NAM states in deadlock over ‘genocide’ in Gaza

The 120-member state Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) alliance was yesterday drawn into the ongoing legal sabre-rattling of whether Israel’s destruction of Gaza and the resultant humanitarian crisis is tantamount to a “genocide.”

The inclusion of the word “genocide”—defined by the 1948 UN Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group—in the Outcome Document, sparked off intense negotiations that stretched into the night.

A closed-door meeting of senior officials, one of NAM summit organs, was ongoing at the Speke Resort Convention Centre, Munyonyo, by press time last night. The officials’ meeting chaired by Uganda’s Permanent Representative to UN, Ambassador Adonia Ayebare, kicked off on Monday, with the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza on top of the agenda.

The Ministry of Foreign Affair’s Head of Public Diplomacy, Mr Sam Omara, without offering much details, attributed the stalemate to “language to be used in the Outcome document” as the pressing issue.

“It is the language they have not agreed on. What language to use specially as regards the situation in Palestine. It is possible genocide is one of the problems. Delegations have got different terminologies and we hope that at the end of the day, they will reach a compromise on the best terminology to use,” Mr Omara said at the NAM summit media centre at Hotel Africana in Kampala.

The Outcome Document, later to be called the Kampala Declaration, is supposed to be presented today at the meeting of Foreign Affairs ministers. The ministers’ meeting running today and tomorrow shall approve the document for declaration at the Heads of State summit on Friday.

Israel, with full backing of the US and its European allies, kicked off a vicious retaliatory campaign to “demolish” the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) following its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, on a music festival, south of the country, killing 1,139 people, injuring scores, and taking more than 200 as hostage.

Four months down the road, the scale of the campaign, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on November 29, is “an epic humanitarian catastrophe”— of at least 24,000 Palestinians killed, about 70 percent of them are believed to be women and children, and up to 7,000 people missing, with many presumed to be buried under the rubble from the carpet bombings.

With the unrelenting specter of violence, South Africa, on December 29, dragged Israel to the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) on charges of genocide against Palestinians.  The Israeli Foreign Affairs ministry immediately called the suit a “blood libel, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to continue the war “until victory.”

South Africa is among the seven NAM-member countries alongside Chile, Colombia, Belize, Bahrain, Jordan, and Chad that either severed diplomatic relations or recalled its ambassadors as a show of protest against Israel altogether. Other non-NAM members that have done the same are Honduras and Turkey.

The description of Israel’s onslaught and unfolding accounts of human suffering as a “genocide” has elicited mixed reaction, including protests, around the world. South Africa said more than 50 countries in Africa and Arab world are in support of its ICJ suit, which came up for hearing last week. 

By contrast, Western governments have poured cold water on the assertion. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron was quoted by Skynews on Monday as calling “nonsense” South Africa’s genocide accusation of Israel.

During Senior Officials plenary session on Monday, Palestine, backed by several countries, called on the movement to pronounce itself on the ongoing bombardment of Gaza. Behind closed doors, highly placed diplomatic sources, intimated that after agreeing on the sticking issues surrounding the issue, India, a founding NAM-member state, and Singapore, put the spanner in works regarding the inclusion of the word “genocide” in the text, a move supported by majority member states present.

Diplomatic sources intimated that a harmonised position will be pronounced today. Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Gen Jeje Odongo, will chair the Committee that will deliberate Palestine’s concerns, including a call for an immediate cease fire.

The Committee is made up of representation of the United Nations Security Council  (UNSC),  the world’s most powerful exclusive organ charged with ensuring global security, NAM members: Algeria, Guyana, Seirra Leone, and Mozambique, and the NAM Troika, which consists of past, present and future NAM chairs.

While a position in favour of Palestine by the Committee, and the NAM at large would go a long way in meeting the pleas of Palestinian, the final decision would have to be taken by the UNSC, which consists of five permanent members: China, France, Russia, UK and the US, and 10 non-permanent members.

In December, the US blocked the Security Council resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, despite support by many other nations. Each member of the Council has one vote, and the vote of a permanent member can overturn a decision by all others. All NAM UNSC members are non-permanent.

At the UN General Assembly, the world’s parliament, the majority 193-UN member states, have voted for a humanitarian cease fire, voted against by US and Israel. Palestine is recognised by NAM as an independent state, and admitted to the UNGA as an observer.

On Monday, Palestine Ambassador to the UN, Mr Riyad Mansour, said. “This is a high time for central Palestine to become a full member of the UN General Assembly because NAM, from its inception, has always supported the Palestinian people. We have fought for years, we failed their bid of pushing 2.3 million Palestinians out of the Gaza strip.”

Background
Israel, with full backing of the US and its European allies, kicked off a vicious retaliatory campaign to “demolish” the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) following its surprise attack on October 7, 2023, on a music festival, south of the country, killing 1,139 people, injuring scores, and taking more than 200 as hostage.

Four months down the road, the scale of the campaign, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on November 29, is “an epic humanitarian catastrophe”— of at least 24,000 Palestinians killed, about 70 percent of them are believed to be women and children, and up to 7,000 people missing, with many presumed to be buried under the rubble from the carpet bombings.

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