A draft statement at the United Nations Security Council presses Israel to halt attacks against Palestinian targets in Gaza while ignoring the rocket fire from Hamas, according to a leaked version of the statement the Biden administration is blocking.
“The Members of the Security Council emphasized that civilian and humanitarian facilities, including those of the UN, must be respected and protected, called on all parties to act consistently with this principle and stressed the need for immediate provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza,” the draft statement says, according to the Times of Israel.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team has been blocking the statement for days, reportedly over the absence of a reference to Hamas. Yet, while U.S. officials hold that line at U.N. headquarters in New York, the diplomatic signals sent by President Joe Biden’s administration have oscillated between seeming to endorse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive approach to the crisis while also lobbying the Israelis to curtail their operations and seek an end to the fighting.
“In the hours since the Council last met on this issue, the United States has been working tirelessly through diplomatic channels to try to bring an end to this conflict,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the Security Council during an emergency session on Sunday. “In all these engagements with Israeli officials, the Palestinian Authority, and all regional partners, the United States has made clear that we are prepared to lend our support and good offices should the parties seek a ceasefire because we believe Israelis and Palestinians equally have a right to live in safety and security. The current violence has deprived both communities of this basic right.”
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Thomas-Greenfield emphasized that “the United States calls on Hamas and other Palestinian groups in Gaza to immediately halt rocket attacks and other provocations,” but the draft statement under consideration makes no such explicit demand. The leaked version instead laments “the crisis related to Gaza and the loss of civilian lives and casualties, and called for de-escalation of the situation, cessation of violence and respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians, especially children.”
The eruption of violence in Gaza has upended the priorities of global diplomacy in recent days, driving the Israeli-Palestinian issue to the front-burner at the U.N. and in key capitals at a time when Western heavyweights were focused on the rehabilitation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu has rebuffed private U.S. appeals for him to seek a ceasefire, but Biden adopted a supportive tone in public last week.
“One of the things that I have seen thus far is that there has not been a significant overreaction,” the president said. “The question is how we get to a point where they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired in the population centers.”
Biden’s team has drawn fire from the left flank of the Democratic Party for seeming too supportive of Israel.
“Blanket statements like these w/ little context or acknowledgement [sic] of what precipitated this cycle of violence – namely, the expulsions of Palestinians and attacks on Al Aqsa – dehumanize Palestinians & imply the US will look the other way at human rights violations,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “By only stepping in to name Hamas’ actions – which are condemnable – & refusing to acknowledge the rights of Palestinians, Biden reinforces the false idea that Palestinians instigated this cycle of violence.”
Israeli officials attribute the crisis to an internal rivalry between Palestinian factions, noting that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas canceled elections that his Hamas rivals were set to win. He blamed that decision on Israel, and Hamas said at the end of April that Israel would “pay a price” for the setback.
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“We urge all parties to avoid actions that undermine a peaceful future,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “This includes avoiding incitement, violent attacks, and terrorist acts, as well as evictions, including in East Jerusalem, demolitions, and settlement construction east of the 1967 lines. And critically, all parties need to uphold and respect the historic status quo at the holy sites.”
