{"id":34837,"date":"2024-07-13T13:04:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-13T20:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34837"},"modified":"2024-07-13T13:04:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-13T20:04:02","slug":"russia-attacks-hospitals-in-ukraine-israel-does-the-same-in-gaza-the-u-s-response-couldnt-be-more-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/07\/13\/russia-attacks-hospitals-in-ukraine-israel-does-the-same-in-gaza-the-u-s-response-couldnt-be-more-different\/","title":{"rendered":"RUSSIA ATTACKS HOSPITALS IN UKRAINE. ISRAEL DOES THE SAME IN GAZA. THE U.S. RESPONSE COULDN\u2019T BE MORE DIFFERENT."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"NEW<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>SUPPORT US<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during an emergency Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on July 9, 2024.\u00a0Photo: Lev Radin\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. undermines its criticism of Russia\u2019s abuses in Ukraine by making excuses for Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonah Valdez<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

July 11 2024, 4:21 p.m. (TheIntercept.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DURING A UNITED<\/strong> NATIONS<\/strong> Security Council meeting this week, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched a full-throated condemnation of Russia\u2019s bombing of Ukraine\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital on Monday. The attack was a part of a Russian bombing campaign that killed more than 30 Ukrainian civilians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here today because Russia \u2026 attacked a children\u2019s hospital,\u201d Thomas-Greenfield said. \u201cEven uttering that phrase sends a chill down my spine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas-Greenfield went on to list a string of Russian attacks on other Ukrainian hospitals throughout the war. She described Russia\u2019s aggression as a \u201ccampaign of terror\u201d and labeled its attacks on civilian infrastructure as violations of international law. Representatives of other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, echoed Thomas-Greenfield\u2019s denunciations. (Russia\u2019s ambassador denied responsibility for the Monday bombing.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moral clarity of her comments was striking<\/a> to observers and experts of international law, who contrasted it to U.S. rhetoric and actions concerning Israel. The U.S. has stood by Israel militarily and diplomatically as it has consistently attacked civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools<\/a>, in Gaza since October 7, in a brutal campaign that the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible genocide<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m very glad the U.S. is coming out and so vocally condemning all of those actions,\u201d said Jessica Peake, an international law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, referring to Thomas-Greenfield\u2019s comments toward Russia. \u201cBut at the same time, we don\u2019t get any language anywhere near as strong as that when we\u2019re talking about Palestinian hospitals, or Palestinian schools, or Palestinian children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Very Stark Difference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The U.N. Security Council\u2019s near-unanimous criticism of Russia this week mirrored another moment from earlier this year, with one stark difference: the U.S. response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council met on April 5, just days after Israel bombed a convoy of aid workers with World Central Kitchen<\/a>, and following the end of Israel\u2019s siege of Al-Shifa, Gaza\u2019s largest hospital, during which the Israeli military killed 400 Palestinians<\/a>. Council members took turns condemning the attacks, urged Israel to do a better job at protecting aid workers and civilian infrastructure, and called the attacks \u201cclear violations of international humanitarian law.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. joined the calls for protections of aid workers. But it also withheld any criticism of the Al-Shifa Hospital attack, and instead shifted the blame to Hamas. \u201cWe must not ignore how Hamas\u2019s actions have put humanitarian personnel at risk,\u201d said U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood. \u201cTunneling under and storing weapons in hospitals is a violation of the laws of war, and we condemn it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The differing and uneven responses from the U.S. toward the wars in Ukraine and Gaza has long been a point of criticism from those pushing for peace in both contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nate Evans, a spokesperson for Thomas-Greenfield, told The Intercept that the ambassador \u201chas condemned loss of Palestinian civilian lives many, many times in the Security Council,\u201d while adding that the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine are \u201ctwo very different wars.\u201d Evans noted that Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine was \u201cunprovoked,\u201d while Israel launched its assault in response to Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack on Israel.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Monday similarly contrasted<\/a> the two wars, asserting that the Ukrainian military isn\u2019t \u201cheadquartering itself in hospitals, under hospitals, in other civilian sites, in apartment buildings,\u201d but accused Hamas of doing so. The U.S. has consistently repeated Israel\u2019s refrain that Hamas is using hospitals for military operations<\/a>, a claim for which neither party has provided credible evidence. Israel\u2019s war has decimated<\/a> Gaza\u2019s medical sector<\/a> and killed more than 200 medical and humanitarian workers, the most ever recorded for a conflict in a single year, according to the U.N.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are indeed significant differences between the circumstances surrounding the wars, including, significantly, that Russia is a longtime U.S. adversary while Israel is one of its closest allies and a recipient of billions of dollars in military aid each year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are also clear parallels in human rights abuses and violations of international law in each respective war, said Peake, who called the U.S. government\u2019s handling of the conflicts \u201chypocritical.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we see from the U.S. is a very stark difference in how they are choosing to handle its involvement in pushing for an end to those conflicts,\u201d said Peake, who is also assistant director of UCLA\u2019s Promise Institute for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn the one hand, you have the U.S., in Russia and Ukraine, playing a very central role within international efforts for seeking an end to the conflict and also accountability,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd in the case of Gaza, it\u2019s vetoing resolutions, it\u2019s watering down statements that are put out by U.N. bodies. The U.S. is acting to have those statements be softer to make Israel appear a more reasonable party.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiding Behind Diplomacy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since Israel\u2019s invasion of Gaza, the U.S. has vetoed<\/a> three separate U.N. Security Council resolutions that would have called for a humanitarian pause or immediate ceasefire. In contrast, the U.S. has backed similar peace resolutions for Ukraine, many of which were in turn vetoed by Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, the Security Council managed to pass a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. But the U.S. abstained from the vote because \u201ccertain key edits were ignored,\u201d such as a request to add condemnation of Hamas, Thomas-Greenfield said at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. officials have said they opposed ceasefire resolutions because they failed to stand by Israel\u2019s apparent right to defend itself and argued diplomatic approaches would be more effective than public censures. And the U.S. continues to point to its leading role in brokering a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas as proof that it is serious about ending the conflict in Gaza. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even as negotiations continue, Israel is ramping up its bombardment in Gaza, focusing most recently on Gaza City, where Israeli forces on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of Palestinian civilians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to insist that the war must continue until Hamas is destroyed, an implausible condition<\/a>. Read Our Complete CoverageIsrael\u2019s War on Gaza<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week, Israeli strikes have killed dozens, including a school near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where at least 27 people were killed, mostly women and children, according to reports<\/a> citing Palestinian medics. And over the weekend, separate Israeli strikes at other schools in Gaza City and a U.N.-run school in Nuseirat, killed 20 others. Strikes also hit a home in Deir al-Balah, which was inside Israel\u2019s \u201chumanitarian safe zone\u201d where Palestinians have been told to flee, the Associated Press reported<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. has yet to condemn the recent spate of attacks. On Wednesday, however, the Biden administration agreed to send hundreds of 500-pound bombs to Israel, the AP reported<\/a>. The U.S. previously withheld the munitions in May as Israel readied for an assault on Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of civilians were sheltering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really just not enough to say \u2018We\u2019re pursuing diplomacy\u2019 when we\u2019re talking about any level of civilian casualties, but particularly when we\u2019re talking about almost 10 percent of the population of Gaza,\u201d Peake said, referencing a recent report<\/a> from The Lancet, one of the world\u2019s leading medical journals, which issued a \u201cconservative estimate\u201d that the Gaza death toll is 186,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Biden picked up the phone to Netanyahu this afternoon and said, \u2018We\u2019re cutting off your weapon supply,\u2019 that would bring it to a close,\u201d Peake said. \u201cIf the U.S. said, \u2018We\u2019re cutting off funding to Israel until there\u2019s a ceasefire,\u2019 that would end this conflict.\u201dShare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONTACT THE AUTHOR:<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jonah Valdez<\/a>@jonahmv<\/a>on X<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Contributed by Gwyllm Llwydd)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUPPORT US U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks during an emergency Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York on July 9, 2024.\u00a0Photo: Lev Radin\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images The U.S. undermines its criticism of Russia\u2019s abuses in Ukraine by making excuses for Israel\u2019s assault on Gaza. Jonah Valdez July… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34838,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34837\/revisions\/34838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}