The news from Gaza has only gotten worse in recent days as attacks by the Israel military have killed at least 54 Palestinians, part of a new offensive targeting northern Gaza that’s caused large numbers of refugees to flee. The attacks came as Gaza health officials recorded another 13 deaths due to starvation — three of them children. That brings the number of hunger-related deaths in Gaza to more than 360. More than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed over the past 23 months since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel that killed 1,200 and kidnapped 240 hostages.
The world’s leading authorities on genocide, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, declared on Sept. 1, that Israel, by all legal definitions, is committing genocide in Gaza. As the Trump regime reviewed a plan to forcibly remove Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents and envisions turning the territory into a U.S.-controlled ‘economic hub’ with luxury resorts, the U.S. State Department has denied U.S. visitor visas to applicants who use a Palestinian passport, including diplomats planning on attending this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York City, Sept 9-23.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, until he resigned in protest due to the unfolding Gaza genocide. Here, he describes a plan that the United Nations General Assembly could initiate, if it had the political will, to end Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
CRAIG MOKHIBER: The United Nations normally would be able to mandate a protection force to be deployed to save the survivors of genocide in Gaza and beyond on the West Bank. It has not so far been able to do so because the typical channel for this is in the U.N. Security Council. And the U.S., as a permanent member and a co-perpetrator in the genocide, uses its veto power to prevent anything from passing through the Security Council. And that’s been very convenient for a lot of countries who say, “Well, we tried, but the U.S. vetoed it.”
But a lot of these countries are hiding behind the veto because there is a mechanism in the United Nations that allows for countries to get around, to circumvent a veto of a permanent member of the Security Council when the Council is unable to act because of that veto and when there are serious issues on the ground that need to be addressed by the international community.
This is something that is called Uniting for Peace. It is the name of a resolution in the General Assembly from 1950 that says specifically that when the Security Council was unable to act because of the veto that the U.N. General Assembly itself — a body with no veto, where every country has one vote — can take action to address the situation. And indeed, there is a precedent because in 1956, the U.N. General Assembly mandated the U.N. Emergency Force for the Sinai over the objections of Britain and France — both permanent members of the Security Council — over the objections of Israel and just use the permission of Egypt to actually enter on the ground in Sinai and interpose U.N. Emergency Forces.
It has not been done since and the call now is for the GA to take up its responsibilities and to deploy a U.N. protection force for Gaza, ultimately to expand to the West Bank. But immediately to Gaza to enter by land, sea, air, either through the Sinai and the Rafah entry or using navies to enter at the Gaza Beach or to parachute in — whatever it takes to break the siege, to bring in mandated forces and to deliver humanitarian aid, to protect civilians, to preserve evidence of Israeli war crimes and to begin the process of recovery and reconstruction.
That is something that could be done. It is legal. There is precedent for it. There is a fair amount of political will on the part of member states that have voted in a supermajority of more than two-thirds to support Palestine and to oppose the Israeli onslaught if they can be convinced to do so. Now, it could make all the difference in the world, particularly in what is the final phase of Israel’s plan for genocide in the Gaza Strip.
SCOTT HARRIS: Well, Craig, that’s hopeful. One thing we’ve seen over the years and certainly during the siege of Gaza, is that the Israeli military and the government that commands them has no problem at all with attacking United Nations forces, United Nations personnel, United Nations humanitarian aid workers. Would it not be a scenario in which a U.N. force could be organized to come to the aid of Palestinian civilians in Gaza or the West Bank and certainly be targeted immediately by the Israeli military with possible backup by the United States?
CRAIG MOKHIBER: Well, no one is naive about this proposal. We are all aware that Israel holds the world record by a wide margin for the murder of U.N. staff. Just in the last 22 months, it’s murdered more than 360 U.N. workers in Gaza alone. It has a long record of attacking U.N. peacekeepers in the south of Lebanon with impunity.
No one doubts the possibility of aggression on the part of the Israeli regime against this internationally mandated force. However, the hope is that the configuration of the force will act as a deterrent. So, imagine a large force which is made up of contingents from a number of countries — from around the world, from various regions, European countries, Latin American countries, Asian countries, African countries — all under the U.N. flag entering without engaging in combat with the Israeli regime, but strictly on a defensive civilian protection mandate to deliver food and to break the siege.
Will it be so easy for Israel to act in military aggression against this force so mandated? It’s not impossible. It’s probably less likely than if you tried another form of intervention. And of course, the force would be accompanied by a diplomatic mobilization on the part of the whole world. With the exception, of course of the most complicit states — the government of the U.S. we know acts as a proxy for Israel within the Security Council and the broader U.N. And so no one is expecting a principled position on the part of the U.S. government.
For more information, visit Craig Mokhiber’s website at craigmokhiber.org or read more of his articles on the Mondoweiss website.
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