United States Shows Its Hypocrisy.
Aref Assaf, Op-Ed article in the Sunday March 23, 2002 Edition of the Daily
Record. www.dailyrecord.com
The US- led attack on Iraq , which began in the early hours of 20 March 2003 ,
provides yet another example of the double-standard that governs US foreign
policy vis-à-vis the Palestinian/Arab-Israeli conflict.
The United States has emphasized the importance of upholding Security Council
resolutions and international law in the months since the adoption of Security
Council Resolution 1441. They have stressed, moreover, that Iraq has failed to
comply with UN Security Council Resolutions for more than one decade.
The US has criticized the French, in particular, for threatening to veto any
subsequent Security Council resolution authorizing the use of military force.
Since the beginning of the Palestinian/Arab- Israeli conflict, the UN Security
Council has adopted more than 200 resolutions related to the conflict. If one
disregards those resolutions related to the extension of UN peacekeeping
mandates in the Middle East (over half of Security Council resolutions), one
finds a long trail of unimplemented UN Security Council resolutions covering a
wide range of issues.
These include Israel 's failure:
* to allow displaced Palestinians in the northern demilitarized zones to return
to their homes; rescind all measures to change the status of Jerusalem ;
* to withdraw from the territories occupied in
1967;
* to cease construction of illegal Jewish colonies in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories;
* to cease deportation of Palestinians from the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories and allow their return;
* to abide by legal obligations and responsibilities set forth in the 4th Geneva
Conventions; and, * to withdraw from all Palestinian cities and return to areas
held pre-September 2000; and * to cooperate with the fact-finding mission
established by the UN Secretary General to investigate violations of
international humanitarian law and human rights law in the Jenin refugee camp in
April 2002.
Security Council resolutions illustrate the threat posed by Israel to its
neighbors, as well as regional and international peace and stability. For more
than fifty years the Security Council has condemned Israeli attacks on its Arab
neighbors, including Egypt , Jordan , and Lebanon . This also includes UN
condemnation of Israel 's preemptive military attack on Iraqi nuclear
installations in June 1981. Security Council Resolution 487 condemned the attack
as a violation of the UN Charter and norms of international law. The US voted in
favor of this resolution.
Of further interest, particularly in light of the US criticism of the French
threat to use its veto to scuttle a new UN resolution authorizing the use of
force against Iraq is the US record in using its veto to scuttle Security
Council resolutions calling upon Israel to comply with its legal obligations and
responsibilities under international law. Since 1949, the United States has used
its veto power more than 50 times to block Security Council resolutions related
to:
* International protection of Palestinian civilians in the 1967 occupied
Palestinian
territories;
* Israel's ongoing illegal colonization of the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories;
* Israel's ongoing land confiscation in the 1967 occupied Palestinian
territories;
* Establishment of Security Council monitoring and investigation teams to
examine Israel's actions in the 1967 occupied Palestinian territories;
* Israel's deportation of Palestinian civilians from the 1967 occupied
Palestinian territories;
* Israel's violation of the human rights of the civilian population of the 1967
occupied Palestinian territories; and,
Israeli measures to change the character of Jerusalem , among other issues.
I am reminded by George Bush's statement at the UN General Assembly on September
12, 2002, George W Bush said: ‘Are Security Council Resolutions to be honored
and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve
the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant? ...We want the
resolutions of the world’s most important multilateral body to be enforced’.
George Bush tell us that failure to act on UN resolutions brings the UN into
disrepute. Yet he does not do anything whilst Israel flouts resolution after
resolution. No wonder there are accusations of double standards.
Israel ignores UN resolutions calling for withdrawal of its forces from the
territory under armed occupation and the US ensures that no international action
is taken. The UN recognizes that Israel has committed serious violations of
international law; breached the Geneva Conventions; and refuses to implement
Security Council Resolutions, yet the UN has taken no measures against Israel
and the violations continue
Stability, security, and a comprehensive, just, and durable peace in the Middle
East will continue to be illusive as long as key international actors apply
double
standards to the role of international law and UN resolutions. The case of
Israel permitted to conduct its foreign relations in a manner outside the UN
Charter and above the basic principles of international law that govern state
relations, and the case of the current US-led war against Iraq is the most
recent example of such double standards.
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