The escalation of Israel’s war

Prior to the official opening of the UN General Assembly in New York next week, the Assembly has convened and voted overwhelmingly to adopt a non-binding resolution demanding that Israel “brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and do so within 12 months. Morocco voted in favour of the resolution, alongside the overwhelming majority of Member States. Fourteen countries, including the United States and some of the micro-states in the Pacific that tend to rely on American largesse voted against and 43 countries, including the UK, the country historically responsible for the division of Palestine, abstained.  

The vote took place against a new backdrop of intensifying conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, with northern Israel largely evacuated of civilians and southern Lebanon in the front-line again. Israel has been accused repeatedly of using banned white phosphorus, when responding to or launching attacks against Hezbollah positions. The explosion of hundreds of pager devices, followed by similar exploding walkie-talkie phones, sent thousands to hospitals that were already bursting at the seams. The devices may have belonged largely to members of Hezbollah, but many of the explosions maimed and killed civilians as well, including an eight-year-old girl. The acts of sabotage, largely attributed to Israel, have been widely denounced as being against international law. Israel may not have admitted to the attacks, but few doubt that somehow Israeli operatives penetrated Hezbollah’s communication networks. Against this worsening backdrop, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was once again in the Middle East calling for calm, and as usual refusing to exert any pressure to get Netanyahu to roll back from his intention to intensify the war in the North, while blocking Blinken’s failing attempts to get a ceasefire in Gaza. 

Elsewhere the wheels are turning, not least in Morocco, where an Israeli soldier faces possible charges of war crimes. Moche Avichzer, who took deeply offensive videos of himself standing in front of destroyed homes and shops in Gaza, allegedly boasting of the harm being done to Palestinians and then posting the material on social media, had been vacationing in Morocco. Avichzer is fast becoming a lightning rod for many campaigners who believe that Israel and those Israelis accused of war crimes have enjoyed impunity for far too long. Should he be charged and arrested, he could be the first member of the IDF to be in court. And these possible charges are bringing greater focus on the normalisation agreement that Morocco, alongside other Arab nations, signed with Israel prior to this latest conflict breaking out. In these deeply abnormal and dangerous times, they argue, there can be nothing normal between Arab countries and the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu. None of these events will be lost or go unnoticed elsewhere. 

The one-sided Gaza war, which has seen well over 41,000 Palestinians lose their lives, now coupled to a new stage of an intensifying war, will command centre stage at High Level Week at the UN General Assembly next week. There, demands for Israel to be suspended as a member will grow. Such an unprecedented move will underline the strength of feeling internationally, while also showing that without the support of Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, the UN will, in many ways remain fairly powerless to effect events on the ground. 

*Mark Seddon is a former Speechwriter to UN Secretary-General Ban ki moon & former Adviser to the Office of the President of the UN General Assembly