US-built pier in Gaza is facing its latest challenge -- whether the UN will keep delivering the aid

[sl8]

https://apnews.com/article/pier-humanitarian-aid-gaza-israel-un-2465291ca9308f9d97e3cc51a8cab6c7
(photos, links, at source)

US-built pier in Gaza is facing its latest challenge — whether the UN will keep delivering the aid

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER AND EDITH M. LEDERER
Updated 6:05 AM EDT, June 14, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-built pier to bring food to Gaza is facing one of its most serious challenges yet — its humanitarian partner is deciding if it can safely and ethically keep delivering supplies arriving by the U.S. sea route to starving Palestinians.

The United Nations, the player with the widest reach delivering aid within Gaza, has paused its work with the pier after a June 8 operation by Israeli security forces that rescued four Israeli hostages and killed more than 270 Palestinians.

Rushing out a mortally wounded Israeli commando after the raid, Israeli rescuers opted against returning the way they came, across a land border, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters. Instead, they sped toward the beach and the site of the U.S. aid hub on Gaza’s coast, he said. An Israeli helicopter touched down near the U.S.-built pier and helped whisk away hostages and the commando, according to the U.S. and Israeli militaries.

For the U.N. and independent humanitarian groups, the event made real one of their main doubts about the U.S. sea route: Whether aid workers could cooperate with the U.S. military-backed, Israeli military-secured project without violating core humanitarian principles of neutrality and independence and without risking aid workers becoming seen as U.S. and Israeli allies — and in turn, targets in their own right.

[...]
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Lederer reported from the United Nations. AP writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington.

[Irish_Dem]

1. This pier was risky from the start for a number of reasons.

While I respect anyone doing the right thing and feeding starving people, being in an active combat zone
is very dangerous for everyone. Just because you are an aid worker does not provide a guarantee of safety.

I do not understand why people are shocked when a aid worker is killed. Certainly any rational person
knows you may not get out of a dangerous combat zone alive.

And then of course the military might use the pier for military operations.
Which is to be expected. They are in a life and death fight, so will use whatever they
can.

[AloeVera]

2. No, it is not expected.

The pier was for humanitarian purposes. That has all been jeopardized now. Something Israel would have known.

While I get it that lives are important, I find it very telling that not one of the 400 or so injured Palestinians was afforded the same value or compassion. They have one local hospital, barely functioning if at all. Of course, too late for the over 200 dead but perhaps some of their lives could have been saved too.

As for the pier, it was pretty ineffective and made not much difference, for many reasons all of which were laid out by many but ignored. But every little bit helps and now that little bit may be gone too.

You would almost think there was a callous disregard for Palestinian lives and a systematic plan to use starvation as a weapon of war. Actually the UN a couple of days ago accused Israel of just those crimes in a major report.

The immense numbers of civilian casualties in Gaza and widespread destruction of civilian objects and infrastructure were the inevitable result of a strategy undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding the principles of distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions. The intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population.

The Commission determined that Israel’s imposed a “total siege” which amounts to collective punishment against the civilian population. Israeli authorities have weaponized the siege and used the provision of life-sustaining necessities, including by severing water, food, electricity, fuel and humanitarian assistance, for strategic and political gains. The siege has disproportionately impacted pregnant women and persons with disabilities, with serious harm inflicted on children leading to preventable child deaths from starvation including newborns.

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/06/israeli-authorities-palestinian-armed-groups-are-responsible-war-crimes

Is it enough yet?

[lapucelle]

3. To begin with, you're linking to a draft report.

The report will not be finalized and voted on for adoption until June 19.

[lapucelle]

4. The council has issued anti-Israel reports evey 3 months for the past 18 years

due to its disproportionate focus on Israel, a feature of its permanent agenda.

The council voted on 30 June 2006 to make a review of alleged human rights abuses by Israel a permanent feature of every council session. The council's special rapporteur on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is its only expert mandate with no year of expiry. The resolution, which was sponsored by Organisation of the Islamic Conference, passed by a vote of 29 to 12 with five abstentions. Human Rights Watch urged it to look at international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed by Palestinian armed groups as well. Human Rights Watch called on the Council to avoid the selectivity that discredited its predecessor and urged it to hold special sessions on other urgent situations, such as that in Darfur.

None of the nine other items deals exclusively with a specific conflict. The council's special rapporteur on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the council's only expert mandate with no year of expiry. In 2006, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued that the Commission should not have a "disproportionate focus on violations by Israel. Not that Israel should be given a free pass. Absolutely not. But the Council should give the same attention to grave violations committed by other states as well".

On 20 June 2007, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement that read: "The Secretary-General is disappointed at the council's decision to single out only one specific regional item given the range and scope of allegations of human rights violations throughout the world."[100]

Former president of the council Doru Costea, the European Union, Canada, and the United States have accused the UNHRC of focusing disproportionately on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and Israel's occupation of the West Bank.Many allege an anti-Israel bias – the Council has resolved more resolutions condemning Israel than the rest of the world combined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council

[lapucelle]

5. It certainly doesn't help that anti-Semite Francesca Albanese is a member of the council.

US Congress members call on UN leadership to remove antisemitic official

18 House representatives urge firing of Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, citing recent refusal to condemn terror, and call to end Commission of Inquiry into Israel

A bipartisan group of US Congress members has urged United Nations leadership to remove a Palestinian rights investigator from her position, due to her antisemitism and anti-Israel bias.

The lawmakers said UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s past comments and recent refusal to condemn Palestinian terror attacks “patently demonstrate her strong bias against Israel.” “Her biased behaviors should have no place at the United Nations, and clearly demonstrate the lack of impartiality,” the 18 House representatives said.

Albanese said during a 2014 conflict between Israel and Gaza terror groups that the “Jewish lobby” was in control of the United States.

She has also sympathized with terror organizations, dismissed Israeli security concerns, compared Israelis to Nazis, accused the Jewish state of potential war crimes, said Israel controlled the BBC, and claimed that the Jewish state started wars out of greed.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-congress-members-call-on-un-leadership-to-remove-antisemitic-official/

Link to tweet

[lapucelle]

7. SOS Blinken's statement on the decision to rengage with the Council

U.S. Decision To Reengage with the UN Human Rights Council

We recognize that the Human Rights Council is a flawed body, in need of reform to its agenda, membership, and focus, including its disproportionate focus on Israel.

https://www.state.gov/u-s-decision-to-reengage-with-the-un-human-rights-council/

================================

Antony Blinken's statement when the US rejoined:

The Council plays a meaningful role in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms by documenting atrocities in order to hold wrongdoers accountable. It focuses attention on emergencies and unfolding human rights crises, ensuring that those who are voiceless have a place to be heard. The Council provides a forum where we can have open discussions about ways we and our partners can improve.

At the same time, it also suffers from serious flaws, including disproportionate attention on Israel and the membership of several states with egregious human rights records.

Together, we must push back against attempts to subvert the ideals upon which the Human Rights Council was founded, including that each person is endowed with human rights and that states are obliged to protect those rights.

https://www.state.gov/election-of-the-united-states-to-the-un-human-rights-council-hrc/

[lapucelle]

8. US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield statement when the US rejoined the council:

“More broadly, we will promote respect for fundamental freedoms and women’s rights, and oppose religious intolerance, racial and ethnic injustices, and violence and discrimination against members of minority groups, including LGBTQI+ persons and persons with disabilities,” she continued, adding that the US “will press against the election of countries with egregious human rights records and encourage those committed to promoting and protecting human rights both in their own countries and abroad to seek membership.”

Notably, Thomas-Greenfield said the US “will oppose the Council’s disproportionate attention on Israel, which includes the Council’s only standing agenda item targeting a single country. ”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/politics/us-united-nations-human-rights-council/index.html

[lapucelle]

6. Albanese is just one more in a long line of anti-Semitic Special Rapporteurs.

Link to tweet

========================================

UN's Richard Falk under fire for ‘anti-Semitic’ cartoon

Richard Falk, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, has come under fire for posting what has been described as an “overtly anti-Semitic” cartoon on his blog.

In a post written last week, Falk posted a cartoon of a dog with “USA” written on his midriff and wearing a kippa, urinating on a depiction of justice while devouring the bloody bones of a skeleton.

https://www.jpost.com/international/uns-richard-falk-under-fire-for-anti-semitic-cartoon