UN / PALESTINIAN QUESTION

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The United States vetoed a resolution put forward on behalf of Arab States by Algeria demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution received 13 votes in favour, while the United Kingdom abstained. UNIFEED
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STORY: UN / PALESTINIAN QUESTION
TRT: 05:44
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / RUSSIAN / NATS

DATELINE: 20 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

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Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters

20 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama addressing Council
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Amar Bendjama, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Algeria:
“As the primary custodian of international peace and security, the Security Council cannot afford passivity in face of the call for its ceasefire in Gaza. By presenting this text, our intention is to empower the Council to fulfil its mandate and protect lives.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Amar Bendjama, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Algeria:
“Today, every Palestinian is a target for death, extermination, and genocide. We should also ask ourselves how many innocent lives must be sacrificed before the Council deems necessary to call for a ceasefire?”
7. Med shot, US Ambassador addressing Council
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“The United States is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, along with Egypt and Qatar. This hostage deal would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks, and from there we could take the time to build a more enduring peace.”
9. Med shot, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressing Council
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“Any action this Council takes right now should help, not hinder, these sensitive and ongoing negotiations. And we believe that the resolution on the table right now would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace.”
11. Various shots, Council vote
12. UPSOUND (English) Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Guyana:
“The draft resolution has not been adopted owing to the negative vote of a permanent member of the Council.”
13. Med shot, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya addressing Council
14. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Russian Federation:
“This was yet again written by the United States delegation, the US delegation, which continues to pursue the same objective to provide cover for its closest Middle East ally and to drag out time to the greatest possible extent for them to be able to carry out their inhumane plans against Gaza, specifically to expel the Palestinians from the strip and to completely cleanse the strip essentially and quite literally transforming it into an uninhabitable territory.”
15. Med shot, Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour addressing Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“The veto of this draft resolution is not only regrettable, after weeks of consultations with every single Council member and after endless patience by the State of Palestine, the Arab states and nearly the entire international community that for months have demanded a ceasefire, it is absolutely reckless and dangerous again shielding Israel even as it commits the most shocking crimes.”
17. Med shot, Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan addressing Council
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Gilad Erdan, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Israel:
“This Council must put politics aside for the sake of its mandate. A ceasefire that allows Hamas to remain in power means ensured death and destruction. Ignoring Hamas's atrocities and not condemning them means empowering terrorists worldwide. And focusing only on Gaza while looking away from the terror aggression across the region will lead to a future that none of us seek. The Security Council must fulfil its mandate. It must side with Israel against the forces of evil, and it must face reality.”
19. Wide shot, Council
20. Pan left, Thomas-Greenfield walks up to podium
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, United States:
“The President has made it clear; the Secretary has made it clear, that no attacks on Rafah should take place given current circumstances. And we will keep pressing that. We know, we've heard what Israel has said. They have not gone in to attack Rafah. And we will keep engaging and urging and pushing in that direction to ensure that that does not happen.”
22. Pan right, Thomas-Greenfield walks away
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the United Nations, Palestine:
“Such audacity of challenging the Security Council that he is going to implement 1701, and he is the lover of Security Council resolution 1701, when he is refusing and attacking every Security Council resolution related to what Israel should do is beyond the theatre of the absurd.”
24. Pan right, ambassadors walk away

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Storyline

The United States today (20 Feb) vetoed a resolution put forward on behalf of Arab States by Algeria demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution received 13 votes in favour, while the United Kingdom abstained.

Speaking before the vote, Algerian Ambassador Amar Bendjama said, “as the primary custodian of international peace and security, the Security Council cannot afford passivity in face of the call for its ceasefire in Gaza.”

Bendjama said, “today, every Palestinian is a target for death, extermination, and genocide. We should also ask ourselves how many innocent lives must be sacrificed before the Council deems necessary to call for a ceasefire?”

For her part, United States Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield informed the Council that the US is working on a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, along with Egypt and Qatar. This hostage deal, she said, “would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to Gaza for at least six weeks, and from there we could take the time to build a more enduring peace.”

Thomas-Greenfield said, “any action this Council takes right now should help, not hinder, these sensitive and ongoing negotiations.”

She said the Algerian resolution “would, in fact, negatively impact those negotiations demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Hamas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace.”

Following the vote, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said, “this was yet again written by the United States delegation, the US delegation, which continues to pursue the same objective to provide cover for its closest Middle East ally and to drag out time to the greatest possible extent for them to be able to carry out their inhumane plans against Gaza, specifically to expel the Palestinians from the strip and to completely cleanse the strip essentially and quite literally transforming it into an uninhabitable territory.”

Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour said the US veto was “not only regrettable, after weeks of consultations with every single Council member and after endless patience by the State of Palestine, the Arab states and nearly the entire international community that for months have demanded a ceasefire, it is absolutely reckless and dangerous again shielding Israel even as it commits the most shocking crimes.”

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan said, “a ceasefire that allows Hamas to remain in power means ensured death and destruction. Ignoring Hamas's atrocities and not condemning them means empowering terrorists worldwide. And focusing only on Gaza while looking away from the terror aggression across the region will lead to a future that none of us seek.”

The Security Council, he said, “must side with Israel against the forces of evil, and it must face reality.”

Outside the Council, Thomas-Greenfield told reporters that both US President Joseph Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had made clear that “no attacks on Rafah should take place given current circumstances.”

She said Israel “have not gone in to attack Rafah. And we will keep engaging and urging and pushing in that direction to ensure that that does not happen.”

Also speaking to reporters, Mansour, flanked by members of the Arab Group, questioned a statement by Erdan on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 with regard to Hizballah’ rockets fired from Lebanon into Israel.

Mansour said, “such audacity of challenging the Security Council that he is going to implement 1701, and he is the lover of Security Council resolution 1701, when he is refusing and attacking every Security Council resolution related to what Israel should do is beyond the theatre of the absurd.”

The General Assembly is expected to again organize an emergency special session through a mechanism set up following an initiative by Liechtenstein to examine the use of veto, which is a privilege of the Council’s five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States.

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