Compliant silence in feminist spaces: The UN’s double standard on Palestine
*Co-authored with Olivia Hooper, fearless feminist and Co-Director of Politics4Her.
March: a month supposedly dedicated to women’s rights and history.
Also March: a month that renewed Israel’s incessant will to destroy Palestinian rights, land, and lives.
Israel broke the so-called ceasefire on 18 March. This moment rendered the international community mute. Sure, we heard a few feeble condemnations — but where was the action?
Wondering how many more days, years, lives we need to lose before we do something?! Yeah, me too.
To get some answers — or to unpack our paralysis — I spoke to Olivia Hooper, Co-Director of international youth-led intersectional feminist NGO and movement Politics4Her. Olivia was attending the Commission on the Status of Women at the UN in New York at the time of the ceasefire violation. She’s got plenty to say about how the UN has failed Palestinians.
Olivia attended an emergency session of the UN Security Council the day after the ceasefire agreement had been broken. At least 634 people have been killed since the ceasefire was broken. The most recent data says at least 50,800 Palestinians have been murdered since 7 October 2023.
Expecting strong calls and clear actions, instead Olivia found lip service. Member states took turns droning on about the need to increase funding and facilitate humanitarian aid without any concrete explanation of when this would be done, who would do it, and how. And it goes without saying that we dare not mention why this is happening in the first place. As if we’ve dropped the bombs on ourselves.
Instead, member states insisted on regurgitating how Israel and Hamas share “equal” responsibility in the destruction that has killed over 50,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis. This isn’t equal. And it isn’t a war. We’ve made this point a bazillion times, but clearly it hasn’t reached those in power at the UN, it would seem.
With two exceptions.
Palestine, of course. They continue to scream loud and clear about Israel and the crimes it has committed. For generations.
And — Pakistan. Ambassador Munir Akram’s opening statement included words like “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” — words that are based on truth and built from ample evidence. These words often trigger a barrage of whataboutery including the much-flogged excuse: But what about Hamas?!
Ambassador Akram did not mention Hamas at all. Instead, he was clear about where blame belongs. He did not appease both sides. He spoke only about the right side. Yes, that’s it.
Riyad Mansour, Permanent Representative for the State of Palestine at the UN, repeated his call for us all to “act now.” This is shamefully overdue, shockingly obvious, and exceedingly necessary. And yet, here we are. Zero action. More hollow words.
Funny, but I said this on 18 October 2023 in a post on LinkedIn. I howled that the UN issues hollow statements and calls for ceasefire for humanitarian support without actually condemning anyone. As if it happened in a vacuum. Total impunity.
I howled that the UN allowed its own staff to be murdered by Israel without criticism, condemnation, or concern. I howled that UN agencies who claim to care about healthcare, education, the media, children… have allowed them all to be massacred without taking any action. The UN — just like most other institutions — only speaks of Palestinian “deaths” — not killings. Did they die on their own?
And most importantly, I howled that the impotent Security Council repeatedly fails to force a ceasefire. The veto is debilitating. And we are dying because of it. What is “united” about the United Nations, beyond its fear to condemn the real criminal, and its willingness to sacrifice Palestinian lives for their silence?
I howled that democracy in the so-called “civilized” world is on leave. Students and professors are being kicked out of universities, journalists are losing their jobs, just for demonstrating or posting support for Palestine. Anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments are high. And let’s not get started with the US administration.
That was 19 months ago. How many have died since then?!
The Palestinian ambassador howled as well: “You have resolutions, act. You have power, act, or…you become irrelevant.”
Olivia told me that the Politics4Her team clapped, which drew attention and glares from the spectators and speakers who demand that we all sit in silence while people are dying.
Israel spoke, of course. While some ambassadors chose to walk out, Olivia remained, hoping to hear mention of the 400 deaths from the night before. Spoiler alert: nope.
Instead it was as predictable as ever. Hamas this and Hamas that. Zero acknowledgement of Palestinian lives they have destroyed. Zero remorse. Zero moral compass. 100% expected for a nation ruled by monsters and madmen.
The UN’s failure to support Palestine is part of a pattern. On 13 March, the UN Human Rights Council published a scathing report documenting Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive, and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October.
The report should fill us with sorrow and rage. And a plan for tangible actions.
For 49 pages, the report documents crimes such as this one by a witness from al-Awda Hospital in Gaza:
…A pregnant woman who was shot and killed as she was approaching the hospital. She was left there bleeding. Nobody managed to rescue her as the hospital was under siege by the Israeli forces. She was found in a decomposed state about 20 days later.
49 pages of this, the atrocities women and girls face every day in Palestine.
Read the report and you’ll probably be left wondering, as many of us are, WTF we’re going to do about this. And yet, the institutions who lord over us seem to have grown weary of hearing about the violence, suffering, trauma we’re endorsing with our silence.
I wonder when we normalized mass murder?
Is the UN all talk and no action? It seems obvious to many of us that the United Nations has not been very “united.” That’s because Israeli cries of “self-defense” and “antisemitism” are used as excuses for abuses. And by abuses I mean the murder, mutilation, destruction of Palestinian lives, livelihoods, land. These excuses seem to stop all conversations from happening — and certainly put an end to any potential plans for action.
Just as Ambassador Majed Bamya, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, said to the UN Security Council: Israel seems to have the “right to kill,” while Palestinians only have the “right to die.”
Is it not yet obvious that Israel is violating its UN membership? OK, let’s repeat. Firstly — genocide. Yeah, that’s illegal. And for decades before that, the occupation of Palestinian Territories is a violation of international law. And the abuse of Palestinians (yes, before 7 October) is pure assholery.
Olivia and her team at Politics4Her have some pretty clear recommendations to the UN. As do I, in my plan to “fix” the system. Firstly, let’s take some real action in the places we’ve ignored. We know what’s happening, but we’re denying the truth and failing the people who need this institution the most. Obviously, Palestine. But also Sudan, DRC, Syria, Lebanon — and beyond.
As an Arab… As a Palestinian… As a Lebanese… the institution has let us down in ways we could not begin to imagine. Sure, this isn’t the first time, nor are we the first region to be screwed by the system, but how many more failures do we need before we take action?
When it comes to women, how about we stop being treated as tokens or sidelined or relegated to “side events”? Two years ago I wrote a blog calling out the UN Commission on the Status of Women as an event to reinforce the status quo. I hate to be a broken record here, but…
I will be a broken record until we fix the record player.
There’s always room to do better. But we’re not doing anything different at all! We need to do much more to decolonize our spaces, our words, our actions, our minds. Especially now, as the issues we care about are borderline-illegal. And also, maybe a little less from the men in power and a little more from the women doing the real work on the ground? I mean… let’s just start there and see what happens! Oh yes and — my firm favorite: less talk and more action. Much more action. Otherwise, what are we? An outdated overgrown talk shop, regurgitating the same old messages without standing up for what’s right.
I’ve dedicated my decades to institutions I am now struggling to believe in. One thing hasn’t changed — my belief in individuals. When the institutions set up to protect us are failing, we need to step in. It’s up to us now. Friends in the UN, you’re the best there is. But your integrity cannot clean a rotten system.
Olivia had this to say:
Fighting for human rights should not be controversial. We shouldn’t need to convince the other side, yet here we are fighting for the day where we are all on the same page, which means having the UN on our side and acting at full capacity.
We are far, far from this.
And yet — I still want to believe that peaceful solutions are possible. For that to be true, I also believe we can do better. In fact, we have no choice but to do better — our lives quite literally depend on it.
Yes, ALL OF US.
