15 Fall 2023 ntroduction On October 7, 2023, the holiday of Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists and other Palestinian Islamist groups, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel. The cruelty of the violence against soldiers and innocent civilians, including babies, children and elderly people, is almost beyond comprehension. It was a pogrom directed against the Jewish people with no precedent after the Shoah. Immediately after the Hamas attack, which included rockets fired at population centers across southern and central Israel, Israel responded with a major military operation in the Gaza Strip, while at the same time having to be prepared for attacks in the North, on the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and in the South. In doing so, Israel exercised its right to self-defense under the UN Charter. Without doubt, the acts committed by Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups on October 7, 2023, must be qualified as serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). The core of IHL can be found in the Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which provides that persons who do not take active part in hostilities, “shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.”1 What we have seen is that Hamas deliberately acted inhumanely vis-à-vis Israeli civilians, civilians of other nationalities, and civilians of all ages from small babies to people of old age. Article 3 specifies the acts that are prohibited without exception to ensure humane treatment. The first is “[v]iolence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture.” The terrorists perpetrated all these acts; they engaged in killing, maiming and raping people. The number of fatalities is about 1,200. The second type of inhumane behavior mentioned in Article 3 is the taking of hostages. About 240 men and women of all ages were taken hostage and brought to the Gaza Strip. All this deserves unequivocal condemnation by all relevant organs of the United Nations (UN), the world’s most prominent institution “to maintain international peace and security…and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes…”2 Its purpose is also “to develop friendly relations…based on the respect for the principles of equal rights and self-determination of peoples …”3 The UN, finally, is supposed to promote and encourage “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”4 In this article, I focus on the reaction to the October 7 pogrom and its aftermath by three major UN organs: the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the SecretaryGeneral. I survey these responses and then reflect on them within the broader context of the attitudes adopted by the UN towards Israel. UN Responses A. Initial Inaction of the Security Council It might have been expected that the organ with the primary responsibility for the preservation of peace and security, the UN Security Council (UNSC), would respond immediately. Indeed, the UNSC held an emergency meeting behind closed doors on October 8, 2023. In that meeting, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, demanded the condemnation of Hamas’s war crimes against Israeli citizens.5 The emergency meeting, however, did not result in a public condemnation of Hamas cum suis, although according to the U.S. deputy ambassador, “a good number of countries” (members of the UNSC) The United Nations and International Law in the Hamas-Israel War I Matthijs de Blois 1. Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (Third Geneva Convention), 12 Aug. 1949, 75 UNTS 135, Art. 3. 2. UN Charter, Art. 1(1). 3. Id., Art. 1(2). 4. Id., Art. 1(3). 5. Margaret Besheer, “Israel Demands UN Security Council Condemn Hamas ‘War Crimes’,” VOICE OF AMERICA, Oct. 8, 2023, available at https://www.voanews.com/a/israeldemands-un-security-council-condemn-hamas-warcrimes/7302112.html
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