SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
linda thomas-greenfield
US Ambassador to UN Slammed Over 'Right to Food' Rhetoric as Israel Starves Gaza
"She is on a shamelessness tour," journalist Jeremy Scahill said of American diplomat Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
Dec 11, 2024
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is facing backlash after delivering a speech earlier this week touting the universal "right to food" as the Israeli military—armed to the teeth with American weaponry—fuels widespread and increasingly deadly hunger in the Gaza Strip.
In remarks Monday at a gathering of U.N. and civil society leaders focused on global food insecurity, Thomas-Greenfield called hunger, starvation, and famine "man-made tragedies" that "can be stopped by us."
"Let me be clear: Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food," she continued. "For the United States, this is a moral issue. And it's an economic and national security issue."
Thomas-Greenfield's speech sparked derision given the Biden administration's continued military support for an Israeli government that has been accused of wielding starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, where—according to the latest U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization assessment—food aid has reached an all-time low under Israel's suffocating blockade.
"Hunger is a man-made tragedy that you helped make in Gaza."
Oxfam and other human rights groups have said that by arming the Israeli military as it obstructs humanitarian aid, the Biden administration is complicit in the starvation of Palestinians in Gaza and Israel's repeated attacks on aid workers attempting to feed the enclave's hungry.
"She is on a shamelessness tour in her final weeks as U.S. ambassador to the U.N.," journalist Jeremy Scahill wrote Wednesday in response to Thomas-Greenfield's speech. "She presided over numerous cease-fire vetoes as part of an administration that facilitated Israel's starvation policy against the Palestinians of Gaza. Listen to her remarks on 'hunger' in that context."
Yesterday, @USUN brought together humanitarian leaders to discuss solutions to the global food insecurity crisis.
Hunger is a man-made tragedy. But if it caused by man, that means it can be stopped by us, too.
Every human being, everywhere, has the right to food. pic.twitter.com/zczlerRHEc
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) December 10, 2024
Middle East scholar and analyst Assal Rad, wrote that Thomas-Greenfield's vetoes at the U.N. "have helped Israel continue its genocide and deliberately starving people."
"Hunger is a man-made tragedy that you helped make in Gaza," Rad added.
Despite Thomas-Greenfield's insistence that addressing global food insecurity has long been a priority for the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation, the U.S. and Israel were the only two countries to vote against a U.N. committee draft on the right to food in 2021.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration welcomed to the White House former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who—along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare," among other crimes.
"Today is Human Rights Day—a date chosen to honor the UN’s adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948," the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project wrote Tuesday. "Biden's White House is dishonoring this day by hosting a confirmed war criminal who conducted a genocide, and starved and targeted Palestinian civilians."
Keep ReadingShow Less
US Snubs Letter Defending United Nations Chief From Israeli Attack
The Chile-led effort warned that Israel's decision to ban U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres would "undermine the United Nations' ability to carry out its mandate."
Oct 13, 2024
The U.S. was not among the more than 100 United Nations member states that signed a new letter of support for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres after Israel's foreign minister declared him "persona non grata" and barred him from entering the country.
The letter, spearheaded by Chile, said Israel's attack on Guterres would "undermine the United Nations' ability to carry out its mandate, which includes mediating conflicts and providing humanitarian support."
"In the Middle East, this could further delay an end to all hostilities and the establishment of a credible path towards the two-state solution, with the state of Palestine and Israel living side by side in peace and security," the letter continues. "We reaffirm our full support and confidence in the secretary-general and his work."
Signatories to the letter include France, China, Lebanon, Iran, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Brazil, and the African Union. Notably absent from the list were nations that have supplied Israel with arms during its yearlong assault on Gaza, including the U.S., Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
104 #UN Member States and the African Union issue letter expressing support for #UNSG @antonioguterres in response to #Israel declaring him persona non grata. @ChileONU initiated the effort which "urges all parties to engage constructively with the United Nations to seek a… pic.twitter.com/ixNKquyDV0
— Rami Ayari (@Raminho) October 11, 2024
Earlier this month, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz declared Guterres banned from entering Israel, falsely accusing the U.N. chief of failing to condemn Iran's ballistic missile barrage and the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. Katz reiterated his position on Sunday, writing on social media that "Guterres can continue seeking support from U.N. member states, but the decision will not change."
Guterres, a persistent advocate of a cease-fire agreement in the region and critic of the United States' failure to exert pressure on its ally, did not respond directly to the Israeli foreign minister's statement, but a spokesperson for the U.N. chief called it "one more attack on the United Nations staff that we've seen from the government of Israel."
The letter of support for Guterres came after Israeli forces repeatedly fired on U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Lebanon, injuring at least four soldiers. Guterres called the attacks "intolerable."
On Saturday, dozens of nations that contribute troops to the U.N. Interim Peacekeeping Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) issued a joint statement condemning "recent attacks on the UNIFIL peacekeepers" and calling for an international investigation of the Israeli attack last week.
"We urge the parties to the conflict to respect UNIFIL's presence, which entails the obligation to guarantee the safety and security of its personnel at all times, so that they can continue to implement its mandate and continue their work of mediation and support for peace and stability in Lebanon and the entire region," the statement added.
The U.S. does not contribute troops to UNIFIL. In a statement on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration is "deeply concerned about reports that Israeli forces fired on positions and a tower used by UNIFIL
peacekeepers in Lebanon."
Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, wrote in response, "I don't believe anymore that the Biden administration is 'concerned' about any of this—the killing of thousands of civilians, the targeting of journalists and aid workers and peacekeepers."
"What actual evidence is there of this supposed concern?" he asked.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'We Will Not Arrest Him': UN Ambassador Says US Would Flout ICC Warrant Against Netanyahu
"I think you know the answer," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in a dismissive response to a question about whether the U.S. would abide by an ICC arrest warrant against the Israeli prime minister.
Sep 13, 2024
The Biden administration's envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that the U.S. would not abide by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I think you know the answer to the question about whether we will arrest [Prime Minister] Netanyahu," Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in response to Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). "He was here in the United States a few weeks ago and he was not arrested."
When Whitson pointed out that ICC judges have not yet approved prosecutor Karim Khan's application for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu, Thomas-Greenfield said: "Okay, well, let me be clear: We will not arrest him."
Watch the exchange:
"Are you going to abide by the ICJ orders? Are you going to arrest Netanyahu... if he turns up in the US?" DAWN's @sarahleah1 asks @USAmbUN at @CFR_org, referencing ICJ opinion on illegality of Israel's occupation and pending ICC Netanyahu arrest warrant. pic.twitter.com/sxkUInyvFp
— DAWN MENA (@DAWNmenaorg) September 12, 2024
Thomas-Greenfield's remarks came days after Khan urged ICC judges to expedite their decision on his May request for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders, citing "ongoing criminality" in the Gaza Strip.
Khan said earlier this week that the arrest warrants are needed to "prevent the continuing commission of the crimes alleged," including the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and "extermination."
The Biden administration has opposed Khan's investigation of war crimes in the Palestinian territories and Israel since it began in 2021, arguing that the ICC does not have jurisdiction there. Israel, like the U.S., is not a party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.
Thomas-Greenfield reiterated U.S. opposition to ICC prosecutor's arrest warrant request on Thursday even after a key ally, the United Kingdom, dropped its objections to the proposed warrants against Israeli leaders in the face of Gaza's worsening humanitarian catastrophe. The U.S. has been accused of hypocrisy for opposing the arrest warrant request for Israeli leaders while readily supporting the ICC's arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over war crimes in Ukraine, even though neither Russia nor Ukraine is a state party to the Rome Statute.
The U.S. envoy also said Thursday that she does "not believe the Palestinians, as they exist right now, have all the elements to give it statehood," a position that makes the U.S. an outlier in the international community.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "I do not believe the Palestinians as they exist right now have all of the elements to give it statehood."
(In April, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would’ve made Palestine a full member of the UN) pic.twitter.com/vvsruoo886
— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) September 12, 2024
Atrocities continued to mount across the Gaza Strip this week as the U.S.—Israel's leading arms supplier—doubled down on its rejection of efforts to hold Israeli leaders accountable.
Citing medical sources in the Palestinian enclave, Al Jazeera reported Friday that "at least 16 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the early hours of this morning."
"This number includes five members of the same family who, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense, were killed in an attack on al-Mawasi in south Gaza this morning," the outlet added. "It said two children were among those killed."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular