search
S Ovwata Onojieruo

Israel Invasion: Nation-states must now decide the fate of the UN!

The happenings around the globe within the past three years have demonstrated either an obvious lack of purpose on the part of the United Nations or a glaring failure in its Leadership.

First it was the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, which was glaring months even before it occurred. The issues at stake were well known, both to the United Nations security council and the Secretariat. Vital intelligence reports were shared with both bodies, and even if they weren’t, most of these were already an open secret understandable through a simple scan in history; such as the USSR Military buildup in Afghanistan border in 1979 before the eventual invasion.

But while there was little or no public efforts or strides to put off an invasion before it occurred, the United Nations rather confined itself to the issuing of statements, and has gloriously failed both the Ukrainians and the Russians. Suddenly the UN directed her might towards mitigating the effect of the Ukrainian conflict, asking for donations to aid the humanitarian disaster in Ukraine and suddenly became a documentation agency, whose role has so far being the documentation of humanitarian costs and human rights abuses in Ukraine, without putting forward any real template for a political solution to the crisis.

Secondly it was the near regional war in West Africa instigated by the regional Economic Forum (ECOWAS), with a backing from the UN. The bone of contention was Niger, a smaller country in military might sharing border with the larger and more populous Nigeria, whose President presently heads the ECOWAS Bloc. The pretext for the Invasion was to rid Niger of the Military Junta which had seized her political affairs, and restore Democracy.

The UN although well informed of the proceedings of the conflict stayed off any form of direct engagement; probably waiting for a full scale war to begin so she can again cry for donations in order to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe and then document human rights abuses. It took the boldness of several young Nigerians who risked their lives and fought both openly and on the social media against their government, to avert what would have been another catastrophic war.

Now, since the surprise invasion of Israel yesterday by terror organizations from Gaza, the United Nations has again failed to take a decisive step in handling the conflict, neither has she even pretended to be concerned about the fact that a member State of the United Nations (Israel in this case) has been heavily attacked by several non-state actors and Internationally proscribed terror organizations. The United Nations has refused to even see the point that both the Israelis as much as the Palestinians are victims of Hamas assault on civilians who woke up yesterday morning to be slaughtered en masse by terrorists.

The statement from the United Nations yesterday not only stopped short of calling the attacks on Israel ‘terror attacks’, nor did it speak to Israel’s right to defend itself, nor did it even pretend to offer condolences to the lives lost in such dastardly terror act, but rather the UN statement suddenly invoked a two-state solution dialogue into a case of terrorism. Which more than ever, demonstrates the reality of a lack of understanding within the top echelons of the United Nations on the difference between terrorism and liberation-struggle or of the difference between terror groups and Palestinian Authority which is as much a victim of Hamas terrorism, although in a much lesser scale than Israel.

It will suffice to affirm that the United Nations has officially divorced herself from reality and now chases after shadows. The dictates of the charter of the United Nations must of necessity be revisited and the role most especially of the United Nations Secretariat must be reviewed.

If the United Nations, whose primary reason for formation was; to ensure the presence of peace amongst member States through putting all efforts and striving to ensure the peaceful resolution of conflicts around the globe, has suddenly turned herself to a ‘Human rights abuse documentation agency’, then Nation-states must of necessity seek out a different way to help themselves, and it must of necessity be done more quickly before the horns of a third world war cascades through the Halls of our governments.

About the Author
S Ovwata Onojieruo is a Political Scientist and Philosopher, whose Research interest spans across the areas of Legal theory, Political Philosophy, Social Epistemology, International Politics and International Relations theory. He currently functions as a Doctoral Researcher in Philosophy, and Tutorial assistant with the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and can be reached on twitter @OvwataS
Related Topics
Related Posts