Photo by Nathaniel St. Clair

The biblical book of Job recounts a series of catastrophes that relentlessly plague the main character, Job, who loses his prosperity, his home, his health, and his children. Finally, an agonized Job curses his own existence as well as the god who created him. Issues of evil, justice, and divine wisdom are explored, and while the Book of Job teaches divine wisdom to God, it recognizes that the work to be done here on earth is ours.

There are numerous interpretations of the story, and more than one version circulated throughout the ancient Near East. One version ends with Job professing repentance. “I know that my savior lives, and so I repent in dust and ashes.”

The Latin root of the word “repent’ it is clamping – to think. “Repent” suggests an effort to rethink.

Job’s surprising repentance has been on my mind as calls grow, in 2024, for the United Nations to rethink its relationship with Israel as a member state. Increasingly, civil society groups are pressuring permanent missions to the UN to drop Israel as a voting member of the General Assembly.

To paraphrase Pankraj Mishra, written for New York Review of Books, a The stunned world watched in disbelief as the United States supplied Israel with weapons to enable a series of mass murders in the Middle East.

The Palestinians in the West Bank recently asked all organizations calling on the UN to comply with the International Criminal Court’s July 2024 decision to sign a letter available at The world beyond war which urges member states of the United Nations General Assembly to fulfill their duties.

Following the potential of this letter, a new coalition, “Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine” sent a letter to His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang, President of the United Nations General Assembly, asking him to convene an urgent meeting of the General Assembly to demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire, establish and secure humanitarian aid corridors, and to ensure complete withdrawal. of Israel from the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

In addition, the letter requests:

+ Reviving the UN Committee against Apartheid to address systemic violations of international law and human rights in the OPC.

+ Consideration of targeted boycotts, sanctions and divestments, especially against illegal operations in the TPO.

+ Establishing an arms embargo on Israel.

+ Exploring suspending Israel from the General Assembly until it complies with international law.

To further support these efforts, the letter calls for the establishment of an unarmed UN peacekeeping mission in the OCT, in accordance with Chapter VII of the UN Charter, to ensure the safety and dignity of all civilians.

In a sense, Israel has already departed from the norms upheld by the UN Charter, as it has consistently violated UN treaties, resolutions and advisory opinions. We must not forget that Israel refuses to recognize the possession of nuclear weapons by the UN.

I felt surprised during an initial planning call with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza when one of them spoke of the eviction he and his family faced that very day and said, “We are facing the solution final. Israel is imposing the final solution on us.” Other participants said they shuddered during the bombings, day and night.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan, write poignantly in the Guardian, how absurd it is that the United Nations General Assembly agrees to place Israel as a member nation of the UN.

Israel’s abusive repudiation of the very idea of ​​the United Nations, its increasing and lethal violation of countless international norms, its repeated and deadly attacks on UN sanctuaries and peacekeepers warrant its expulsion. Hasan reminds us that Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations destroyed the UN Charter while standing on the podium of the General Assembly. This is the Charter that declares the UN’s mission to eradicate the scourge of war for future generations.
It is time for the clouds to part over the burning lands of Western Asia—for the sufferers there to be comforted and their merciless accusers rebuked by the assembled voice of humanity, by the agent who created Israel, and may, when he wills, “let justice rolling low as the waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” The work here is ours, and so the United Nations to demand, not beg, humanity from Israel and its imperial sponsor, the United States.