The UN Should Be Involved In Supervising The Future Of Gaza

Palestinian UNFPA / Two children are waiting at a temporary health center in Gaza.

JAKARTA - The United Nations (UN) has been confirmed as an institution that has international legitimacy to oversee future plans for the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that is still under siege.

The statement was made by Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Reporter for human rights (HAM) and counter-terrorism, when answering questions at the National Press Club of Australia regarding the Palestinian state and US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan for Gaza.

In that plan, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will play an important role.

However,Saul criticized Blair's track record of previously involved in the Quartet process, a forum formed in 2002 by the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, and the United States to facilitate peace in the Middle East, but was deemed to have failed to bring results.

"If you want valid international supervision of the future of Gaza, use the United Nations. That is the function that should have been carried out from the start," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, October 2.

He also expressed deep disappointment with Australia's stance on Israel's war in Gaza.

According to him, Australia's official recognition of Palestine only materialized last month after 100,000 residents rallied at the Sydney Harbor Bridge and pressured politicians to take a firm stance.

Last month at the 80th UN General Assembly, Australia recognized Palestine as an independent country.

The United Nations has "legitimation because it involves all parties, and does not depend on Donald Trump's will, as does the council," he said.

Trump's plan contains 20 points announced at the White House with Israeli authority leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Its contents include stopping hostilities, releasing hostages, and forming transitional authorities to manage Gaza.

The plan emphasizes the establishment of a non-political Palestinian technocrat committee overseen by a new institution called the Board of Peace, led directly by Trump involving international figures including Blair.

According to Saul, UN legitimacy lies in the involvement of all member states, in contrast to Trump's plan which is deemed to depend on personal will.

Meanwhile, international human rights law expert from Australia, Chris Sidoti, called Israel's war in Gaza the most different conflict from any other conflict because Palestinians in the region had no way of escaping.

He highlighted that since October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks have killed more than 66 thousand Gazans, the majority of women and children.

This condition, according to Sidoti, is different from the war in Ukraine or the Sudanese conflict, where civilians can still cross the border to save themselves.

In Gaza, two million people are trapped in an area of only half Canberra. They can't run away from airstrikes, hunger, lack of medicine, access to hospitals, to children's education. That makes this situation completely different," he said.

Sidoti emphasized that since the first day, Israel carried out a total destruction operation against Gaza, so that millions of civilians lived in trapped conditions without a way out.