Bulletin No50 septembre 2024 A strong vote from the UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly adopted by an overwhelming majority on Wednesday, September 18, a resolution demanding an end to Israel's occupation of Palestine within the next twelve months. The text was adopted by 124 votes in favor, 14 against and 43 abstentions.
The vote took place on the second day of an emergency extraordinary session that began on Tuesday 17 and is devoted to examining Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the West Bank, where 700,000 Israeli settlers reside, in an area the size of the Ardèche department.
France, while recalling the inevitable attack of October 7 and the no less inevitable right of Israel to defend itself, voted for the text, most EU countries courageously abstained and Hungary and the Czech Republic voted against.
Prescription to the Zionist State
By the resolution adopted, the General Assembly " demands that Israel cease without delay its illicit presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which constitutes a continuing illicit act for which it is internationally responsible, and this no later than 12 months after the adoption of the present resolution ."
The General Assembly also "demands that Israel immediately comply with all its legal obligations under international law, including those stipulated by the International Court of Justice, including: withdrawing all its military forces from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including its airspace and maritime space; ending its illicit policies and practices, including immediately ceasing all further settlement activity, evacuating all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory and dismantling the Israeli-built parts of the wall located in the Territory; and repealing all laws and measures creating or maintaining the illicit situation ."
The General Assembly further demanded that Israel return land and other real estate, as well as all property seized since the beginning of the occupation in 1967, and all cultural property and assets confiscated from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions. The resolution also demands that Israel allow all Palestinians displaced during the occupation to return to their places of origin and to repair the damage caused by its occupation. Finally, the resolution is in line with the advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July, in which the Court declared that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory “ is illegal ” and that “ all States have an obligation not to recognize ” the decades-long occupation.
Regarding peace
The General Assembly “ strongly deplored the total and continued disregard and violations ” by the Israeli Government of its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, international law and UN resolutions, stressing that such violations “ seriously threaten ” regional and international peace and security. It also recognized that Israel “ must be held accountable for any violations ” of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including international humanitarian and human rights law. The text stipulates that the Zionist State “ shall bear the legal consequences of all its internationally wrongful acts, including by making reparation for the harm, including any damage, caused by such acts .” The General Assembly stressed the need to establish an international reparation mechanism to address the damage, loss or injury caused by the actions of genocidal criminals. It also called for the establishment of an international register of damages caused, in order to document the associated evidence and claims.
Convening an international conference and calling on States
The resolution provided for the convening of an international conference during the current session of the General Assembly to implement the UN resolutions on the question of Palestine in order to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East. In addition, the General Assembly requested the UN Secretary-General to submit proposals for a mechanism to monitor Israel's violations of Article 3 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, as identified by the ICJ. Article 3 refers to racial segregation and apartheid and the commitment of States parties to the International Convention to prevent, prohibit and eradicate all such practices in territories under their jurisdiction.
In its resolution, the General Assembly called on all United Nations Member States to respect their obligations under international law and to take concrete steps to address Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. It urged them to refrain from recognizing Israel’s presence in the Territory as lawful and to ensure that they do not provide aid or assistance to maintain the situation created by the occupation. This includes taking measures to prevent their nationals, companies and entities under their jurisdiction from engaging in activities that support the Israeli occupation. The General Assembly then called on States to cease importing products from Israeli settlements and to cease the transfer of arms, ammunition and related equipment to Israel in cases where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they could be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Finally, the resolution urged States to implement sanctions, such as travel bans and asset freezes, against individuals and entities involved in maintaining Israel’s illegal presence in the Palestinian Territory. This includes addressing issues related to settler violence and ensuring that those involved in such activities face legal and financial consequences.
What scope?
The September 18 resolution has the "force of law" if one can say so, and this is all the more so since a deadline has been given to the Zionist colonialists to implement it. Nevertheless, there is very little chance that the Zionists will comply with this injunction. The long history of their disdain for UN resolutions and the permanent support of the dominant US imperialism, which voted against the resolution, make this hypothesis very unlikely. What can happen after 12 months of continued occupation? We do not know, but it is likely that none of the states that approved this text will commit to making the Zionist state see reason by means of arms.
However, this resolution has significant political weight, it further isolates the genocidal state, clearly mentions the sanctions as well as the responsibilities borne by the states that continue to help Israel in its colonizing and criminal work. It objectively provides support to all workers who, in the world, demonstrate their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Israel continues its genocidal enterprise
"Proposals" for northern Gaza
The Zionist settler state's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, along with other ministers, recently cited a program that the " Reserve Commanders and Fighters Forum ," headed by Major General Giora Eiland, proposed just a few weeks ago: ordering all residents of northern Gaza to leave within a week, before imposing a total siege on the area, including the closure of all sources of water, food and fuel, until those who remain surrender or die of starvation.
In recent months, other Israelis have also called on the army to carry out mass extermination in the northern Gaza Strip. Uzi Rabi, a researcher at Tel Aviv University, said in a radio interview on September 15: “ Remove the entire civilian population from the north, and whoever remains there will be legally condemned as a terrorist and subjected to a process of starvation or extermination .” In August, ministers had already begun pressuring Netanyahu to “ cleanse ” the northern Gaza Strip of its residents.
Finally, there is a proposal written in July by several Israeli academics, entitled “ From a Murderous Regime to a Moderate Society: The Transformation and Reconstruction of Gaza after Hamas .” According to the plan, which was submitted to the genocidal government, the “ total defeat ” of Hamas is a prerequisite for launching a process of “ deradicalization ” of Palestinians in Gaza. “ It is important that the Palestinian public widely perceive the defeat of Hamas ,” the plan’s authors say, adding: “ First aid can begin in areas purged of Hamas. ” One of the proposal’s authors, Dr. Harel Chorev, a senior researcher at the Moshe Dayan Center, where Rabi also works, expressed his full support for Eiland’s starvation plan.
The scandalous treatment of African asylum seekers
Israeli security officials offer permanent residency to asylum seekers who agree to participate in sometimes deadly military operations in Gaza. Internal criticism of this exploitation appears to have been stifled, according to testimonies obtained by Haaretz . Defense officials, speaking off the record, say the project is being carried out in an organized manner, with the help of defense legal advisers.
There are currently some 30,000 African asylum seekers living in Israel, most of them young men. About 3,500 of them are Sudanese citizens granted temporary status by the court because the state has not processed their applications or made any decisions about them. In the October 7 attack, three asylum seekers were killed. In the aftermath, many asylum seekers volunteered to work in agriculture and in civilian command centers, some even willing to enlist in the occupation army. Defense officials realized that they could use the asylum seekers' help and exploit their desire to obtain permanent status in Israel as an incentive. Sources who spoke to Haaretz reveal that while there have been some requests to grant status to asylum seekers who participated in the fighting, none of them have been granted this status. Haaretz has also learned that the Interior Ministry has studied the possibility of conscripting the children of asylum seekers who attend Israeli schools into the IDF. In the past, the government has allowed the children of foreign workers to serve in the IDF in exchange for granting status to their immediate family members. Finally, the relevant defense agency responded to Haaretz that all its actions are carried out legally. The manner in which the IDF deploys asylum seekers cannot be published.
West Bank Monitoring Mission
Hashomer Hachadash (“The New Guardian”) is the largest of Israel’s volunteer-based “ agricultural ” organizations. For more than a decade and a half, its extensive youth programs, from farming to horseback riding, have helped it become one of the country’s largest nonprofits, with a budget of more than $33 million and, it claims , more than 120,000 volunteers a year. Since the start of the genocidal war on Gaza, the organization has been in the spotlight even more. The October 7 attack sparked a mass exodus of foreign workers from Israel, and Hashomer Hachadash has encouraged volunteers to come and save “ Israeli agriculture from the ashes .” Thousands of people from across the country, and around the world, have answered the call and rushed to help Israeli farmers.
But all this hides an agenda that goes beyond picking fruit and, in practice, often involves patrolling the land to consolidate Jewish-Israeli control, on both sides of the Green Line (i.e. the pre-1967 border and the occupation of the West Bank). This organization is not alone in doing so: last month, the United States announced sanctions againstHashomer Yosh , another Israeli NGO that sends volunteers to agricultural outposts in the occupied West Bank and facilitates the brutal theft of Palestinian land. Hashomer Hachadash 's ambitions are no less insidious than those of Hashomer Yosh .
In reality, Hashomer Hachadash has always been based on extremist national values and wants to ensure that Arabs stay away from open spaces. This has become more evident since the start of the war, and the group has been aided in its mission by the settler government. The Ministry of Settlements and National Missions, headed by Orit Strook, a fascist leader who denies the existence of the Palestinian people , recently transferred about NIS 50 million (nearly $13.5 million) to Hashomer Hachadash . The grant is intended to increase the group's "presence in open areas ," including the West Bank, and to strengthen " the resilience of the community in the settlement area ." As part of the agreement, Hashomer Hachadash has committed to manning 15,000 guard towers.
Hashomer Hachadash has also expanded the scope of its policing efforts, and not just on farms. In November, it established “ The People’s Guard ” to train ultra-Orthodox communities in defensive techniques and help them obtain gun permits for the guards. The Israel Police approved the project.
The association's initial mission was to " create a mental and strategic change in Israeli society, to restore the weakened connection with the land and soil, and to increase the importance of land ownership in the open territories of the Negev and the Galilee ," regions located respectively in the south and north of Israel that are home to large Palestinian communities, by establishing observation posts near pastures. It is therefore not surprising that it is carrying out missions against Palestinians in the West Bank today.
The situation in Lebanon
This week we are issuing a statement [1] to condemn the horrible crimes committed by the Zionist secret services and the air force of the occupation army. We will therefore not dwell on the subject here.
Simply, we learned that the genocidal army targeted a journalist from Al-Mayadeen on Tuesday, September 23, and destroyed his house in Tyre. The journalist, Hadi el-Sayyed, succumbed to his injuries. On the same day, the occupation army attacked two hospitals in Khan Younis, in the Gaza Strip, and its air force bombed and destroyed a church in Baalbek, in the Lebanese Bekaa.
The genocidaires are using exactly the same methods in Lebanon as in Gaza since October 7: killing civilians indiscriminately, targeting journalists and monuments full of history. The Revolutionary Communist Party strongly condemns all these acts.
In Conclusion
The deployment of its military force in Lebanon, the plans to destroy all Palestinian life in northern Gaza, the surveillance devices of the Palestinians in the West Bank do not change anything, the Zionist state shows its muscles to hide that it cannot achieve its goals. The Palestinians, with or without weapons, resist and the occupation army is in difficulty, the Zionist state itself is on the verge of collapse. This is enough to warm the hearts of those who fight in their own way for the liberation of Palestine.
Like all those supporters of the liberation of Palestine around the world, we continue and will continue, tirelessly, to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, as well as free access for humanitarians throughout the Gaza Strip, and the total withdrawal of the occupying forces from the enclave. But this will not be enough.
A just peace means the dismantling of the colonies, the return of the refugees and an independent Palestinian state. What prevents such a peace is the existence of a colonial state. The workers of Israel cannot be free if they do not break with Zionism, if they continue to find themselves objectively in the camp of the colonizers. Solidarity with Palestine cannot be satisfied with general phrases about peace. We need a state where all inhabitants enjoy the same rights and can live together, regardless of their origin, in this case, a democratic Palestinian state. Similarly, the national liberation struggle of the Palestinian people does not need compassion, but real political support and actions of internationalist solidarity. And for France, where the Revolutionaries, as elsewhere, must first fight their capitalists, this begins with the political struggle against the support of French imperialism for the Zionist colonial state.
This is why the Revolutionary Communist Party intends to continue to bring together all those who want an immediate ceasefire to end the massacre of Palestinians and who speak out for peace. For us, this means supporting the fundamental demands of the Palestinian national liberation movement, especially after the assassination of one of its leaders: an immediate end to Zionist military aggression, the right of return for refugees and the formation of a Palestinian state on the territory of Mandatory Palestine.
[1] Press release reference.