UN chief invokes article 99 on Gaza in rare, powerful move

[Donkees]

Dec 6, 2023

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has invoked what is widely considered to be the most powerful diplomatic tool at his disposal.

In a letter to the UN Security Council, Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter, which states that “the Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security”.

The letter represents the first time Guterres has invoked the article since he took over the role of UN secretary-general on January 1, 2017.

In the letter, Guterres calls for the Security Council to press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe and appeals for a humanitarian ceasefire to be declared in Gaza.

[Donkees]

1. The Guardian:

Patrick Wintour

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has written to the UN security council warning public order is set to break down in Gaza completely and there is no means of getting aid over the border into Gaza.

He has intervened using his powers under Article 99 of the UN Charter that allows him to bring to the UN’s attention any event that threatens the security of the world.

His move is designed to put pressure on the US to direct Israel to let aid cross over from Egypt into Gaza. The US claimed it had reached such an agreement last week, and since then has fended off complaints that its agreement has not been honoured by Israel.

Some Arab foreign ministers including the Egyptian foreign minister have travelled to New York to demand action.

Guterres, in his letter, wrote that the capacity of the UN to act has been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and lack of security.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/06/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-palestinians-killed-gaza-strike-as-israeli-military-idf-fighting-khan-younis-news

[Beastly Boy]

2. I am sure the Security Coucil has the perfect solution for preventing their aid

from falling into the hands of belligerent combatants. They've been doing a splendid job of not enabling Hamas in this respect in peace time, so it would be a piece of cake to secure their aid for civilians in war time.

All they've been waiting for is the invocation of Article 99.

[Chernevog]

23. First of all..

While the death statistics may be accurate, they actually don't refer to only civilians who were killed since October 7th... They also include combatants... You can check this up on the Gaza health ministry site. On wikipedia they will tell you this right there... Next, it doesn't give cause of death. So a fair proportion of these are people who would have died anyway during the last month or so of things like cancer or old age... The devil is in the details and basically speaking. Hamas is using these figures to propagandize but they are not the entire story... I spent years doing government statistics and I can read this stuff very easily... Next time I hear the word genocide. I'm gonna puke because what's happening in gaza doesn't remotely fit that legal definition... There must be intention on the part of the Israelis to simply pull out civilians. Line them up against the wall and shoot them... Hamas did that on october seventh israel is not doing that now

[Igel]

43. After Cast Lead there was a decent and reasonable analysis.

It looked at Gaza demographics, last snapshot, the most granular report available. It tried to map deaths in a given reporting period to where the Israeli attacks were. It worked out a weighted "demographics" of those attacked. (Imagine if there's an attack on a convent and the numbers reported the numbers dead on both sides together; you could use the demographics of the convent and of the attacking force to estimate the number of nuns killed versus attackers--and the larger the number, the more accurate the likely estimate. It wouldn't matter that the next block over was a large all-boys school or a monastery if they weren't attacked.)

It wasn't widely cited--one side cited it as probably good, the other and hopelessly flawed because it led to a anti-narrativist result, but for one side it was a boring academic study and for the other side it was an inconvenience best ignored. Why? Because it was biased, it was wrong, it was inaccurate, it was flawed--but I remember reading critiques to their end and wondering what the methodological flaws were. It all boiled down to, "You really can't know this well enough to claim it."

But you could. The numbers were big enough. The population estimates were recent and pre-war. No reason for an obvious bias precisely in favor of where Israel wound up attacking. (Granted, there was a possible bias--if they overestimated in the census the number of women and children for some reason. But that would be manipulating data for ideological ends, and surely the UNRWA wouldn't do *that*.)

The analysis came up with a fairly large number of excess male deaths aged 16 to 30 or 35 at p = 0.01. Since there's no reason to think that bombs preferentially extirpated spermifers, so they concluded that the Hamas fighter death toll was far, far from trivial compared to the number of civilian dead.

But it meant that the Israeli attacks really did preferentially target Hamas fighters, so that "targeting civilians" and "indiscriminate" were inaccurate descriptors.

[stopdiggin]

5. and here it is again

"pressure on the US to direct Israel to let aid cross over from Egypt into Gaza."

This imaginary authority and control that the U.S. has over ... Well, everything!
This is self evidently a completely false proposition.
And has been, going back ....

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Think. Again.]

8. Yes....

...and I read that there are no conditions on the billions in military funds the U.S. gives to Israel. We just, give netanyahu billions. No conditions.

[stopdiggin]

13. and that is the way it has been ....

And I believe you have just effectively made my point.

[Donkees]

12. ''Israel needs U.S. backing for the expansion of its military operation into the city of Khan Younis''

Israeli war cabinet expected to approve increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza

Israel needs U.S. backing for the expansion of its military operation into the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza strip, which makes it difficult to say no to U.S. requests, Israeli officials said.

https://www.axios.com/2023/12/04/israel-gaza-humanitarian-aid-fuel-increase

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218501228

[stopdiggin]

14. what type of 'backing' would that be .. ?

The U.S. is not engaged in this conflict.

[ramen]

16. Who is funding and arming Israel now if the US has ceased its longtime role in doing so? nt

[stopdiggin]

18. here is the quote

"Israel needs U.S. backing for the expansion of its military operation into the city of Khan Younis .."

I'm doubting this statement in real time military objectives and ability ... Nothing to do with future funding.

[Lonestarblue]

3. I wish the UN could impose a permanent ceasefire.

Israel has now killed over 16,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians and many of them babies and children. I’m sure those babies and children supported Hamas!

So they’ve killed over 10 Palestinians for every Israeli killed on October 7. When will Israel’s bloodlust and vengeance end?

[Mossfern]

6. Will Hamas honor the cease fire?

Have they in the past?

[Danmel]

19. We know the answer is no

And that it makes no difference.
Where are the hostages?
Where is 10 month old Kfir?

[Oopsie Daisy]

24. They are all likely dead.

[Amishman]

21. This is unfortunately the core of it. Peace is impossible while Hamas exists

Hamas has proven they will do anything to kill Israelis and they will break any peace deal the moment it is advantageous to do so.

[BComplex]

36. It seems to me that peace is impossible when people continue to believe peace is impossible.

There are terrorists in almost every country. There are people who believe that peace is impossible because of those terrorists. In our own country, the white supremacists actually believe that peace is impossible because there are "liberals" that continue to insist that we believe in a multi-racial society. They think these "liberals" are terrorists. The enemy is whomever is considered "the other", and as long as people continue with such an ignorant mindset, peace will continue to be impossible.

[Beastly Boy]

37. "Peace iw impossible while Hamas exists" is equivalent to

Peace is possible when Hamas ceases to exist"

I see no contradictions here.

[stopdiggin]

9. by using terms such as 'bloodlust'

you rather expose a fairly slanted perspective.

[sarisataka]

11. Since it make two to make a ceasefire

It is necessary to ask if Hamas bloodlust is fulfilled

[keopeli]

15. 9/11 killed 3000 Americans. Iraq War killed 300,000 Iraqis. ratio of 100/1.

And Iraq didn't' cause 9/11. Just a little bit of insight and comparison.

[Bettie]

22. Many of us protested against that

because we knew it was wrong.

Just as some of us (apparently, very few) feel that Palestinians have a right to be alive....yes, I know, it is anti-semitic to believe that.

[EllieBC]

20. Think they can enforce it on Hamas

or do you think they won’t need that?

Hint: Hamas violated the last one.

[sarisataka]

29. Correction-

Last two

[Tickle]

33. Maybe it will end when they return the hostages

Maybe not, Israel needs to decimate Hamas.

I don't care what the UN says I wouldn't listen to them.

[Goddessartist]

4. Good!

Stop the bloodbath!

[David__77]

7. While the UN has no enforcement authority of any kind in this matter, I appreciate the move.

[malaise]

10. Good

Rec

[brooklynite]

17. Because the Security Council was unaware of it?

[Oopsie Daisy]

25. He's the one who said: "It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum..."

He's the one who said: "It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,"

[Mosby]

26. So he never invoked article 99 for the Rohingya, Uyghurs, Yazidis

Syrians, Ukrainians, Nuer, Darfuris.

Only Israel trying to defend herself has caught his eye.

[claudette]

32. Did you say

“Defend” itself? How is killing over 15,000 Palestinians defense? And do they still feel threatened with all those tunnels destroyed that they have to continue the bombing of innocents leaving them homeless?

[Mosby]

35. No one knows the real death numbers.

Regardless what the real number is, its tragic that the Palestinian groups like Hamas insist on provoking Israel and causing all this loss of life.

The Palestinian terrorist groups like IBQ, Al aksa Martyrs brigade, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Lions Den, Hamas, DFLP, PFLP, Harakat al-Sabireen, PLF, should consider disbanding and ending their 75 year reign of terror against the Israelis.

[tritsofme]

27. So he basically issued a press release? Oh wow! What an impressive and powerful move!

[ripcord]

28. Does this mean they will do something about Hamas?

Of course not, the current plan seems to be for Israel to pull back to its borders and for Hamas to rearm and commit another terrorist attack.

[TheKentuckian]

31. That in context is all CEASEFIRE means

They demand Hamas be able to act with impunity and for Israel to suck it.

[claudette]

38. Maybe it's

a plan to have the ceasefire so ALL hostages are returned and search for a way to use intelligence to search for Hamas leaders instead of killing thousands of Palestinians and hoping some of the dead are Hamas militants who are actually the terrorists.

Edited to add: All the bombing and forced evacuation is not going to make Hamas agree to a ceasefire since I’m betting the hatred grows with each bombardment.

[TheKentuckian]

41. There have been multiple ceasefires broken by Hamas

Their agreement is pointless, they need to stop breathing.

[claudette]

42. Sorry

You may be right about Hamas but 15,000 non breathing Palestinians had nothing to do with it.

[EX500rider]

44. So all claimed 15,000 dead are now civilians, zero Hamas?

[claudette]

30. 👍🏻

🙏 please do it

[Donkees]

34. Biden administration "has seen", but isn't yet ready to comment on a letter from Antonio Guterres

A spokesperson for the US state department says the Biden administration “has seen”, but isn’t yet ready to comment on a letter from United Nations secretary general António Guterres warning the UN security council that public order is set to break down in Gaza completely, and that there was no means of getting aid into the territory.

Guterres wrote that the capacity of the UN to act had been decimated by supply shortages, lack of fuel, interrupted communications and lack of security.

Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, told a lunchtime press briefing in Washington DC that the US will continue to consult with Guterres and security council members

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/dec/06/israel-hamas-war-live-updates-palestinians-killed-gaza-strike-as-israeli-military-idf-fighting-khan-younis-news

[David__77]

39. Times of Israel: "As UN chief uses rare clause to urge truce, Israeli envoy says he 'reached a new moral low'"

...

It is the first time the UN chief has invoked the article since taking office in 2017, and the first time any secretary-general has made use of it since 1989.

“Today, the Secretary-General has reached a new moral low,” writes Erdan in a tweet. “The Secretary-General decided to activate this rare clause only when it allows him to put pressure on Israel, which is fighting the Nazi Hamas terrorists. This is more proof of the Secretary-General’s moral distortion and his bias against Israel.

“The Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire is actually a call to keep Hamas’s reign of terror in Gaza. Instead of the Secretary-General explicitly pointing to Hamas’s responsibility for the situation and calling on the terrorist leaders to turn themselves in and return the hostages, thus ending the war, the Secretary-General chooses to continue playing into Hamas’ hands,” Erdan says.

“I again call on the Secretary-General to resign immediately — the UN needs a Secretary-General who supports the war on terror, not a Secretary-General who acts according to the script written by Hamas.”

...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/as-un-chief-uses-rare-clause-to-urge-truce-israeli-envoy-says-he-reached-a-new-moral-low/

[sarisataka]

40. I find it interesting

The the country with the largest nuclear arsenal in earth invading a country they promised to protect did not rate invocation of Article 99. Even though it has been the largest land war in Europe since WW2 and in on the door step of the NATO alliance.

IMO that is a more likely to "threaten the maintenance of international peace and security" than Israel vs Hamas...