Shenali D. Waduge, in Lankaweb, 9 May 2024, ….where the title reads “UN/UNHRC/US & Allies hypocrisy – comparison of Sri Lanka & the Gaza Conflict” ….
[My title and this article does not seek] to present a notion that Israel is right or wrong, or that Sri Lanka is right or wrong, but [seeks] to question UN’s treatment of Member states & the applicability of the UN Charter & the principles of equality & non-discrimination to Member states. UNGA has condemned Israel over 120 times. UNHRC has condemned Israel over 40 times. US has vetoed over 40 Resolutions against Israel but is spearheading resolutions against Sri Lanka in connivance with the UN. How fair is this to Sri Lanka?
Hamas was founded in 1987 an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. US & EU designate it as a terrorist organization. Its 1988 charter called for the murder of Jews & destruction of Israel both calls were changed in 2017. Hamas first suicide bombing was on April 1993. It has a political wing & a military wing & won elections in 2006.
All Palestinians do not support Hamas just as all Tamils do not support LTTE. Yet Hamas & LTTE claim to be representing their people.
On 7 October 2023 Hamas is alleged to have attacked military bases & towns in southern Israel as a result of which 1200 people were killed, 845 were civilians & [Hamas] took some 240 Israeli & nationals of other countries as hostage. UN claimed reasonable grounds to believe’ some Hamas members committed sexual violence against hostages on 7 October.
On 26 July 2006, LTTE terrorists blocked the sluice gates [at Mavil Aru in the Eastern Provine], committing a genocide by denying water to some 40,000 farmers & thereafter began attacking villages.
Following the 7 October 2003 attack by Hamas, Israel launched a counter attack on Gaza (a strip of land only 140sq.miles) & home to 2.3million people.
Regarding denying water as a war crime, the Sri Lankan Government ordered its troops to re-open the sluice gates & when doing so faced onslaught of LTTE resulting in troops returning fire.
The case of Israel-Palestine & Sri Lanka-Tamils is somewhat different, however the comparison is being made to show the double-standards & hypocrisies within the halls of the UN that delivers lavish speeches preaching fair-play & equity to all UN Member States.
Since Israel’s bombing on Gaza UNOCHA has been releasing reports on Gazans killed, injured & missing. WHO declared that in the 1st month at least 160 Gazan children died. Of the 2.3million Gazans 1.7million, that it 85% are IDPs. Israeli siege has resulted in electricity blackouts, blockade of fuel, food, water & medicines. UN has called it a crisis of humanity”.
We are all preached about the 1949 Geneva Conventions on international humanitarian law (not human rights) as well as universal rules on warfare that prohibit punitive sieges, collective punishment, hostage-taking, torture, cruel & inhuman treatment, targeting civilians, civilian infrastructure, forcible displacement of civilian populations. ICC defines this as an act of genocide. All parties including terrorists have to abide by the laws though they are not recognized as lawful combatants”. All parties must avoid disproportionate harm. This means that in a hostile situation there is likely to be harm but it cannot be in excess.
If Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel is said to have caused greater harm to civilians than military as well as taking hostages – why were these same standards not applied to Sri Lanka when LTTE closed the sluice gates denying water to 40,000 civilians and thereafter took some 300,000 hostages to be kept as human shields and even killed those that attempted to flee LTTE?
Israel’s bombardment on Gaza schools that housed civilians causing thousands of casualties as well as destruction to homes & flats in Gaza which has killed only a small number of Hamas but a larger number of civilians is claimed as disproportionate” but UNSG has not appointed a panel like the 3 member Darusman Palen appointed for Sri Lanka & US-UK& EU has not spearheaded any resolutions or UN investigations against Israel like they did & do against Sri Lanka, while there are no Sir John Holmes to visit Gaza & claim the UN has failed” as he did to Sri Lanka.
If the UN & international community are powerless in Gaza – from where did they get all their teeth against Sri Lanka? Is it because Sri Lanka is a small powerless nation unlike Israel?
The hypocrisy in handling Israel & Sri Lanka undoubtedly illustrates the administrative, structural & policy failures of the UN, in the UN & by the UN. UN’s attempt at reforms produced UNHRC which has turned to be more biased than all. If R2P was promoted for Sri Lanka, why is it not being applied to Israel-Gaza?
Why is the US inactive against Israel but active against Sri Lanka? All of the successive resolutions against Sri Lanka were drafted & canvassed inside the UN by US. How come the same allegations used against Sri Lanka by US & Allies do not apply to Israel. Ironically, the Allies that stand against Sri Lanka, stand with Israel. Hysterical is that the statements on the allegations issued by US & Allies against Sri Lanka are the direct opposite when used to side with Israel. Something is definitely amiss!
In fact US & Allies that demanded a ceasefire in Sri Lanka going so far as to even despatch the foreign ministers of UK & France to Sri Lanka in 2009, have voted to prevent a ceasefire. On October 27, 2023 when UNSG invoked a rarely-used Article 99 calling for a ceasefire alongside 120 UN member states, US vetoed it. The US has used its veto powers 30 times to protect Israel. US has also protected Israel from ICC prosecution even sanctioning ICC staff!
The US that went to town about denial of humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka abstained from voting on 22 December when UNSC approved a resolution calling for more humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The UNSC did not get involved in Sri Lanka but we know how sheepishly the UNSG’s private 3 member panel ended up leaking their report instead of tabling it at the UNGA or UNSC & that has been the basis of the resolutions & UN investigations against Sri Lanka which we continue to question the legality.
The Genocide Convention is an equal farce – with parties and groups lavishly using the term genocide” without any foundational basis except technology-used social media PR stunts & campaigns to do Goebbels propaganda on genocide without any facts or evidence. When such gets accepted by the UN apparatus itself, their hypocrisy is further highlighted. The fundamental question of where are the dead bodies, the skeletons, the names of the alleged dead never make it to any reports. But what gets media mileage is heavily funded trained documentaries that hire people to cry & read out well-rehearsed stories of genocide” and these are given witness protection” while their stories are gagged as confidential” and purposely not released for 20-40 years enabling the truth to be sealed from public domain.
Why is UN Secretary-General not commissioning a 3member panel on Israel’s siege like he did to Sri Lanka – if legality of this appointment is what is preventing such an appointment against Sri Lanka, why is the legality of the Resolutions & OISL against Sri Lanka not investigated?
If UN calls for action against Hamas, why did it not do so when LTTE committed acts of suicide, assassinations, bombings across 30 years in Sri Lanka?
If Israel is being accused of denying food, fuel medicines etc what has the UN done – when Sri Lanka was falsely accused of same, what did UN do?
When UN & UNHRC failed Sri Lanka while LTTE bombed across 30 years, why did the UN/UNHRC suddenly go into action after the fall of the LTTE popping out all the law books against Sri Lanka but doing sweet nothing as LTTE amassed funds & procured arms globally, ran campaigns from western capitals and unleashed brutal crimes across 30 years? What did UN/UNHRC do to stop LTTE recruiting children into child soldiers inspite of appointing a Sri Lankan as a rapporteur? What did UN do to stop LTTE from training children to even commit suicide biting the cyanide capsule? How many children would have died because UN did nothing.
Then months after LTTE ground force was militarily defeated along with the LTTE leader, from nowhere came allegations of dead” manipulating the legally questionable Darusman panel’s report statement may have been killed”. Yet, there were no dead bodies, no mass graves and certainly no skeletons or even names of supposed 40,000 or more dead. More importantly, those who claim to have footage of people being killed cannot show any mass graves that were dug during hostilities to stuff 40,000 dead bodies. The UNSG toured the areas that the conflict took place by helicopter with media. They should have been able to see newly dug graves but none existed. David Gray of Reuters even toured the battlefield in April 2009 & reported Sri Lankan soldiers sharing their own food rations with civilians. However, fast forward to Gaza there are actual footage of people in Gaza who have died being dumped into makeshift graves & this is what should alarm UNHRC into action. The question is why are they not making the same noise as they did to Sri Lanka? Just count the statements issued by successive UNHRC heads since 2006 to come to terms with the bias inside the UN by its officials. With so much of lies a bogus Truth & Reconciliation is also being forced down on Sri Lanka as part of aid package by western governments. There are even calls for Tribunals without even being able to present any dead bodies or skeletons. We know the outcome of the Yugoslavia tribunal which took 23 years spending $2billion & omitted NATO crimes from investigations, eventually the Serbian leader was exonerated after he died mysteriously in prison – the allegations of 40,000 dead in Serbia that was used to call for a Tribunal ended up with only 2788 dead & that buried the mass genocide” drama. So most of us right thinking people in Sri Lanka know where all these biased calls are going & we can well sense the objective which has nothing to do with justice or truth.
Other than issuing lavish speeches against Israel/Hamas– is UN/UNHRC following the same procedures applied against Sri Lanka, ironically US & Allies are supporting Israel while they were on a witch hunt against Sri Lanka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6A6hT1XjMY
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USA is totally wrong. Are we right?
Shanali Waduge asks ‘Why is the US inactive against Israel but active against Sri Lanka?’ Here is a simple answer.
Waduge is comparing apples and oranges! She doesn’t recognize that dejure, USA has 50 states now; but defacto, USA has 52 states in reality. 51st state is Israel, and 52nd state is Japan. Lady, this is as simple as that.
The answer to the question posed here is simple. We cannot expect coherency and rational thinking from US foreign policy. The US never plays fair. It only plays dirty. It’s easy for America to beat up on a country like Sri Lanka, which, after all, is not a major player in international relations. The US uses every leverage, including its influence at the UN, to force SL to join the US Hegemony. Israel is already in the US Hegemony which means Israel must be protected at all costs because defending Israel is equal to defending America. The idea that the US should be fair to all countries is delusional thinking. The author assumes there should be fairness and rationality to US foreign policy which is a foolish assumption.
Hamas is not a terrorist organization. It is a legitimate resistance movement like the Maquis in Nazi-occupied France. Hamas has helped to stop suicide bombings in Israel. Hamas is fighting to regain control of legitimate Palestinian territory and to prevent Israel from stealing it, and given Israel has slaughtered over 40,000 Palestinians and wounded 80,000, Hamas has the legitimate right to resist Israel’s attempts to annihilate the Palestinian people from their lands.
The UN has not called for action against Hamas. Broadly speaking, two types of draft resolutions have been submitted to the UNGA and UNSC on the situation in Gaza. One type of draft resolution emphasizes the need for humanitarian intervention in order to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians who have been starved to death or slaughtered in their beds. The second type of draft resolution are political in that these resolutions insist on condemning Hamas (but not Israel for its genocide).
In respect of the first type of draft resolution (whether before the UNGA or UNSC), these have been put forward by non-Western countries such as Jordan, Algeria or Russia and are humanitarian resolutions, and the US always opposes or vetoes them if they make it to the UNSC.
The second type of draft resolution are political demanding the world condemn Hamas, but for good reasons, countries in the Global South refuse to condemn Hamas when taking into consideration the full circumstances, not just US/UK/Israeli biases and prejudices. Whenever the US submits a resolution to the UNSC calling for Hamas to condemned, which serves a political agenda which fundamentally supports Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Russia and China veto it for good reasons. If it is a resolution before the UNGA, the majority of countries in the Global South have not supported political resolutions condemning Hamas.
So, it is wrong to state the UN has called for action against Hamas. It is Israel and the US that are calling for action against Hamas and also against the Palestinian people. The world is not fooled by the crocodile tears coming from Biden and Blinken over the mass killing of Palestinians which the world can see every day.