Top UN official in New York steps down citing ‘genocide’ of Palestinian civilians
Top UN official in New York steps down citing ‘genocide’ of Palestinian civilians
Craig Mokhiber, director of human rights body, accuses the US, UK and much of Europe as ‘wholly complicit in the horrific assault’
Craig Mokhiber, director of human rights body, accuses the US, UK and much of Europe as ‘wholly complicit in the horrific assault’
I hate this.
I hate when good people step down.
They just open the door for some tool to step in and make the problem normal.
Good people letting themselves be complicit in bad things, whilst they are powerless to do good, helps no one.
"Mokhiber, who was stepping down having reached retirement age..."
I'm so desperate for any one in power to do something, I'll take this anyway
While sometimes positions have a requirement to retire at a certain age and/or tenure, most don’t — I’m not sure if this particular role has such requirements. My reading of this is that while he was eligible to retire, he probably was not required to. Many people work past retirement eligibility.
“The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist colonial settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs … leaves no room for doubt.”
Are we sure he just wasn't retiring due to his age? This statement seems pretty vague.
edit: for clarity, this is sarcasm
Sound pretty clear to me. And if you include the context of each sentence, before and after, I don’t see how much clearer it could get.
He said that the UN had failed to prevent previous genocides against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Muslims in Bosnia, the Yazidi in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Rohingya in Myanmar and wrote: “High Commissioner we are failing again.
“The current wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist colonial settler ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs … leaves no room for doubt.”
Mokhiber added: “This is text book case of genocide” and said the US, UK and much of Europe were not only “refusing to meet their treaty obligations” under the Geneva Conventions but were also arming Israel’s assault and providing political and diplomatic cover for it.
"Guy who can easily retire with a pension because he's past retirement age anyway gives middle finger to his old boss as he leaves because he's sick of things never changing"
I don't know if you actually read his letter giving notice, but Gaza has functionally been his life's work. He's lived there for many years and fought for human rights and equality.
Whether or not he's at retirement age, this is a dark culmination to his life's work.
Fighting Genocide is positive even if you are old
Except he's not fighting anymore, he retired.
Can someone help me understand how this is positive? Or is it just abjectly hopeless and bleak, and that’s the reason he did what he did?
Seems to me that leaving your role because of your opposing views allows those you disagree with to fill it themselves. Typically with someone who agrees with them.
I guess that might answers my question: he felt hopeless.
Why is everyone so black and white on this issue? Israel has a right to exist. Palestine has a right to exist. It shouldn’t be hard to understand.
You can't 'both sides' an issue where one side is commiting genocide and settler colonialism and the other doesn't have access to clean water and electricity. That shouldn't really be that hard to understand either
The more I read up on the history, the more I understand Israel's "right to exist" took a huge bite out of Palestine's "right to exist". The Nakba in 1948 most prominently, and annexations in Gaza, Sinai, West Bank and Golan Heights ever since (some temporary - Sinai and former settlements in Gaza - and the rest very much permanent).
It's one thing to say an annexation of land is ancient history, but there are people alive who were displaced by Israel 75 years ago and are still living in refugee camps. We have two very incompatible things going on right now - Israel is basically screaming for blood because of Oct 7, and they are also living on recently stolen land that calls for reparations to be made to the Palestinian people - if you brought up the latter in this environment, you'd probably be accused of "supporting Hamas", but it's something that's been true for decades. Really exhausting dynamic.
Hero!
Where's the lie though?
Cool. Whatever.