Geopolitical Economy Report
The vast majority of countries on Earth voted in the United Nations General Assembly for a proposed humanitarian truce in Gaza.
The United States was one of the few nations that voted against the measure.
Washington has protected and armed Israel as it has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and carries out an ethnic cleansing operation in the densely populated Gaza strip.
On October 27, the UN General Assembly held a vote on a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities”.
The final vote was 121 countries in favor of the humanitarian truce, with 14 countries against and 44 abstentions.
When the results were first reported, there was a mistake. Iraq said there was a technical error on its machine; Baghdad made it clear that it had not meant to abstain and had actually voted in support of the resolution.
So the real number was 121 countries in favor, not 120.
The vast majority of the Global South voted for the humanitarian truce. The only large countries in the Global South that abstained were India and the Philippines, both of which have right-wing governments that are allied with the United States.
Most nations in Asia and Africa supported the proposal. In Latin America, only a small handful of right-wing, US-allied governments voted against it or abstained.
Even a few countries in Europe backed the measure, including France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Switzerland.
The final vote would have been 122 if Venezuela were able to vote.
The South American nation has strongly supported Palestine. Venezuela does not have formal diplomat relations with Israel, and has accused Tel Aviv of genocide and apartheid, referring to it as the “murderer arm of the US empire”.
However, illegal US unilateral sanctions have prevented Venezuela from accessing its bank accounts and therefore paying its membership fees at the United Nations.
The illegal US blockade has therefore taken away Venezuela’s voice at the UN General Assembly.
In addition to this vote in the General Assembly, the United States used its veto power in the UN Security Council to kill a resolution calling for a ceasefire, which was drafted by Russia and voted on on October 16, as well as a measure proposing a humanitarian pause, which was introduced by Brazil and voted on on October 18.
