West sees Palestinians as second-class: Russia UN envoy
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According to Russian Permanent Representative at the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, the West has no interest in helping Palestinians, and this lack of interest is the main reason for a lack of progress at the UN.
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Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia addresses members during the U.N. Security Council meeting at United Nations headquarters. Monday, Oct. 30, 2023 (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
According to Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, the West has no interest in helping Palestinians because it sees them as second-class citizens.
Nebenzia told members of the Security Council that "One, extremely unseemly fact has become clear: for the West, Palestinians are second-class people, defending the interests of which they simply have no interest in doing."
The ambassador added that this lack of interest has been the main reason for the lack of progress at the UN.
Early this month, Nebenzia affirmed that "Israel", as an occupying state, has no right to defend itself, calling for an end to the bloodshed, to avoid expanding the scope of the crisis to the entire region.
“And today, seeing the horrifying destruction in Gaza, which exceeds everything that they criticize in other regional contexts multifold — strikes at civilian facilities, death of thousands of children, and horrifying suffering of civilians amid a total blockage — they play mum. All they can do is to keep saying about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the [UN] International Court consultative ruling in 2004,” he says.
Nebenzia also stressed the need to allow the mediators to work on finding a "diplomatic solution, including the immediate release of prisoners."
He believed that a diplomatic solution would have to be found, sooner or later, but the question was "How many innocent people will die during this time."
The United States announced the sending of 3 planes to Egypt to bring humanitarian aid into Gaza amid the implemented truce.
The relief comes 52 days too late and is the first of its kind to reach Gaza by the US since the outset of Israeli bombardment that began right after October 7, in which over 15,000 Palestinians were killed.
Although Washington has rushed to deliver additional American taxpayer dollars to fund "Israel's" genocide campaign in Gaza, it has not used any military equipment to allow aid to flow into Gaza.
UN experts alarmed over censorship of support for Palestine
In a recent report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UN special experts highlighted that Western journalists, athletes, and students expressing criticism of Israeli policies in Palestinian territories or advocating pro-Palestinian views are subjected to censorship, threats, and discrimination.
"Journalists and media outlets in Israel and Western countries reporting critically about Israeli policies and operations in the occupied territories or expressing pro-Palestinian views have been the target of threats, intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation, which have increased the risk of self-censorship, undermining the diversity and plurality of news that is essential for press freedom and the right of the public to be informed," the report read.
"The experts raised concerns about suspensions and expulsions of students from universities, dismissal of academics, calls for their deportation, threats to dissolve student unions and associations, and restrictions on-campus meetings to express solidarity with the suffering civilians in Gaza and denounce the ongoing Israeli military response," the report added.
Certain universities have reportedly blacklisted students who support what is falsely labeled as "terrorism," issuing warnings of potential career setbacks, according to the report.
