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Chicago: A campaign was launched on Friday to push the UN to impose sanctions on Israel and override American vetoes that protect the country at the Security Council.

The Lifeline for Palestine coalition, led by former US presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein, is backed by leading pro-Palestinian activists and groups. 

During a webinar attended by Arab News, Stein and former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber explained how the organization’s member states have the legal authority to circumvent the Security Council and impose sanctions on Israel, suspend its membership, impose an arms embargo, and assign a UN peacekeeping force to Gaza and the West Bank.

Mokhiber, who served 30 years with the UN, said Israel’s actions in Gaza far exceed the violence and oppression of apartheid South Africa.

He added that UN member states “have the power” under a 1950s resolution called “Uniting for Peace” to circumvent the Security Council’s failure to act.

“The world doesn’t have to surrender to a US veto in the Security Council. The UN General Assembly is empowered when it meets to convene under ‘Uniting for Peace.’ There are historical precedents for doing so, and they can take extraordinary action,” Mokhiber said, adding that the UNGA needs a two-thirds majority to act, or 127 of its 193 members.

Last year, 124 nations approved a resolution demanding Israel withdraw from Gaza and the West Bank by Sept. 28, 2025.

In the face of a Security Council veto or failure to act, “any member state can then call for an emergency special session of the General Assembly under ‘Uniting for Peace,’” said Mokhiber.

“A resolution can be proposed … it can be adopted with a two-thirds majority, then the UN can start soliciting troop contributions from member states to participate and deploy troops.”

Stein said pro-Palestine activists “have the power right now to end the genocide” in Gaza. “The essential pieces of a strong resolution are establishing a military embargo and comprehensive sanctions … stripping Israel’s UN credentials as was done to apartheid South Africa in the General Assembly, and then establishing a war crimes tribunal and anti-apartheid mechanisms,” she added.

“It’s time for us to demand that support for Palestine be maintained and that it not fade in the face of incredible US and Israeli opposition, intimidation, threats and bribes.”

The webinar’s participants criticized the US denial of visas to Palestinian leaders to attend the UNGA’s 80th session in New York later this month.

When the same thing happened in 1988, “the entire General Assembly voted to pick up and move to Geneva in order to express its sovereignty, (declaring that) no single member state will dictate to it,” said Ali Abunimah, a Palestinian-American journalist and co-founder of The Electronic Intifada website.

He added that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has failed to challenge last week’s US decision to deny entry to Palestinian leaders.

The coalition will convene a follow-up webinar on Sunday. Its website is www.lifelineforpalestine.com.

WASHINGTON: Nearly a week after an earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in Afghanistan and left tens of thousands homeless, the United States has not taken the first step to authorize emergency aid, and it was unclear if it plans to help at all, two former senior US officials and a source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
The lack of response by Washington to one of Afghanistan’s deadliest quakes in years underscores how President Donald Trump has forfeited decades of US leadership of global disaster relief with his deep foreign aid cuts and closure of the main US foreign assistance agency, said the source and the former officials.
The US Agency for International Development was officially shuttered on Tuesday.
The State Department on Monday extended its “heartfelt condolences” to Afghanistan in an X post.
As of Friday, however, the State Department had not approved a declaration of humanitarian need, the first step in authorizing US emergency relief, said the former officials, both of whom worked at USAID, and the third source, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Such a declaration is usually issued within 24 hours of a major disaster.
The sources said State Department officials had considered recommendations for US disaster aid for Afghanistan. One former senior official said the White House also has considered the issue, but decided against reversing a policy of ending aid to Afghanistan. When asked if the US would provide any emergency aid to Afghanistan following the magnitude 6 quake on Sunday, which was followed by powerful aftershocks on Thursday and Friday, a State Department spokesperson said: “We have nothing further to announce at this time.”
The United States was, until this year, the largest aid donor to Afghanistan, where it fought a 20-year war that ended with a chaotic US withdrawal and the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul in 2021. But in April, the Trump administration ended virtually all aid — totaling $562 million — to Afghanistan, citing a US watchdog report that humanitarian groups receiving US funds had paid $10.9 million in taxes, fees, and duties to the Taliban.
Asked whether the US would provide emergency relief for earthquake survivors, a White House official said, “President Trump has been consistent in ensuring aid does not land in the hands of the Taliban regime, which continues to wrongfully detain US citizens.”
’STUCK IN STORAGE’
United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the Afghan earthquake was “the latest crisis to expose the cost of shrinking resources on vital humanitarian work.”
“Massive funding cuts have already brought essential health and nutrition services for millions to a halt; grounded aircraft, which are often the only lifeline to remote communities; and forced aid agencies to reduce their footprint,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The Trump administration also has yet to respond to a request by the International Rescue Committee humanitarian organization to send $105,000 worth of US-funded medical supplies following the first earthquake.
The materials include stethoscopes, first aid supplies, stretchers, and other essentials, said Kelly Razzouk, vice president of policy and advocacy for the IRC.
“The stocks are stuck in storage,” said Razzouk, who served on former US President Joe Biden’s National Security Council. “In recent memory, I can’t remember a time when the US did not respond to a crisis like this.”
The IRC needs Washington’s permission to send the equipment to Afghanistan because it had been funded by an unrelated US grant that the Trump administration had since canceled.
“Beyond the loss of life, we have also seen basic infrastructure and livelihoods destroyed,” Stephen Rodriguez, the representative in Afghanistan for the UN Development Programme, told reporters on Friday.
He said donations of money, goods, and services have come from Britain, South Korea, Australia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkiye, and other countries.
“Far more is needed.”