GENEVA — A year ago, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, but said in remarks to the Security Council that they “did not occur.” produced in isolation. This phrase was immediately denounced by Israel and still hangs over UN activities in the Middle East.
Israeli officials and outraged civilians accused the UN chief of trying to justify the horrors of that day, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage.
Palestinian leaders have praised Guterres for defending human rights and recognizing the problems Palestinians have faced during more than half a century of occupation.
While Israel’s poor relationship with the world body dates back decades before Guterres came to power – with Israeli leaders long accusing the UN of anti-Israel bias – the secretary-general’s October 24, 2023 comment set the tone for relations between the two countries during this period. the conflict.
These relationships are at an all-time low – many say they are the lowest they have ever been.
Here is a look at the tense, but in many ways fundamental, relationship between the UN and Israel and its implications for the people of Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon:
Why are relations between Israel and the UN so bad?
Long-standing tensions in relations between Israel and the 193 nations of the United Nations have worsened in recent months.
On October 2, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz called Guterres “persona non grata” – not welcome – in the country.
He tweeted that the UN chief had failed to “unequivocally” condemn the Iranian attack on Israel the previous night and claimed that Guterres was supporting groups in the region, which would “be remembered as a stain in the history of the United Nations.
Israel has also stepped up efforts to get rid of the United Nations agency that helps millions of Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA. Two bills approved this month by an Israeli parliamentary committee aimed at banning its operations on Israeli territory await final approval in the Knesset, its parliament.
The head of UNRWA says adopting the measure could lead to the collapse of the agency and leave hundreds of thousands of people in need.
Israel says some of the thousands of employees of UNRWA, Gaza’s main aid provider, took part in the October 7 attacks. More than a dozen employees were later fired following an internal investigation.
In Lebanon, where an Israeli offensive is underway, Israeli forces repeatedly fired on U.N. peacekeepers monitoring the 2006 ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel near the southern border with Israel.
Israel says Hezbollah has built military infrastructure next to U.N. positions and that peacekeepers essentially serve as human shields in refusing Israeli requests for evacuations.
Over the summer, the UN’s highest court issued a non-binding opinion declaring Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal and called for an end to it, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to retort that these areas were part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people.
And Netanyahu attacked the world body in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, saying that until Israel “is treated like other nations, until this anti-Semitic swamp is dried up, the UN will be seen by impartial people everywhere as nothing more than a contemptuous farce.
In May, the General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution granting new rights to the non-member observer state of Palestine and calling on the Security Council to reconsider its request for full membership in the United Nations.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and injured tens of thousands, according to local health authorities, who do not specify how many were fighters but say more than half were women and children. It caused significant damage and displaced around 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
The United Nations says the war in Gaza has caused more deaths among U.N. personnel in a single conflict than in any other since the world organization was founded after World War II in 1945.
In what areas was the UN effective during the conflict?
Despite tensions and strained relations, UN humanitarian agencies have had some successes.
UNICEF says its cash distribution programs have helped offset the economic fallout from rising unemployment and rising prices when food and other aid fails to arrive. Its trucks transport water and its teams participate in the reconstruction of desalination plants. He brought 1.2 million doses of polio vaccine.
The World Health Organization took advantage of the “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting to carry out a polio vaccination campaign among children in Gaza. However, on Wednesday it was unable to start vaccinating children in northern Gaza due to fighting and insecurity.
Despite repeated lack of access, WHO has provided water, sanitation and hygiene services to almost 2 million people.
Despite intense pressure from Israel, UNRWA remains essential, with its network of drivers, loaders, warehouse staff, shelter staff, garbage collectors, water well maintenance teams water and much more. Since October 7, 2023, it has provided nearly 6 million medical consultations in Gaza, or an average of three per person.
“UNRWA is the backbone of the system,” and without it, “everything falls apart,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder. “In particular, as UNRWA came under tighter restrictions, everyone had to step up their efforts. But everyone had to step in knowing full well that they couldn’t put themselves in that place.
In Lebanon, the UN World Food Program said it was well prepared before the intensification of the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel and is distributing hot meals, ready-to-eat rations, food parcels and a cash assistance to more than 200,000 people in shelters.
Where has the UN faced challenges?
The list of obstacles faced by the UN in mitigating the consequences is much longer. Guterres and the heads of all UN agencies say what is most needed is a ceasefire.
The United Nations has been excluded from ceasefire talks and its efforts to provide desperately needed food and other aid have faced numerous obstacles.
Even if convoys cross the border into Gaza, it becomes extremely difficult to deliver aid to the populations. UN officials point to many problems: fighting, numerous Israeli evacuation orders, lawlessness and stripping of humanitarian convoys, Israeli delays in pre-approved deliveries, and lack of security for drivers and humanitarian staff.
At a UN Security Council meeting last week, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon pointed the finger at Hamas for the lack of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
“The terrorist organization steals, stores and sells the aid that enters the Gaza Strip and uses it to fuel its terrorist machine and not to feed Gazans. He said that defeating and disarming Hamas is “the only way to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
The latest report from international experts indicates that a threat of famine looms over Gaza and that approximately 86% of Gaza’s population is experiencing critical levels of hunger.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has given the government 30 days to increase humanitarian deliveries to 350 trucks a day or face the threat of arms funding cuts.
UN teams deplore the lack of access to aid: medicine, food, fuel and other necessary items, as well as the limitations imposed by Israel on the number and duration of visas for some UN personnel. UN.
Just over 5,100 people have been evacuated from Gaza for health reasons, and more than three times that number are still awaiting urgent medical evacuation, the WHO said. Israel’s closure of the Rafah border with Egypt has been an obstacle to the evacuation of sick and injured Palestinians from Gaza.
Dr. Hanan Balkhy, head of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region, which covers Lebanon and Palestinian areas but not Israel, said his staff faced “major problems” accessing some areas, such as the north of Gaza under siege.
The WFP is one of several agencies saying it needs more financial support: it is appealing for $116 million to help up to 1 million people until the end of the year – if ports and supply lines can remain open.
Lederer reported from the United Nations.
Originally published:
