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Shaun King's avatar

I swear the people of the world, the masses, don't have any true group that represents us.

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DEREK HANDS's avatar

A racist white South African Jan Smuts helped to inspire and shape the Preamble to the UN Charter in 1945, including its mention of ‘human rights’. A quarter of a century earlier, this apostle of world government and international co-operation had helped to structure the League of Nations and draft its Covenant.

It was two “renowned” Englishmen, Cecil Rhodes and Winston Churchill, who at crucial moments planted the seeds that were to ripen into policies which deprived black people of democratic rights in South Africa. A third, Jan Smuts - an Afrikaner by birth who became a committed supporter of the British Empire - was also an architect of laws which were later to become the framework of apartheid. The same Jan Smuts who drafted the UN Charter.

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Aamir Razak's avatar

Thanks for that history, Mr. Hands. Why am I not surprised then that the UN has failed on multiple occasions to defend human rights globally, and is so powerless now to hold the occupiers to account for their genocidal bloodlust and crimes against humanity? The architect of the UN charter no doubt had a hand in that

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DEREK HANDS's avatar

“Apartheid South Africa generated a surplus of wealth that could be directed to influence politics in imperial capitals.

For example, Georgetown professor Carroll Quigley was convinced that the proteges of Cecil Rhodes, such as Alfred Milner, had conspired to exercise an outsized role in British politics into the 1930s. One of Quigley’s more outlandish assertions is that the Milner conservative cabal had controlled the Encyclopedia Britannica, which you could tell by looking at the entries for its members. I looked up the entry in the 1971 edition for Rhodes’ Joshua, Colonel Leander Jameson, and, yeah, it read like Quigley wasn’t crazy.

J.A. Hobson and V.I. Lenin wrote their separate books Imperialism inspired by South Africa.

William Manchester’s vivid biography of Winston Churchill includes a chapter on Winston living large in the late 1930s at his country estate of Chartwell.

But … how could Churchill afford that on his journalistic earnings?

The short answer is Churchill couldn’t afford his spendaholic lifestyle. He was on the verge of having to sell Chartwell in 1938 to avoid bankruptcy when Austrian-born South African zillionaire Sir Henry Strakosch, the chairman of The Economist, secretly bailed Churchill out so he could concentrate on fighting appeasement of Hitler.

South Africa is an oddly influential place.”

http://www.unz.com/isteve/south-africas-zuma-emulates-zimbabwes-mugabe/

“In October 1941 Smuts “donated” 54 tons of South Africa’s gold reserves valued at £20 million (£128 billion in to-day’s values) at Churchill’s request in order to shore up Britain’s crumbling finances. Smuts consulted neither his cabinet colleagues nor parliament. One month later the USS Quincy, a cruiser with a top speed of 33 knots, collected the gold at Simons Town and shipped it via Trinidad to New York, where it was deposited into Rothschild’s privately-owned US Federal Reserve Bank.”

See CJH Hartnady, South Africa’s gold production and reserves, South African Journal of Science 105, September/October 2009, 328.

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Aamir Razak's avatar

Thanks Mr. Hands. Did not know apartheid era South Africa had such an outlandish influence in British and imperial politics globally, but it makes sense. The bit about a wealthy South African bailing out Churchill and the UK's finances is quite interesting and telling, and ofc look where Smut's gold ended up at.

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Rose's avatar

If the U.S. can do this to Gaza and the Palestinians, just think what it can do to the black, brown, and female population in America. There is no accountability for Israel, the U.N., and the current U.S.administration? Sickening

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Aamir Razak's avatar

Well said Rose. It sets a very dangerous precedent, and what's the point of the UN if it can't stop ongoing genocide and does nothing to hold the occupiers committing such genocidal carnage to account?

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Whitney's avatar

This is such a major point people don’t realize. It’s tragic enough this is happening. You would think people would act desperately to stop this with the knowledge that they can and will do this at home. The UN making cowardly choices just empowers them to do so. Because clearly there’s nothing stopping them. Where’s the outrage for thy neighbor? Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere and we should really start acting like it. I would rather not have to be made an example just so the slow people can get a clue.

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Margo Lindsey's avatar

Yes this Security Council resolution handing over responsibility for Gaza to a Board of Peace and an international stabilization force is an outrageous continuation of occupation of Palestinians in their own now even more restricted territory. Trump, Israel and the Europeans had to stop Israeli carnage and barbarism. Instead of extermination all at once, this plan attempts to prevent initiatives for Palestinian independence and statehood. Palestinians must be controlled because you know, they are the terrorists and Israelis are so innocent. Truly revolting outcome but what did we expect?

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Tricia Cassel-Gerard's avatar

This is such a massive disappointment and must not stand

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Richard Pearce's avatar

As the governments who really loved this 'solution' to the 'problem' their support for the Jewish State In Palestine militants caused now have to instantly elbow aside those who opposed it on principle to claim that they are opposed to Trump's solution to the war their support for the Nasty State In Europe militants caused in Ukraine remember this. Even another century of genocide and erasure won't end the 'problem' (see Australia and Canada where two centuries of such wasn't enough to erase the millennia of roots in the actual local population) but what will a decade of the Kiev regime not having an excuse to violently suppress opposition and censor the reality of what it is do to that regime?

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Jennifer Carpenter's avatar

Horrific decision, so infuriating. The corruption in the UN is unbelievable. Obviously by backing Trump they knowingly green light genocide of Palestinians and know there’s no peace at the endgame. Been at a loss for what to say or do next but thank you for the article, for action items, and for what possibilities exist at this point for peace.

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Jane Peryer's avatar

This catastrophic vote spoiled my 60th birthday. I went to bed livid and I'm still very angry three days on. The UN always was a colonial structure. It was set up and designed by the big empires to make sure they could ultimately control all wars. The permanent members of the security council were the most powerful empires. They had the right to veto one another's war plans. No-one else had much control or real power. It was power takes all.

So I should not be surprised by this vote really. Was Trump slapping all those tariffs around in order to later on leverage them, on behalf of israel? But for not one of them to veto this plan of doing things that are themselves unlawful under international law, is going too far for me. It is absolutely disgusting. How is it even possible to so badly shit on the same people that live in, what was one of the world's most ancient civilisations. These poor people have never done anything to deserve any persecution ever. But they have become the world's most persecuted people. It is breathtaking fascism to further rob these people. They have already lost over half of their life expectancy, their future health, their current mental health and everything one needs to feel like a member of the human race. This is an unbelievably nasty and inhumane plan for the Palestinian people who have the inalienable right to self determination just as refugees have the right of return. That means no-one can add conditions to that right. It doesn't mean no-one but Israel, can add conditions. I could see that Danny Danon was laughing inside his head as the vote was taking place. Clearly Israel wrote this peace plan with the US not the other way round. The tail is still wagging the dog. It was a catastrophic vote and I wept as I messaged my journalist friends, who are in tents in the south of the strip.

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Mara Weiss's avatar

Cowards all of them! The General Assembly should convene and vote on an alternate plan immediately! Trump and Net are racing to keep ahead of it and snatch more land

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Lewis C. Taishoff's avatar

The UN Security Council protects the "security" of the white colonial oligarchs and no one else.

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Whitney's avatar

For the sake of finding the good in this at least everyone showed their true colors. It’s hard to prove the US, the UN, and the nation of Israel are sociopaths on a mission to colonize and torture an entire nation of people. At least it was for a little while in this generation after October 7th. Now it’s kind of painful how obvious it is that all three are corrupt. They’re making their roles in this official and making it clear they never intended to bring aid to the Palestinians. This was an occupation from day one. They’re trying to document that. That’s actually helpful in court especially for such a dynamic case.

Maybe the lesson here is how badly we need to clean house. We have a sexoffender/pedo/fugitive/fool for a president and we’re just supposed to keep going? At what point do we draw a line and boundaries? For the UN we clearly need to draw clearer checks and balances. And Israel… they should probably get taken care of. Because anyone in the world would have to worry if it’s their family next to be kidnapped and tortured with no remorse. Then when you come forward and there are reports and the attacker admits several times what they did, and their nation celebrates your family’s torture… peace and justice for who? And why do we appoint leadership? What are taxes and why do we try to imply any sense of order?

Something I can’t get off my mind is that in a major city to demolish a building it’s routine now to take it down slowly. I believe it’s for the sake of everyone around. But we just have leadership that sits back and collects a paycheck and “nods and waves” while an entire people gets wiped out. No concern for anything. Who cares if a building falls disruptively or how fast or if THERE ARE CHILDREN UNDERNEATH IT.

To be Black in America you know the threat of living in the wrong zip code. We have brothers and sisters and children who just happen to live in Gaza. That doesn’t make it OK to wipe out their livelihood with no regard.

What they’ve done on November 17th 2025, at the very least, showed me that racism and prejudice is alive and well in the UN. Dangerously so.

Israel, the United States, and the United Nations are complicit— needing to be held accountable. Just because of their status, role, scope, and privilege does not change that. I know darn well there is someone who can replace the people causing problems.

In a way they just helped build that case from what I can see. I hope we have the sense of humanity to act when it’s most important like you said here. Now is the time to push for that change.

We resist this motion and apply pressure to everyone in the position to make change. This is the job they signed up for. If they know they’re too coward to do it they should make that known so we can replace them too. They owe us that much or they’re just as complicit as the leadership in the modern era colonialism.

This is a desperate reach for control. It’s a dangerous one because if it goes unchecked we are going back to colonialism. We are saying what Israel is doing to violate international law in ways too disturbing to televise is OK. So OK that we’re gonna publish it and give all power to those running the disturbing stuff and those providing the ammunition. Who signed off? The team too coward to do anything this whole time actively ignoring international law and ICJ rulings. If this was working class these people would’ve been fired and replaced November 8th. Maybe the following January if they’re lucky. If this was housing for regular people this number of violations gets you EVICTED with no chance to try again.

Why is it that these people are acting like criminals and seeing no accountability? Absolutely none. Just “OK yeah you can have the population of Gaza.” If they were looking for work or to rent: “It looks like your rental history says you’ve been abusing the Palestinians? And there have been a billion complaints filed? Several domestic disputes on record? The world is watching a… genocide you’re committing? I’ve actually seen a lot of the footage… But sure thing you’re hired/ you can rent here.” It’s not like that for the people being governed. This is getting out of hand and I can’t emphasize enough how bad this has become. It’s not just working, middle, and top 1%. Working class and middle class are at risk of being openly targeted for this BS because we let our leaders do this. We treat it like business as usual. We are Gaza because we may as well be next.

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Dr. Sadaf Gilani's avatar

There are no words for this level of evil.

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MaryLee G's avatar

There will never be peace for Gaza. Thanks to the felon and the war criminal.

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