UN Security Council draft resolution notes ‘risk of famine’ in northern Gaza
The UN Security Council’s (UNSC) 10 elected members – Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique, Switzerland, Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia – have agreed and circulated a new, draft resolution on the situation in Gaza.
The draft, which was sent to the UNSC’s five permanent members on Thursday, expresses the council’s “deep alarm over the ongoing catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza including the lack of adequate healthcare services and the state of food insecurity creating a risk of famine notably in the north”.
The draft, which was obtained by The Associated Press news agency, also demands immediate access for Gaza’s civilian population to humanitarian aid and services essential for their survival, and “underscores” that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza”.
Israel’s parliament passed two laws last month banning UNRWA’s operations in the Palestinian territories, which stoked international condemnation of Israel.
The United States, Israel’s closest ally, holds the key to whether this latest resolution will be adopted. The council’s four other permanent members – Russia, China, Britain and France – are expected to support the resolution or abstain.
Incoming US envoy to Israel refuses to say ‘West Bank’
Israeli media network Arutz Sheva has interviewed Mike Huckabee, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a devout evangelical Christian known for his staunch pro-Israel views, told the media he was surprised by his nomination, but eager to take the role.
“[It’s] the only thing that President Trump could have asked me to do that I probably would’ve said yes to,” he said.
Huckabee doubled down on his position that there is “no such thing” as the occupied West Bank, instead referring to the territory as the “promised land” and “Judea and Samaria”, using the biblical term often employed by right-wing Israelis.
“It is a land that is ‘occupied’ by the people who have had a rightful deed to the place for 3,500 years, since the time of Abraham,” said Huckabee, noting he would continue to use his preferred “nomenclature unless I’m instructed otherwise”.
By his logic, give the US back to Asia...
Approximately 30,000 years ago, the Paleo-Indians, the ancestors of Native Americans, followed herds of animals from Siberia across Beringia, a land bridge connecting Asia and North America, into Alaska. By 8,000 B.C.E., these peoples had spread across North and South America.
Besides that, the descendants of the Natufians (Mesolithic culture of Palestine and southern Syria dating from about 9000 bc) still live in the West Bank and Gaza.
During the interview, Arutz Sheva asked Huckabee about Israel’s potential annexation of the occupied West Bank, which Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered preparations for.
“That’s a decision for Israel to make, not for the United States to impose it on them,” said Huckabee. “I don’t think Donald Trump is the kind of president that wants to tell other countries what to do and how to do it. He wants to accommodate, help, encourage peaceful endeavours, strengthen alliances.”
He added that “as an ambassador, you don’t get to do what you want. You carry out the wishes and the directions of the president, and it will be his policies, not mine, that we will implement. But I’m very pleased that his policies have been the most pro-Israel policies of any president in my lifetime.”
It's not a decision for Israel to make. The decision has already been made by the ICJ. It's the US' obligation as a member of the UN to stop any and all support for further annexation of the West Bank and to reverse the process.
UK complicit in Gaza genocide: Britain’s former Labour leader
The UK’s former Labour Party leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn has said “there is a very simple reason why the UK government refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza.
“If it did, they would be admitting their own complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time,” he said.
He called for the UK to “end all arms sales to Israel.”
Corbyn has long been a supporter of Palestinian rights and a staunch critic of Israel’s policies.
In September, the UK announced it had suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licences to Israel, citing a “clear risk” they could be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.
However, human rights organisations and experts said the suspension was not broad enough as it exempted crucial F-35 fighter jet parts.
