After Gaza bloodshed, UN mulls protecting Palestinians
The odds of the UN passing a resolution to send a protective force to the Palestinian territories are slim, but recent violence there has given the proposal legs.
Following Israel's bloody crackdown on Gaza Strip demonstrators in May, some Middle East groups are calling for an international force to protect Palestinian citizens.
The violence was especially deadly May 14 at the Gaza-Israel border; some 60 Palestinians were killed and hundreds were wounded. Palestinians were commemorating the Nakba — the day Israel was formed in 1948, displacing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians — and protesting the United States moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The struggles began March 30 with the Great Return March and continued throughout and beyond the six-week event. This led Palestinian, Arab and Muslim groups to call for other countries to become involved in protecting Palestinians. Skynews Arabia reported April 21 that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded that Riyad Mansour, the permanent observer of Palestine to the UN, press the UN to protect the Palestinian people.
Moreover, Mansour Al-Otaibi, Kuwait's permanent UN representative, on May 16 urged the UN Security Council to issue a resolution “to provide civilians with international protection." The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Islamic Summit Conference in Istanbul on May 18 also called for an international force to be dispatched.
