Presiden Joko Widodo menyampaikan sambutan saat menghadiri Forum Bisnis Indonesia-China di Beijing, China, Senin 16 Oktober 2023. Presiden Jokowi mengajak para pengusaha China untuk datang dan berinvestasi ke Indonesia dalam kerangka kerja sama yang saling menguntungkan. ANTARA FOTO/Desca Lidya Natalia
Presiden Joko Widodo mengutuk keras serangan Israel ke Gaza, termasuk menargetkan rumah sakit, hingga menimbulkan banyak korban jiwa.
"Ini jelas pelanggaran terhadap hukum humaniter internasional," tegas Jokowi dalam video pernyataan dari Riyadh, Arab Saudi yang diunggah Sekretariat Kabinet pada hari Kamis, 19/10/2023.
Jokowi menekankan, Indonesia tidak akan tinggal diam dengan semakin banyaknya penderitaan dan ketidakadilan terhadap rakyat Palestina.
Untuk itu, Indonesia, bersama Organisasi Kerjasama Islam (OKI) mendesak dunia untuk menghentikan eskalasi dan penggunaan kekerasan, serta fokus pada masalah kemanusiaan dan menyelesaikan akar persoalan, yaitu pendudukan Israel atas Palestina.
"Indonesia tidak akan tinggal diam melihat korban sipil terus berjatuhan," ucapnya.
"Sekaranglah saatnya dunia berdiri bersama membangun solidaritas global untuk menyelesaikan masalah Palestina secara adil dan menerapkan parameter internasional yang telah disepakati," imbuh Jokowi.
Lebih lanjut, Jokowi menuturkan, Indonesia akan terus menyuarakan isu Palestina dalam setiap kesempatan. Salah satunya dalam KTT ASEAN-GCC pada Jumat (20/10) dan pertemuan bilateral dengan Perdana Menteri Arab Saudi Mohammed bin Salman.
Dozens of activists held a demonstration before a sitting of the UN's independent Human Rights Committee in Geneva on Wednesday, as US Ambassador to the organization's Human Rights Council Michele Taylor delivered a speech defending Washington’s human rights record.
According to the Associated Press, as many as 140 protesters traveled from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Guam, among others, to protest Taylor’s speech. When she began her address, the activists, who were sitting throughout the chamber, stood up and turned their backs to the US ambassador.
Taylor’s speech came amid the first scheduled US human rights record review in nine years. The Human Rights Committee evaluated the country’s efforts and uphold its commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
ENOUGH! Today the Dignity Delegation along w/civil society orgs from the US turned our backs in silent protest against the US Ambassador Michelle Taylor as she spoke at the end of the #UN Human Rights Cttee Review of the US. Protect our dignity & human rights. #StartWithDignitypic.twitter.com/Xj7Yd1K77o
The ambassador insisted that Washington’s commitment to the treaty was “a moral imperative at the very heart of our democracy” and claimed that the US “leads by example through our transparency, our openness and our humble approach to our own human rights challenges.”
“You have heard over the past two days about many of the concrete ways we are meeting our obligations under the convention, and you have also heard our pledge to do more,” said Taylor, adding that she recognizes that “the topics raised are often painful for all of us to discuss.”
However, US representatives who had traveled to the event to share their personal stories of pain and trauma said that the US delegation “decided to stick to scripted, general, and often meaningless responses” to questions from the Human Rights Committee.
“At times it seemed that AI-generated responses would have been more qualitative,” said Jamil Dakwar, the human rights program director at the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We all feel deceived by a government that has said it is going to do better than the administrations before it but has simply just repeated language out of binders they brought and websites they read and did not meaningfully engage in the topics we had shared with them,” Alliance San Diego Executive Director Andrea Guerrero was quoted as saying by the TAG24 News.
“Their words are meaningless without actions,” she added. “Actions speak louder than words. That's why we turned our backs today.”
The UN Human Rights Committee regularly reviews the observance of human rights by all countries that have signed the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Currently, the pact has been ratified by 173 states, including Russia.
The questions posed by Russia to the United States and Ukraine about their military biological program remain unanswered and need to be addressed, Russian Foreign Ministry Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Department Deputy Director Kosntantin Vorontsov stated on Wednesday.
"Our well-founded questions to the US and Ukraine have yet to receive a proper response. They remain open and need to be addressed," Vorontsov stressed during a meeting of the UN General Assembly First Committee.
Vorontsov pointed out that Russia has provided a "mass of evidence" regarding the US military biological program and emphasized that the facts regarding its implementation in Ukraine with the support of the Defense Department and affiliated entities requires close attention.
"The projects carried out in Ukrainian laboratories lead to the conclusion that biological weapons components were being developed in close proximity to Russian territory," Vorontsov emphasized.
Since March 2022, Russia has repeatedly accused the United States of conducting in Ukraine biological research for military purposes. Russia has pointed out that up to 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine were likely involved in biological weapons production. The United States has denied the allegation.
US Bio-Programs Likely Pursuing 'Race-Targeted' Viruses, Russian Security Chief Says
In February 2022, the Russian Defense Ministry discovered the existence of 30 US-funded military biological laboratories in Ukraine. Russia also said that the labs revealed in Ukraine constituted only a small part of a global network of over 300 similar facilities.
Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said that Moscow is particularly concerned by the Pentagon's biolabs operating in Central Asia, similar to those it used to run in Ukraine and Georgia. These labs are capable of creating "race-specific" viruses, Patrushev specified.
Patrushev urged his Central Asian colleagues to cooperate and coordinate more closely on biosecurity issues, including within the framework of bilateral memorandums already concluded.
The United States and the United Kingdom seek to destabilize the situation in Central Asian countries in order to warrant the expansion of NATO's military presence in the region, Patrushev said.
"Central Asia has become a priority target of their information influence to establish control over the population. The manipulation of public opinion by Washington and London is aimed at aggravating the internal political situation, pressuring the authorities and forming a stratum of the population that shares values alien to the centuries-old traditions of Central Asian peoples," Patrushev said at the inaugural Russia-Central Asia meeting of security council chiefs in Kazakhstan.
Its purpose is to create ploys to expand NATO's military presence in the region, and this can be done by taking advantage of the security risks emanating from Afghanistan, the Russian security chief said.
"The Americans and the British are trying to manipulate the terrorist insurgency in Afghanistan to their advantage by provoking tensions on the borders with Central Asian countries. Given the interest of Afghanistan's neighbors in strengthening their borders and improving the training and equipping their security forces, the United States and its NATO allies are seeking to expand their presence in Central Asia and create more opportunities to influence them," Patrushev said.
Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour speaks at the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the United Nations on October 18, 2023 in New York. (AFP)
The permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the UN on Wednesday expressed disbelief that “some still speak of the right to self-defense of a power that seeks the forced transfer and annihilation” of Palestinians.
Riyad Mansour was speaking during a Security Council meeting to discuss the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. It followed a vote in which the US vetoed a draft resolution that called for “humanitarian pauses” in the conflict and condemned the attack on Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7. As justification for the decision, America’s envoy cited the failure of the resolution to mention “Israel’s right to self-defense.”
The meeting took place amid the biggest escalation in the war since it began, a day after an attack on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza on Tuesday that killed hundreds of patients and civilians who had been asked to shelter in the hospital. Israel accuses the Palestinian armed group Islamic Jihad of carrying out the attack.
“Had this council called for a ceasefire two days ago, it would have saved hundreds of lives,” Mansour told council members, referring to a previous draft resolution proposed by Russia on Monday. It had also called for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds but was similarly voted down by the council. Those members who voted against it cited as their reason its failure to mention Hamas.
“Stop the bloodshed. I repeat, stop the bloodshed,” Mansour told the council, adding that “killing Palestinians will never, never make Israel more secure.”
He urged members to “heed the call of the UN secretary-general, of religious leaders around the world, the Pope, the Arab states, Muslim countries of the global south, billions of people around the world, including millions who marched in your streets. Listen to them and stop the bloodshed. Stop it now.”
Speaking on behalf of Gulf Cooperation Council member states, Omani envoy Mohammed Al-Hassan told the Security Council that its failure to stand united has resulted only in more bloodshed.
“For decades, this council has been unable to find a lasting, fair solution to the question of Palestine on the basis of the international law, including resolutions adopted by the council itself. The result is victims on both sides and full lack of security,” he said
He added that “double standards have led Israel to defy this council and its resolutions. Countless times, (Israel) has committed massacres against Palestinians.”
The massacre at Al-Ahli Hospital is a “dangerous escalation, and a violation of international law and international humanitarian law,” Al-Hassan said.
“Israel (is) tearing Palestinian civilians to pieces before the eyes of the world. Isn’t this a terrorist act and a flagrant violation of international law?” he asked the ambassadors.
“Israeli criminal acts, from causing famine to collective punishment, were practiced by Nazis in World War II and have no place in today’s world.”
He called for the council to uphold international law and added: “Prove to us that no one is above the law, even if it’s Israel.”
Speaking on behalf of the Arab Group at the UN, Jordanian envoy Mahmoud Hmoud said Arab countries condemn “in the strongest terms the massacre by the criminal IDF (Israel Defense Forces) of innocent civilians who were receiving care” in Al-Ahli Hospital. Israel is solely responsible for “this heinous war crime,” he added.
Hmoud, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Arab Group, urged the Security Council to take “immediate action for an immediate ceasefire and end Israeli aggression on Gaza.”
He said the Israeli occupation is the reason that lies behind this conflict, and called for an independent Palestinian state to be established based on 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, “if we want peace and security.”
Egypt’s permanent representative to the UN, Osama Abdelkhalek, described the attack on Al-Ahli Hospital as an “attempt to uproot Palestinian people and drive them away from their territority.”
He added: “This war did not begin on Oct. 8 but much earlier than that. It began when occupation began.”
He warned that “occupation cannot go on. Israel’s crimes cannot be overlooked.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, asked council members: “What is going on here? The most barbaric terrorist attacks in decades, bigger than 9/11, happened 10 days ago and it seems this council has already forgotten it, and I must remind some of you what happened.
“Hamas killed Holocaust survivors who escaped Nazis only to be killed in their living room.”
Dismissing calls for a two-state solution, he said the only solution for “curing a cancer is the evisceration of every cancerous cell, just as it was done with ISIS and Al-Qaeda.” ISIS is an alternative name for the terrorist group Daesh.
Erdan condemned the Security Council for not having done “the most basic thing,” adding: “You have not condemned, as a council, Hamas’ brutal terror attacks. It is unfathomable that you cannot unite even on that basic thing.”
He also accused council members of playing “the exact role that Hamas has written for you in their script of death and terror.”
He added: “Where was the UN when Hamas exploited billions of dollars in international aid to embed terror infrastructure within and below densely populated residential areas? Where were you? The UN knew all of this but remained silent.”
Erdan said it is “ludicrous” that the council is discussing humanitarian corridors instead of condemning Hamas atrocities.
“Calling for calm restraint and a ceasefire is like putting a band aid on a bullet wound,” he added.
Regarding the attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Tuesday, Erdan accused the Security Council, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, of taking claims made by “baby-killing terrorists at face value, without a second thought.”
The hospital was hit by, “and only by,” a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, he added, and Israel has footage to prove this “beyond any doubt.”
Washington has given “unlimited cover” to Israel since its air campaign against Gaza began, militant leader Ismail Haniyeh said
Hamas blames US for deadly hospital strike
By enabling Israel’s “brutality,” the US is ultimately responsible for the bombing of the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has declared. Haniyeh said that the bombing would “constitute a turning point” in his group’s struggle against the Jewish state.
“The Americans who gave unlimited cover bear responsibility for the Baptist [Hospital] massacre. Whoever supports Israel is responsible for its violations in Gaza,” he said in a televised statement on Tuesday night.
“The hospital massacre confirms the enemy’s brutality and the extent of his feeling of defeat,” Haniyeh continued, adding that “this massacre will constitute a turning point and a flood added to the flood of Al-Aqsa,” referring to the name of Hamas’ ongoing operation against Israel.
The Christian-run Al-Ahli Hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital, was destroyed in an apparent missile strike on Tuesday. Palestinian officials accused Israel of targeting the facility, while Israel blamed the blast on a wayward rocket fired by the Islamic Jihad militant group, despite a government spokesman seemingly taking responsibility immediately after the strike.
Some 471 Palestinians were killed and more than 314 wounded in the strike, the Palestinian Health Ministry stated on Wednesday, calling the attack “an Israeli massacre.”
At the time of the strike, Israeli warplanes had been conducting continuous airstrikes on Gaza for over a week. Throughout this time, American officials have expressed solidarity with Israel and pledged increased military aid to the Jewish state. Speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden claimed that the attack “was done by the other team, and not by you.”
Biden explained that he visited Israel “for a simple reason – I want the people of Israel and the people of the world to know where the US stands.”
The hospital's destruction sparked protests and riots across the Muslim world and led Jordan to cancel a planned summit between Biden and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Amid condemnation from Arab governments, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared on Wednesday that the “final responsibility” for the “war crime” at the hospital “lies with those who cynically make money from wars… With those who thoughtlessly distribute colossal amounts of money for weapons to load its military-industrial complex with work and falsely proclaim their global mission to protect democratic values. The United States of America.”
The US has vetoed Brazil’s UN effort to impose “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza
The US has vetoed Brazil’s UN effort to impose “humanitarian pauses” in Gaza and cancel Israel’s North Gaza evacuation order. In total, 12 countries voted in favor of the resolution. The UK and Russia abstained from voting. Moscow explained its decision by saying that the resolution lacked direct calls for a ceasefire. Earlier, the UN Security Council, specifically the US, UK, France, and Japan, rejected a Russian resolution on the matter, saying that the condemnation of Hamas in the proposed document was not strong enough.
Hamas will release proof that the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza had been “intentionally” struck by the Israeli forces, the Palestinian armed group’s spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, told Newsweek. “There’s a lot of evidence, eyewitnesses, and videos from Hamas about the occupation committing the Baptist Hospital massacre and the wreckage of rockets,” he insisted. Barhoum didn’t say when exactly this data will be made public.
US President Joe Biden was asked by reporters what made him support Israel’s claim that it had nothing to do with the deadly strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza. “The data I was shown by my Defense Department,” Biden replied.
Biden asked by reporters on what he is basing his assessment that the Gaza hospital blast was a failed rocket launch:
Israel’s Foreign Ministry has evacuated the staff of the country's embassies in Rabat, Morocco and Cairo, Egypt, Ynet reported, due to the protests which rocked the two Muslim nations in response to the IDF's deadly airstrikes on Gaza. The move comes as West Jerusalem has placed all of its diplomatic missions around the globe on high alert, the news outlet added.
The latest figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry suggest that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed and another 12,000 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on the enclave since October 7.
A total of 471 Palestinians were killed and more than 314 wounded in the strike on Al-Ahli hospital, Gaza Healthy Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra has said. He called the attack on the medical facility an “Israeli massacre.”
An Al Jazeera correspondent earlier reported from the scene that most of the victims were men and children, who were sleeping outside the facility when the missile hit the parking lot. Most of the women and babies were inside the building at the moment of the blast, he added.
The Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amirabdollahian has called on Muslim nations to slap restrictions on Israel over its continued bombardment of Gaza. During an urgent meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the Saudi city of Jeddah, Amirabdollahian proposed “an immediate and complete embargo on Israel by Islamic countries, including oil sanctions, in addition to expelling Israeli ambassadors if relations with the Zionist regime have been established,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
