UN Demands Israel End Occupation

Boston police department states that Matt Nelson is in fact still alive.

[I just got off the phone with the Boston police spokesperson and they said the self-immolator -- presumably Matt Nelson -- is still alive. They report that he has very serious injuries. They confirmed that he is an adult male. They could not or would not confirm name or other information. This runs totally counter to Talia Jane who wrote on Monday: “According to two close friends of his, Matt Nelson succumbed to his injuries Sunday afternoon at Mass General.” She did not name the “two close friends”. I was compelled to phone the Boston police again because of this report in the New Arab.]

I just put this out via accuracy.org. I also wrote a couple of threads on the subject:

UN Demands Israel End Occupation

The UN General Assembly today voted 124-14 with 43 abstentions for a resolution which "demands that Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." [PDF]

UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber summarizes the resolution: "Implement the findings of the World Court that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is entirely unlawful and must be quickly dismantled, Palestinians must be compensated and allowed to return, Israel is practicing apartheid and racial segregation, and all states are obliged to cut off all support and end the occupation."

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
    Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law. He successfully represented Bosnia at the International Court of Justice in its Genocide Convention case against Yugoslavia. He was just featured on the IPA news release "UN to Vote on 'Mild Resolution' From Court Rulings on Palestine." He said today: "This is good public relations for the people back at home when in fact they are all not doing much to stop the genocide. Much stronger action is needed. But it should be useful to buttress other efforts, like BDS -- the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement." 

JOHN QUIGLEY, quigley.2@osu.edu

    Professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley's books include The Statehood of Palestine: International Law in the Middle East Conflict (Cambridge University Press). He said today: "The International Court of Justice's (also called the World Court) proper role is like that of the U.S. Supreme Court. It says what the law -- like the UN Charter and Geneva Conventions and Genocide Convention -- mean. The ICJ specifically said recently that the UN Security Council and General Assembly should implement the rulings of the high court. The just-passed UN General Assembly resolution is the bare minimum that should be done. Some have claimed that the resolution went beyond the ICJ ruling. It's the other way around. The ICJ said all the settlers needed to be evacuated out of the occupied territories. The resolution says that should happen within a year. There could be further resolutions. They could come in with a resolution setting up a peace keeping force, or strong economic sanctions, especially if Israel does not comply with what they said today, and Israel obviously will not comply." 

    In 1956, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution creating the United Nations Emergency Force which mandated that the UK, France and Israel withdraw from the Sinai and the Gaza Strip, which the three of them had invaded.