Today, 18 September, is the deadline that the Int. Court of Justice (ICJ) set one year ago requiring Israel to abide by its ruling in the case brought to it by South Africa.
This ruling was then endorsed by two-thirds of member states in the U.N General Assembly. This was not a standard GA resolution, but one adopted in an Emergency Special Session under "Uniting for Peace", a procedure "that gives enhanced powers to the General Assembly when the Security Council fails to act ... the law it cites is indeed binding, even if the resolution itself cannot command states to act." (1)
Israel has ignored the ICJ ruling and the world has failed to act to enforce an enduring ceasefire and the unimpeded entry of U.N.-led humanitarian aid at the scale required to address the current declared famine and ongoing killing / maiming of Gazans by Israeli forces. The scale and intent of these killings - now above 65,000 dead - have been declared a genocide by U.N. and other major human rights bodies, as well as by numerous individual countries.
Many believe that the U.N. is unable to act to stop this crime, due to the continued veto-ing by the United States of Security Council resolutions intended to do this. This is not true.
See: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/4/un_palestine
There, Craig Mokhiber, the American international human rights lawyer and former director of the New York office of the U.N/ High Commissioner for Human Rights, advises that the GA's "Uniting for Peace" procedure can vote to enforce action:
".. there is an opportunity ... to actually change the situation on the ground in Palestine, despite the U.S. veto in the Security Council. ... far too many delegations have gotten into the habit of hiding behind the U.S. veto by throwing up their arms and saying, "Well, we tried, but the U.S. vetoed it." But Uniting for Peace allows the member states of the United Nations, 193 of them, in the General Assembly, to circumvent the U.S. veto and to adopt concrete action, as it did, for example, in 1956 by mandating the U.N. emergency force to deploy to the Sinai in the middle of the Suez Crisis against the wishes of two Security Council members, the United Kingdom and France, and against the wishes of Israel. It could do the same thing now, in September, by mandating a U.N. protection force for the people in Gaza and, more broadly, in Palestine, that is specifically mandated to protect civilians, that is mandated to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, to preserve evidence of Israeli war crimes and to begin the process of reconstruction, most importantly, to change the incentive structure for Israel and its co-conspirators in the genocide that's happening in Palestine."
Such a resolution will undoubtedly be fiercely opposed by the U.S., Israel and a few others. But, as already demonstrated, a two-thirds vote for it IS achievable and would provide a global impetus to overcome the current paralysis in the face of a crime that the United Nations was, in large part, created to prevent.
The High Level session of the 80th U.N. General Assembly begins next Monday, 22 September. We can help push for this resolution by writing our respective U.N. country representatives, contacts here: https://www.un.org/dgacm/en/content/protocol/blue-book. (Americans and Israelis may wish to write another country's rep, declaring their citizenship and desire to join the majority of the world in supporting this resolution.)
This Dem Now interview was prompted by Craig's broader piece on the challenges and potential of this critical course of action: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/how-the-un-could-act-today-to-stop-the-genocide-in-palestine/.
(1) https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/freedom-decree-the-un-resolution-and-the-movement-to-liberate-palestine/
This ruling was then endorsed by two-thirds of member states in the U.N General Assembly. This was not a standard GA resolution, but one adopted in an Emergency Special Session under "Uniting for Peace", a procedure "that gives enhanced powers to the General Assembly when the Security Council fails to act ... the law it cites is indeed binding, even if the resolution itself cannot command states to act." (1)
Israel has ignored the ICJ ruling and the world has failed to act to enforce an enduring ceasefire and the unimpeded entry of U.N.-led humanitarian aid at the scale required to address the current declared famine and ongoing killing / maiming of Gazans by Israeli forces. The scale and intent of these killings - now above 65,000 dead - have been declared a genocide by U.N. and other major human rights bodies, as well as by numerous individual countries.
Many believe that the U.N. is unable to act to stop this crime, due to the continued veto-ing by the United States of Security Council resolutions intended to do this. This is not true.
See: https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/4/un_palestine
There, Craig Mokhiber, the American international human rights lawyer and former director of the New York office of the U.N/ High Commissioner for Human Rights, advises that the GA's "Uniting for Peace" procedure can vote to enforce action:
".. there is an opportunity ... to actually change the situation on the ground in Palestine, despite the U.S. veto in the Security Council. ... far too many delegations have gotten into the habit of hiding behind the U.S. veto by throwing up their arms and saying, "Well, we tried, but the U.S. vetoed it." But Uniting for Peace allows the member states of the United Nations, 193 of them, in the General Assembly, to circumvent the U.S. veto and to adopt concrete action, as it did, for example, in 1956 by mandating the U.N. emergency force to deploy to the Sinai in the middle of the Suez Crisis against the wishes of two Security Council members, the United Kingdom and France, and against the wishes of Israel. It could do the same thing now, in September, by mandating a U.N. protection force for the people in Gaza and, more broadly, in Palestine, that is specifically mandated to protect civilians, that is mandated to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid, to preserve evidence of Israeli war crimes and to begin the process of reconstruction, most importantly, to change the incentive structure for Israel and its co-conspirators in the genocide that's happening in Palestine."
Such a resolution will undoubtedly be fiercely opposed by the U.S., Israel and a few others. But, as already demonstrated, a two-thirds vote for it IS achievable and would provide a global impetus to overcome the current paralysis in the face of a crime that the United Nations was, in large part, created to prevent.
The High Level session of the 80th U.N. General Assembly begins next Monday, 22 September. We can help push for this resolution by writing our respective U.N. country representatives, contacts here: https://www.un.org/dgacm/en/content/protocol/blue-book. (Americans and Israelis may wish to write another country's rep, declaring their citizenship and desire to join the majority of the world in supporting this resolution.)
This Dem Now interview was prompted by Craig's broader piece on the challenges and potential of this critical course of action: https://mondoweiss.net/2025/08/how-the-un-could-act-today-to-stop-the-genocide-in-palestine/.
(1) https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/freedom-decree-the-un-resolution-and-the-movement-to-liberate-palestine/
Ellen Tolmie
Ellen Tolmieetolmie@gmail.com
m: 1 416 220 1044
38 Earl Street #13
Toronto Ontario M4Y 1M3
Canada
Ellen Tolmieetolmie@gmail.com
m: 1 416 220 1044
38 Earl Street #13
Toronto Ontario M4Y 1M3
Canada
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