I am sure most of us would be aware of the extreme dishonesty of the powerful Western leaders who first exploited the world, directly through their colonization. And who, after being forced to end colonization, have continued to dominate and exploit the world through other means, for example through international institutions like the United Nations and its various agencies which, in the name of establishing and promoting a rule-based order in the world, advance their selfish interests. The basic idea was to continue reaping the benefits of colonization, but doing so by means other than that of crude colonization which did not go well with their present-day pretensions of civilized and orderly conduct. Nonetheless, some of these institutions like UNICEF, UNRWA do work admirably and with dedication.
Also, various syndicates were formed, on regional basis, like NATO, SEATO, CENTO etc for policing functions for the so-called civilized world. And how undemocratic are these organizations like the UN can be judged from the fact that the Resolutions approved by nearly two hundred members at the UN General Assembly are not binding. To be effective, a UN resolution must be approved by the Security Council, which consists of 15 members, five of whom—the US, UK, France, China and Russia—enjoy permanent status, while the remaining ten are selected from the rest of the world. The five permanent members even have veto power, meaning that any one of them can nullify a resolution, even if it has been approved by the other fourteen members.
The passage of any resolution within the UN Security Council mandates approval from at least nine out of its fifteen members, without encountering any veto. Yet, recent events have unveiled a glaring disregard for this principle. Notably, the United States disregarded a recent Security Council Resolution, despite it securing approval from fourteen members, with the US merely abstaining. This episode underscores the ineffectiveness of the UN in enforcing its decisions.
Within the UN framework, two enduring conflicts—Kashmir and Palestine—remain unresolved, both significantly impacting Muslim communities. The historical treatment of Palestinians by the UN stands as a stark example of this disparity. In the Partition Plan for Palestine, Palestinians, constituting the majority of the population, were offered a mere 42% of the land, while recent Jewish immigrants were allocated 56%, despite forming a smaller demographic. This unjust distribution was rejected by Palestinians, demonstrating their resistance against such inequity. Recent legal actions against Israel at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice aimed to address these injustices. However, the response to these actions has been disheartening, failing to deliver the justice sought by Palestinians and perpetuating the cycle of impunity.
We know that the starting point of Israel was actually the British government’s Balfour Declaration of 1917, through which, in exchange for financial and other help by Zionists, the British government had promised to set up a national home for Jews in Palestine, which was then an Ottoman territory. And that started Zionists from around the world descending on Palestine and occupying Palestinians’ land through various means including massacres. And after the establishment of Israel in 1948, these illegal settlers were joined by the Israeli government and its defence forces. Figures extracted from the records of Jewish Virtual Library – which can be accessed through the internet – show that the Palestinians had formed an overwhelming majority of 91.9% in 1918, which was forcibly reduced to 68.0% by 1947 and later, through continuing persecution and wars, further cut down to the present 26.8%. And Netanyahu is trying to get rid of Gazans now, with the rest to be taken care of later, and has plans to expand the empire further.
We know that this was France which supplied Israel the nuclear reactor while Britain supplied it hard water. The US provided Israel super computers to advance its missile programme and Germany sold it the nuclear-capable submarines at subsidized prices. Moreover, these countries protected Israel from punitive action by shielding it at the UNSC by vetoing any resolution which was even mildly, though rightly critical of Israel. However, while other countries have relented a bit now, the US remains steadfast in its subservience of Israel.
In view of the above, it should be absolutely clear in the mind of Palestinians and their sympathizers, on individual and state level, that solution of Palestinians problem will not come from the US leaders who happen to be bought, owned and operated slaves of pro-Israel lobbies and seek their progress and prosperity in the appeasement of fanatic Israeli leaders. If some optimists still had doubts about American intentions, these should have been removed with the U.S. vetoing of the UNSC Resolution calling for the recognition of Palestinian state, approval of massive military aid packages for Israel, especially the latest $ 26 billion economic and military aid to Israel – probably for the all-out Rafah ground operation, ostensibly to finish off Hamas – for which Biden has already given sort of go-ahead by declaring: “No country should have to live next door to a threat that is truly genocidal as Hamas has been.” So, if nearly two billion Muslims in over fifty Muslim-majority states are serious about Palestinians’ lives and statehood, they better take some bold steps to make the U.S. and its allies take them seriously, and thus help China and Russia to help Palestinians.
— The writer is senior political analyst based in Karachi.
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