Secretary-General António Guterres has limited his role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to that of a town crier, expressing “grave concern” from time to time regarding the terrible Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza every day since then and long before.
To change his legacy, Guterres should establish a truth commission, propose a U.N. transitional administration and present a peace plan to get us to the “day after” in Gaza and beyond.
Over decades, U.N. resolutions have compelled Palestinian leaders to surrender 78 percent of Palestine to Israel to achieve a more peaceful, secure future for their children.
What a cruel irony that in today’s tragic reality 15,000 Palestinian children have been killed, nearly 20,000 orphaned and 50,000 maimed or injured in Israel’s vicious, plausibly genocidal war against the entire population of Gaza.
Guterres has repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire while offering no “good offices” to facilitate an end to Israel’s killing spree or to secure the release of the one-hundred hostages still held by Hamas or the thousands of Palestinians, including children, still detained without charge by Israel.
At the outset, the secretary-general rightly declared that “the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas” and that “those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
Israel and its U.N. ambassador have repeatedly called on Guterres to resign for daring “to recognize that the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s U.N. ambassador, on Dec. 8, 2023. addressing a Security Council meeting on the secretary general’s letter calling on it to act on the situation in Gaza. (UN Photo/Evan Schneider)
Guterres had the audacity to speak truth to power, saying that the Palestinian people
“’have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation’ with ‘their land steadily devoured by settlements’ and ‘their hopes for a political solution . . . vanishing.’”
In December 2023, amid what Guterres called “irreversible implications for Palestinians and the peace and security of the entire region,” he invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter, merely to warn of what was known to all — the risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza — and to ask for the obvious: a humanitarian ceasefire that he or the U.N. humanitarian coordinator could have done without the fanfare of Article 99.
Seven months later, there is still no ceasefire, still no release of hostages or prisoners, still no end in sight to the mass atrocities being committed against the civilians of Gaza from the northern to the southern tip of the Godforsaken strip.
International Courts
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled that South Africa’s claims over Israel’s genocidal intent and conduct are “plausible” and that the Palestinian people in Gaza have the right to be protected from further killing, maiming and starvation.
Additionally, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requested criminal arrest warrants against the prime minister and minister of defense of Israel as well as three Hamas leaders, to charge them all with extermination and other war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the U.N., holding public hearings in February on Israel practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (ICJ)
Most recently, in its recent advisory opinion issued on July 19, the ICJ determined that Israel’s occupation of Palestine, its racial discrimination against and separation of Palestinians and its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are unlawful and must end immediately; so too, it must stop the settlement construction and evacuate all the settlers.
The court called on Israel as well as all states, international organizations and especially the U.N. General Assembly “to take action to bring an end to Israel’s unlawful presence as rapidly as possible.”
While the opinion is “advisory,” much of its substance is based on binding, or jus cogens, principles and mandatory, or erga omnes, obligations. These parts of the opinion are as binding on Israel as they are on all states.
Considering the developments in the international courts, it is time for the secretary-general to invoke Article 99 again — not to issue warnings and make exhortations but to uphold international law and longstanding U.N. resolutions.
He can take the reins of history not only to account for what has happened on and since Oct. 7 but also to chart a path to right the wrongs of the past and to realize a long-foreseen vision for the future.
Guterres can establish a Commission of Inquiry to set the record straight; recommend the establishment of a transitional administration to oversee the resurrection of Gaza and its reunification with the West Bank; and propose a peace plan for Israel and Palestine as well as the region.
Such is the true value of the “most powerful tool” available to him under the U.N. Charter.
Commission of Inquiry
The ICC and the Human Rights Council have investigated the many crimes of Hamas and the far-more crimes of Israel. Yet the actual events of Oct. 7 have yet to be definitively established.
To their credit, Israeli journalists and soldiers have exposed hard truths about the Israeli government’s failings and lies. Haaretz, in particular, has provided details about the lead-up to and events of Oct. 7 that Western media have largely ignored.
It has exposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to bolster Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority as well as his dismissive attitude toward “all the warnings and looming threats” of Hamas’s preparations for a large-scale attack against Israel.
Haaretz has also revealed the Israeli commanders’ reinstatement of the Hannibal Directive, which caused some of the Israeli casualties on Oct. 7 and exposed as lies claims of 40 beheaded babies and other such barbaric acts.
[Other journalists have dismantled Israel’s charges of sexualized violence by Palestinian groups on Oct. 7 as lacking evidence, see Evidence Missing in ‘Mass Rape’ Charge Against Hamas’]
It is time for a high-level international, independent, impartial commission to set the record straight not only for what happened on Oct. 7 but also to establish the actual tolls of dead and injured among Israelis and Palestinians, so neither side can dismiss or dehumanize the sanctity of the other’s life.
As he is required to do and as his predecessors have done, Guterres should also task the Commission to assess the unprecedented losses suffered by the U.N. itself, including UNRWA, regarding the number of U.N. and associated personnel killed and injured as well the number of UNRWA schools and humanitarian aid convoys attacked.
UN Transitional Administration
U.N. event at New York headquarters in July 2023 celebrating the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the International Criminal Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute. (UN Photo/Mark Garten)
Palestine is recognized as a state by the U.N. General Assembly and 75 percent of U.N. member states. The occupation, however, is a daily affront to Palestinian sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Based on successful precedents, including East Timor, the secretary-general can propose a U.N. Transitional Administration led by an eminent person to be designated by him and reporting through him to the Security Council to carry out six essential steps:
- ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to the civilian population;
- restore the basic conditions of life;
- oversee the reconstruction of infrastructure;
- conduct long-overdue elections for new leadership of the Palestinian Authority;
- facilitate the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank.
The sixth imperative is that the transitional administration ensure sovereignty over Palestine’s natural resources, including those off the Gaza coast. Most importantly, the transitional administration must include a parallel force to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and to protect Gaza’s civilians from further Israeli attacks.
Inevitably, a U.N. presence would also help to prevent any attack by Hamas or others against Israel emanating from Gaza.
Any “day after” plan for Gaza is far likelier to succeed if it has the consent of the Palestinian Authority and the political and financial support of the United States, Israel and the Arab states to ensure it fulfills its mandate.
Peace Plan
Successive U.N. secretaries-general have converged on the view that the best way to ensure the protection of the Palestinian and Israeli civilians is to end the Israeli occupation and to ensure a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. The General Assembly has consistently supported the two-state solution based on the pre-1967 borders.
Even the Security Council, with American support, has called for “an end to the Israeli occupation” and, more recently, reiterated “its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.” It also stressed “the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”
With such weighty pronouncements by former secretaries-general, the General Assembly and the Security Council and recently the International Court of Justice, fertile ground has been laid for Guterres to launch a pledging conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, convene a peace conference and present a peace plan consistent with customary international law and longstanding U.N. resolutions.
With the courage and conviction of being on the right side of history, Guterres can save his legacy and shape the “day after” to fulfill the U.N.’s promise of a more just, more secure and more peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Mona Ali Khalil is an internationally recognized public international lawyer with 30 years of U.N. and other experience, including as a former senior legal officer in the U.N. and the IAEA, with expertise in peacekeeping, peace enforcement, disarmament and counterterrorism.
