The president of the UN General Assembly has condemned
Israel's killings of Palestinians in its Gaza offensive
as "genocide". Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann also told Al
Jazeera he had never believed that the UN Security
Council would be able to stop the violence in Gaza and
that Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, had
practically told the UN to "mind their own business" by
continuing the offensive. "The number of victims in Gaza
is increasing by the day... The situation is untenable.
It's genocide," d'Escoto said at the UN in New York.
About 970 Palestinians have been killed and 4,300
injured since Israel began its Gaza offensive on
December 27, which it says is to stop Palestinian
fighters attacking Israel with rockets.
Emergency session
The UN General Assembly said on Tuesday that it was set
to hold an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the
crisis after a previous session was postponed last week
ahead of a UN Security Council vote on the issue. The
Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a
ceasefire in Gaza, but Israel has escalated its
offensive and Palestinian rocket fire has also
continued.
"There have been some who were under the illusion that
the Security Council would do something that could help
the situation," d'Escoto said. "I never thought so. "Now
we're faced with not only with a lack of compliance but
with a prime minister of Israel who has practically
responded to the Security Council by saying 'mind your
own business'. "It's unbelievable that a country that
owes its existence to a general assembly resolution
could be so disdainful of the resolutions that emanate
from the UN."
D'Escoto, a former Roman Catholic priest and Nicaragua
foreign minister, is known for his outspoken criticism
of Israel and last year likened Israel's treatment of
the Palestinians to the racist apartheid system
previously used in South Africa. Gabriela Shalev,
Israel's ambassador to the UN, called d'Escoto an
"Israel hater" for having hugged Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
the Iranian president and a vocal critic of Israel.
D'Escoto also said the UN had to bear some
responsibility for the long-standing conflict in the
Middle East as it had allowed the creation of the state
of Israel in 1948, leaving the Palestinians stateless.
"You have to attack problems at their root cause and the
Palestinian people have been subjected to subhuman
treatment for decades and this [the Israeli offensive]
is going to make matters worse."
Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/200911321467988347.html
