The key to a just UN-centered multilateralism is ending Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians

During the recent UNGA General Debate states addressed the fatal threat of Israel’s impunity to a failing UN; to address this, states must commit to their obligations under international law and impose sanctions on Israel 

18 October 2024– The UN General Assembly commenced its 79th session this year with the theme: “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.” Justice is peculiarly missing from the theme, reflecting who pulls the strings at the UN. Speeches by representatives of states during the General Debate reflected how hegemonic policies and actions by Western powers are ushering in a “might makes right” order that threatens to leave the UN itself behind. At the center of this crisis for the UN and system of international law is the impunity Western powers provide for Israel’s atrocity crimes and aggression against Palestinians, Lebanese and other peoples in the region.   

Age of “total impunity”

The UN Secretary General (UNSG), Antonio Guterres, opened the General Debate with a message he has been repeating since the beginning of Israel’s genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the besieged and occupied Gaza. For months, he has been warning that the UN system is being wrecked by Israel’s violations of international law and the impunity provided by the US and other Western powers. In February, two months after invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter, the UNSG warned that the Security Council was “perhaps fatally” undermined and that the world is entering an “age of chaos” marked by “a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all with total impunity.” Always terrified of the consequences of mentioning Israel by name, at the 79th General Debate, he said: “Today, a growing number of governments and others feel entitled to a ‘get out of jail free’ card. They can trample international law. They can violate the United Nations Charter… And nothing will happen.” 

UN inaction is complicity

The Prime Minister of Slovenia, Robert Golob, criticized the “erosion” of international law and questioned whether the UN Security Council has “failed humanity.” This was common in many states’ statements. Addressing “the injustice that continues to be committed against the people of Palestine,” Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, said that “the mandate of the Security Council is to maintain peace, to create peace, not to maintain and prolong wars, or even worse to support the perpetrator of atrocities. Inaction means complicity.” Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the only reason Israel is able to carry out atrocity crimes against Palestinians is the complicity of Western states, calling for an alliance of humanity, similar to the one that stopped Nazi Germany and created the UN, to stop Israel including by imposing “coercive measures” against it.  

Historical injustice 

The “Question of Palestine,” almost as old as the UN itself, remains the “litmus test” for the system of international law since the second world war. It is “the biggest wound to human conscience,” China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, said. He stated that the “historical injustice” against Palestinians must not allow might to take the place of justice. Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, warned that “The control of humanity on the basis of barbarism is under construction and its demonstration is Gaza, Lebanon….The democratic project of mankind is dying with life, while the racists, the supremacists, those who stupidly believe that the Aryans are the superior race, are preparing to dominate the world by writing the terror of bombs on the peoples.”  

Shielding a rogue state

At the opening of the UNGA and ahead of the General Debate, states voted on a resolution adopting the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, which called for ending Israel’s regime of illegal occupation, settlements, and apartheid and on states to impose a military embargo and trade sanctions to force the application of international law. Only the US, Israel and 12 other states opposed the resolution. Back in December 2023, it was the US and only 9 other states that voted against a UNGA resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza; this was after the US had vetoed a resolution for a ceasefire at the UNSC. This reflects the systematic shielding of Israel, which stands as the single most important factor undermining the UN system. This is creating an almost irreversible crisis for the UN especially since Israel’s isolation continues to grow, with little backing for it in the Global South and continued loss of support from people in the West. Israel is increasingly seen as a “pariah state” that has no place at the UN. Meanwhile, it continues to expand a genocidal war it cannot win against several peoples of the region at the time that its  economy is failing, its colonial society is increasingly divided, and its military, totally dependent on the West’s support, funding and direct involvement, is increasingly weakening. 

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister, Mohamed Hasan, recalled the “utter disrespect” when Israel’s envoy shredded the UN Charter from the UNGA podium. Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide show that it has no respect whatsoever for the UN or international law. He said that “we must urgently utilize the existing processes founded by this General Assembly, along with mechanisms developed by the Human Rights Council … to reinstitute the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid” and for the UNSC to “invoke the powers under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, and impose an immediate arms embargo against Israel.” 

UN must end apartheid Israel’s impunity 

Algeria’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf noted that the UN and the world are going through a critical turning point marked by war and inequality between the global north and global south. He said, “the genocidal war in Gaza ongoing for a year, which has recently been extended to the West Bank and currently in Lebanon, and what the entire region is witnessing in terms of Israeli escalation, all of this would not have happened if the international community took a firm position at the time imposing legal punitive sanctions and preventative measures according to Article 7 of the UN Charter on Israel’s colonial occupation as was previously done with similar regimes.” 

South Africa’s President recalled the role the UN has played in ending apartheid in South Africa. He said “the violence the Palestinian people are being subjected to is a grim continuation of more than half a century of apartheid. We South Africans know what apartheid looks like. We lived through it. We suffered and died under it. We will not remain silent and watch as apartheid is perpetrated against others. Through the United Nations and the instruments it wields, we must end this suffering.” He called on all states to act to prevent genocide by Israel - and ensure that they are not themselves in violation of the Genocide Convention by aiding or assisting in the commission of genocide. Addressing South Africa's case against Israel at the ICJ, which enjoys the support of states from across the world, he said: “International law cannot be applied selectively. No one state is more equal than any other.”

Responsibility of the Global South 

A common thread in statements from Global South countries was the demand to “revamp” the international system that is currently dominated by the colonial west. For months, Global South countries have pointed to the hypocrisy and double standards evident in the West’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza when contrasted with measures taken against Russia for its war with Ukraine. Indonesia’s Foreign Minister said she brings “the voice of the Global South,” the spirit of the Bandung Conference, in calling on States to not “bury the Principles of the UN Charter and international law under the rubble of double standards, trust deficit and zero-sum game.”

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister said, “We stand at a critical juncture in world history, on the failure of global governance to address the genocide of Palestinians.” The task of the international community, he said, is three fold, to limit or abolish the veto, empower the voices of the oppressed at the UNGA, and end the flow of weapons to rogue states committing crimes against humanity. “Although the powerful few may behave as though might is right, let there be no question that in the United Nations, the voice of the majority will not go ignored.”

Smaller nations were clear that at the heart of this must be the emphasis on self-determination, on rejection of hegemony, and on the equal application of international law. Belize’s Foreign Minister, Frances Fronseca, said that “the self-determination of a people is sacrosanct” and that his country “rejects the continued denial of self-determination of the Palestinian people and calls for the eradication of the system of colonial domination and apartheid being imposed upon them.” He reminded of the UNGA resolution adopting the ICJ rulings, when Belize stated that “we must do all in the power of the United Nations system, most essentially by implementing an immediate arms embargo, as recommended by the UN Human Rights Council back in April, by imposing meaningful sanctions.” 

Apply the rule of law 

At the opening of the UNGA meeting dozens of leading UN human rights experts issued a stark warning that “the world stands upon the edge of a knife: Either we travel collectively towards a future of just peace and lawfulness – or hurtle towards anarchy and dystopia, and a world where might makes right.” They called on all states to act decisively to impose a military embargo and other forms of sanctions against Israel and ensure that the Palestinians are free from apartheid and genocide to be able to exercise their full inalienable rights. Failure to do so will “jeopardize the entire edifice of international law and rule of law in world affairs,” the experts said. 

Towards a multilateral system based on rule of law 

A year since the start of the world’s first live-streamed genocide carried out by Israel with the support of the US and other Western powers, the credibility and relevance of the UN system, as evident from the speeches of representatives of member states, is on the brink of collapse; there is no doubt that Israel’s atocity crimes and the US shielding it from accountability are the main factors behind this. A vast majority of states made clear the need for a renewed UN-based multilateralism that upholds equality, justice, and rule of law, and a number of states have made concrete proposals to such an end including the reform and democratization of the UNSC as well as the empowerment of the collective of the UNGA. As a first step, rogue states, such as Israel must not be allowed to continue with their atrocity crimes against Palestinians, Lebanese, and other peoples in the region. To compel Israel to fulfil its obligations, States must immediately implement the UNGA resolution adopting the ICJ advisory opinion by imposing a comprehensive military embargo on Israel as well as meaningful, lawful and targeted trade, financial, academic, economic, energy and other sanctions, as was done against apartheid South Africa. The UN must also act collectively and heed the call by some member states to prevent and punish genocide and activate its mechanisms to eradicate apartheid, including by reviving the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid.