Blocking Ceasefires: The US Veto and the Price of Life in Gaza
Will Biden veto another end to the onslaught?
(Originally published on my Substack.)
On October 16, 2023, nine days after the start of the violence and eleven days before the ground invasion into Gaza, the United Nation Security Council voted for a resolution proposed by Russia that called for a humanitarian ceasefire. Three of the permanent members with the power to veto a resolution, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, in addition to Japan, voted against the resolution.
Explaining why the US rejected the resolution, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative of the US, said, “We cannot allow this Council to unfairly shift the blame to Israel and excuse Hamas for its decades of cruelty.”
At that point, the death toll in Gaza had reached 2,300 people, “a quarter of them children,” Reuters reported, citing Gaza health authorities.
The UN Security Council met again on November 15 to vote for a new resolution proposed by Malta, one of the non-permanent members, that called for “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses.” By then the death toll had reached 11,320 people, including 4,650 children and 202 medical personnel.
The resolution passed, with the US, the UK, and Russia (whose proposed amendment failed to pass due to a US veto) abstaining. Nine days later, a truce began, and captives were exchanged.
The truce ended on the morning of December 1, when both sides disputed the number of remaining women and children captives, following a rejected Hamas offer to release seven and the bodies of three who it said were killed by the indiscriminate bombing on Gaza.
By December 7, the death toll in Gaza reached 17,177 people, 70% of whom were women and children.
Another resolution, proposed by the UAE, was put to a vote in the UN Security Council on December 8, calling for a humanitarian ceasefire. All members voted in favor except for the US and the UK. The UK abstained, and the US, again, vetoed the resolution.
By this point, two permanent members with the power to veto resolutions have moved away from voting against ceasefire resolutions: France (voting in favor of the December 8 resolution) and the UK (abstaining).
As of this writing, nearly 2 million Palestinians have been displaced and the death toll is approaching the 20,000 mark. Thousands more unaccounted for remain under the rubble. At least 37,379 structures in the Gaza Strip are damaged or destroyed, including over 60 percent of the housing infrastructure. And diseases threaten the lives of those who remain alive amid a crippling healthcare infrastructure.
So far, 105 captives have been released through the hostage exchange deal, only one soldier has been freed through military action, and three killed have been killed by their own military while they approached unarmed, shirtless, and waving a white flag.
Talks of a new resolution surfaced earlier this week. A meeting on the resolution was originally scheduled for Monday. That was postponed “to give Council members more time to negotiate and find common ground.”
To try to avoid yet another US veto, the UAE-proposed draft was changed. Among the changes: “cessation of hostilities” was changed to “suspension of hostilities.” The vote on the resolution, which was supposed to be held on Tuesday “another intense day of diplomacy,” was delayed again to Wednesday in another effort to avoid a US veto.
Should the US veto another resolution with, what has been described as, language that has been ‘watered down,’ one question comes to mind:
At what point will Biden consider the human cost of continuing this onslaught to exceed the gains Tel Aviv seeks?
Must we wait until we see harrowing images of the hopeless and the starving huddled masses crowded at Rafah gates with relentless airstrikes behind them before Biden finally takes action to end these atrocities?
