Main events on November 19th
- Israel’s air strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis today killed at least 28 Palestinians, including women and children, and injured 77 others, with Hamas saying it marked a “serious escalation”.
- Israeli warplanes carried out attacks on towns in southern Lebanon, including Aynata and Tair Filsi, shortly after its earlier air strikes killed at least 14 people in the country.
- UN chief Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson hit out at Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to an Israeli military outpost inside Syria, describing the “very public” trip as “concerning”.
- The situation for families and children in Gaza remains “catastrophic” amid heavy flooding and severe rains, the UN children’s fund (UNICEF) has said, while the global body’s World Food Programme (WFP) noted that many families in the enclave are bracing for another winter spent without proper shelter.
- The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has called for more funding, saying its current shortfall “risks the rights, lives and future” of millions of Palestinians.
- Germany has withheld its support for an extension of UNRWA’s mandate for the first time, claiming it requires “consistent and verifiable reforms”.
UN resolution on Gaza imposes 'illegal trusteeship' over Palestinians, says top legal expert
The UN Security Council resolution that endorses US President Donald Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza is in breach of the fundamental norms of international law, and is therefore legally invalid, a top international law expert told Middle East Eye.
On Monday, the Security Council approved Security Council Resolution 2803, which backs the creation of an international stabilisation force and places Trump in supreme control of Gaza. It also names his "board of peace" as the entity that will oversee the implementation of the plan for a period of two years. The involvement of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in this has been widely touted.
Ralph Wilde, a leading international law academic and practitioner, told MEE that the resolution attempts to codify "trusteeship" over Gaza, a colonial arrangement that breaches the Palestinians' right to self-determination.
"Trusteeship conducted by individual states in the colonial era was a self-serving sham invoked in bad faith, serving as an alibi to rationalise colonial rule, which could be justified as a 'civilising mission'," Wilde said, speaking from Ramallah in the occupied Palestinian territories.
UN Security Council Resolution On Gaza Is An 'Atrocity' w/ Craig Mokhiber
On Monday November 17, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution endorsing Donald Trump’s so-called ‘peace plan’ for Gaza. The resolution approves the creation of a U.S.-led “peace board” to supervise the Gaza Strip, calls for the ‘demilitarization’ of Gaza without imposing any restrictions on the arming of Israel, and authorizes an "international stabilization force" to police and disarm Palestinian resistance groups.
Worst of all, the resolution does not provide for the creation of a Palestinian state. It merely expresses a vague aspiration that Palestinians might one day have discussions with Israel about a Palestinian state.
In this episode of R2R, Dimitri Lascaris analyzes the UNSC resolution with fellow attorney, Craig Mokhiber. Craig is an American former UN human rights official who resigned from the UN in late 2023 over its failure to stop what he described as a "textbook genocide" in Gaza. According to Craig, the Security Council's resolution is an "atrocity".
Unbelievable the kind of mental gymnastics on display here
Fmr Obama Official: Holocaust Education HURTS ISRAEL
Ryan and Emily discuss a fmr Obama official lamenting Holocaust education because it hurts Israel.
