, 21 were under former President Obama’s administration. Before he departed from the White House, Obama instructed the US representative to the UN to abstain on a resolution condemning the settlements.
The United States has been sending a clear message to all. We will never allow any resolution against Israel inside the United Nations, and the United Nations isn’t the appropriate forum to agree on peace and security in the world.
In the right of reply, we have a Secretary-General who, by his statements, fails to call for a ceasefire out of fear of upsetting the United States and Israel.
A Secretary-General who fails to act on his predecessor’s (Kofi Annan) action plan to take timely and preventive actions to avert another bloody genocide in the world.
A Secretary-General who fails to use the word “condemn” when it comes to the large-scale atrocities committed against the Palestinian people, especially the Palestinian children, or to the total illegal blockade of Gaza or the forced internal displacement of 1 million Palestinian persons.
A United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Turk slapped by Israel’s permanent representative to the UN because he dared to condemn the siege of Gaza as “prohibited by international law”.
A Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, who, when asked by journalists about the UN staff who were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, dehumanizes them only because they’re Palestinians as if Palestinian victims do not have names, as if Palestinians are destined every day to die by an Israeli airstrike.
“Question: And final question. Do you have names or at least the nationalities of UNRWA’s employees who were killed?
Spokesman: My understanding is that they’re all Palestinians. Yeah.
Question: Names? No names?
Spokesman: I will give you the… I think UNRWA has released the names. I will make sure we circulate them, if we have all of them.
A Spokesperson for the Secretary-General who attempts to diminish the role and persona of the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, because she courageously addressed the Secretary-General asking him to call for an immediate ceasefire, which he still has not done.
“Question: I want to take you back to this issue of ceasefire. Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, tweeted and directly asked the Secretary-General. She said, I’m quoting, “Secretary-General, please call for a ceasefire now. If not now, when? If not you, who?” What’s your comment?
Spokesman: I mean, Ms. Albanese is Ms. Albanese. The Secretary-General is the Secretary-General. She’s an independent rapporteur with the right to say, of course, what she feels she needs to say. The Secretary-General’s position, I think, as I’ve been explaining it with some challenge here for the last days, is what it is”
If there is anything that the #Gaza war has shown, it certainly is the death of multilateralism and the death of the United Nations.
Palestine smells of death.
The Security Council smells of death.
The United Nations smells of death.
The international system that embodies the principles of peace, security, and human rights has failed.
It’s time to change the way the world is organized.
While conflicts worldwide might still require global collaboration, they must not be entertained within a dormant body that cannot reform its anachronic veto system of World War II.
There is no reason why the Arab world should continue paying their assessed contributions to an international body paralyzed and controlled by the Western powers.
The Arab countries must realize that only a new world order reshaped around new blocs and coalitions can solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and push the Middle East toward further integration and sustainable development.
There is no reason why the Secretary-General of an international organization must not pay tribute to the Palestinian United Nations staff who died from Israeli air strikes in their own homes.
To Mr. Guterres, we are reminded of the words of the former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in his speech in May 1954.
“The UN was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell.”
Mr. Secretary-General, it is time to save #Gaza from hell.
The fact that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu was allowed in late September 2023 to publicly hold a map of the “New Middle East” inside the General Assembly of the United Nations without #Palestine showing on this map speaks volumes about the United Nations’ lack of impartiality in this conflict and its outright support to Israel committing war crimes against the Palestinian people, children, and women.
An Organization that advocates for the respect of human rights and international humanitarian law yet fails systematically to hold its member states, namely Israel, accountable for violating every article of its Charter.
An Organization that threatens its staff, namely the UN local staff in the Middle East and within #UNRWA to refrain from publishing any comment condemning the killing and ethnic cleansing of its own community under the pretext of neutrality when all the principles of neutrality have been decimated in its own General Assembly when it allowed the PM Netanyahu to wipe out the name of the state of Palestine from the Middle East Map.
An Organization that stayed silent when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court’s only statement when prompted by journalists to issue a statement was:
“If there is evidence that Palestinians,…..has committed crimes. Yes, we have jurisdiction …”
in total disregard of the large-scale genocide of the Palestinian people being broadcast live 24/7 on Al Jazeera news channel.
An Organization that allows Israel to dictate its war plans by swiftly evacuating its international staff out of #Gaza in response to Israel’s request to wipe out Gaza and the Palestinians from the map of the Middle East.
Israel is moving to erase Gaza and the West Bank from the Middle East, and the United Nations is its first accomplice.
On 07 April 2004, the former Secretary-General Kofi Annan addressing the Commission on Human Rights on the United Nations’ failure to avert the Genocide in Rwanda, said
“We must never forget our collective failure to protect at least 800,000 defenceless men, women and children who perished in Rwanda 10 years ago.
Such crimes cannot be reversed.
Such failures cannot be repaired.
The dead cannot be brought back to life.
So what can we do?
First, we must all acknowledge our responsibility for not having done more to prevent or stop the genocide.
When we recall such events and ask “why did no one intervene?
No one can claim ignorance.
All who were playing any part in world affairs at that time should ask, “what more could I have done? How would I react next time –- and what am I doing now to make it less likely there will be a next time?”
Mr. Annan’s words resonate clearly and loudly more than ever today.
An Organization that fails repeatedly to prevent genocide and to act decisively to stop it, is a failed Organisation.
Thirty years after the Rwanda #genocide of 800,000 people, will the United Nations allow another genocide of Gaza’s two million people while it sits idle, making useless statements?
