2023-10-19 05:01:00
The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, described this Wednesday as a “tragedy without justification” the bombing of the Baptista al-Ahli Hospital in the Gaza Strip, a territory that is being targeted by the Israeli offensive against Hamas, which caused around of 500 dead, according to the latest official Palestinian estimate.
“The attack on the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital is a tragedy without justification. Wars have no meaning, lives are lost forever. Hospitals, schools and houses built with so much sacrifice, destroyed in moments,” Lula expressed on his social networks, at the same time that he called to protect the child victims of the conflict: “I make the call again. The innocent cannot pay for the insanity of war,” he stated.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel, on October 7, and the subsequent Israeli retaliation in the Gaza Strip, Lula spoke with leaders of various countries to achieve the cessation of hostilities and the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians.
The American rejection
Meanwhile, the United States rejected in the UN Security Council a proposal from Brazil that called for “humanitarian pauses” in the fighting in Gaza, so approval of the resolution was not achieved, given that the North American country is one of the five permanent members with veto power.
The text from Brazil, which holds the presidency of the Council this month, avoided the call for a ceasefire to gain US support and was backed by 12 members, including China and France, while Russia and the United Kingdom They abstained from the vote.
The document, subject to last-minute changes after the bombing of the hospital in the Strip, emphasized that “civilians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, must be protected, in accordance with international law.” The proposal also expressly condemned the “hateful terrorist attacks” of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), but did not recognize Israel’s right to defend itself, as the United States demanded.
The American ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, declared that her country was “disappointed” that the resolution “does not mention Israel’s self-defense rights.” “Like all nations in the world, Israel has the inherent right of self-defense, as reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter,” she said, according to CNN television.
It is the second time in a week that the UN has failed to pass a resolution on the conflict, after on Monday it rejected a Russian resolution condemning the escalation of violence in the Middle East because it did not mention Hamas for its surprise attack on Israel.
International discontent
The veto was condemned by various representatives of the countries. One of them was the UN ambassador in Brazil, Sergio Franca Danese, who assessed in a statement that “silence and inaction prevailed,” and added that he hoped that “the efforts of other actors will produce positive results.”
China’s ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, also expressed dismay at the failure of the Brazilian initiative. “Due to the fact that the draft resolution has not been adopted, our reaction is one of shock and disappointment,” the Chinese diplomat said before the mechanism, reported the Sputnik news agency. “Some countries,” Zhang said, without mentioning the US, “are saying that the Council must act, but the way they voted makes us doubt their willingness to act and their intention to find a solution to the problem.”
The Palestinian ambassador, Ryad Mansur, asked the Council to “stop the bloodshed now.” “Killing more Palestinians will never, ever make Israel safer,” he said. “There is no logic, morality or law in this world that justifies killing the population,” he protested.
Tension between the PT and the Israeli embassy
The US veto came a day after Israel and Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party (PT) exchanged criticism over the outbreak of war last week.
“It is very regrettable that a party that defends human rights compares the terrorist organization Hamas, which goes from house to house to murder entire families, with what the Israeli Government is doing to protect its citizens,” said the Israeli embassy in Brasilia through a message written on the social network
Lula’s party had expressed its “condemnation of the unacceptable attacks, murders and kidnappings of civilians, committed by both Hamas and the State of Israel.” Following the message from the Israeli embassy, the PT issued a statement in which it described the interpretation of its statement as “totally false and malicious” and blamed Israel for the bombing of the hospital in Gaza. “Whoever represents the Government in Brazil that carries out an attack of this nature does not have the moral authority to talk about human rights,” the PT stated in the last note.
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