The Muted Global Calls for Peace in the Middle East

PALESTINE - ISRAEL, 11 Dec 2023

Daniel Horgan – TRANSCEND Media Service

6 Dec 2023 – This week UNICEF called the Gaza Strip: “The most dangerous place on earth to be a child.”  WCNSF-Wounded Child with No Surviving Family is a new medical term unforeseen in the history of human medicine. This acronym has surfaced in the first weeks of the conflict from medical personnel at Gaza hospitals, which by now as a whole are barely functioning. The UN Chief said what seems long ago but is in fact only weeks away from the present moment, that “Gaza was becoming a graveyard for children.”

Today, Dec. 6^th 2023, he invoked the most powerful tool he has at his disposal.  Article 99 of the UN Charter.  Article 99 allows the Secretary-General to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.” For reference to the significance of this news, Article 99 has not been invoked since 1989, and has formally been invoked only 3 times since 1960.

In light of this news, and as Israel’s genocidal assault stays in high gear it is important to note that the entire world has likely never been so galvanized. This, against a war waged by a United States armed Israel. If you are located in the US or tapping into mostly mainstream media elsewhere you may not be even slightly aware that collective government bodies, individual governments, officials within collective government bodies and governments, as well as non-governmental organizations and civil societies around the world are opposing the war on Gaza with more veracity than has been seen since opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Less than three weeks after the start of the war, in New York, on October 26th, The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in Gaza. It also demands “continuous, sufficient and unhindered” provision of lifesaving supplies and services for civilians trapped inside Gaza. Of the 179 Nations who voted, there were 120 votes in favor, only fourteen against and 45 abstained.  Of the Nations who voted for or against the votes in favor of the ceasefire was 90%. Abstention in votes such as these are widely seen as a vote in favor, but countries abstain for fear of political or economic retaliation of the powers that be (meaning US and its allies).

Let us for a moment consider that US Secretary of State Blinken was also in this camp calling for a ceasefire. The Israeli Newspaper Haaretz Reported close to the time of the above mentioned resolution, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “deleted a [social media post] where he called for a cease-fire”—one of at least two instances of Biden administration officials deleting posts urging restraint from Israel—and replaced it with the message, “Israel has the right to defend itself.”

Other notable global governmental actions include, BRICS, an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have also called for a ceasefire.  While calls from Russia may seem hypocritical, these governments collectively represent forty-two percent of the world’s population.

Also in protest to the war, eight countries, led by Bolivia then Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Jordan, Bahrain, Chad, and Turkey (a NATO member) have all recalled their ambassadors to Israel, thus cutting diplomatic ties to show condemnation of the assault on Gaza..

As for labeling the conflict a genocide the Colombian president has led the way: ‘Genocide’, Colombia says as Latin American states condemn Israel over Gaza | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Individual acts of protests within the UN and US government are too many to count here but they include top level UN and US officials. Craig Mokhiber, the director in the United Nations New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced his resignation in a letter more than three weeks into the Israel-Hamas conflict.  He called it: A text-book case of Genocide.

Another noteworthy act of defiance, was US State Department Official, Josh Paul who resigned, saying Israel Is Using U.S. Arms to Massacre Civilians in Gaza, which is in fact a violation of US Law, unless the right to defense can be reasonably proven.

Acts of internal dissension within the Biden White House may be the largest rift over foreign policy than anything seen within an American presidential administration since late in the Vietnam War.  The division inside the White House is to some degree between Biden’s senior longtime aides and an array of younger staffers of diverse backgrounds. But even top advisers said they recognize the conflict has hurt America’s global standing. “We’re taking on a lot of water on Israel’s behalf,” one senior official said. 

Still in the US: 45 out of 435 Congress persons and 4 out of 100 Senators are brave enough to stand with their constituencies and against the Jewish the Lobby to call for a ceasefire.  In a Reuters poll in mid-November 68 % of Americans approve of the call for a ceasefire.

US Congressional Staffers tried to fill in the protest voice where congress people had not the guts to do so when they held out a walk-out during work hours. “Most of our bosses on Capitol Hill are not listening to the people they represent,” one of the congressional staffers told the crowd at the recent protest that the roughly 100 congressional aides heaped flowers in front of Congress to honor the civilians killed in the conflict.

Labor unions have also not stood silent. Just a brief glimpse of some union activity in the US on this issue: The United States Postal Workers Union and teachers unions from Massachusetts to Seattle represent some of the public employee unions in the US that have formally called for a ceasefire. The power house United Auto Workers Union, representing some 400,000 workers  has not only formally called for a cease but for divestment from the Israeli State apparatus. “I am proud that the UAW International Union is calling for a ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. From opposing fascism in WWII to mobilizing against apartheid South Africa and the CONTRA war, the @UAW has consistently stood for justice across the globe.”— Shawn Fain (@ShawnFainUAW)

Religious organizations are also not to be left out. Just a snip of this resistance is represented by 68 Global Bishops and Christian leaders in a joint statement are calling for a ceasefire. Evangelical alliances from around the world are calling for a ceasefire too, saying that “the teachings of Jesus call for peace amid times of violence.” Signatories to the statement include organizations like the Middle East and North Africa Evangelical Alliance, the Evangelical Fellowship of India, the Asian Evangelical Alliance, Alianza Evangelica Latina, the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia, Jordan Evangelical Council, the Evangelical Alliance of Arabic speakers in Europe and Association of the Iraqi National Evangelical Churches. Other Evangelical alliances represented Kenya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Qatar, Algeria and Egypt. 

Hundreds of NGOs working globally in humanitarian assistance and/or human rights advocacy have not only called for a ceasefire but have labeled this conflict a genocide. The prominent ones calling for a ceasefire include but are not limited to Amnesty International, Oxfam, The Carter Center, The King Center. Not to be forgotten this includes the World Health Organization and UNICEF.

The WHO released a statement today Dec. 6^th 2023, calling the assault on Gaza, “Humanity’s Darkest Hour”.  The Norwegian Refugee Council also today said this: “The pulverizing of Gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age. Each day we see more dead children and new depths of suffering for the innocent people enduring this hell.”

And finally civil society from the US to Israel and across the globe there is a steadfast call for a cession to hostilities on Gaza. Massive protests not seen since the war in Iraq have taken place from Jakarta to London, and from New York to Manila. If you consider that 68 % of US citizens support a ceasefire, then it would be an accurately conservative estimate to say that 80 % of the world population also supports a ceasefire.  This would be approximately 6.5 billion of the world’s population of just over 8 billion.  Most of these people would naturally be included global civil society.

Ironically enough this global civil society protest of the war and support for ceasefire might be said to be followers of members of the families of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas, who organized a March from Tel Aviv to the Knesset in protest that the government wasn’t doing enough to free the hostages of Israeli families.  In a noteworthy quote that reflects global opinion, one family member yelled out loud at a Knesset (Israel Parliament) meeting, “You care more about killing Arabs than you do about saving Jewish lives.”

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Daniel Horgan is an occasional contributor to TRANSCEND Media Service. He is a student of renowned Peace Professionals, Johan Galtung & the late Dietrich Fisher at the European Center for Peace Studies. He studied there with students from Israel and Gaza and has worked in conflict zones as an Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeper.  He created this factual video at the outbreak of the first major war in 2007 between Israel and Hamas: Israel/Palestine 2007– YouTube

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This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 11 Dec 2023.

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