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Indonesia slams Western ‘bias’ regarding Gaza siege at Security Council
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This aerial view shows humanitarian aid trucks arriving from Egypt after having crossed through the Rafah border crossing arriving at a storage facility in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Oct. 21, 2023. The trucks were bringing urgent humanitarian relief to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory suffering what UN chief Antonio Guterres labeled a “godawful nightmare“. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after a surprise attack on Oct. 7. (AFP/Belal Al Sabbagh)
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ndonesia has stood firm in its clarion call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which is currently besieged and blockaded by Israel, as the international response is thwarted by the “selective moral policing” of the West.
The world’s failure to produce a negotiated text, much less come up with collective action after nearly three weeks of bloody violence in the Palestinian territory, was a reflection of a collective lack of humanity in the face of stark political differences, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi asserted in an address to the United Nations Security Council.
She aired her grievances on the same day that the council had, for a fourth consecutive time, failed to pass a resolution on the ongoing conflict, despite rising death tolls and appalling living conditions on the Palestinian side.
“The silence is harrowing against the deafening sound of bullets and rockets,” Retno remarked. “Every second wasted due to political disagreement and failure of consensus represents a humanitarian defeat for the Palestinians and creates further instability for the world.”
The Security Council is the top multilateral body tasked with maintaining world peace and security, but the United States has continued to block efforts to bring an end to the onslaught on the besieged Palestinians by Israeli forces.
The situation in the Middle East took a turn for the worse on Oct. 7 when Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack across the border into heavily guarded Israel, whose forces did not immediately respond.
Israel claims at least 1,400 lives were lost and more than 200 of its people were taken hostage by Hamas, but Tel Aviv proceeded to escalate the conflict by imposing a retaliatory siege on Gaza that has left over 7,000 people dead, according to Palestinian health ministry estimates.
