On
Gaza in UNSC,
The Collective
Punishment
Will Be
Televised, on
UNTV
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, July
22 -- The
Middle East
debate in the
UN Security
Council
on July 22 ran
until 6:30 pm,
ending with
Israel's
representative
snarking that
Saudi Arabia
and Iran are
engaged in a
proxy war in
Syria but are
very close
here in the
UN.
But
the elephant
in the room,
or in the
Security
Council
chamber, was
the
draft
resolution of
Jordan and the
Arab Group.
Inner City
Press
published
a draft of the
draft last
week, and
has repeatedly
been
told it is
about to be
circulated.
But several
speakers on
July 22
asked, where
is it?
Once
the Security
Council's 15
members were
finished, more
than forty
other
countries
spoke. A
sampling of a
half-dozen:
Pakistan's
Permanent
Representative
Masood Khan
said that the
collective
punishment of
the people of
Gaza is being
broadcast,
live: the
collective
punishment
will be
televised, to
paraphrase Gil
Scott
Heron's “the
revolution
will not be
televised.”
Brazil's
Permanent
Representative
Antonio
Patriota noted
that the
Security
Council cites
protection of
civilians in
other contexts
-- Libya came
to mind -- so
why not in
Gaza?
Nicaragua's
Permanent
Representative,
among others,
called for
Palestine's
admission into
the UN as a
full member,
not only as
“Observer”
state.
South
Africa's
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Mashabane
quoted Nelson
Mandela: “Our
freedom is
incomplete
without the
freedom of the
Palestinians.”
New
Zealand's
Permanent
Representative
gave a speech
that sounded
more in
the mainstream
of UN member
states' views
than, say,
Australia. In
the upcoming
election for
Security
Council seats,
New Zealand is
seeking the
Western
European and
Other Group
seat that its
fellow
CANZ member
Australia is
vacating.
The
other CANZ-er,
Canada, called
for the UN to
investigate if
UNRWA gave
rockets found
in one of its
schools back
to Hamas. The
question was
put earlier in
the day to US
State
Department
Deputy
Spokesperson
Marie Harf,
who said the
US is looking
into it, don't
jump to
conclusions.
The
session ended
with Israel
snarking, on
mass death
penalty
grounds, at
Egypt - which
struck some as
strange. But
this is the
UN. Watch this
site.
, 
