UN anxious to safeguard Israel’s colonial brutality

Prior to visiting Jerusalem and Ramallah, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recorded a speech in which the current Palestinian resistance in the West Bank was again mangled beyond recognition. In his introduction, Ban stated: “Let me be clear. Violence will only undermine the legitimate Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the longing of Israelis for security.”

The same rhetoric was employed during his visit and meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, when he urged for the calming of “tensions”. Following his meeting with Rivlin, Ban declared: “My visit reflects the sense of global alarm at the dangerous escalation in violence between Israelis and the Palestinians.”

Any sense of global alarm is a figment of Ban’s imagination, exhibited several times during his recorded address before the visit. One particular statement that portrays the international community’s patronisation of Palestinians consisted of feigned remorse at “our inability to end this occupation”.

It seems that the UN is expecting Palestinians to acquiesce to its compromised negotiations which, according to Ban, is necessary to terminate the current violence. As is expected of the UN, the international organisation persists in the lack of differentiation between the oppressed and the oppressor, which leads to the convenient, albeit erroneous, equivalence, between legitimate resistance and colonial violence.

Since the UN will never admit to international complicity, let alone its dependence upon violence to safeguard its existence, Palestinians will continue experiencing their invalidation at a diplomatic and international level. Likewise, the UN will seek to remain intentionally in oblivion about the fact that the current resistance in the West Bank is an anti-colonial struggle that is being waged on various levels, including the Palestinian collective safeguarding of their narrative.

For decades, Palestine has been defined through the international laceration of the country’s territory, as well as the UN’s explicit acceptance of Israel’s macabre tactics on various levels, including expansion, international law violations and the manipulation of history. The endeavour is aided by mainstream media – a recent report by AFP carried the comment: “Israeli security forces have found themselves seeking to clamp down on unrest while not provoking a further escalation of violence.”

Whereas in the previous years, Palestinian resistance was perceived as a response to Israeli actions, the current uprising seems to have reached a deeper level of awareness. Hence the frenzied attempts at normalisation by the UN, which creates a fictitious realm in which Palestinian resistance and colonial violence are placed on a par, in order to eliminate the primary distinction that Palestinians themselves have exhibited – the will to resist beyond the internationally-dictated parameters. The uprising is not about corrupted resolutions written for reference – it is an articulation of the right to seek self-determination.

The international community’s displeasure at the recent Palestinian resistance indicates a direct defiance of the impositions that have fragmented Palestine. Contrary to the usual quoting of international law by Palestinian leaders and the usurpation of expression by the Palestinian Authority, Palestinians have sought to rekindle their struggle from within their own history, thus constructing a narrative in which international impositions are a priority to be fought, not endorsed.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.