Support for the non-binding resolution calling for a pause in Israel’s bombing of Gaza was overwhelming. With 120 votes in favor and just 14 against, the UN General Assembly on Friday called for a pause to provide humanitarian aid to the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped there. 9,000 kilometers from New York, Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip began a new phase of their war with the worst bombings yet. “I categorically reject the UN’s despicable call for a ceasefire,” the country’s foreign minister tweeted. Eli Cohen.
This Saturday, the Secretary General of the international body, António Guterres, tweeted that after approving the resolution, he felt “encouraged by what appears to be a growing consensus on the need for at least a humanitarian pause in the Middle East.” “Unfortunately, I was met instead by “We are surprised by an unprecedented escalation in bombing,” he added.
I was encouraged by what appeared to be a growing consensus about the need for a humanitarian pause in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, I was instead surprised by an unprecedented escalation of bombings that undermined humanitarian objectives.
This situation must be reversed.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) October 28, 2023
The criticism between Guterres and the Israeli authorities culminated a week of disagreements and rifts between that country and the United Nations. Disagreements that began on Tuesday with a speech by the Secretary-General and have laid bare the deep divisions in the world order, even within the European Union itself. These disagreements come from afar, they are becoming more serious, they threaten the functioning of the United Nations itself, and the war between Israel and the radical Palestinian militia Hamas has only inflicted further damage on them.
Guterres’ speech at the opening of a Security Council meeting on the conflict was, in principle, intended to be just a trademark speech for the organization, relatively boring and forgettable. But it caused a storm. “Hamas’ attacks did not come out of nowhere. Palestinians have lived under oppressive occupation for 56 years, their land has been gradually swallowed up by settlements and their hopes for a political solution have faded, but their demands cannot justify Hamas’ attacks or the collective punishment of the population. Palestine,” explained the Secretary General.
The top UN official also denounced the “clear violations of international law” in Gaza and reiterated his call for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire to alleviate enormous suffering.”
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Cohen and Israel’s UN ambassador Gilad Erdan immediately called for Guterres’ resignation. The Permanent Representative to the United Nations announced the revocation of visas for officials of the organization: “Based on your words, we will not issue visas to UN representatives.” The first victim was the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths. “It’s time to teach them a lesson,” the Israeli diplomat stressed.
The Israelis felt insulted by Guterres’ comments, says Richard Gowan, a senior official at the institution for decades and now with the International Crisis Group, an NGO specializing in conflict prevention. Israeli leaders “have been convinced from birth that the entire UN system is turned against them,” and criticism of a secretary-general who was “quite pro-Israel” during his time in office was particularly strong. But “many diplomats also suspect that the Israelis have exaggerated their fight with Guterres to distract from the criticism they are receiving at the United Nations over their campaign in Gaza,” this expert emphasizes.
The dispute spread to other member countries of the organization and other international forums. Spain and Portugal expressed support for Guterres; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak criticized the senior international official. In Brussels, acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez insisted on the idea of a humanitarian ceasefire to Ireland at the European Council and called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to respect international law. Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic joined Israel. The same dividing lines were repeated in Friday’s vote in New York.
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“The EU’s complete failure to coordinate a common position on this vote is in many ways more shameful and serious than the petty showdown over Guterres this week. Guterres presented a clear, if controversial, statement of UN principles. The EU simply sank into chaos. “We can be critical of the United Nations, but let’s be honest about the fact that the situation in Gaza leaves everyone confused and perplexed,” Gowan says.
The dispute is by no means the first between the United Nations and Israel. It won’t be the last time either. Both creatures maintain a relationship that is as intimate as it is schizophrenic. Strictly speaking, the Jewish state is a creation of the United Nations, which decided to partition Palestine in 1947 under a British mandate. The international institution has monitored and protected every single border of Israel at some point in the history of this state. There is constant communication between the Israeli army and the UN authorities in Gaza and the West Bank.
At the same time, the majority in the UN General Assembly tends to vote against Israel. This country, in turn, often attacks the organization to which it owes its legitimacy. He systematically does not adhere to the decisions that affect him. And it has even hit its facilities: During the war against Hezbollah in 2006, it bombed a UN observation post in Khiam, southern Lebanon, killing four international observers. 57 UN staff have died in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current conflict.
In part, this relationship is a reflection of the deep divisions that plague the institution. The Security Council has become a boxing ring in which two blocs, led by the United States and those consisting of Russia and China, constantly hand each other diplomatic slaps and almost systematically veto each other’s proposed resolutions. Including contributions to the current conflict in the Middle East.
The current diplomatic crisis comes at an already complicated time for the United Nations regarding Ukraine. Russia “did everything possible to put pressure on the United States over Gaza, seeing it as an opportunity for diplomatic revenge for U.S. efforts to isolate it at the United Nations around Ukraine,” Gowan recalls. And at the same time, “many non-Western countries that joined Washington in favor of Kiev now feel alienated by Western attitudes toward the Palestinians.”
Divisions and bureaucratization have scleroticized the functioning of the institution. Countries like Brazil loudly criticize their inability to renew themselves and represent a different world order than the one that emerged at the Breton Woods Conference in 1944. The permanent member countries of the Security Council have an instrument, the veto, that allows them to block any decision they do not like, resisting an expansion of this forum that could weaken their influence as nations. “It is a sclerotic system hampered by hostile forces,” as European Council President Charles Michel described it.
“The United Nations is also facing a number of crises in Africa, such as in Sudan and the Sahel, where it is struggling to make a difference. Many diplomats in New York feel the organization is facing a credibility crisis. The crisis in Gaza is only fueling this gloomy feeling,” says the ICG expert.
Guterres admits this criticism. A Future Summit is planned for September next year to address some of the planet’s most pressing issues, from disarmament to economic development. “The United Nations is still providing life-saving assistance to people in Palestine, Afghanistan and many other crisis areas. “It’s irreplaceable,” summarizes Gowan. “Supporting them remains a moral question,” he concludes.
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