End Israel's Legal Impunity. Target the UN. NOW. Performative Protest Is Complicity.
It's beyond a state of emergency. It's time for students in NYC to move off campus, for churches to assert themselves, for activists to confront the major institutions directly with mass protests.
It’s tempting to focus on analyzing situations, mesmerized by actions of corrupt players, most recently in Syria. I’ve spent much of my life parsing through the layers of lies. But that shouldn’t obscure the need for action which can be crystal clear if one thinks for a bit.
The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has correctly admitted “We have failed the people of Gaza”. Why is he allowed to go a day without people confronting him with that failure?
Perhaps my repeated calls have been too subtle. Last time I was in NYC, I went to protests including one at Columbia University and held up a sign outside the campus fence (outsiders, even journalists, were not allowed on campus):
As over a hundred students on the campus held a protest, I held up a sign outside imploring them to “make the UN do the right thing”. Several protesters took notice, some taking photos of me and my sign. One came off campus to chat and sent me the above photo.
The protests on campuses to date have been important, but a new strategy is needed. Getting universities to divest from Israel is a long-term struggle. We’re in an emergency situation. And students may actually be restricted more on campus than they are in the wider world.
The world was watching. For a while. Now the protests must bring it to the doorstep of the major institutions. Key is the United Nations.
Israel just started running ads around the UN, trying to destroy UNRWA, the last lifeline for Gaza, in furtherance of their genocidal project:
Of course, there have been some protests outside the UN organized by some very dedicated activists, like Robert Jereski, an attorney based in New York City who has been leading CodePink’s efforts to meet with UN missions, highlighting their obligations under the Geneva Conventions and the Genocide Conventions. But they are overdue to catch fire.
These protests have rightly focused on the US mission to the UN, which is directly across from the UN headquarters:
Protesters have held hunger strikes there with far too little attention. This is part of the global movement to end Israel’s genocide, the hunger strikers at the UN were acting in solidarity with hunger strikers in Jordan.
And there have been protests at other missions, like the Türkiye mission protesting Erdogan’s “Crocodile Tears”. Just after their protests, Türkiye cut off diplomatic relations with Israel.
But it’s not nearly enough, as Erdogan’s sanctions on Israel are at best ineffective — and his actual target was clearly Syria, not Israel.
Indeed, virtually every country should be pushed. Certainly the US, Germany and Britain for their direct support of Israel’s genocide and other NATO countries.
But also countries like Brazil which call Israel’s attack genocidal but don’t impose economic sanctions. And Algeria, which is on the Security Council and instead of insisting on trying to implement the ICJ orders in May folded and backed phony US machinations. Algeria has the presidency of the Council in January, giving it powers over scheduling.
The UN is key especially because the International Court of Justice has issued rulings which the UN can pass resolutions to enforce with teeth. The UN General Assembly did overwhelmingly pass a mild resolution in September using Uniting for Peace — a method of getting around the US veto. And it recently called for a peace conference to take place in June. This is insanely weak given that a genocide is taking place.
The General Assembly can pass Uniting for Peace resolutions that have teeth, including:
● Set up a peacekeeping force to go into Gaza;
● Recommend an arms embargo and economic sanctions against Israel;
● Recommend UN members sever diplomatic relations with Israel.
● Suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly.
See “When will the General Assembly suspend Israel?” by Kathy Kelly, posted by Pax Christi.
Recent events at Riverside Church in New York City about Palestine often invoke Rev. Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the cathedral. But they leave out the bigger story.
King didn’t just give a speech on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was assassinated. He then led a major protest in front of the United Nations on April 15, 1967. See my piece from May which includes legal analysis from UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber and scholars Francis Boyle and John Quigley:
Rev. Munther Isaac spoke eloquently at Riverside Church in August of how “Silence Is Complicity” with respect to the muteness of the churches in the US about the genocide in Gaza when whole church congregations should be stepping up.
And he’s right. But it is only half the equation. Mere dissent can be complicity. Virtue signaling protest can be complicity. Simply speaking among likeminded people in the comfort of a church sanctuary can be limiting.
The protests MLK led were larger than the ones going on now at the UN, but there have been mass protests in NYC. They just haven’t been at the UN.
Many have been at places like Times Square. Even when Netanyahu came to the UN, the protests were blocks away since the area was blocked off for the big UN meetings just then. Protesting against Netanyahu is obviously good, but it’s obviously not going to change his mind. Challenging various countries that are not themselves genocidal to take more action might well bear fruit. It certainly did when activists implored South Africa to invoke the Genocide Convention last year.
Immigrant groups in NYC would be an important factor as well, perhaps each pushing their countries of origin to do the right thing.
In 1981, you had the Global South assert itself in the General Assembly criticizing the Western members of the Security Council for protecting South Africa as it occupied Namibia. It called on “all states, in view of the threat to international peace and security posed by South Africa, to impose against that country comprehensive mandatory sanctions.”
Such resolutions would dovetail wih grassroots Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activism.
Jewish Voice for Peace has organized very photogenic protests at the Manhattan Bridge, the stock exchange and Grand Central Station.
These may be galvanizing at a certain level, but they are also performative.
US citizens who have been arrested for their protests against genocide are in a particularly strong position to push other counties to take bolder action, which could result in punitive measures from the US government.
It’s like a union organizing effort. The US establishment seeks to target the Palestinians first and foremost and to threaten any who might stand in the way. Solidarity is critical.
What’s needed is to bring the grievance to the doorstep of the perpetrators. The group Palestine Action has done that by actually smashing up offices of companies key to Israel’s slaughter.
But that’s delivering a body blow. It’s not going for the head.
A forthcoming article of mine on self-immolation notes that a pair of self-immolations protesting the US government attack on Vietnam outside the Pentagon and United Nations in 1965 — precursors of Aaron Bushnell — seemed to have riveted both the establishment and the antiwar movement.
People often dismiss the happenings at the UN as irrelevant to the real world. That is a serious mistake. Legal impunity is in a sense the greatest manifestation of illegitimate power. And I expect Israel’s mantra against international law — pretending that the UN has unfairly singled it out when in fact the UN was used by the US government to legitimize its illegal attacks on Iraq — will gain more traction in parts of the US establishment.
A factual crit of the UN must be amped up. Major street action there will be key to that.
And they can be timed. Imagine massive crowds outside the US mission shouting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” as the US representative issues another veto against peace.
Too often, the solution of Uniting for Peace to address the US veto is overlooked. Most recently, Amnesty International finally asserted that Israel is committing genocide, but many of their recommendations were hollow. Specifically, they recommend the UNSC does things the US government will obviously not allow. And they make no mention of Uniting for Peace which would allow the UN General Assembly to act forcefully.
The US/Israeli/NATO establishment wants to hide what is happening in Gaza. It wants endless distractions. Direct action can help change that. It can force the society to focus.
Winter is upon is, it hardly seems the ideal time for protests — but we’ve long known the uselessness of “Summer soldiers and Sunshine patriots”. What we need is more brave souls to be the Night Watch for a better world.
Sadly true. Hardly anyone, including those of us opposing and protesting this horrible genocide, is doing enough.
Agree. End the street circus