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Palestinian UN Ambassador Drops Bid for VP of General Assembly Following US Threats
“A Palestinian vice presidency at the General Assembly would not change power realities on the ground, but it would normalize Palestinian statehood claims... That is precisely what the United States is attempting to block.”
May 22, 2026
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations withdrew his bid to become a vice president of the UN General Assembly on Thursday following threats from the Trump administration to strip the visas of the entire Palestinian delegation, according to NPR.
The Palestinian envoy, Riyad Mansour, has been an outspoken critic of Israel's actions toward Palestinians, particularly since the beginning of the genocidal war in Gaza, which he said has entailed "the collective punishment of over two million Palestinians."
He has been Palestine’s permanent UN observer for more than two decades and had earlier this year planned to run for president of the General Assembly, though he bowed out following US pressure.
The Guardian reported that on Tuesday, the US State Department sent a diplomatic cable to the US embassy in Jerusalem instructing it to pressure the Palestinian Authority (PA)—the governing body of the occupied West Bank—to withdraw its bid for one of the 21 vice presidencies of the General Assembly as well.
General Assembly vice presidents have a role in setting the body’s agenda and filling in when the president is absent. The UN is scheduled to hold elections amongst Assembly members on June 2.
The US cable said Mansour “has a history of accusing Israel of genocide"—as leading human rights groups and experts have—and that his presence would “undermine” the objectives of President Donald Trump’s so-called “Board of Peace” in Gaza, which a recent Human Rights Watch report said has fallen fall short of its promises to provide aid to Palestinians and has allowed Israeli forces to continue killing them with little pushback despite a ceasefire.
The cable said, “We will hold the PA responsible if the Palestinian delegation does not withdraw its [vice presidential] candidacy” by Friday, “and consequences will follow.”
The cable threatened to revoke the US visas of all Palestinian officials. The US already revoked most of them back in August, but rolled back the ban on those who were visiting as part of the annual UN summit. “It would be unfortunate to have to revisit any available options,” the cable said.
It also threatened that Israel would continue to withhold tax revenue that it owes to the Palestinian Authority, which was blocked by Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, at the beginning of the war in October 2023. The money being withheld by Israel accounts for 60% of the PA's revenue.
A person familiar with the matter told NPR that Mansour specifically would refrain from running for the position for the next two years, which was interpreted as a reference to the end of Trump's term as president.
The US is prohibited from blocking UN officials from visiting the body's New York headquarters under a 1947 agreement. However, the US has blocked visas for officials from enemy countries, including Russia and Iran, as well as the former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat.
Hady Amr, who served as a senior State Department official on Palestinian affairs under the Obama and Biden administrations, told NPR that expelling diplomats is extremely rare outside of "extreme situations like Russian espionage or election interference."
Amr said, "Generally, it's counterproductive because you need diplomats to work out problems between countries, and by expelling diplomats, you're undermining not only their ability to solve problems, but the abilities of the United States as well."
Tawfiq Al-Ghussein, a London-based researcher who specializes in modern Middle Eastern history and the displacement of Palestinians, said on social media that "the significance of this is not merely procedural."
"Washington is effectively trying to prevent even symbolic Palestinian institutional visibility within the UN system because it understands that international legitimacy matters politically, legally, and diplomatically," Al-Ghussein said. "A Palestinian vice presidency at the General Assembly would not change power realities on the ground, but it would normalize Palestinian statehood claims within the architecture of international governance itself. That is precisely what the United States is attempting to block."
“The irony is extraordinary: The same power that lectures the world endlessly about democracy and international order is reportedly threatening visas and diplomatic consequences to stop Palestinians from holding a largely ceremonial UN role,” he continued. "It reveals once again that the issue was never 'peace negotiations' as such, but control over who is permitted institutional legitimacy in the international system."
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The Trump Administration’s Anti-Blackness is Showing on the Global Stage
The United States’ actions are not just a betrayal of the rest of the world; they are the latest examples of the Trump administration's betrayal of its own people—and in particular, of the 45 million Americans who are of African descent.
Apr 22, 2026
On March 25, the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a historic resolution marking an extraordinary step forward for global racial justice. Spearheaded by Ghana and co-sponsored by more than 65 countries largely from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America, a declaration designating slavery as the gravest crime against humanity passed the General Assembly. Through this, the majority of the world aligned on one key message: The enslavement of millions of Africans and their descendants for over 400 years is the gravest crime against humanity, we are still dealing with the consequences, and there must be reparatory justice to address the lingering impacts.
In a shameful moment for Americans and the world, the Trump administration voted against this resolution on behalf of the United States—only 1 of 3 countries to do so. This decision comes just months after the US withdrew from the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, falsely claiming it was “racist.” These two actions show that the Trump administration’s anti-Blackness is not limited to its domestic policy—it’s on full display on the global stage, too.
The history bears repeating: The slave trade ignited 400 years of racialized chattel slavery, representing the longest running system of organized human exploitation in history. This period marked the first time in human history when race defined the global political, economic, and social hierarchy. The United States was a driver in creating and perpetuating this unprecedented form of slavery. Across the globe, countries mimicked the United States’ policies to deprive an entire race of its humanity. The centuries-long system impacted millions upon millions of people of African descent, and even after this inhumane system of trafficking, selling, and enslaving human beings was abolished, its legacy continues to be felt today.
The resolution spearheaded by Ghana represents the worldwide atonement for chattel slavery that continues to have immeasurable consequences on the world. Because it is not legally binding, the only rationale for a country like the US to vote against it is that its leaders believe in erasing our world's greatest atrocity. It signals to the international community that the United States refuses to recognize the ugly parts of our past and how it impacts current realities.
The Trump administration’s actions to undermine forums at the UN designed to promote the rights and equality of people of African descent will be a stain on our nation’s history.
In his opposition to the resolution, the US representative characterized it as a scheme for developing (read: African) countries to gain leverage for the future allocation of resources. Additionally, he accused the resolution of being an attempt to establish a hierarchy of crimes against humanity (note: This was the same justification that the UK, Canada, and EU countries cited as explanation for their abstentions). Yet, this narrow-minded mischaracterization fails to recognize that the transatlantic slave trade and racialized slavery comprised all crimes against humanity: trafficking, forced labor, sexual assault, disease, famine, and the dehumanization of an entire race.
And yet, this is not the only instance of the Trump administration displaying its anti-Blackness on the world stage. When the administration made the decision in January 2026 to withdraw from the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent (PFPAD) because it was “contrary to the interests of the United States,” it was saying the quiet part out loud: This administration does not care about or represent the interests of Black Americans.
The UN PFPAD was created in 2021 as a space for people of African descent to discuss ways to improve the quality of life and livelihoods of people of African descent and share recommendations with member states. Its mandate includes promoting “the full political, economic, and social inclusion of people of African descent in societies in which they live as equal citizens without discrimination of any kind” and “ensuring equal enjoyment of all human rights.” The forum’s annual meeting represents the largest UN gathering of Black civil society from around the world. Its fifth session just concluded in Geneva, Switzerland, where the US government’s absence was noticed, but overshadowed by the energy and momentum behind Ghana’s historic resolution.
Civil society from around the world noted the fact that the world’s “superpower” was 1 of 3 countries to vote against the resolution, but the sheer number and diversity of Black American civil society leaders present at the forum made it clear that this shameful vote does not reflect our unwavering commitment to and solidarity in the global struggle for reparatory justice.
The United States’ actions are not just a betrayal of the rest of the world; they are the latest examples of the Trump administration's betrayal of its own people—and in particular, of the 45 million Americans who are of African descent. This is why the video message from Congressional Black Caucus Chair Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in the PFPAD closing ceremony was so important: When the federal government fails to represent our interests or even be present in rooms where our issues are being discussed, Black civil society and congressional leaders have always stepped up to fill the void.
The Trump administration’s actions to undermine forums at the UN designed to promote the rights and equality of people of African descent will be a stain on our nation’s history. The administration is telling us loud and clear that it does not view ensuring Black people’s equal human rights as a priority. So, while this administration falsely claims that “President Trump has done more for Black Americans than any other president,” we must remember the words of our great James Baldwin, “I cannot believe what you say because I see what you do.”
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Venezuela’s Opposition Used UN Meeting to Lobby for US Coup
The opposition’s proposed total economic surrender to US corporate interests would doom Venezuela to the same conditions that led to Chavez’s rise to power.
Oct 11, 2025
The United Nations General Assembly, held in late September, offered a stark panorama of competing global visions. US President Donald Trump’s address was a characteristically bombastic, comically terrifying display of imperial nostalgia and hate-filled paranoia, including claims that climate change is a con and that London is no longer London because of Muslim immigration and “sharia law.”
In contrast, Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and Chile’s Gabriel Boric each used their time on the international stage to defend democracy and humanism, take action against climate change, and oppose rising global authoritarianism.
Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition, led by former presidential candidate María Corina Machado, the far-right extremist who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, used the UN General Assembly (UNGA) as a lobbying platform, courting the Trump administration and sympathetic foreign governments to support a coup to depose President Nicolás Maduro. She has been part of multiple calls for US interventions in Venezuela, including to, in her words, secure the "total asphyxiation of the Venezuelan economy."
The opposition organized demonstrations in front of the Secretariat Building to denounce Maduro and call for the world to intervene. Pedro de Mendonça, Press Director for Machado’s campaign, hosted a protest saying, “Maduro is not the legitimate president of Venezuela, but the head of the Cartel of the Suns and the Tren de Aragua.” Mendonça called for “a free Venezuela and a secure West” through an “international coalition.” This is as direct a call for intervention as you could get. Machado retweeted it.
Machado has been a central figure to the Venezuelan opposition for more than two decades, helping push the opposition much farther to the right.
She says she models herself on Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, and has championed “Popular Capitalism,” a philosophy pioneered by dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile, seeking to privatize all sectors of the state, and would give priority to American oil, gas, and mining companies in “free Venezuela.”
She has herself met with American oil executives during her campaign. Her proximity to the US is crystal clear; she has previously worked with the US Agency for International Development, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the International Republican Institute in Venezuela, and served as a Yale World Fellow. She was quite close to the George W. Bush administration during this period.
Machado was also part of the 2002 coup attempt against Hugo Chávez, signing the Carmona Decree to suspend the constitution, dissolve the National Assembly, and appoint oligarch Pedro Carmona as president. The coup collapsed within 48 hours due to immense popular backlash (some anti-coup protesters were also killed in the process).
This kind of rhetoric by the Trump administration, echoed by the Machado camp, has helped legally justify actual military operations on both American and foreign soil.
Parallel to the UNGA sessions, representatives of the opposition allegedly met with members of the Trump administration, while Machado herself and prominent opposition figures saturated social media with calls for a global movement to remove Maduro.
During the UNGA, Juan Guaidó, the former opposition leader whom the US was pretending was the legitimate president of Venezuela, also met with Trump administration officials to lobby for more “counter-narcotics” operations in Venezuela and to depose Maduro. Machado and Guaidó have recently labeled the Venezuelan government “criminal” and “illegitimate,” and Maduro a “drug trafficker and terrorist.” Dozens of tweets, press statements, and interviews echoed the same talking points during the event; and urged the world to end his “regime.” To an American audience, this all sounds eerily familiar. It’s no coincidence that the Trump administration has merged the War on Drugs with the War on Terror. This is why calling Maduro a “narco-terrorist” is so dangerous (and wrong), and can open the door to more military action by the US.
Despite what the opposition wants to portray, these protests are not organic, and neither has been the US response. In fact, many of them are rooted in American energy and defense profits, and backed by hawkish think tanks. They circulate these postures within their circles to give an allure of a global movement, but most Americans and Venezuelans oppose US military involvement in Venezuela.
The allegations that Maduro heads the “Cartel of the Suns” (debunked by the very InSight Crime that receives State Department funding, as well as several Latin American governments) serve as a cudgel against any measured approach to dealing with Venezuela, reminiscent of how any opposition to intervention in the Middle East post-9/11 was met with accusations of support for terrorism.
Never mind the fact that Venezuela is nowhere near the most important drug trafficking port in Latin America, that the War on Drugs doesn’t work, that the US is allied with bigger drug-supplying countries, or that this all comes from the fact that the US can’t decrease its own demand for drugs.
Earlier this year, in February, the Trump administration officially designated Tren de Aragua (TDA) as an international terrorist organization, claiming it operates with support from the Maduro government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, one of Washington’s most vocal Venezuela hawks, has himself called Maduro a narco-terrorist and an illegitimate dictator, and has long lobbied for regime change. Attorney General Pam Bondi has also echoed these claims, as have many other key members of the Trump administration.
This kind of rhetoric by the Trump administration, echoed by the Machado camp, has helped legally justify actual military operations on both American and foreign soil, including a series of drone strikes against fishing boats, which, yes, are war crimes.
The Trump administration has cited alleged TDA ties (without much evidence) to carry out deportations of Venezuelan migrants, with the deportation advertised by Homeland Security through cruel and disgusting meme videos they share on social media. Machado and her ilk have helped make all of this a reality.
We also have to remember that all of this is not in the name of democracy or protecting against drug trafficking. The Trump administration is invested in dismantling American democracy at home and supporting tyrants abroad. Until two seconds ago, the Trump administration was signing numerous deals for cheap oil and for deportation flights with Maduro, the very dictator it now wants to depose.
The US has a long history of supporting drug traffickers when it serves their interests. This includes the Contras and the far-right Paramilitaries in Colombia, now the largest drug traffickers in South America. The American security state has shown no interest whatsoever in pursuing actual solutions to the drug crisis, including decreasing demand, making supply less appealing by providing better ways of life, improving safe supply, or drug legalization.
The opposition’s proposed total economic surrender to US corporate interests would doom Venezuela to the same conditions that led to Chavez’s rise to power.
This is about protecting power and profits, including the profits of big oil, gas, and mining companies (Venezuela has some of the world’s largest reserves in all), and those of the military-industrial complex. A full coup would be a disaster and another bloody coup added to the United States’ long history of calamitous military interventions in Latin America.
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Petro Calls for Moving UN HQ After Trump Admin Revokes His Visa Over Protest Speech
"What the US government is doing to me breaks all the norms of immunity on which the functioning of the United Nations and its General Assembly is based," Petro said.
Sep 27, 2025
The Trump administration on Friday revoked left-wing Colombian President Gustavo Petro's visa after he spoke to crowds of protesters in New York City, urging US soldiers not to point their guns at innocent civilians and to disobey the orders of US President Donald Trump.
The US State Department wrote on social media on Friday that Petro had "urged US soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence" and that it would revoked Petro's visa "due to his reckless and incendiary actions."
"Mr. Trump has violated the founding principles of the UN," Petro wrote on social media Saturday in response to the news.
Petro, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), criticized Trump in a speech before the UN on Tuesday, in which he called him "complicit in genocide" for backing Israel's war on Gaza and urged the UN to open criminal proceedings against Trump's air strikes on boats in the Caribbean alleged to be transporting drugs.
"This is the first time the US revokes a head of state’s visa for comments made during a UNGA visit."
While the Colombian leader had returned to his home country by the time he learned his visa had been revoked, he condemned the move as a major breach of international law.
"What the US government is doing to me breaks all the norms of immunity on which the functioning of the United Nations and its General Assembly is based," Petro wrote on social media on Saturday.
He pointed out that heads of state attending UN proceedings are supposed to receive total immunity.
"The fact that the Palestinian Authority was not allowed entry and that my visa was revoked for asking the US and Israeli armies not to support a genocide, which is a crime against all of humanity, demonstrates that the US government no longer complies with international law," Petro continued. "The United Nations headquarters cannot continue to be in New York."
Petro was not the only one to question whether the UN could continue to meet in the US after the Trump administration's actions.
"This is the first time the US revokes a head of state’s visa for comments made during a UNGA visit," Center for Economic and Policy Research senior research fellow Francisco Rodríguez pointed out on social media. "Both [Fidel] Castro and [Hugo] Chávez gave fiery off-site speeches in NY without retaliation. The action undermines the UN’s viability as a global forum and risks violating the 1947 HQ Agreement."
The agreement states in part that those granted immunity to attend UN gatherings "shall not be required to leave the United States otherwise than in accordance with the customary procedure" applied to all diplomats.
Craig Mokhiber, a human rights lawyer and former UN official, wrote: "This is just the latest breach of the obligations of the US to the UN. Member states must get serious about moving the UN to a safer host country. And the US-Israel axis must be held accountable."
Israel's nearly two-year assault on the Gaza Strip, which several human rights experts and bodies including a UN commission have named a genocide, was a key point of contention during the 80th session of the UNGA.
Petro emerged as a major voice in defense of the Palestinians in Gaza, calling for the creation of an international armed force to enter Gaza and end the genocide.
He repeated that call when he spoke to protesters outside the UN on Friday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak.
"It is necessary to configure a more powerful army than that of the United States and Israel combined," Petro told the crowd.
It was also during this speech that he urged US soldiers to "disobey the orders of Trump" and "obey the orders of humanity," according to Reuters.
Colombia's Interior Minister Armando Benedetti wrote on social media that Netanyahu's visa should have been revoked instead.
"But since the empire protects him, they go after the only president who was capable of telling him the truth to his face," Benedetti said.
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Mass Walkout Leaves UN General Assembly Chamber Mostly 'Empty' for Netanyahu Speech
"I don't recall seeing such a large walkout for quite some time at UNGA," said one observer. "Israel has chosen to be a pariah and is increasingly treated as such by the international community."
Sep 26, 2025
Dozens of delegates in the United Nations General Assembly walked out in protest on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared to deliver an address.
Video posted on X by Axios reporter Barak Ravid showed United Nations delegates from multiple countries standing up from their seats and exiting the chamber as Netanyahu took to the podium and prepared to deliver his address.
The mass walkout left the assembly hall mostly "empty," Ravid subsequently reported.
🚨🚨🚨Massive protest walk out in the UN general assembly hall as Netanyahu takes the stage pic.twitter.com/toiZncmrRj
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) September 26, 2025
The protests against Netanyahu came as Israel is causing a famine in Gaza with its near-total blockade on humanitarian aid, which has killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians. Israel has launched a full invasion of Gaza, and its right-wing government has explicitly said that it plans on expelling all Palestinians who are still living in the exclave. The Israel Defense Forces' assault has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel has become increasingly isolated on the international stage in recent weeks, as the governments of France, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have all formally recognized Palestine as an independent state.
New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who has vowed to arrest the Israeli prime minister on war crimes charges filed last year by the International Criminal Court should he set foot in the city during the progressive's potential mayoral tenure, blasted Netanyahu for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza while again pledging to do everything he could to hold him accountable.
"This morning, Benjamin Netanyahu will address the United Nations—an institution which has concluded his government is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza," he said in a social media post, referring to a UN commission's finding earlier this month. "He arrived in New York after a flight that added hours to its path to circumvent the airspace of countries which might enforce the International Criminal Court's warrant for his arrest."
Mamdani added that "during the course of his speech, another Palestinian child will undoubtedly be killed by the Israeli military in Gaza, as they have been every single hour for nearly two years."
Trita Parsi, the executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, argued that the mass walkout was symbolic of Israel's near-total isolation in the international community.
"I don't recall seeing such a large walkout for quite some time at UNGA," he said. "Israel has chosen to be a pariah and is increasingly treated as such by the international community."
CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin joked that she felt envious of those delegates who left the assembly hall.
"Those who walked out when Netanyahu was speaking at the UN are the fortunate ones," the longtime peace advocate wrote. "Those of us who listened to his speech online are feeling sick. He is such a bold-faced liar and a mass murderer."
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Before It Even Began, This Year’s UNGA Revealed Its Bias Toward Israel
Despite a theme centered on peace and a strong commitment to safeguarding fundamental human rights, this year’s session is already exhibiting deep cracks that hint at a stark contradiction between the UN General Assembly's stated ideals and its actions.
Sep 25, 2025
The United Nations is often regarded as the global community’s foremost symbol of peace and problem solving. Each September, world leaders gather in New York City for the annual General Assembly, a weeklong summit that is framed as the pinnacle of diplomacy and international cooperation. This year’s 80th session opened on Tuesday, September 23, under the theme: “Better together, 80 years and more for peace, development, and human rights.”
While the 2025 United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) boasts a laundry list of urgent global issues, the question of Palestine is poised to take center stage. Against the backdrop of deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, and a recent wave of announcements by many Western countries formally recognizing Palestinian statehood, the world is watching closely to see how global leaders will respond.
However, despite a theme centered on peace and a strong commitment to safeguarding fundamental human rights, this year’s session is already exhibiting deep cracks that hint at a stark contradiction between the UNGA’s stated ideals and its actions. It was already evident—even before the proceedings had begun—that this forum is not structured to advance concrete action to end the atrocities unfolding in occupied Palestine but, rather, to further Israeli interests.
In perhaps the most glaring example of UN hypocrisy, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is currently the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and whose government has officially been charged with genocide by the UN itself—has been granted a prominent platform and is scheduled to address the UNGA this Friday, September 26. In stark contrast, Palestinian delegates have been denied US visas, effectively banning them from attending in person. While virtual participation has been permitted, the message is unmistakable: Netanyahu will quite literally have the stage to blast propaganda in attempt to justify Israel’s genocide, while Palestinian voices remain largely sidelined.
This year’s UNGA—with Netanyahu present and genocide apologists like Baerbock taking prominent roles—allows global leaders to save face without delivering any substantive change.
This blatant evidence of UN bias in favor of Israel, and its broader complicity in Israel’s genocide, has been further reinforced by the election of former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as president of this year’s UNGA. During her tenure as Germany’s foreign minister, Baerbock pursued a staunchly pro-Israel agenda, offering unwavering support for Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank. Notably, in October 2023, she blocked a European Union declaration calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.
As thoroughly detailed in a recent press release by the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, Baerbock’s record of militarism clashes with the stated mission of the United Nations and, of course, the theme of this General Assembly. Under Baerbock’s supervision, Germany approved arms deliveries to Israel totaling €485.1 million ($554.3 million), a record figure. She justified this support by echoing the Israeli government's claims about Hamas’ alleged use of human shields, stating that Hamas was “playing with human suffering, using women and children in Gaza as human shields, hiding its weapons under supermarkets, apartment blocks, even hospitals.”
It should be noted that the very leaders who have feigned solidarity with Palestine over the past few weeks—offering merely inadequate recognitions of Palestine statehood but no meaningful actions to end the genocide—were the ones who elected Baerbock to this position and will, more likely than not, refrain from boycotting Netanyahu’s appearance before the UNGA.
The overt influence of Israeli interests at this year’s UNGA reflects a longstanding pattern of systemic bias within the United Nations. From its early endorsement of resolutions that laid the groundwork for a Zionist ethnostate, to the enduring structural power imbalances—most notably the US veto, consistently weaponized to enable Israel and block ceasefire efforts—the UN has repeatedly failed the Palestinian people. Far from being a neutral arbiter, it has proven both ill-equipped and, at times, complicit in the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine.
The staunch unwillingness of the UNGA, and the broader UN system, to challenge Israel or intervene in its ongoing genocide was made starkly clear just last year. The UNGA set a September 18 deadline for Israel to withdraw from all occupied Palestinian territories, citing an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice that affirms the illegality of the Israeli occupation. Israel, of course, ignored the demand; the deadline came and went without consequences, once again exposing the UN’s reliance on empty words rather than meaningful action.
And we are already witnessing a similar pattern of nonaction this year. While heads of state like France’s Emmanuel Macron attempt to use the UNGA to cleanse their reputations with hollow statements and symbolic gestures, it is crucial to recognize not only the UN’s ineffectiveness but also its role in perpetuating genocide and deflecting international outrage. Essentially functioning as a performative media spectacle, this year’s UNGA—with Netanyahu present and genocide apologists like Baerbock taking prominent roles—allows global leaders to save face without delivering any substantive change.
Words alone are not enough. Merely recognizing a Palestinian state does not end the genocide. What’s needed is an arms embargo, targeted sanctions, and other concrete measures that exert real pressure on Israel and force an end to its ongoing extermination campaign against the Palestinian people. In the face of sustained atrocities, including Israel’s current brutal assaults on Gaza City, and broader regional aggression by Israel throughout the Middle East, these lukewarm gestures by world leaders and the UNGA are nothing short of unacceptable.
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'Enough Words': Colombia's Petro Urges Armed UN Force to End Gaza Genocide
Such a force could be authorized under the UN General Assembly's veto-proof United for Peace resolution.
Sep 24, 2025
In his stirring final speech to a United Nations General Assembly, Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday called for an international armed intervention to end Israel's nearly two-year genocide in Gaza.
"We need a powerful army of the countries that do not accept genocide," Petro, who is in his last year in office and is limited under Colombian law to a single presidential term, told world leaders gathered in New York. "That is why I invite nations of the world and their peoples more than anything, as an integral part of humanity, to bring together weapons and armies."
"We must liberate Palestine," he asserted. "I invite the armies of Asia, the great Slavic people who defeated Hitler with great heroism, and the Latin American armies of Bolívar."
"We’ve had enough words; it’s time for Bolívar’s sword of liberty or death,” Petro argued, referring to the 19th century Latin American independence hero Simón Bolívar.
(Petro's remarks onGaza begin shortly after the 34:00 mark in the following video)
Connecting Israel's obliteration of Gaza to renewed US militarism in the Western Hemisphere, Petro said that “they will not just bomb Gaza, not just the Caribbean as they are doing already, but all of humanity that demands freedom. Washington and NATO are killing democracy and helping to revive tyranny and totalitarianism on a global scale."
“[US President Donald] Trump not only lets missiles fall on young people in the Caribbean; he not only imprisons and chains migrants, but he also allows missiles to be launched at children, young people, women, and the elderly in Gaza," he added. "He becomes complicit in genocide—because it is genocide, and we must shout it again and again. This chamber is a silent witness and an accomplice to a genocide in today’s world.”
Petro's "enough words" rallying cry is complicated by the fact that Israel's allies Britain, France, and the United States—which largely arms Israel's genocide—wield veto power at the UN Security Council.
However, there is veto-proof action the world can take by invoking the United for Peace resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in 1950. The measure is designed to empower action when at least one of the five permanent Security Council members uses a veto to thwart functions mandated under the UN Charter.
The resolution—which has been implemented more than a dozen times—allows the UNGA to take actions ranging from rejecting Israel's UN credentials to mandating an armed protection force for Gaza, if approved by two-thirds of UN member states.
There are also examples of nations acting unilaterally to end genocides and other human rights crises, although Colombia is obviously in no position to do so in Gaza. These include Vietnam's 1978-79 invasion of Cambodia during Pol Pot's reign of terror and, to a lesser extent, the contemporaneous Tanzanian invasion of Uganda to end the murderous rule of dictator Idi Amin.
India's 1971 invasion of Bangladesh during a US-backed Pakistani genocide and NATO's 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia to ostensibly protect Kosovar Albanians were also couched as anti-genocide interventions by their perpetrators, although critics ascribed ulterior motives to both wars.
Petro's speech came as Israeli forces continued Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, a campaign to conquer, occupy, and ethically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza City area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes including forced starvation and murder—and other officials have vowed to take control of all of Gaza, where Trump has proposed ethnically cleansing Palestinians and transforming the strip into the "Riviera of the Middle East."
Gaza officials said that least 84 Palestinians were killed throughout the strip on Wednesday, including at least 22 people massacred in an Israeli strike on a warehouse near Firas Market in Gaza City, where forcibly displaced civilians were sheltering. At least 15 of the victims were women and children.
Early this morning, an Israeli airstrike on the Firas Market in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood massacred at least 22 Palestinians, among them 9 children and 6 women.
[image or embed]
— Josep Goded (New Main Account) (@josepgoded2.bsky.social) September 24, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Throughout the course of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Petro and Colombia have backed up their rhetoric with action. In April 2024, Colombia asked to join South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and subsequently did so. The following month, Petro announced Colombia's suspension of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Colombia, along with South Africa, also co-chairs the Hague Group, a coalition of more than 30 nations whose representatives gathered in the Colombian capital Bogotá in July for an emergency summit and issued a joint action plan for “coordinated diplomatic, legal, and economic measures to restrain Israel’s assault on the occupied Palestinian territories and defend international law at large.”
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To Meet the Sustainable Development Goals, Prioritize Animal Welfare
As UN member states gather in New York to discuss progress on global challenges, it is vital that we bring animals back into the fold.
Sep 22, 2025
This month sees United Nations member states gather at the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York to debate the most important global issues.
Ten years ago, the assembly agreed on a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity for all by 2030.
One key accelerator that has been continuously overlooked in the SDGs is animal welfare. Nowhere is this more evident than in how we treat farmed animals and manage our food systems. Industrial systems, where the majority of the around 85 billion land animals farmed for food each year are raised, drive climate change, hunger, pollution, and inequality. Yet, higher-welfare, sustainable practices show how respecting animals can help deliver progress across the SDGs. Unless we take animal welfare seriously, we’ll fall short of achieving sustainability. The systems in which we farm animals are an illustration of this.
At the United Nations Environment Assembly in 2022, member states explicitly acknowledged that “animal welfare can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.” So the mandate is there, but what does this actually mean in practice when it comes to specific goals? How does improving animal welfare drive progress on sustainable development, better people’s lives, and support the environment around us?
Farm Animal Welfare and Climate Change
One of the biggest threats we face is addressed in SDG 13: "Combating Climate Change," a significant contributor to which is the industrial exploitation of animals for food. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that animal agriculture contributes 14.5% of human-caused emissions.
Higher animal welfare farming systems offer solutions. Agroecological approaches where animals are integrated into local environments that can provide them with food (i.e. grass), and manage their waste in sustainable, regenerative ways, have greater capacities for carbon sequestration potential compared with industrial animal farming. They are also more resilient to climate change and disasters, thereby supporting mitigation and adaptation.
Without changing our relationship with animals, we have no hope of reaching these ambitious SDGs.
We need to introduce policy solutions that enhance such sustainable agriculture practices, alongside those encouraging the reduction of overconsumption of animal-sourced foods.
Our Global Food System Fuels Food Insecurity
Another victim of our intensive animal agricultural system is global food security. There is a misconception that we need to upscale production of animal-sourced foods to feed a growing global population. But this is a fallacy. Evidence from recent decades shows that increased production serves overconsumption. In fact, SDG 2: "Zero Hunger" is out of reach if we continue to squander such vast quantities of human-edible resources on inhumanely farmed animals. A recent study found that fewer than half the calories grown on farms now reach our plates—calories that could be eaten directly by humans. With the World Health Organization (WHO) citing that around 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, feeding crops to humans, instead of animals, should be prioritized if we are serious about achieving food security.
Animal and Human Health and Well-Being Are Intrinsically Connected
Our exploitation of animals is also a source of air, soil, and water pollution in many regions, addressed in SDG 6: "Clean Water and Sanitation." Overreliance on fertilizers and pesticides in industrial agriculture systems can cause soil and water pollution. Furthermore, air pollutants such as faecal dust, ammonia, and hydrogen sulphide are consequences of intensive systems, all posing human health risks. This comes in contradiction to SDG 3: "Ensure Healthy Lives and Promote Well-Being for All at All Ages."
There are other health impacts to the way we treat animals. Antimicrobial resistance in humans has been named by the WHO as one of the top global public health and development threats, accelerated by the routine use of antimicrobials in intensive animal farming to offset the risks of concentrating excessive numbers in crowded conditions, or to speed up growth for greater profit.
Animal Exploitation Is Linked to Biodiversity Loss and Nature Depletion
SDG 15 aims to protect life on land, yet globally monitored population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016. These drastic reductions reveal a broken relationship between humans and the natural world, and show that far too little action has been taken to date.
Agriculture uses half of the world’s habitable land, with animal farming accounting for 77% of globally available farming land. Land-use change, primarily related to animal agriculture, is a huge contributor to biodiversity loss. To prevent the alarming loss of wildlife, habitat destruction, and pollution, we need to protect animals who play critical roles as pollinators, nutrient recyclers, and environmental custodians. We need bees for our food system, forest-dwelling elephants for carbon storage, and beavers building dams to restore wetlands, to name a few examples.
Our Global Food System Exacerbates Poverty and Inequality
Ultimately, a key driver of the SDGs is the ambitious first goal—to end poverty. But by exploiting animals for food, we are heightening it. The overindustrialization of animal agriculture is lining the pockets of a few global giants, while small-scale farmers are being pushed out. Higher-welfare farming systems can have positive impacts on the livelihoods of smallholders, for many of whom animals are their primary productive asset, creating employment opportunities in the rural economy and reducing poverty. Furthermore, for the many communities who rely on working and other animals for their livelihoods, improving how their animals are cared for will help keep them from the cycle of poverty.
A missing piece in the SDG puzzle
The SDGs provide the blueprint for “peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” This may seem like an insurmountable feat. And it is insurmountable if we carry on as before. What is clear is that, without changing our relationship with animals, we have no hope of reaching these ambitious SDGs.
The way we raise, trade, and consume farmed animals is an example of the nexus between animal welfare and hunger, health, climate change, and poverty. But this is an example. Whether wild, farmed, or companion, animal welfare is a lever for sustainable development. Being kind to animals is not just "a nice to have" but a "need to have" if we want to have any hope of a more prosperous future, for the planet and all who live in it.
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'Gaza Is Being Obliterated,' Says Top UN Official, as World Leaders Stand Aside
"There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone," said UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini. "It is a large and growing camp concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair."
Sep 09, 2025
A top United Nations official on Tuesday called out the international community for continuing to let the Israeli military decimate civilian infrastructure in Gaza and massacre human beings with impunity.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), wrote in a social media post that Israel was making Gaza unlivable, and he slammed the country for ordering Palestinians to evacuate from Gaza City given that nowhere in the enclave appears safe from its bombing campaigns.
"Gaza is being obliterated, reduced to a wasteland," he wrote. "Gaza is being emptied from its starving population forced to move into the so called 'humanitarian' area of Mawasi. There is no safe place in Gaza, let alone a humanitarian zone. It is a large and growing camp concentrating hungry Palestinians in despair."
He then turned his ire toward other nations who have continued to sit idly by as the destruction of Gaza worsens.
"Warnings of famine have fallen on deaf ears," he said. "Will warnings of this deepening catastrophe also fall on deaf ears? Cease-fire, before it is way too late. End the impunity before atrocities become the new norm."
Lazzarini was not the only observer of the Gaza conflict to raise alarms about Israel's actions on Tuesday.
Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of Human Rights Watch, highlighted Israel's Monday destruction of Gaza City's Al-Ru'ya Commercial Tower—which was home to human rights organizations, aid groups, childcare centers, and other civil society groups—to argue that Israel is deliberately destroying civilian infrastructure in the city as a pretext for ethnically cleansing all of Gaza. Israel has brought a series of high-rise buildings to the ground with targeted missile strikes this week.
"Israel keeps blatantly destroying the civilian infrastructure of Gaza with barely a pretense of attacking Hamas," he said. "This is about rendering Gaza unlivable to justify (on 'humanitarian' grounds) the mass forced deportation of two million Palestinians."
Nicola Perugini, an anthropologist and political scientist at the University of Edinburgh, noted that Israel has already "destroyed 80% of civil defense equipment," which he said was being done to "maximize civilian casualties" in Gaza.
On Tuesday, a mass exodus from Gaza City was underway as Palestinian civilians attempted to flee following evacuation orders for the entirety of the city that were given by the Israeli military.
"Staying in the city is extremely dangerous," Avichay Adraee, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces, said on social media.
Independent journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous responded to the IDF threat by saying, "There it is. Israel's military order to ethnically cleanse all of Gaza City of Palestinians."
The latest Gaza developments come just days after several UN experts, including United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, demanded the UN General Assembly convene to pressure Israel to end its siege of Gaza, which has caused famine and starvation in the enclave.
"Israel must immediately end its obstruction of safe, effective and dignified humanitarian assistance," they said. "But lifting these restrictions alone will not be enough to save Gaza's devastated population. What is urgently required is an end to Israel's siege and the declaration of an immediate ceasefire. At this critical moment, the world needs the General Assembly—the highest body of the United Nations—to take decisive leadership and act to prevent further catastrophe."
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US 'Denying and Revoking' Visas of Palestinian Officials Ahead of UN General Assembly
The Palestinian presidency said the decision—which comes as more and more nations formally recognize Palestine's statehood—"stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement."
Aug 29, 2025
The Trump administration said Friday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority" ahead of next month's United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The US State Department said Friday that "the Trump administration has been clear: It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace."
"Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism—including the October 7 massacre—and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO," the statement continues.
No US administration in modern times has ever demanded that Israel repudiate its generations-long illegal occupation and settler colonization of Palestine, its ongoing genocide in Gaza, or any other violation of international law or human rights.
"The PA must also end its attempts to bypass negotiations through international lawfare campaigns, including appeals to the [International Criminal Court] and [International Court of Justice], and efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state," the State Department added. "Both steps materially contributed to Hamas' refusal to release its hostages, and to the breakdown of the Gaza ceasefire talks."
The ICC last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including murder and the forced starvation of Palestinians that is driving a famine that has killed at least hundreds of Palestinians and is starving hundreds of thousands more. The ICJ is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel filed by South Africa—not the PA.
As for ceasefire talks, Matthew Miller, who served as a State Department spokesperson during the Biden administration, recently admitted that Israel habitually torpedoed ceasefire agreements each time they were nearing a conclusion in what he called a sustained effort to "try and sabotage" a deal. Miller repeatedly stood at his podium and told reporters that Hamas was to blame for thwarting a truce.
Miller added that Netanyahu openly admitted to US officials that he wanted to continue the Gaza war for "decades."
It is not clear which Palestinian officials will have their visas denied or revoked. The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement responding to the US announcement that "this decision stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement—which effectively shields UN member-state officials from US immigration policies—particularly since the state of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations."
This isn't the first time the US has blocked Palestinian officials from attending a General Assembly. In 1998, the Regan administration denied then-PLO Chair Yasser Arafat a visa and the General Assembly was convened in Geneva instead of New York. There have already been numerous calls to relocate this year's General Assembly to the Swiss city following the US move.
The US announcement comes as more and more countries formally recognize Palestinian statehood or move to do so amid Israel's genocidal assault, siege, and famine in Gaza, which, combined, have left more than 230,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and the strip in ruins.
Approximately 150 of the UN's 193 member states have officially recognized Palestine. Since October 2023, countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, and Spain have either recognized Palestine or announced their intent to do so.
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