UN draft resolution not adopted after US veto
The result of the voting is as follows: 14 votes in favour, one vote against (by the US), and zero abstentions.
The United States vetoed the UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza because it’s not linked to the release of captives. The resolution also does not condemn Hamas’s deadly attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, or say the group must disarm and withdraw from Gaza – two other US demands.
This is the fifth time the US has vetoed a ceasefire resolution
Once again, the United States finds itself isolated on the Security Council when it comes to the situation in Gaza, just like it was in November. The last time a ceasefire draft resolution was before the council, 14 members voted for it. The United States was the only one against it.
In November, we heard from Dorothy Shea, the US ambassador, basically saying anything that undermines Israel’s security is a non-starter for the United States.
It’s worth reiterating: This is the fifth time the United States has vetoed a Security Council Gaza ceasefire resolution since October 2023.
Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity: Mansour
The Palestinian UN Ambassador, Riyad Mansour, addressed the UN Security Council meeting. Here are some of his main points:
- This draft resolution had a simple goal, demanding a ceasefire that would allow the beginning of the monumental work needed to end the horrific humanitarian situation; to stop the genocide; to release hostages and prisoners; and to get the Israeli occupying forces out of Gaza before they get a chance to implement their plans to destroy our people.
- The draft resolution also demanded an end to the engineered starvation that has brought an entire civilian population, 2 million people, among them 1 million children, to the edge of famine, and then used aid to lure them and confine them to an extremely limited area of the Gaza Strip, clearly to facilitate their expunction and annexation.
- OCHA has stated that Gaza is the hungriest place on earth; it is the only defined territory in the world where the entire population is at risk of famine.
- Can this council act as demanded by the charter that unifies all of us to respect and honour the principles reflected and contained in that charter, our Constitution?
- This has to stop. Israel has to end this punitive, illegal siege. It has to open all crossings and allow aid to reach Palestinians throughout the Gaza Strip.
