On the 19th of September, American groups took to the streets of New York during the meeting of the UN General Assembly to protest about Apartheid Israel’s massacre of 28 people Lebanese town of Qana in an air strike on July 30th.
The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East (Justice ME) has been organising actions in response to the escalation of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip at the end of June and subsequent Israeli attacks and incursions into Lebanon in July 2006.
In a letter to activists, the group said:
âPresident Bush is speaking at the UN before the General Assembly in order to promote his ‘Freedom Agenda.’ But in fact, the Bush agenda â preemptive wars, endless occupation, torture, undermining civil liberties â has nothing to do with freedom.â
Despite a series of security council resolutions condemning Israel’s occupation and calling for the dismantling of the wall, the UN refuses to take any action on the apartheid state.
Israel is currently in material breach of resolutions demanding that it withdraw from Palestinian territory and allow refugees to return and is in violation of the International Court of Justice ruling that the apartheid wall is illegal and should be dismantled.
Protests against the UN have increased over the last years as the UNâs failure to take any significant action against the drive of the Zionist regime to massacre, ghettoize and ultimately, to expel the Palestinian people from ever more of their land has become more and more obvious. In Palestine, the first mass protest had been staged by the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign in March last year, when the General Secretary of the UN came to Palestine and refused even to see the Wall, for whose dismantling he is mandated to work. In August of this year hundreds of Palestinians spontaneously took to the streets in Ramallah to protest against the UN’s failure to hold Israel accountable over its war crimes, the apartheid wall and its refusal to implement the UN resolutions, including 194 calling for the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.
This yearâs protest against Bushâs speech had been matched by last years call to action lead by the Al-Awda coalition against Ariel Sharonâs presence and speech in front of the UN General Assembly, in the days the massacre of Sabra and Shatila (September 17 – 19)overviewed by this war criminal recurred for the 23rd time.