Global community has a 'strong desire' for a ceasefire in Gaza Strip, says Bob Rae
Rae pushes back against Israel's accusations that Hamas has infiltrated UN aid agency
As Israel threatens a ground invasion of Rafah, Canada's UN ambassador says the international community has a "profound difference of opinion" regarding a further incursion.
"We're not denying the importance of the security of Israel," Bob Rae told The Current host Matt Galloway. "But we are saying this way of proceeding is not going to produce the kind of security that Israel really needs that's based on long-lasting agreements."
Israel has been relentlessly assaulting the Gaza Strip for the past few months. More than 29,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its military operations in October — around two-thirds of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
Israel has repeatedly told Palestinians to flee south for safety. But now, more than a million Palestinians are in Gaza's southernmost point, trapped between the Egyptian border and Israel's oncoming military.
An Algerian-drafted UN Security Council resolution tried to call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the wake of a potential invasion, but that was vetoed by the United States on Tuesday.
Galloway spoke with Rae about Israel's isolation on the world stage and its accusations against the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. Here's part of their conversation.
Should the international community be taking a firmer line to dissuade Israel from launching an assault on Rafah?
I think there's a very strong consensus that was expressed — has been expressed on a number of occasions — that there needs to be a ceasefire that allows for an exchange of prisoners and the hostages, and also allows for humanitarian supplies to get into the country.
Obviously, Israel so far has not accepted and Hamas have not been able to agree to whatever it is they have to agree to in order to allow that to happen.
But from the point of view of the international community … I think there's a very strong desire for a ceasefire and for the delivery of humanitarian services and for the release of the hostages.
This is the third time that the United States has vetoed a proposed ceasefire. Avril Benoit, [executive director of Doctors Without Borders, USA] … said yesterday that the repeated blocking of ceasefire resolutions by the United States is, in her words, "unconscionable." She said the United States at the UN Security Council is "effectively sabotaging all efforts to bring assistance." Is she wrong?
I think the critical point is that resolutions, on their own, don't create ceasefires or agreements between combatants.
We can call for them, we can argue for them, we can urge them to happen, as we have been doing. But the critical agreement that has to be made is between two forces that are fighting, and that's very much the case now between the Israelis and Hamas.
Even with a ceasefire, it's difficult [to get in] because the number of bombs that have been dropped that are unexploded and because of other things that are there that make it dangerous.
But we have an obligation now because of the severity of the humanitarian crisis, to put that crisis at the forefront and to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make sure that, stuff can get in. That is something that we really need to work hard to make happen, and I hope we can make it happen.
The U.S. president has called Israel's response in Gaza, in his words, "over the top." You have the U.K. and others who are calling for restraint. The Prince of Wales has said he wants the fighting to end "as soon as possible." … Do you think that Israel has lost the backing of the international community for this war?
I think that Israel is not responding to the calls that are coming from … a great many places around the world, including here at the United Nations, in terms of resolutions that have been passed and agreed to by the vast majority of the General Assembly.
We also have a disagreement with recent decisions of the Cabinet of Israel saying that a two-state solution is not part of any plans that Israel has for what to do after the war. Again, the vast majority of countries here at the United Nations, including the United States, are clearly in favour of a two-state solution. Canada has been in favour of a two-state solution since 1947.
It is hard for me to see Israel isolated in this way because I do think it's in the best interests of Israel's security that there be a ceasefire, that there be an exchange of hostages and prisoners and that humanitarian assistance get in, and that there be serious discussions about the next steps to get to a two-state solution.
We're not denying the importance of the security of Israel. But we are saying this way of proceeding is not going to produce the kind of security that Israel really needs that's based on long-lasting agreements.
I asked [Iddo Moed, Israel's ambassador to Canada] about UN reports that have come out in the last couple of days, suggesting that there is credible evidence that women and children in Gaza had been arbitrarily and deliberately executed. … Has UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, been completely infiltrated by Hamas, as the ambassador says?
No, I don't believe so.
We now have two investigations that are underway: one to deal with the accusations against 12 former employees of UNRWA, and the other to deal with the longer-term issue of UNRWA's relationship with all of the parties in the region.
That's being carried out by the French Foreign Minister [Catherine] Colonna, who I'll be meeting with this week, and so will Minister [Mélanie] Joly be meeting with her on Friday.
UNRWA has seen its funding suspended by a number of nations, including Canada, because of this report that came out suggesting that 12 members of that organization may have been involved in the [Hamas] attacks of the 7th of October. … CBC has reported that Canadian officials haven't even seen the evidence that suggests that those 12 members of UNRWA were part of this. When [Moed] says that the entire organization and that the UN on the ground can't be trusted … where does that leave the international community?
In all of my discussions with the [UN] Secretary General [António Guterres], he's made it very clear to me in his direct terms … that if anybody is found to be part of Hamas or to have done or been involved in any way in what happened on Oct. 7 or after Oct. 7 on behalf of Hamas, they will be fired. They do not belong in UNRWA.
Maintaining the integrity of UNRWA and other international institutions that are working in the region is exceptionally important. But the idea that, somehow, the whole organization has been infiltrated by Hamas, I don't believe that's true.
We are now conducting as thorough an investigation as we possibly can in very difficult circumstances in order to get at the truth, and we do have to get at the truth. But we don't get at the truth by smearing an entire organization.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from the Associated Press and Reuters. Produced by Julie Crysler.
