Brazil suggested a resolution favorable to Hamas at the UN, says opposition

Brazilian opposition parliamentarians said they had been alerted by Israeli sources that a draft text suggested by Itamaraty to be used as the basis for a UN Security Council resolution on the war in Israel has at least one point that could favor Hamas’ strategy . It concerns the order by the Israel Defense Forces for civilians to leave the northern area of ​​the Gaza Strip.

A People’s Gazette had access to two draft versions of the resolution received by two federal opposition deputies in the Chamber of Deputies. They asked not to be identified due to the seriousness of the matter. They stated, however, that the documents were leaked by Israeli diplomats interested in denouncing an alleged lobby Brazilian that could favor Hamas.

One of the documents is called “zero draft” and the other is a later version of that draft. In both, there is a warning ordering Israeli authorities to immediately revoke the order for the Palestinian civilian population to abandon the entire northern region of the Gaza Strip. The zero draft, supposedly proposed by Brazil, says:

The Security Council: 4. Urges the Israeli authorities to immediately revoke their order that civilians and UN personnel evacuate all areas of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza and move to southern Gaza.

The later version has minimal changes that do not change the meaning of the text.

Israel’s objective with the order would be to prevent members of the civilian population from being killed or injured, as its forces were planning to launch a ground offensive to take Gaza City, used by Hamas to control the entire territory of the Gaza Strip.

This is because Hamas terrorists have been using the civilian population as a human shield against Israeli attacks. According to analysts, the deaths of Palestinian children and women serve Hamas’ interests doubly: as a means of recruiting Palestinians in search of revenge and as a tool in the media war to reduce the freedom of action of Israeli troops.

The order to evacuate the population is also a way of countering Hamas’ practice of mixing its headquarters and weapons storage facilities with civilian facilities, including hospitals, schools and day care centers, which is in itself a war crime.

Thus, the UN’s possible opposition to the removal of civilians from the battlefield through the Security Council resolution has the potential to undermine Israeli military strategy.

Prior notice is provided for in the Geneva Conventions

The 1977 “Additional Protocol I” to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which form the basis of International Humanitarian Law (Conflict Law), says that “in the event of an attack that may affect the civilian population, a notice, in a timely manner and by effective means, unless circumstances do not permit it.”

Israel has not signed the protocol, but the provision of issuing an early warning also exists in Customary Humanitarian Law, whose source is the customs applicable to wars, according to Colonel Carlos Cinelli, professor of International Humanitarian Law at PUC-Minas and the Escola Superior de Defense.

Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions says that forced population transfers are prohibited unless the “security of the population or compelling military reasons so require”, says the text of the treaty.

According to Cinelli, without all the information from the battlefield it is not possible to say with certainty in which case Israel’s order for civilians to leave the north of the Gaza Strip applies.

“But, in theory, if we can assume that Israel acts in good faith, and considering that a massive Israeli attack on the region is imminent, these provisions of humanitarian norms will possibly be used to legally justify certain decisions reflected on the ground.”

Israel extended the deadline for the displacement of civilians

UN Secretary-General Antônio Guterres acknowledged the acts of terror carried out by Hamas, but also made public statements criticizing the Israeli order to displace the population of northern Gaza. “Moving more than a million people through a densely populated war zone to a place without food, water and accommodation, when the entire territory is under siege, is very dangerous and in some cases simply impossible,” he said.

His speech did not take into account that the presence of civilians in an area that has the potential to become a battlefield carries a great risk. The statements, combined with the position of countries such as Saudi Arabia and China, may have led Israel to extend the deadline given for the civilian population to leave the area before the ground offensive.

Palestinian authorities say they fear that the population will no longer be allowed to return to the region. They denounce siege activity, which is not allowing essential goods to enter the territory – an action that is considered a war crime.

Does Brazil have the power to influence the UN decision?

Brazil holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council in October. In this capacity, he called an emergency meeting last week and can now try to influence diplomatic negotiations that could lead to the adoption of a Security Council resolution on the war in Israel. Negotiations on the resolution are expected to continue throughout the week.

What Brazilian diplomats can do is suggest a text for the resolution. But the country does not have the diplomatic weight to force any course of action. In total, 12 countries must vote. To be approved, the text must have the support of 9 nations and not be vetoed by any permanent member (United States, Great Britain, France, Russia or China). It is known that Russia prepares its own text in spite of other countries.

Therefore, it is unlikely that the text proposed by Brazil will be the final version of the resolution. But the draft would highlight the Brazilian position of not supporting Israel, according to parliamentarians interviewed by the report. People’s Gazette.

Resolution text calls Hamas a terrorist, different from Brazil’s previous position

The first version of the draft resolution had the following wording (which also did not undergo major changes in the second version):

The Security Council 1. Strongly condemns the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel from 7 October 2023 and the taking of civilian hostages.

In other words, Hamas’ actions are directly characterized as terrorism in the text. This is a designation that the Brazilian government had been trying to avoid because it does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, unlike what the United States and European countries do. It is not clear why it was included in the text by Itamaraty.

The draft also calls for the “immediate and unconditional release of all civilian hostages.” The initial interpretation is that this would be an affirmation of support for Israel. However, only constituted States are politically affected by this type of declaration. Non-state organizations like Hamas do not have their freedom of action diminished due to political pressure.

In other words, a terrorist group like Hamas would be unlikely to release hostages just because the UN requested it. A State like Israel must seriously consider the political weight of a Security Council resolution and may even reverse the evacuation order from the north of the Gaza Strip.

Draft brings reasonable proposals for pauses in war and humanitarian corridors

Another point in the draft goes against Israel’s strategy by proposing the implementation of pauses in combat and the establishment of humanitarian corridors to allow the entry of basic survival items into the Gaza Strip.

If the resolution is adopted with this wording, the Brazilian initiative would also be a political victory for Hamas, which has been criticizing the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip and the failure to establish humanitarian corridors to take the civilian population from Gaza to Israel and to allow the entry of medicines and basic survival items.

But humanitarian breaks and corridors are essential for the survival of civilians and are in line with international humanitarian law. These are also measures supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Therefore, Israel needs to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip and determine specific routes and times, as it has been doing, so that the civilian population can reach safer areas.

Similarly, the draft also demands the end of all measures that result in the deprivation of civilians of essential goods for their survival, including electricity, water, fuel, food and medical supplies.

Itamaraty was contacted, but did not respond to the questions raised by the report. People’s Gazette about the drafts that would be presented to the UN, until the publication of this article.