stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman
Antonio Guterres disgraces the office he holds, appointed to serve US-led Western interests.
He consistently fails to observe UN Charter principles he’s sworn to uphold – notably preserving and protecting human rights, supporting world peace and stability, denouncing wars of aggression, and respecting fundamental international laws.
He one-sidedly supports Western and Israeli interests, failing to do anything to help long-suffering Palestinians, notably beleaguered Gazans.
In response to bloody Friday, Israel mass-murdering 17 Palestinians, wounding over 1,400 others, at least 20 with life-threatening injuries, preemptive Israeli aggression by any standard, Guterres failed to denounce what happened.
He failed to demand Israel be held accountable for a bloody day of Nuremberg-level high crimes.
Instead through his spokesperson, he expressed hollow deep concern, disgracefully calling for an independent investigation into what’s self-evident.
Any so-called probe into Friday’s violence will be obstructed and whitewashed by Israel, a worthless undertaking.
Guterres’ call “to refrain from any act that could lead to further casualties and in particular any measures that could place civilians in harm’s way” ignored reality.
Palestinians throughout the Territories are in harm’s way every day, brutalized by a merciless occupier, gunned down in cold blood, arrested and detained on any pretext, brutalized in captivity, denied internationally guaranteed human and civil rights.
Since taking office in January 2017, Guterres failed to condemn Western and Israeli high crimes, failed to demand long-ignored accountability, failed to support victims of their naked aggression.
He absurdly called for “revitalizing the (no-peace) peace process” – dead-on-arrival each time initiated, notably since Trump’s Jerusalem declaration, driving a stake through the heart of conflict resolution, making it less attainable than earlier.
While Palestinians were being massacred on Friday, ignoring it while ongoing, Guterres tweeted his “best wishes to all those celebrating Passover around the world. Chag Same’ach (joyous festival)!”
On Friday, the Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights issued a statement condemning Israeli violence, saying:
“The Israeli military’s use of 100 snipers against unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip is illegal.”
“(L)ive gunfire on unarmed civilians constitutes a brutal violation of the international legal obligation to distinguish between civilians and combatants.”
“Israel is obligated to act in accordance with international law,” adding:
It “demand(s) that (Israelis) responsible for the killings be brought to justice.”
Adalah and the Mezan Center for Human Rights demanded the IDF “remove all social media posts, threatening participants in (Friday’s) Gaza march that they will be military targets, and also remove social media posts threatening the civilian population in Gaza.”
On Thursday, ahead of Friday demonstrations, B’Tselem issued a statement, saying the following:
“…Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to respond with lethal force.”
“Completely ignoring the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and Israel’s responsibility for it, they are couching the planned protest in terms of a security risk, framing the demonstrators as terrorists and referring to Gaza as a ‘combat zone.’ “
“Fragments of information reported by the media indicate that: soldiers will be ordered to shoot anyone coming within 300 meters of the fence; snipers will fire at anyone touching it; live fire will be used also in circumstances which are non-life-threatening.”
“In other words: shoot-to-kill unarmed Palestinians taking part in these demonstrations” threatening no one,” adding:
Israel “made Gaza a huge prison, yet forbids the prisoners even to protest against (their misery), on pain of death.”
Guterres should have issued a strong statement similar to the above remarks.
Instead, he sided with Israeli mass-murder by failing to condemn it, calling only for a meaningless investigation, accomplishing nothing for brutalized Palestinians if undertaken.
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Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization
