New York City – Gaza and Palestine have been the dominant topics at the United Nations as world leaders convened at the 80th General Assembly (UNGA) in New York over the past week.
In their speeches, UN Security Council (UNSC) meetings, sideline events and media briefings, many countries – from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to France to Malaysia – called for an end to Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But as most of the world rallied around Palestine in the first week of the UNGA, Israel killed at least 661 Palestinians in Gaza and pushed on unabated with its ground assault on Gaza City.
Diplomats and analysts say rhetoric and diplomatic moves alone, including the recognition of a Palestinian state, are not enough to move the needle on the ground, or improve the situation of Palestinians under bombardment and occupation.
Rights advocates are seeking an arms embargo and sanctions against Israel to force it to end its abuses.
Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, executive secretary of the Hague Group – a coalition of countries pushing for such measures against Israel – said the “situation keeps getting worse” because Israel continues to have access to weapons and resources.
“The economic might of the genocidal machine is still not weakened. Israel continues to receive arms,” Gandikota-Nellutla told Al Jazeera.
Palestine recognition
During the UNGA, dozens of countries convened for a summit to push for the two-state solution, while several Western states, including Australia, France and the United Kingdom, formally recognised Palestine.
As that meeting was under way, protesters outside the UN complex banged on pots to decry the deadly hunger in Gaza.
Maamoun Hussein, one of the demonstrators, said the growing international recognition of the state of Palestine is a positive development, but it must be followed by a meaningful push to hold Israel accountable.
“It’s a testament to the perseverance of the Palestinian people for over 78 years of genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Hussein told Al Jazeera, referring to the growing number of countries now recognising Palestinian statehood.
“But these countries have the power to do an arms embargo. They have the power to put pressure on Israel. Instead, all the Arab countries now are at risk. The entire world is at risk because they’re changing the entire legal system to suit Israel, which is a terrorist, genocidal state.”
While ravaging Gaza and intensifying attacks and annexation efforts in the occupied West Bank, Israel has also carried out attacks against Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran and Qatar in recent months. The Israeli military is also widely believed to have struck a Gaza-bound humanitarian boat in a Tunisian port.
Gandikota-Nellutla also said that while recognising Palestinians’ right to self-determination is an important step, more must be done.
“The risk is that countries stop here – that countries pat themselves in the back and say, ‘We’ve done our bit’, and move on without cutting off the material arteries of the genocide at this moment,” she told Al Jazeera.
At a UNSC meeting to discuss the crisis, Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Attaf warned on Tuesday that global stability will depend on whether the international community can rein in Israel and ensure the establishment of a Palestinian state based on borders as they stood before the 1967 war.
“There is no space for denial that what Gaza has been enduring is a comprehensive war of annihilation,” Attaf said, citing the recent UN Commission of Inquiry’s report that accused Israel of genocide.
‘We are not yet there’
A day later, diplomats representing countries from across the world met to renew calls for protecting Palestinian children, about 20,000 of whom have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
“This suffering is not inevitable. It is a result of choices, of actions, and of inaction – and choices can change,” Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said at the event.
On the sidelines of the UNGA, Brazil, Jordan and Spain, along with UN chief Antonio Guterres, also led a push to rally political and financial support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which Israel has unilaterally banned.
Al Jazeera asked Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, whether the diplomatic efforts in support of Palestine in New York are making a tangible difference in the condition of Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
“There have been a lot of acknowledgement-outrage combination, but it hasn’t gone far beyond that,” Lazzarini said.
“The real question is: How will this be translated into necessary influence impacting the situation on the ground? We are not yet there,” he added.
Lazzarini said the crisis in Gaza has reached the dire state it is in today because of “impunity” for Israel’s actions, suggesting that Palestinian lives have been “devalued” in the eyes of the world.
On Friday, delegates of more than 50 countries walked out of the UNGA hall as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crime charges, took the podium.
Nearby, representatives of 34 countries met as part of the Hague Group, and discussed possible policies to stop the atrocities in Gaza, including imposing an energy embargo on Israel and blocking Israeli weapons shipments from their ports.
The meeting included countries spanning four continents, such as Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Iceland, Malaysia, Mexico, Namibia, Spain and Qatar.
For Gandikota-Nellutla, the Hague Group’s chief, international collective action is the way towards ending Israeli impunity.
“We want to grow country by country, until we engulf the whole world – until every supply chain that brings any weapons of death to Israel becomes inaccessible to Netanyahu and his government,” she told Al Jazeera.
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