Israeli scholar slams UN Security Council's inaction on Gaza

By Muhammet Tarhan

ISTANBUL (AA) - A renowned Israeli filmmaker, photographer, and scholar criticized the UN Security Council's failure to act on the Israel-Palestine conflict due to the veto power held by its five permanent members.

Expressing concern over the Security Council's failure to act decisively in the face of ongoing violence in Gaza, Haim Bresheeth highlighted the detrimental impact of the council's structure on international efforts to address the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"The UN should not have a Security Council with five members that can veto. I think that's obviously not only non-democratic, but it's not logical that the whole world votes to do something, and one state vetoes it. This is totally mad," Bresheeth told Anadolu.

Bresheeth, formerly at the University of East London and now at the UK’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), underscored the impunity enjoyed by Israel despite its ongoing military actions in Gaza, citing a disregard for international law.

"They have no respect for international law whatsoever. They know that they are defended by the whole West, and the whole West is supporting the genocide and the war crimes that Israel is carrying out," he said.

He expressed disappointment at the lack of meaningful action from the international community, noting the absence of significant repercussions for Israel's violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

"So it seems that this genocide doesn't actually move the international community to do anything. And this is a breakdown of international law that we all are going to pay for in decades to come," he added.

"But what worries me the most is the fact that Israel is moving to a total conflict in the Middle East with Iran, with Yemen, with Syria, with Lebanon, and maybe with other countries as well, the way that it is acting at the moment, and nobody does anything."

- ‘Reforming Security Council’

Bresheeth highlighted the pleasure of three permanent members of the Security Council in vetoing anything against Israel, citing a decline in international norms imposed by the West.

He advocated for reforming the Security Council, criticizing its undemocratic structure and emphasizing the need to overcome Western dominance, questioning the legitimacy of its actions.

Bresheeth revealed he has completed a film on Gaza's situation, expressing doubts about its screening in the UK due to its anti-Zionist stance.

"I have finished a film with the filmmaker, a friend of mine, about the situation in Gaza. Because it's anti-Zionist, and no one in Britain is going to show it on television, no one will show it in a cinema. It's just a waste of time," he said.

- Role of Western media

He criticized Western media for neglecting Palestinian suffering and highlighted Western support for Israel despite its alleged genocide in Gaza, stressing the urgent need for intervention.

Bresheeth highlighted the dismissal of academics in Israel who spoke out against Israel's genocide in Gaza, noting a similar trend in the UK where universities expelled professors and took action against students.

"I have a number of professors who were fired in Israel from their jobs because they said that what is happening in Gaza is not human and should not be supported in any way.

"In the United Kingdom, universities have fired quite a few professors and actually acted against students, many of them Palestinian and Jewish students, who demonstrated against the war, demanding a cease-fire," he said.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Nearly 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and more than 74,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

- Türkiye's role in Middle East

The professor expressed hope about Türkiye's role in the Middle East, describing it as a very important country in the region.

"I hope that there will be a role for Türkiye in the near future, I hope in the very near future, for negotiating in a way that the Americans will never do, the British will never do, the French will never do," he said.

"So, I think there is a duty for Türkiye to act and to save the people of Gaza. And we know of course, that they were the Turkish group of boats that went there in 2010. And people were killed by the Israelis. Türkiye has proven many times that it is a valuable member of the international community. Not like the UK or US or the rest of the West," he added.