Resolution calling for international protection for Palestinians expected to pass by wide margin
Following a request by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League states, the United Nations General Assembly will convene an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss the recent upheaval in the Gaza Strip.
During the session a resolution is expected to be voted on that explicitly condemns the Israeli army’s alleged excessive use of force against Palestinian protesters during the months-long “March of Return” demonstrations. Moreover, the resolution, which will likely pass by a wide margin, calls on the international community to provide protection for Gaza’s civilian population.
According to Omar Abdullah, head of the UN Department at the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Palestinian officials have urged that Arab nations take more responsibility for what is happening in Hamas-ruled enclave, including by pressuring the international community to intervene, perhaps militarily, on behalf of Palestinians.
“We also requested an urgent session of the Security Council,” Abdullah told The Media Line. “In the process of letting our people call for their legitimate rights in a peaceful way, we must also protect them,” he added.
Abdullah noted that based on international law and existing UN resolutions, the Palestinians have the right to protest peacefully with a view to reclaiming their right to self-determination; this, along with the demand that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to Israel.
“I doubt that all of the people who were killed in Gaza tried to break into Israel,” he said, explaining that even if they tried to climb the fence, such actions do not warrant a lethal response. “[Israelis] are using weak excuses to justify killing the Palestinian protesters,” Abdullah stressed, adding that “the PA is pushing for an official investigation into what happened and is ongoing in Gaza.”
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed and thousands of others wounded in Gaza over the past two months, as the “March of Return” demonstrations along the border with Israel have devolved into chaos. Many of the injuries were caused by Israel’s use of tear gas, while most of the deaths resulted from the use of live-ammunition by the Israel Defense Forces protecting the security fence.
Gad Shimron, an Israeli political analyst, contended to The Media Line that the Israeli army tried to do everything possible to avoid casualties. “If the Palestinian protesters were marching peacefully away from the border, no one would talk to them,” he said, before qualifying that what actually happened is that Palestinians attempted to storm the border.
“We have a history of Palestinians who try or have committed suicide attacks in our country,” Shimron asserted, thus, in his estimation, the potential for protesters to infiltrate Israel and perpetrate attacks is a credible threat.
When asked about the Palestinian request for a rigorous investigation into the clashes, Shimron instead urged the international community to open investigations into civilian deaths in places like Syria and Yemen.
“What a hypocritical world we live in. Any other army would act in the same manner to protect its borders,” he concluded.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon issued a statement strongly condemning the prospective UNGA session and the proposed draft resolution, which he described as “shameful.” Danon called it “a proposal to support Hamas’ war crimes against Israel and the residents of Gaza who are being sent to die for the sake of preserving Hamas’s rule.”
One issue that delegates will undoubtedly raise in the General Assembly centers on the exact nature of the “international protection” Palestinians are demanding. Arab countries recently asked UN General-Secretary Antonio Guterres to formulate options in this regard, but, according to experts, he needs a mandate from the Security Council to consider deploying any armed force.
Orieb Rintawi, a Jordanian political analyst, believes that what is happening in Gaza indeed warrants military intervention. “Recently, all of the Palestinian factions agreed on the need for peaceful resistance. There are no armed groups perpetuating violent resistance in Palestine anymore,” he claimed, while criticizing the Unites States and Israel for equating peaceful protests with terrorist activities.
“Palestinians are left with no other option than demonstrating,” Rintawi stressed, before noting that “to ask for international protection isn’t a new thing. Who is standing in the middle from achieving this? The [Trump] administration, which completely buys the Israeli story.”
Last month, the U.S. vetoed a Kuwait-drafted resolution calling for an independent investigation into the Gaza clashes as well as the formation of an international force to protect residents. Washington does not, however, have a veto in the General Assembly, which in December passed a resolution condemning the U.S. for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and deciding to move its embassy to the contested city.