U.S. Veto Expected Today on Ceasefire and Aid for Gaza

The U.S. government continues sabotaging international law and ensuring genocide. Uniting for Peace could solve this if people push for it. Fasters will be protesting outside the U.S. mission.

I’ve been in New York since late last week, spending some of that time with these Vets for Peace and allies fasting in front of the U.S. mission to the U.N. I fasted a bit myself, but nothing like what some of these folks are doing. I just drafted this news release via accuracy.org —

U.S. Veto Expected Today on Ceasefire and Aid for Gaza -- Interviews Available

AP reports: "The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution which demands 'an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza respected by all parties.' U.N. diplomats said the United States is likely to veto it." The vote is reportedly expected around 4 p.m. ET.

Al Jazeera published a portion of the text and notes it also provides for "an immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and its safe and unhindered distribution at scale including by the U.N. and humanitarian partners throughout the Strip."

Veterans For Peace and their allies are fasting outside the U.S. mission to the U.N., across the street from U.N. headquarters, holding signs and banners in protest of U.S. policy, see below.

The U.S. government vetoed resolutions calling for ceasefires in Gaza on Oct. 18 and Dec. 8 in 2023 and Feb. 20 and Nov. 20 in 2024. On March 25, 2024, it abstained on a resolution calling for a ceasefire during Ramadan when most of the Muslim holy month was over and then undermined the resolution as "non-binding." More background below.

Some of the recent attacks on civilians in Gaza have involved the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an "aid" organization which has been widely dismissed as an Israeli ploy. It just named Johnnie Moore, a pro-Israel evangelical, as its head. See information about him from Drop Site News. Amnesty International just implored Israel to stop "starvation of civilians as a method of war."

CRAIG MOKHIBER, craigmokhiber@gmail.com, @CraigMokhiber
Mokhiber is an international human rights lawyer and former director of the New York Office of the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. He was just featured on an IPA news release "Can Uniting for Peace Help Save the International Legal Order?" noting that in the face of the U.S. veto, the U.N. General Assembly "should call out the genocide by name, strip Israel of its credentials, convene under Uniting for Peace to mandate a protection force, call for a complete military embargo and robust sanctions against the regime, demand a ceasefire, and take action to hold all perpetrators to account. ..."

The UNGA acted in 1981 regarding South Africa, attacking the use of the veto by the U.S. and calling for actions including "comprehensive mandatory sanctions" against that apartheid regime. The General Assembly also resolved the 1956 crisis using Uniting for Peace when Israel with Britain and France invaded Gaza and Sinai, successfully creating the first real U.N. peacekeeping force, see: "'Uniting for Peace' is Next Step in Invoking Genocide Convention Process to Protect Palestine" by IPA senior analyst Sam Husseini.

The following have been fasting since May 22 outside the U.S. Mission to the U.N., just across the street from U.N. headquarters in New York.

Their demands are: 1) Full humanitarian aid to Gaza under U.N. authority and 2) No more U.S. weapons to Israel.

PHIL TOTTENHAM, philiptottenham@gmail.com
Tottenham is a Marine Corps Veteran and Veterans For Peace member.

JOY METZLER, jmetzler354@gmail.com
Metzler is a VFP member, USAF Academy ‘23 graduate and conscientious objector.

MIKE FERNER, mike@veteransforpeace.org
Ferner is a past national director of Veterans For Peace.

KATHY KELLY, kathy.vcnv@gmail.com
Kelly is board president of World BEYOND War.

Background: On May 24, 2024, as part of the Genocide Convention case brought by South Africa, the International Court of Justice issued orders for Israel to stop its offensive in Rafah. The court also ordered that "The State of Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance" to the people of Gaza. The Algerian delegation reportedly drafted a resolution to implement this order of the high court. The U.S. government then stalled and then Biden proclaimed that Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire, which Israelis disputed. Still, on June 10, the U.S. government managed to have the UNSC pass a resolution blessing its "ceasefire" talks with no mention at all of the ICJ orders. There was no ceasefire until the closing days of the Biden administration, arranged by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, which Israel violated to minimal scrutiny in March, and then escalated its attacks. Israel had blocked humanitarian supplies beginning on March 2. The resolution currently proposed also makes no mention of the ICJ and blesses the U.S. "ceasefire" process, but the U.S. government is still expected to veto it.

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People can urge countries to act, especially utilizing Uniting for Peace with this great resource that a volunteer put together:

Another activist has pulled together a list of handles on X of some of the officials from various counties. People can be urging them to finally stand up to the U.S. veto.