Aletho News

The United States Disdain for Human Rights

By Robert Fantina | Aletho News | December 31, 2014

The United States once again disgraced itself on the world stage at the United Nations on December 30, when it voted against full recognition of Palestine. It proved to the world, if any further proof was required, that it has no interest in fostering the human rights and self-determination of any people that doesn’t benefit it in some way, either through making available to the U.S. coveted natural resources, allowing military bases to be built in the country, or funneling huge amounts of money into the campaign coffers of elected officials.

The vote was close: eight in favor, two opposed and five abstentions. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a weak and spineless leader if ever there was one, had vowed to join all the U.N. organizations it became eligible for when Palestine was voted ‘non-member observer state status’ by the U.N. General Assembly in 2012, and the International Criminal Court, if the resolution failed to pass. It will be interesting to see if he finally puts the needs of the Palestinians first, and follows through with this promise.

Although the vote failed, and even if it had passed, the U.S. would have vetoed it, it was, nonetheless, a significant milestone. Increasingly, and especially since Israel’s latest genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, the world is recognizing what a few governments still deny: Israel is an apartheid regime, determined to destroy Palestine, its people and culture. Thanks in large part to the international Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement, and the ready access that so many people have to social media, Israel is becoming increasingly isolated as a global pariah, with only the U.S. and a few other countries, including Canada (to its everlasting shame), still defending it.

After Tuesday’s vote, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said, incredibly, that ‘no other country in the world has invested more than the United States in pursuing peace between Israel and the Palestinians.’ It might be useful to look at what the U.S. has, in fact, done in this regard.

• Vetoed resolutions condemning continued illegal settlement building in the West Bank. It is in violation of international law for an occupying nation (Israel) to move its citizens permanently into the occupied territory (Palestine). Israel has relocated over 500,000 Israelis into the West Bank, property that the international community says belongs to Palestine. And Israeli Prime Murderer Benjamin Netanyahu says that not one of those settlers will ever be displaced. In early 2011, when the U.S. vetoed a resolution condemning settlement building, then U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said that the U.S. recognizes the illegality of settlement building, but didn’t feel the U.N. was the place to address it. Where, one might reasonably ask, should violations of international law be addressed if not at the United Nations?
• Gives $3 billion to Israel annually, and nothing to Palestine. This enables Israel to have one of the most powerful military machines in the world, while Palestine has no army, navy or air force.
• Supports the carpet-bombing of Palestine. Periodically, sometimes in response to ineffective rocket fire from Gaza, rockets that Norman Finkelstein, son of Holocaust survivors and an active proponent of Palestinian rights, calls ‘enhanced fire works’, and sometimes just on a whim, Israel begins bombing homes, schools, mosques, U.N. refugee centers and press offices, all in violation of international law. The U.S. proclaims that Israel has a right to defend itself, despite the illogic of an occupying nation defending itself from the nation it occupies. Also, international law that the U.S. recognizes states that an occupied nation has the right to defend itself. Even when Israeli soldiers target children, and bomb U.N. refugee centers, and the U.S. issues some mild criticism, it continues to send advanced weaponry to Israel.
• Ignores the horrific suffering of the Palestinian people. In the Gaza Strip, thanks to Israel’s illegal blockade and periodic bombing, the economy is decimated. Unemployment is among the highest in the world, and thousands of people are homeless due to U.S.-supplied bombs. As much as 90% of the water is not fit to drink. Yet not only does the U.S. send no aid, it allows Israel to block aid from other countries.
• Sponsors the farce of ongoing negotiations. It is a basic fact that negotiations can only occur between two parties, each of which has something the other wants that it can only obtain by surrendering something it has. Israel is able to take with impunity anything it wants from Palestine. It bulldozes entire villages to build illegal settlements, and uses Palestinian natural resources for manufacturing its own products. This is all in violation of international law, law that the U.S. recognizes.

A look at the United States relations with an earlier apartheid regime, South Africa, may help clarify U.S. support for Israel. Through the 1970s and 1980s, most U.S. administrations condemned the apartheid government, but opposed any economic sanctions to discourage it. As late as the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. had very friendly ties with South Africa. Mr. Reagan accused opponents of the apartheid government, most notably the African National Congress, of being pro-communist. In 1984, Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu characterized the Reagan policy as ‘immoral, evil and totally un-Christian’. The U.S. finally imposed economic sanctions, only after Congress overrode a presidential veto.

Today, the U.S. demonizes Hamas, the democratically-elected government in Gaza, which earlier this year reunified with Fatah, the puppet government in the West Bank, a reunification that enraged Mr. Netanyahu and was the probable cause of his murderous assault on Gaza. The U.S. condemns illegal settlement construction, but finances it through its very generous foreign aid to Israel.

Like the situation in South Africa a generation ago, it will not be the U.S. that leads the way to freedom and self-determination for the Palestinian people. No, that will occur in spite of, and not because of, U.S. actions. As indicated by the vote in the General Assembly in 2012 to grant Palestine Non-Member Observer State Status, yesterday’s close albeit unsuccessful vote to recognize Palestine in the Security Council, the growing BDS movement, the resolutions of many countries calling on their governments to recognize Palestine, Sweden’s recent recognition of Palestine, and worldwide outrage at Israel’s savage treatment of Palestinians, the U.S. will not be able to prevent the end of the occupation forever. It could be a force for freedom and human rights, but chooses instead to be an imperial nation, supporting the colonization of countries that can’t provide it with profits, ignoring and even financing horrific human rights abuses, and practicing savage racism within its own borders. U.S. citizens may still believe their nation’s public relations campaigns that proclaim it as a beacon of peace and freedom throughout the world, but that myth is not accepted beyond its borders. Rather than a major diplomatic player on the world stage, the U.S. is a farce, feared for its military power, but gaining no respect anywhere.

December 31, 2014 - Posted by aletho | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | Canada, Human rights, United States, Zionism