US veto kills humanitarianism amid food aid massacres

As the US-Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation suspends its operation, Palestinian children carrying pots join a queue at a hot meal distribution point in the central Gaza Strip. AFP

By using its veto power on Wednesday to defeat yet another United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the United States has renewed the licence it has given to Israel to commit genocide in the famine-struck occupied Palestinian territory.

While the US defended Israel at the UNSC, at Gaza food distribution centres run by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which, according to an analyst, is a scandalous venture interested in ‘aid’ business, the death toll since Sunday has topped 100. The operation is now suspended. Among the victims were emaciated Palestinian mothers, whose bones were protruding from their skins, covered in clothes that had not been washed for months due to lack of water. They trekked by foot Gaza’s rubble-filled streets to reach food distribution points so that the little children they left behind in ramshackle camps 30-40 kilometres away would have something to eat. But they did not come back. Their starving children, instead of food, received the news that their mothers have been martyred—meaning killed by Israeli troops.

This is Gaza’s tragedy, the intensity of which is making even Israel’s European friends abandon their mollycoddling and use some harsh words against the Zionist state. But not so the United States, the all-weather accomplice in Israel’s genocide. Its use of the veto on Wednesday to kill a life-saving ceasefire resolution was a historic shame and appallingly inhumane.

While expressing her country’s opposition to the resolution presented by all ten elected members of the 15-member council, Acting US Ambassador Dorothy Shea raised her hand to veto the resolution, little realising that the hand she raised was a testament to complicity in Israel’s genocide. To the discerning eyes and the disappointed hearts, her hand appeared bloodied—soaked in the blood of Palestinians, including children. The vampire’s hand with its eerie claws is more humane than the hand that vetoed the life-saving resolution. Even the most feared vampire’s hand appears cleaner when compared to the hand that let more blood flow in the Gaza Strip, as though the blood of 54,000 Palestinians is not enough.

That the US veto completely ignored the catastrophe in Gaza—prioritising the aggressor, Israel, over the urgent need to protect the vulnerable— is nothing but sheer barbarism. Whither humanitarianism in US policies? Political realists may argue that humanitarianism often poses a liability in foreign policy. Yet, they recommend that countries occasionally use humanitarianism—or at least appear humanitarian—to improve their image. But the Trump administration is different. It does not care even if it is labelled the wickedest regime as long as it achieves its goals and as long as it helps Israel to achieve its goals, however sinister and criminal they are.

The US is typically the epitome of self-centrism. But the Donald Trump administration has taken this self-centrism to such an extreme that it goes beyond the borders of humanity. The Trump administration’s self-centred foreign policy is evident in the unilateral tariffs it imposes on trading partners, its opposition to climate-change mitigation efforts, its withdrawal from UN agencies, and its suspension of humanitarian assistance to global projects. But its foreign policy becomes sickeningly inhumane when it single-handedly supports the war crimes and genocide of Israel—an avowedly ethnic supremacist, settler-colonial entity hell-bent on expanding its territory by occupying Palestine and ethnically cleansing its inhabitants.

The US has used its veto power to squash Gaza ceasefire resolutions five times since October 7, 2023, the day on which Israel launched its war on the Palestinians ostensibly in response to what it called a terrorist attack by Hamas.

On Wednesday, the US became the only country to oppose the Gaza ceasefire resolution. But it cares not for the shame of being isolated or being seen as the only country that wants to see more Palestinian babies die of starvation if they are not killed by Israeli bombs and bullets.

It was revolting to see on Wednesday the Trump administration’s arrogance-filled dismissiveness of humanitarianism as it went on to protect and pamper its war-crime-committing ally. The US was not moved by the speeches of its close European allies Britain and France. 

The US was dismissive of the appeal made by UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who again addressed the UNSC ahead of the vote. He pleaded with world powers, especially the US, to let the UN handle the aid distribution, as it had a plan, supplies and experience. “The world is watching, day after day, horrifying scenes of Palestinians being shot, wounded or killed in Gaza while simply trying to eat,” said Fletcher. But no amount of pleading would change the US position. 

Mindful of the concerns the US could raise to oppose the resolution, the ten countries that presented it made every effort to make it acceptable to the US. They included a clause calling for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza—one of the key points the US would like to see in a Gaza resolution to consider its support. Yet, still, the US found ridiculously lame reasons to object to it.

The US envoy then went on to whitewash Israeli crimes and put the blame on Hamas for whatever bad is happening in the Gaza Strip. She said, “The United States has taken the very clear position since this conflict began that Israel has the right to defend itself, which includes defeating Hamas and ensuring they are never again in a position to threaten Israel.

“The terrorist group has rejected numerous proposals put forward by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt that would release the remaining 58 hostages, who have now been cruelly held for 584 days, and bring calm to Gaza.

“Had Hamas agreed to proposals put forward and accepted by Israel, there could have been a new ceasefire weeks ago.

“This conflict could end tomorrow if Hamas released the hostages, laid down its arms, and left Gaza forever. Its reckless decisions have caused enough bloodshed.”

Deliberately left out in her statement are details that it was Israel that breached the very ceasefire that Trump was instrumental in bringing into force the day before he took office on January 20; that it was Israel that scuttled the US-Hamas agreement on a ceasefire just two weeks ago; that it is Israel that indiscriminately kills the Palestinians; and that it is Israel that used starvation as a tool of war. 

Correctly calling the US envoy’s bluff, China’s ambassador said Israel’s actions have “crossed every red line” of international humanitarian law and seriously violated UN resolutions. “Yet, due to the shielding by one country, these violations have not been stopped or held accountable.”

Pakistan’s ambassador said the failed resolution would “remain not only a moral stain on the conscience of this council but a fateful moment of political application that will reverberate for generations.”

It is increasingly becoming clear that peace with justice for Palestinians is unlikely until the US frees itself from the gripping hold of Israel. How many more Palestinians have to be killed before the US puts its foot down and tells Israel enough is enough?