The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members on Monday finally passed a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the genocidal war being waged by Israel in Gaza.
On five previous occasions, resolutions to the UNSC calling for a ceasefire have been vetoed by the US, with the UK abstaining.
Last Friday, a lengthy and convoluted resolution submitted by the US was vetoed by Russia and China, as it did not call for an immediate ceasefire and put no pressure on Israel over the war crimes being committed against the Palestinian people.
Monday’s resolution submitted by the 10 elected members of the Security Council was passed, with only the US abstaining.
This resolution called for an ‘immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire’ and called on Israel to adhere to international law while emphasising the need for more humanitarian aid to enter Gaza.
All UNSC resolutions are binding on member states according to Article 25 of the UN Charter, which the US has ratified. This means, in effect, that any state defying the resolution should immediately be sanctioned by United Nations countries.
But, according to the US, this does not apply to allies of American imperialism, with US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, saying that Washington fully supports ‘some of the critical objectives in this non-binding resolution’.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller bluntly told reporters: ‘It is a non-binding resolution.’
This was immediately contradicted by China’s UN ambassador Zhang Jun who insisted that this resolution is binding, while the UN spokesperson Farhan Haq added that UNSC resolutions are international law ‘so to that extent they are as binding as international law.’
The US has made it clear that it will ignore this resolution, and will continue supplying the Zionist regime with all the arms and money it requires to carry on its war to crush the Palestinians.
Immediately after the vote on Monday, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby told the press: ‘Our vote does not – and I repeat that, does not – represent a shift in our policy.’
These assurances of US imperialism’s support for Israeli genocide didn’t prevent Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu from throwing a fit, cancelling a planned trip to Washington and posting on X that ‘The United States has abandoned its policy in the UN today.’
The Netanyahu regime and its US backers are in crisis over the complete failure of the Israeli forces – despite being armed to the hilt with modern weapons – failing to achieve victory over Hamas and the Palestinian resistance to brutal occupation.
The incessant, indiscriminate bombings and ground invasion have brought Gaza to the brink of starvation and killed at least 32,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, but it has not succeeded in wiping out Hamas. What it has done, is to wipe out the myth of US imperialist invincibility and the right it confers on its client Zionist state of Israel to wage genocidal war to drive Palestinians from their land while securing the oil-rich Middle East for continued exploitation by world capitalism.
The resolution passed by the UNSC on Monday is binding but the US and its imperialist allies have no intention of implementing it. The only force that can fully implement this resolution is the working class along with the masses throughout the world who are united in their support for the revolutionary struggle of the Palestinians to defeat Zionist gangsterism.
The way forward is for this massive support to turn into action by workers in the US, UK and Europe by forcing their trade unions to call general strikes to bring down their governments who are complicit in the mass slaughter of Palestinians, and bring in workers’ governments and socialism.
Workers governments will fully implement the terms of this resolution by breaking off all support for Israel while providing all the aid and military support required by Palestinians to smash the occupation and go forward to the independent state of Palestine.
The working class has the power to end genocidal slaughter and end imperialism by going forward to workers’ governments and the victory of the world socialist revolution.
