CONDEMNATIONS have poured in from countries world-wide after the United States once again vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s months-long genocidal war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
The Algeria-drafted resolution called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and the ‘unconditional’ release of prisoners, with representatives of 13 countries at the 15-member Security Council voting in favour of the resolution, with the cowardly UK abstaining.
Israel has killed more than 29,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured some 70,000 others in Gaza since the regime launched its US-backed onslaught on October 7, 2023.
The veto, which marks the third time Washington has opposed such a resolution, drew criticism from many countries including China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and even close US allies, France and Slovenia, but not the UK.
‘China voted in favour of the draft resolution,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, told a regular briefing in Beijing. ‘The United States has once again single-handedly vetoed it, pushing the situation in Gaza into an even more dangerous situation, in which all parties concerned… have expressed their strong disappointment and dissatisfaction.’
Expressing serious concerns about the situation in Gaza, the Chinese official described as a ‘moral obligation’, halting the Israeli aggression on the besieged Palestinian territory.
‘The humanitarian situation in Gaza is becoming extremely serious, and regional peace and stability have been severely impacted,’ Mao said, adding, ‘The Security Council must take action as quickly as possible to bring a halt to hostilities. This is a moral obligation that cannot be put off.’
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson stressed that, ‘We will continue to work with all parties in the international community to push the Security Council to take further responsible and meaningful actions, and make unremitting efforts to quell the war in Gaza at an early date.’
Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said the US veto marked ‘another black page in the history of the Security Council.’
Nebenzia said the US was trying to play for time so that Israel could complete its ‘inhumane plans’ for Gaza, namely to squeeze the Palestinians out of the territory and completely ‘cleanse’ the enclave.
The Russian envoy added that no matter how bitter the ‘aftertaste’ of the vote may be, ‘we are not in the mood to give up.’
In fact the struggle of the working class internationally in support of Palestine has only just begun. Hundreds of thousands of workers and youth have marched in the major cities of the capitalist world in support of Palestine.
Their struggle has even penetrated into the House of Commons where Labour has supported the right of the Palestinian people to their State of Palestine.
The House of Commons must now support the right of the Palestinian people to have their own state or face mass actions by millions of workers in the UK.
Further, the millions of UK trade unionists and the working class as a whole must take action and must organise a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a Workers Government and Socialism.
Liberating Palestine from the imperialist powers means taking revolutionary action to nationalise the banks and the major industries, in a world-wide socialist economy. This is the way forward. This is the way to develop the revolutionary movement that has emerged out of the united action of the peoples of the oppressed nations and their most powerful ally, the working class of the world.
The time is now ripe for the building of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International world-wide to drive forward and lead the struggle of the international working class to carry out the world socialist revolution.
Bankrupt capitalism must be replaced by a world-wide nationalised and planned socialist economy whose motto will be be: ‘From each according to their ability to each according to their need.’
Forward to the victory of the British and the World Socialist revolutions!
