Spoken truths endorse colonial complicity

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is determined to surpass his previous endeavours in protecting Israel’s colonial presence in Palestine. Speaking during a visit to Israel and Ramallah, during which meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and PA President Mahmoud Abbas were scheduled, Ban managed to impart a precise description of the similarities between Israel and the UN – unwittingly, of course.

Following a tirade against Hamas, Rivlin concluded his hyperbole by addressing Ban as “a true friend of Israel,” eliciting the secretary-general’s epitome of discriminatory remarks which obliterated the existence and narratives of Palestinians. “I also want to take this opportunity to recognise your leadership in the fight against intolerance and for inclusion. Your words and actions reflect your deep commitment to ensuring that all Israelis, of all backgrounds, are treated with dignity and respect.”

Already, the refusal to recognise Israel and its settler population as an illegal colonial manifestation rendered Ban’s speech another exercise in Zionist glorification. However, further comments uttered at Tel Aviv University where Ban was awarded an honorary PhD clearly put the UN and Israel on the same dishonourable platform.

“Leaders need to move beyond repeating the same phrases and expecting a different result. It is maddening and it is not worthy of the future you are seeking to build.”  Ban’s statement reeks of oblivion, particularly when it comes to acknowledging that the UN orchestrated the foundations upon which a settler-colonial state and its complicit settler population have usurped Palestinian territory and remain embroiled in the quest to annihilate Palestinian memory.

The criticism of diplomacy coming from Ban exceeds the limits of hypocrisy. Israel’s colonial violence is a manifestation of both the original ethnic cleansing intention, as well as a direct derivative of what the UN obviously envisaged. To assume any form of separation between the ambitions of both entities is absurd. Neither the UN, nor Israel, have moved beyond the perfunctory remarks that have been given excessive prominence even as Palestinians bleed on the streets as a result of settler and state violence, or tortured in Israeli jails, without even having the possibility of their testimony being disseminated with dignity.

It can be argued that apart from violence, rhetoric has also sustained Israel’s colonial presence in Palestine. International law has clearly been ridiculed and to a certain extent, revealed itself to be shackled by the inscribed loopholes, always as a result of the UN’s reluctance to enforce any tangible change. This time, Ban has attempted a projection of human rights violations while revealing his role as a collaborator. 

If any criticism of Israel was intended, it was immediately revoked and replaced with a clear message of complicity – particularly an affirmation of knowledge that the “future” alluded to by Ban had been mapped out since the Partition Plan. What remains of his tenure as UN secretary-general has already been encapsulated in the parody articulated earlier – a testimony, if anything, of his loyalty to protecting Israel and the entity that endorsed its creation.