The general debate of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) began on Tuesday, the day after Queen Elizabeth 2 was laid to rest.
The latter was understandably a sombre event, and the mood in the hall at the UN will likely be similar.
There are many reasons for this, including the war in Ukraine, high inflation and other economic challenges, as well as environmental crises around the globe.
Sadly, many UN watchers, either deliberately or out of ignorance, left out another critical issue: Israel's ongoing crimes of apartheid in Palestine.
Human Rights Watch, in its April 27 report last year titled 'A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution', stated: "Israeli authorities have deprived millions of people of their basic rights by virtue of their identity as Palestinians.
"These longstanding policies and systematic practices box in, dispossess, forcibly separate, marginalise, and otherwise inflict suffering on Palestinians.
"In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), movement restrictions, land expropriation, forcible transfer, denial of residency and nationality, and the mass suspension of civil rights constitute "inhuman[e] acts" under the Apartheid Convention and the Rome Statute.
"Under both legal standards, inhumane acts, when carried out amid systematic oppression and with the intent to maintain domination make up the crime against humanity of apartheid."
Amnesty International's report, titled 'Israel Apartheid Against Palestinians — A look in decades of oppression and domination', stated:
"Amnesty International's new investigation shows that Israel imposes a system of oppression and domination against Palestinians across all areas under its control: in Israel and the OPT, and against Palestinian refugees, in order to benefit Jewish Israelis.
"This amounts to apartheid, as prohibited in international law. Laws, policies and practices which are intended to maintain a cruel system of control over Palestinians have left them fragmented geographically and politically, frequently impoverished, and in a constant state of fear and insecurity."
Since the international community has agreed that apartheid is a crime against humanity, all parties affiliated with the UN are legally obliged to undertake efforts to end it.
Unfortunately, the most influential UN members, especially the United States and its European allies, are bent on making sure that the term "apar-theid" will never be linked to Israel.
Ned Price, the US State Department spokesman said: "We reject the view that Israel's actions constitute apartheid.
"We don't offer our own public comprehensive evaluations of reports, but we certainly reject the label that has been attached to this issue when speaking about Israel."
Germany's official stance is to reject the use of the term "apartheid" when describing Israeli policies.
Christopher Burger, the German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: "We reject expressions like apartheid or a one-sided focusing of criticism on Israel. That is not helpful to solving the conflict in the Middle East."
Fortunately, these refusals have not deterred Palestinians themselves from their struggle to obtain justice, freedom and equality.
Since 2020, Palestinian civil society has listed the following demands to the international community:
SUPPORT efforts at the UN to reconstitute the UN Special Committee against Apartheid and the UN Centre against Apartheid to investigate Israeli apartheid;
INVESTIGATE and prosecute individuals and corporate actors responsible for war crimes/crimes against humanity in the context of Israel's regime of illegal occupation and apartheid;
BAN arms trade and military-security cooperation with Israel;
SUSPEND trade and cooperation agreements with Israel; and
PROHIBIT trade with the illegal Israeli settlements and terminate corporate business with Israel's illegal settlement enterprise.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob will address the UNGA today.
It is our sincere hope that he will similarly not be deterred by the negative stance of the US and Germany and will express strong condemnation of the Israeli crimes of apartheid against Palestinians.
The Zionist lobby has succeeded in influencing the policies of certain Arab states to side with Israel and turn a blind eye to the decades-old suffering of Palestinians, whether they are living in historic Palestine, in the occupied territories or in the blockaded Gaza strip.
The strong conscience and respect for human rights in Malaysian leaders will hopefully not result in the Malaysian government making a similar mistake.
The writer is director, Hashim Sani Centre for Palestine Studies, Universiti Malaya and chairman, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
