After resisting worldwide calls for a ceasefire in Gaza over the past five months, the Biden administration finally changed course on March 25 and allowed the passage of a ceasefire resolution at the United Nations Security Council. The resolution, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza for the remainder of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, comes after more than 32,000 Palestinians, including 13,000 children have been killed by Israeli military airstrikes and a ground assault equipped with U.S. weapons.
Before this latest UN vote where the U.S. abstained, Washington had used its veto power as diplomatic cover for Israel three times since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 240 hostages taken back to Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the U.S. Security Council ceasefire vote and cancelled a visit to Washington by an Israeli delegation for talks on Israel’s planned assault on the city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
In a visit to Rafah on the Egyptian border a day earlier, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said it was time to “truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid,” as he declared that the starvation of Palestinians inside Gaza was a “moral outrage.” Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Josh Ruebner, an author and adjunct lecturer in the Justice and Peace Program at Georgetown University, who discusses what happens now that the UN Security Council has finally voted for a ceasefire in Gaza.
JOSH RUEBNER: I do think that it’s an extremely important diplomatic development. This is the first time that the United Nations Security Council has been able to act together in concert to pass a ceasefire resolution since Oct. 7. And despite what the Biden administration has been saying — that this resolution is of a non-binding nature — in fact, any resolution passed through the Security Council IS of a binding nature.
So Israel must abide by this U.N. Security Council resolution under international law. Now, we have, of course, heard already Israel and its refusal to abide by the terms of the ceasefire, which is not at all a surprise. So the scenario that this sets up is if Israel refuses to comply with the Security Council resolution, will the U.N. Security Council take the next logical step and utilize the next tool at its disposal, which is to impose multilateral sanctions against Israel for violating a U.N. Security Council resolution?
That’s clearly what this resolution sets up today. The question will be, will the United States allow for the imposition of those type of sanctions should Israel continue to defy the Security Council resolution?
And I think we all know the answer to that as much as it was a change in the Biden administration’s policies to abstain on today’s resolution. The Biden administration had shamefully vetoed a resolution for a ceasefire on three previous occasions. So as much as this does represent a significant change, I think we all know that the Biden administration is not going to impose any consequence on Israel for its violation of this ceasefire resolution.
SCOTT HARRIS: So, just to be clear, if the Biden administration does not act to enforce sanctions or other consequences for Israel if they don’t abide by the U.N. Security Council resolution, then in reality, nothing will happen.
JOSH RUEBNER: That’s true. But you know what? I don’t think the Biden administration needs to wait on the U.N. to pass another resolution saying that Israel is in violation of this ceasefire resolution. The reality is, according to U.S. law, no country that blocks the provision of humanitarian aid is eligible for any form of U.S. assistance. No country that systematically violates human rights and violates international humanitarian law is eligible for any form of U.S. assistance whatsoever.
So just looking at U.S. domestic law — not even getting into the international legal component of this — the Biden administration should be abiding by the laws that are on the books of this country, which necessitate cutting off the flow of weapons to Israel to continue to prosecute its genocidal campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s in clear violation of the Arms Export Control Act, which says that U.S. weapons can only be used for self-defense, legitimate self-defense and for internal security, neither of which Israel is doing right now.
And it’s also in violation of the Foreign Assistance Act, which says very clearly under Section 620I, no U.S. weapons can go to the country that blocks the provision of humanitarian aid. 1.1 million Palestinians are now facing imminent starvation as a result of Israel blocking basic food from getting into the Gaza Strip.
SCOTT HARRIS: I think and you can comment on this, but judging from the attitudes and votes of both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate, it doesn’t seem likely that Biden will be held to account for violating U.S. law that you just cited.
JOSH RUEBNER: Well, a number of senators and representatives are trying their best to hold the president to account and to urge him to follow these laws. So, for example, over the weekend, we saw 17 senators, I believe, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, urging the Biden administration to reject these assurances that Israel gave under this new national security memorandum that was issued early in the year by the Biden administration, saying that it was going to comply with international humanitarian law, saying that it would not block humanitarian aid.
Of course, these assurances that Israel provided to the United States in this regard are not credible. And these 17 senators called out the lack of credibility of these assurances and urged President Biden to take the next logical step under his own national security memorandum, which was issued earlier this year, which is again, to cut off weapons to countries that do not provide credible assurances to this effect.
And also on the House, you had six senior members of Congress call on the Biden administration to implement this provision of law, which I just mentioned, Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which is supposed to cut off weapons to a country that blocks humanitarian aid. So certainly there are a lot of members of Congress who are trying.
But clearly the Biden administration and the president himself is ignoring those calls right now.
Josh Ruebner is author of “Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace.”
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Josh Ruebner (26:41). More articles and opinion pieces are found in the Related Links section of this page.
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