Secretary-General Antnio Guterres has limited his role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to that of a town crier, expressing grave concern from time to time regarding the terrible Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and Israels collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza every day since then and long before. To change his legacy, Guterres should establish a truth commission, propose a UN transitional administration and present a peace plan to get us to the day after in Gaza and beyond.

Republished from Pass Blue, July 24, 2024

Over decades, UN resolutions have compelled Palestinian leaders to surrender 78 percent of Palestine to Israel to achieve a more peaceful, secure future for their children. What a cruel irony that in todays tragic reality 15,000Palestinian childrenhave been killed, nearly 20,000 orphaned and 50,000 maimed or injured in Israels vicious, plausibly genocidal war against the entire population of Gaza.

Guterres has repeatedly called for ahumanitarianceasefire while offering no good offices to facilitate an end to Israels killing spree or to secure the release of the one-hundred hostages still held by Hamas or the thousands of Palestinians, including children, still detained without charge by Israel.

At the outset, the secretary-general rightlydeclaredthat the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas and that those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Israel and its UN ambassador have repeatedly called on Guterresto resign for daring to recognise that the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. Guterres had the audacity to speak truth to power, saying that the Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation with their land steadily devoured by settlements and their hopes for a political solution . . . vanishing.

In December 2023, amid what Guterres called irreversible implications for Palestinians and the peace and security of the entire region, heinvoked Article 99of the UN Charter, merely to warn of what was known to all the risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza and to ask for the obvious: a humanitarian ceasefire that he or the UN humanitarian coordinator could have done without the fanfare of Article 99.

Seven months later, there is still no ceasefire, still no release of hostages or prisoners, still no end in sight to the mass atrocities being committed against the civilians of Gaza from the northern to the southern tip of the Godforsaken strip.

Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hasruledthat South Africas claims over Israels genocidal intent and conduct are plausible and that the Palestinian people in Gaza have the right to be protected from further killing, maiming and starvation. Additionally, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) requestedcriminal arrest warrants against the Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Israel as well as three Hamas leaders, charging them all with extermination and other war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Most recently, in its recentadvisory opinion issued on July 19, the ICJ determined that Israels occupation of Palestine, its racial discrimination against and separation of Palestinians and its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are unlawful and must end immediately; so too, it must stop the settlement construction and evacuate all the settlers. The court called on Israel as well as all states, international organisations and especially the General Assembly to take action to bring an end to Israels unlawful presence as rapidly as possible.

While the opinion is advisory, much of its substance is based on binding, or_jus cogens,_principles and mandatory, or_erga omnes,_obligations. These parts of the opinion are as binding on Israel as they are on all states.

Considering the developments in the international courts, it is time for the secretary-general to invoke Article 99 again not to issue warnings and make exhortations but to uphold international law and longstanding UN resolutions. He can take the reins of history not only to account for what has happened on and since Oct. 7 but also to chart a path to right the wrongs of the past and to realise a long-foreseen vision for the future.

Guterres can establish a Commission of Inquiry to set the record straight; recommend the establishment of a transitional administration to oversee the resurrection of Gaza and its reunification with the West Bank; and propose a peace plan for Israel and Palestine as well as the region. Such is the true value of the most powerful toolavailable to him under the UN Charter.

Commission of inquiry

The ICC and the Human Rights Council haveinvestigatedthe many crimes of Hamas and the far-more crimes of Israel. Yet the actual events of Oct. 7 have yet to be definitively established. To their credit, Israeli journalists and soldiers have exposed hard truths about the Israeli governments failings and lies. Haaretz, in particular, has provided details about the lead-up to and events of Oct. 7 that Western media have largely ignored. It has exposed Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahus effortsto bolster Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority as well as his dismissive attitude toward all the warnings and looming threats of Hamass preparations for a large-scale attack against Israel.

Haaretz has also revealed the Israeli commanders reinstatement ofthe Hannibal Directive, which caused some of the Israeli casualties on Oct. 7 andexposed as liesclaims of 40 beheaded babies and other such barbaric acts.

It is time for a high-level international, independent, impartial commission to set the record straight not only for what happened on Oct. 7 but also to establish the actual tolls of dead and injured among Israelis and Palestinians, so neither side can dismiss or dehumanise the sanctity of the others life. As he is required to do and as his predecessors have done, Guterres should also task the Commission to assess the unprecedented losses suffered by the UN itself, including UNRWA, regarding the number of UN and associated personnel killed and injured as well the number of UNRWA schools andhumanitarian aid convoysattacked.

UN transitional administration

Palestine is recognised as a state by the UN General Assembly and 75 percent of UN member states. The occupation, however, is a daily affront to Palestinian sovereignty and territorial integrity. Based on successful precedents, including East Timor, the secretary-general can propose a UN Transitional Administration led by an eminent person to be designated by him and reporting through him to the Security Council to carry out six essential steps: ensure the flow of humanitarian aid to the civilian population; restore the basic conditions of life; oversee the reconstruction of infrastructure; conduct long-overdue elections for new leadership of the Palestinian Authority; and facilitate the reunification of Gaza and the West Bank. Last but not least, the sixth imperative is that the transitional administration ensure sovereignty over Palestines natural resources, including those off the Gaza coast.

Most importantly, the transitional administration must include a parallel force to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and to protect Gazas civilians from further Israeli attacks. Inevitably, a UN presence would also help to prevent any attack by Hamas or others against Israel emanating from Gaza. Any day after plan for Gaza is far likelier to succeed if it has the consent of the Palestinian Authority and the political and financial support of the United States, Israel and the Arab states to ensure it fulfills its mandate.

Peace plan

Successive UN secretaries-general haveconvergedon the view that the best way to ensure the protection of the Palestinian and Israeli civilians is to end the Israeli occupation and to ensure a comprehensive, just and lasting peace. The General Assembly has consistently supportedthe two-state solutionbased on the pre-1967 borders. Even the Security Council, with American support, has called for an end to the Israeli occupation and, more recently,reiterated its unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-State solution where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders. It also stressed the importance of unifying the Gaza Strip with the West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.

With such weighty pronouncements by former secretaries-general, the General Assembly and the Security Council and recently the International Court of Justice, fertile ground has been laid for Guterres to launch a pledging conference for the reconstruction of Gaza, convene a peace conference and present a peace plan consistent with customary international law and longstanding UN resolutions.

With the courage and conviction of being on the right side of history, Guterres can save his legacy and shape the day after to fulfil the UNs promise of a more just, more secure and more peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

This is an opinion essay.