US Denounces Human Rights
Mark Maxey
“I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from human rights commitments,” US Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, told the media. “On the contrary, we take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”
This was a joint statement made by Haley and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on why the United States was removing themselves from the UN Human Rights Council, in June 2018. The Council was established in 2006.
“Let me be crystal clear, the US has been, always been, an abuser of human rights. Their manifest destiny themed ideology has crucified, burned, and killed persons of color since 1776”, Mark Maxey, National Coordinator for Movement 4 People’s Democracy said.
Trump’s disastrous immigration policy of today reflects the same ideology that has been deployed as a weapon against Indigenous cultures from the 1600s to the present. He denounces immigrants as rapists, killers, and animals—implying they must all come from an inferior culture. When his supporters claim that detained children are better off in detention than they were with their parents, the belief in (white) American society’s superiority is on full display.
Early reformers used their religious beliefs to justify their Manifest Destiny perspective. It overflowed into Congress, which passed Manifest Destiny-themed bills. Indigenous people, meanwhile, were on the receiving end of this religious zealotry. Rape, abuse, kidnap, murder, and genocide were the end results for them. The recent quoting of Biblical scripture by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to justify the stealing of immigrant children from their parents shows that this ideology is still very much alive among at least some sectors of the U.S. government.
Capitalism is still playing into the mythology of white Manifest Destiny, which goes back to the earliest colonial settlements. Trump’s policies are aimed at stoking the racist anger and resentment of his mass base, but they reflect the interests of the same oligarchy that Sen. Bernie Sanders assailed in his bid for the presidency. In every way, the current administration’s policies show favoritism to those at the top and seek any way possible to divide those outside the ranks of the super-wealthy.
The US Congress, and the whole government is out of touch with reality. As it relates to Human Rights. “The UN Human Rights Council has always been a problem. Instead of focusing on real human rights issues, the council has used its time and resources to bully Israel and question Israel’s legitimacy as a sovereign state,” Rep. Eliot Engel, the ranking Democratic member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said in a statement June 2018.. “But the way to deal with this challenge is to remain engaged and work with partners to push for change.
Let’s talk openly and honestly about Palestine and Israel. Just look at these images on how Israel has usurped and stolen land from the Palestinian people. Israel has used the same manifest destiny ideology to go above and beyond the UN agreement signed in 1947. No wonder the US is in agreement with Israel, just ask any Indigenous Nation with a Treaty signed by the US and not followed by the US.
The struggles of the Palestinian people is real. A heavy aura of Zionist oppression was felt when I was in Palestine in 2016. Ironic that in such a place where the human history of a love revolution from God took place, such chaos explodes across the pristine landscape.
In 1947 the boundaries set in agreement with the Jewish Nation and Palestine gave a well-defined area of ownership of land for the Palestinians. However, through the years Israel has encroached and usurped land illegally from the Palestinians. Presently the map reflects 75% less than given by the UN in 1947. “Let’s be honest, this present situation (Al-Aqsa) is about occupation,” Imam Imad Enchassi says. “The Palestinians desire their own recognized state. One man, one vote.”
Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, outlined his vision for a Jewish state in his publication called Der Judenstaat(The Jewish State), published in February 1896.
Ralph Schoenman, in his book, The Hidden History of Zionism, says, “the objective of Zionism has never been merely to colonize Palestine – as was the goal of classical colonial and imperial movements during the 19th and 20th centuries. The design of European colonialism in Africa and Asia was, essentially, to exploit indigenous peoples as cheap labor while extracting natural resources for exorbitant profit.” You can read the full book online here. This ideology was set forth in 1896 by Herzl. It became reality in 1947. Taking 51 years of indoctrination to see the rise of this racist mentality become a government of oppression, Israel. I am not being anti-Semitic because Zionism is a nationalist mentality, not a race of persons nor a religion. Zionism again is no different than the current rise of alt-right nationalism under the Trump administration.
AIDA Camp, Palestine, Memorializing the children massacred in July 2014 (photo by Mark Maxey)
AIDA camp, Palestine, art graffiti on the WALL that separates Israel and Palestine (photo by Mark Maxey)
President Trumps heralds a new deal with relationships with Israel. Trumps administration clearly impedes upon the democracy Palestine seeks. It is preferential treatment against the victims (Palestine) from the oppression heavily used by the Israeli government.
While in Palestine (West Bank) June 2015 for two weeks I saw how Israel’s occupation impacts human rights for Palestinians. Israel controls their movement, right to travel, water supply, and the building of their homes. This heavy-handed oppression by Israel fuels the anger Palestinians have. Many Palestinian Muslims approached me with smiles thanking me for coming. But they all said, “Please tell your government not to fund weapons used against us.” America gives Israel approximately 40 Billion dollars a year. The travel of any Palestinians is maniacally controlled by the IDF. Sometimes IDF holds Palestinians up to 12 hours to simply walk to Jerusalem (less than a mile) to purchase food.
I witnessed the IDF bring bulldozers inside Palestine, West Bank. The reason was stated no building permit was issued, while the Palestinian was waving his permit in the air. The Palestinians are defenseless against the martial law enforced by Israel. Palestinians are denied a nation and citizenship rights by the Zionist policies of the Israeli government.
“The council ceases to be worthy of its name,” US Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said, explaining the U.S. withdrawal. “Such a council, in fact, damages the cause of human rights.” What a line of bull manure that is. The US damages the cause of human rights daily.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said the U.S. focus on Israel’s treatment has actually caused American officials to lose sight of the good work the council has done elsewhere.
“The U.N. Human Rights Council has played an important role in such countries as North Korea, Syria, Myanmar and South Sudan, but all Trump seems to care about is defending Israel,” Roth said in a statement to NPR. “Like last time when the U.S. government stepped away from the Council for similar reasons, other governments will have to redouble their efforts to ensure the Council addresses the world’s most serious human rights problems.”
And Richard Gowan, a fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, told NPR’s Michele Kelemen that there is another potential issue muddying the waters of this decision: the recent condemnations leveled at the Trump administration’s immigration policies by international human-rights officials.
In a span of fewer than two months, U.S. officials have separated some 2,300 children from their parents after they crossed the border into the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security. And the administration’s policy has attracted a sharp rebuke from the U.N. high commissioner on human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein.
“The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” Raad al-Hussein said Monday, in comments opening the 38th session of the Human Rights Council.
Trump and his team’s “law and order” framework is the same one articulated by President Richard Nixon in the late 1960s and more subtly invoked by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton as they ramped up the drug war and fueled massive prison expansions during their times in office. We jail and separate families at the border to deter illegal immigration just as we jail and separate poor families within our country because they can’t afford bail or proper legal representation.
Simply put the US has always been a denier of Human Rights. Organizations such as Movement 4 People’s Democracy rallies support for true Human Rights. MPD brochure shows how they break through the chaff, the fascist walls of capitalism, and exposes the truth of Human Rights. The only reason the US left the UN Council for Human Rights, is because they are and support others that trample human rights.
