Since the world’s mightiest military power (the United States) is fully backing Israel and using its veto to block intervention by the United Nations Security Council, the chances of the world providing any protection for Gaza’s two million defenceless, starving Palestinians appears slim.
This is a horrific reality, leaving people around the world stunned by the inability of international law and institutions to halt behaviour which major international human rights organizations and leading scholars — including Israeli scholars — are calling “genocide.”
Yet, despite the U.S. veto, there’s something that the world’s nations can do to stop this killing. And Canada could — and should — play a key role in helping that happen.
“The world need not surrender in the face of that (U.S.) veto,” Craig Mokhiber, a former senior UN official, argued last week in the online journal Mondoweiss.
Mokhiber, who spent more than 30 years as a human rights lawyer at the UN, notes that there is a little-used UN mechanism under which the nations of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) can get around the veto of a Security Council member.
Known as the “Uniting for Peace resolution,” the measure would allow the general assembly, with a two-thirds majority, to authorize the creation of an armed, multinational UN force that could deploy to Gaza to protect civilians, open entry points via land and sea, preserve evidence of alleged Israeli crimes and facilitate humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
Mokhiber points out that there are precedents, “most notably the UNGA’s mandating of the 1956 UN Emergency Force to the Sinai” — in which Canada played a leading role.
Canadian External Affairs Minister Lester Pearson was instrumental in the creation of that UN force after France, Britain and Israel attacked Egypt in an effort to take back control of the Suez Canal, which Egypt had nationalized.
Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his role in resolving the crisis. This was also the beginning of UN peacekeeping and Canada’s reputation as an influential middle power.
Mokhiber says that, given this historical precedent “and the tradition of Canadian leadership in peacekeeping,” Canada could play a “special role” in the creation of a UN force in Gaza.
Indeed, Canada’s involvement could help raise European support for the initiative, which has already been endorsed by Ireland.
In recent months, Canada, the U.K. and France have angered longtime ally Israel by jointly criticizing its “egregious” behaviour, and by indicating their intention to recognize Palestine as a state, bolstering support for Palestinian statehood to more than 145 of the UN’s 193 nations.
While recognition is important, it offers Palestinians no immediate protection from Israeli bombardment, nor does it open checkpoints so that the hundreds of trucks full of food can enter Gaza.
As The Times of Israel reported last month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for extreme measures against anyone refusing to evacuate Gaza City: “No water, no electricity, they can die of hunger or surrender.”
Of course, any new initiative to break the Israeli siege would be met with furious pushback from U.S. President Donald Trump. Like his predecessor Joe Biden, Trump has provided Israel with billions of dollars in arms to bomb Gaza, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, in response to the 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 250.
And we know how malevolent Trump can be towards countries that don’t submit to his whims. As the New York Times documented last week, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined Trump’s request last June to endorse Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. Since then, Trump has raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50 per cent.
So, standing up to Trump is always perilous. On the other hand, if we want to save starving children, we might just have to grow a backbone.
This article was originally published in the Toronto Star.
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