Today I want to talk about a recent article that was published entitled, “UN Chief Pleads for Gazans’ Safety, Cites Humanitarian Law Violations” by Reuters
For some background, the United Nations is an extremely powerful entity, organization, and institution. There are different perspectives and lenses in international politics that look at institutions in various ways. That being said, however, I believe it is pertinent that we acknowledge the capacity and capability of the United Nations. From my perspective, the international institution exists to safeguard the International Political system.
In this unfolding story, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has recently pleaded with the council for more humanitarian aid to be sent to the Gaza Strip. The article states, “More than 700 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli air strikes, Gaza’s health ministry said, the highest 24-hour death toll since Israel began a bombing campaign to crush Hamas militants who stunned the country with a deadly Oct. 7 attack.” Again, no matter what position a person takes, we can all acknowledge that this rising death toll of civilians in Israel and Palestine is horrifying.
There were also extreme reactions to this speech, in that when Israel’s U.N. Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, heard this speech, he was very upset about the actions. He even “described Guterres’ speech as “shocking.” Erdan seemed to take part in this speech as almost a “dismissal of Terrorism” when Guterres said there is a “56-year history and this attack did not happen in a vacuum”. It is going to be an important space to watch and the reactions to this speech and the story unfolding is very important.