Since the founding of the United Nations' Security Council,
the Palestinians did not manage to have any kind of sway that would allow them
to block or amend a proposed resolution in any meaningful way.
But miracles do indeed happen, as, for the first time, and
after days of intense lobbying, a Palestinian delegation recently killed a
draft resolution. Not only this, it also managed to block a presidential statement
which is usually made when a resolution is buried, by way of explaining the
circumstances behind its rejection.
But this 'miracle' has a bizarre twist. The resolution,
drafted by Qatar and seconded by Indonesia, was merely expressing concern over
the humanitarian disaster intensifying in the Gaza Strip and the deteriorating
plight of one and a half million Palestinians dwelling, or more accurately,
imprisoned there, lacking all imaginable necessities -- electricity, fuel,
clean water, food and medicine.
One would typically expect it to be Israel dispatching its
delegations to the UN, armed with every possible pretext to deny Palestinians
even the smallest window of opportunity to argue for their concerns -- such as
protection for refugees, humanitarian aid, or investigations into massacres.
Historically, support for Palestine remained high in the
general assembly, despite Israel's strategic development and denotement of
anti-Semitic politics to intimidate member states. Not surprisingly, it was in
the security council that Israel invested most of its energy, with US and
Israeli ambassadors to the UN working diligently to block any SC resolution by
buying the support of veto and rotating non-veto wielding members, or by
bullying the daring few to withdraw their support for any particular draft.
More often than not, the US would insist on redrafting a
resolution before putting it to the vote.
If this did not work, a US veto was guaranteed. In recent
years, starting with Madeleine Albright (later Bill Clinton's Secretary of
State) to John Negroponte (later US Ambassador to Iraq and now Deputy Secretary
of State) to the present Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad (former US Ambassador to
Iraq), the US anti-Palestinian stance has hardened beyond any possibility of compromise.
It was Negroponte who brazenly declared in 2002 that the US
would veto any resolution regarding Israel that fails to condemn Palestinians.
In other words, Israel could get away with murder without
any objection from the council.
Consequently, Palestinians fought with all of their might,
with the help of various Arab ambassadors and other representatives to tip the
balance in their favour, but to no avail. As long as the US remained at the
helm of this undeniably corrupt arrangement, Palestine remained powerless to
secure any tangible international support.
Keeping such a legacy in mind, it came as an unparalleled
shock to learn of the double 'successes' of the Palestinian delegation to the
UN on July 30, with, first, Qatar pulling out its resolution regarding
Palestine, and second, the UNSC's presidency refraining from issuing a
statement to explain what went wrong.
Qatar's hope had been to support starving Palestinians in
Gaza and win some international sympathy on their behalf, which might embarrass
Israel into allowing some urgent supplies into Gaza.
A few months ago, one would have thought such an event to be
simply impossible: A Palestinian delegation, lobbying tirelessly at the UN to
block a UN call for helping half of the Palestinian population living in
complete isolation and facing ceaseless Israeli attacks in the occupied
territories.
What could possibly justify such cruelty? To ensure that
Hamas' isolation is complete? To deny the 'Islamists' of Gaza the opportunity
to score a point against the 'secularists' of Ramallah, thus to operate for a
few more months before the mass starvation kicks in? Even these pitiful excuses
no longer suffice.
However, the Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad
Mansour, tried his best to justify the scandal on the basis that "it is
unacceptable for anyone, including friends, to act on our behalf without our
knowledge no one should take such initiatives without consulting us."
I wonder if Mr Mansour worried himself too much about the
plight of Wael Abu Warda, 27, who died on August 4 from kidney failure while
waiting at Erez crossing, separating Gaza from Israel, or the many such
individuals who die everyday in Gaza's rundown hospitals?
Moreover, were the immediate needs of Gaza and its largely
unemployed and malnourished population part of the Palestinian agenda when
Condoleezza Rice visited Ramallah and met with Mahmoud Abbas, his prime
minister, Salam Fayyad and his 14-member cabinet? Or did the $80 million
Framework Agreement -- a US reward to Abbas for following the American script
to the letter -- set aside a tiny amount for milk, fuel and perhaps couple of
dialysis machines for those suffering in Gaza?
Back to the Palestinian 'success' at the UN, the miracle was
of course no miracle at all; Palestinians had clearly utilised the same
mechanism that Israel had used for years to block the mere possibility of
bringing attention to the plight of Gaza. One hates to invoke the proverbial
idea of Palestinians being their own worst enemy, but very few terms can
describe the unfolding travesty, compounded by the fact that the Zionist lobby
at the US Congress is now actively lobbying on behalf of Abbas.
$80 million seems too cheap a price for selling out one's
own people.
But considering the extreme circumstances, in the eyes of
some, the price is just right.
Ramzy
Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His work has
been published in numerous newspapers and journals worldwide, including the
Washington Post, Japan Times, Al Ahram Weekly and Lemonde Diplomatique. His
latest book is The
Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People�s
Struggle (Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website: ramzybaroud.net.