"[UNRWA's firings were a] small beginning. [The UN's] incoherent [position is notable]."

Firing people while refusing to acknowledge why reveals an institution still more interested in protecting itself and its Hamas-embedded workforce than in genuine neutrality or accountability."

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch

 

"Most of these alleged acts correspond to war crimes and, when perpetrated as part of a widespread or systematic attack, they would constitute crimes against humanity."

"There was a campaign to prevent that letter from going out. There were weeks of being bullied and deterred from writing it and telling me that everything in it was false."

"Some other special rapporteurs and working groups had wanted to sign on, but they also had been bullied by others not to sign on, and there was this concerted effort for this letter not to put on record some allegations that had been received."

UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards

The US Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General (USAID) submitted 101 more names for debarment or suspension based on their “participation” in the attack that killed 1,200 in Israel, including 46 US citizens. REUTERS

 

If there were any doubts over charges by Israeli intelligence that many UNRWA staff were members of Hamas, and that some of those members were present in southern Israel on 7 October 2023 when Hamas lead thousands of Palestinian terrorists on a deadly rampage through Israeli farming communities, towns and villages, and at a Nova Music Festival where thousands of music-loving young Israelis had gathered, and were subjected to mass rape, mutilation, murder and hostage-taking, that doubt was dispelled when UNRWA, given inescapable evidence, admitted that some of its hires were terrorists aligned with Hamas.

 

And then just a week ago the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine outright fired 70 of its employees, obviously in recognition of their deep ties to Gaza's terrorist groups. Canada's former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not need such blatant evidence of UNRWA's connection to terrorism. Its record of UNRWA schools teaching children in Gaza from curricula depicting Jews as enemies and exposing the children to music, stories, television series and plays emphasizing the importance of pledging allegiance to the noble jihad of bombing, shooting, knifing the 'enemy' set them up for life as martyrs.

 

And with a direct and clear vision of the UNRWA mission to maintain Palestinians as victims and 'refugees' in perpetuity, the Harper Conservative government cut off Canada's contributions to that grotesquely compromised arm of the UN. When the Liberals returned to govern Canada 11 years ago, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reinstituted Canada's payments to UNRWA, and now that same Liberal government under Marc Carney has done the same.

 

A tunnel shaft was found in 2023, near a school run by Naji Abu Aziz. govextra.gov.il

 

In the immediate wake of the UNRWA firing announcement, Canada's minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand announced $100 million of Canadian funding for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, which came to a total of $500 on top of earlier pledges. The latest donation, according to the minister was in support of the UN, Red Cross, Red Crescent and assistance-delivering NGOs in the region delivering aid to Palestine. The very 'State of Palestine' that PM Marc Carney joined the U.K., France, Spain and Australia in formally recognizing earlier in the year at the UN.

 

To add to what is well enough known of the waywardness of the UN regarding Israel, a special rapporteur for the UN has publicly revealed having been 'bullied' by colleagues for her efforts in attempting to reveal the scale of the atrocities that took place on October 7. An investigation by USAID earlier this month laid claim to 101 current or former UNRWA members -- principals, teachers, security personnel, attendants, psychosocial counsellors and medical professional being part of the October 7 massacre, which led to the 70 staff being fired.

 

At least 1,462 UNRWA employees in Gaza are members of Hamas, PIJ, or similar organizations—comprising nearly 12% of the agency's workforce in Gaza were verified up to this point

 

Yet UNRWA stated that "The dismissal of the staff is not part of a disciplinary process and does not constitute in any way a validation of the claims made against them", a statement which Hillel Neuer  of UN Watch made mincemeat of. And then the case of UN special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards, whose exploratory visit to Israel to document what had occurred on October 7, when everything she witnessed was laid out in a letter meant to be released to the public under the auspices of the United Nations, which she represented.

 

During that trip which Ms. Edwards personally funded, she witnessed evidence of murder, decapitation, torture, mutilation, the burning alive of people, sexual torture including gang rapes, mutilation of sexual organs, and hostage-taking. A severe backlash within the United Nations to the content of the letter was what resulted. Ultimately the adverse comments from her UN colleagues saw to it that "the letter shrank considerably", in content and impact. And that letter was then "transmitted" via the Permanent Mission of the State of Palestine in Geneva -- to Hamas. 

 

Mohammad Abu Itiwi has been employed by UNRWA since July 2022. On October 7th, 2023 Mohammad Abu Itiwi led the murderous attack on the bomb shelter on Route 232 in the area of Re'im in southern Israel in which **16 were murdered, 4 were kidnapped, and only 7 survived**.

 

"Our credibility depends on maintaining public confidence that human rights are applied universally."

"Where people perceive selectivity, double standards or political alignment, confidence is weakened."

"Politicization is not new to the United Nations; it reflects the divisions of the world it serves."

"No entity -- state or non-state -- should be left without scrutiny."

Alice Edwards, UN special rapporteur on torture 

"From the General Assembly resolution 3379 in 1975, which called Zionism 'a form of racism'; through the 2001 Durban human rights conference; to the 2003 election of a representative of Libya's Col. Qaddafi as chair of the Human Rights Council, the UN's veneer of legitimacy has worn thin."

John Ivison, journalist, National Post 

The Security Council chamber at the United Nations in New York City. Photo by Spencer Platt /Getty Images

 

Once a year the UN's Economic and Social Council's [ECOSOC], 54 members which centrally coordinates the UN's work on economic, social and environmental issues, nominates a list of countries to join the UN Committee for Program and Coordination [CPC], which are generally confirmed. Currently the ECOSOC membership includes the United States, Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Canada, among many other countries. A week ago nominations for the CPC came up for debate. The Islamic Republic of Iran was one of those nominated. And the United States was the only ECOSOC member to dissent over its nomination, declaring Iran unfit to sit on the CPC.

 

In another month the CPC will take to reviewing United Nations programs that address gender equality, disarmament and terrorism prevention. Certainly, Iran knows a great deal about all three issues. And as a world-leader in abuse of women's rights, and the ultimate resistor-country to disarmament, as well as the globally-acknowledged leader in the promotion of terrorism, it could conceivably act as a poster for all that has gone wrong in human rights under its theistic rule. Other than that, what could it possibly add of any value to those items? 

 

Canada was one of the ECOSOC members, along with Germany, France, Spain, and the U.K. to rubber-stamp the Iranian nomination to the CPC -- and just coincidentally Iran had been elected to the group previously, in 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2023, as astonishingly corrupt as that might appear to any befuddled mind that continues to cling to the belief that the United Nations is a global institution whose mandate is one of promoting human rights and world peace. 

 

United Nations Headquarters   Image courtesy of Nils Huenerfuerst on Unsplash

 

The following Tuesday in the House of Commons, Opposition Conservative MP Michael Chong, foreign affairs critic, questioned Canada's supine agreement for Iran. Foreign Affairs minister Anita Anand informed  him that there was nothing Canada could do: "As the position was uncontested, there was no opportunity for a vote", she explained. But the opportunity was there to object and Canada failed that metric of responsibility. "Canada will continue to work closely with partners to actively counter Iran's candidacies in UN bodies and will do so on all occasions", she emphasized, having just done otherwise. 

 

But then, of course, she was only relying on the outstanding leadership example of the leader of the Liberal party, Prime Minister Mark Carney, to lead the way on sanctimonious cynicism, as when in January his speech in Davos included this humdinger: "There is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety. It won't."

 

According to Canadian lawyer Hillel Neuer of UN Watch in Geneva, Anand's position  was "misleading". Canada could have acted with principle, but failed to. It had the opportunity to force a vote on the nominations, at the very least could have done what the U.S. did, to disassociate from the consensus that rubber-stamped Iran's committee membership, once again. The U.S. ambassador to ECOSOC made that abundantly clear, and included Cuba and Nicaragua. 

"To be clear, Canada joined the consensus in endorsing Iran and others, and it was not obliged to."

"I would say this is typical. Much of what happens at the UN is very cynical. If you want to be principled, you are going to be very busy and it is going to be unpleasant."

"Diplomats believe it is good to get along with as many countries as possible It is much easier to go along to get along."

"[Placing] serial abusers [at the helm of human rights at the UN is] like putting Al Capone in charge of fighting organized crime".

Hillel Neuer, UN Watch 

Iran secures UN role with backing from UK, France, Canada, Australia as US stands alone

 

"[The Board of Peace would] work with many others, including the United Nations."

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever in conjunction with the United Nations. You know, I've always said the United Nations has got tremendous potential."

"Every one of them [those signing on the 'Board of Peace'] is a friend of mine. A couple, let's see, a couple I like, a couple I don't like."

"No, I like, actually, this group. I like every single one of them, can you believe it? Usually I have about two or three that I can't stand." 

"[I wish that] we didn't need a Board of Peace [but the UN had failed to help solve the world's conflicts]."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump, centre, sits with leaders of other countries during a signing ceremony for his 'Board of Peace' initiative aimed at resolving global conflicts, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

"I think what you're seeing is a board that has been cobbled together for Gaza with much bigger aspirations. But with a set of skills and a set of people that is really very Middle East centric, and I think has quite little relevance to crises outside of that region."

"Yes, the UN has very serious problems. But I think that doesn't mean that Europeans [and] many others — in South America, for example — want to see a world in which the White House, in which Trump, in which Americans acquire disproportionate power over these sorts of decisions."

"This is not just a contest that the U.S. can shape by itself and say, 'I'm done with the UN, it's over.' The Chinese will keep playing this game. Very powerful rising countries like Brazil and India will have a stake in the UN, and they will seek to influence its agencies and bodies more and more as the U.S. draws back." 

Shashank Joshi, defence editor, The Economist  

President Donald Trump in Davos officially launched his Board of Peace initiative, claiming his very personal project so dear to his heart which may yet gain him 2026's nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize, joined on stage by his board's founding members comprised of political allies such as President Javier Milei of Argentina, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and representatives from Bahrain, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

 

All of whom were pleased to join Mr. Trump at the document signing table where the board's charter was declared to be 'in full force', as an "official international organization". Phase two of the Peace Plan is set to proceed, despite the fact that Phase one has not been fully implemented. And considering the critical nature of fully implementing the first portion of the plan focusing on dismantling and disarming the Hamas terrorist group governing Gaza, to follow on seems a trifle premature. It represents, in fact, a failure.

 

Not according to Mr. Trump who considers the initial peace plan phase successful, emphasizing his intention and that of the United States to have Gaza 'properly rebuilt'. There are some heads of state who, given the uncertainties that lie ahead and their concerns regarding the makeup of the board's membership who prefer to hang back before finalizing their decisions to join, and others who are certain there is no good reason for them to be part of the notional planned success. 

 

US President Donald Trump (C) speaks during the Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on October 13, 2025. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

 

American allies, part of the Group of Seven, remain uneasily on the sidelines. Originally the board was proposed to help oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. A broader purpose has been newly revealed: to "secure enduring peace on areas affected or threatened by conflict", a vision that places many U.S. allies on alert, concerned there is a hidden agenda to rival and perhaps replace the traditional 'relevance' of the United Nations.

 

That a new draft plan suggests countries joining the board contribute $1 billion each should they wish to  place themselves past the initial three-year registration to permanent status, may have taken many aback. The view being that Mr. Trump will remain its chairman in perpetuity, making all the decisions as its "inaugural chairman". The invitation extended to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus's Alexander Lukashenko certainly persuaded Volodymyr Zelenskyy to politely turn down his own invitation, while raising eyebrows throughout Europe.

 

Altogether some 60 leaders were given invitations to join. France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Germany have declined their invitations. Canada accepted, but given its trade overtures to Beijing that followed, has been  summarily disinvited.  The UN Security Council had originally endorsed the Gaza plan, but may since have had second thoughts.

 

 

 

Lionizing Francesca Albanese

"Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history."

"Colonial endeavours and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector."

"Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands -- a mode of domination known as 'colonial racial capitalism'."

"This is a political economy that was always eliminatory and has turned into genocidal mode."

"This is a necessary step to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that has allowed it." 

Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories 

 

"[Her] biased and malicious activities [have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur with the United Nations]."

"[Albanese has been busy] writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defence, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC [International Criminal Court] pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives."

"We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty."

"Albanese has spewed  unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West." 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

Francesca Albanese meets with NDP member Salma Zahid  Photo: X

 

Francesca Albanese's full-blown Critical Race Theory embrace in lock-step with her vile inbred brand of antisemitism pretty well sums up and exemplifies both behind-the-scenes and the upfront stand of the United Nations and its body of member-states weighed heavily in favour of the agenda of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in concert with the non-aligned bloc of nations who unfailingly vote for any move to censure Israel within the general assembly of the international group. Her outright reviling of the State of Israel, demonizing it at every opportunity lays bare the level of Jew-hate that has become ever more blatant and demeaning of civilized societies.

 

The provocations that spew from the mouth of this rapporteur are heard to great acclaim in the UN's general body, despite that as a global union purportedly in support of universal peace and harmony, in favour of human rights and respect for sovereignty of all its member-states, can countenance and approve of one tiny country re-established on its own historical ancestral territory as a democratic, inclusive nation tolerant of other religions and ethnic groups with full citizenship in the country yet can be vilified and sanctioned repeatedly while dictatorial regimes that oppress their citizens and threaten their neighbours are never sanctioned for their rejection of human rights.

 

Ms. Albanese issued a report in July: Forever-Occupation, genocide, and profit. Evidently one too many irritants for the Trump government in Washington, which has now sanctioned her. Her demand for "accountability for corporate entities and their executives at both the domestic and international levels" holds capitalism to account for the war being waged in Gaza by Israel against Hamas following the October 7, 2023 mass invasion of southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists on a vicious rampage of organized rape and savagery that resulted in the death of 1,200 people, the abduction into Gaza as hostages of another 250 Israeli children, women, elderly and foreign farm workers.

 

Alhough Albanese cited genocide no fewer than 59 instances in her report, mention of Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine merited no mention whatever, much less the role they have played in conducting countless suicide attacks against Israelis, mounting organized Intifadas, threatening Israel's extermination and in the process ensuring that peace could never be achieved between the Jewish state and its near neighbours who foment demonizing propaganda to convince sympathetic Western observers of Palestinian victimhood.

 

The popular myth that Palestinians want a 'state of their own', and that once granted that state all would be well, has been dashed time and again when Palestinian leaders have outright refused conciliatory offers from Israel that would establish a Palestinian state in exchange for recognition of Israel's right to exist. What the Palestinians do want is the erasure of Israel and the entire region -- Israel, Gaza and the West Bank to be handed to the Palestinians 'from the river to the sea'. And until that occurs Palestinians have pledged to continue their violent campaigns against peace with Israel.

 

Although the Albanese report refers continually to Post-October 2023, no mention whatever is made of October 7, 2023, that infamous date of Palestinian terrorists flooding into Israel on their mission of planned-and-executed mass sadistic cruelty. Instead she continues to link Israel with Fascist Germany, the perpetrators of the WWII Holocaust with its campaign to murder all of Europe's Jewish population, and which succeeded to the degree that six-million Jewish children, women and men of all ages died in the most gruesome circumstances of a state-organized death machine.

 

As for the United Nations' code of conduct for special rapporteurs -- that they uphold the highest standards of "probity, impartiality equity, honesty and good faith" -- it obviously was never meant to apply to its views and conduct with respect to Israel alone of all the UN's 193 member-nations. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- Francesca Albanese's shameful conduct, the United Nations saw nothing amiss in re-appointing her to a second three-year term as special rapporteur. 

 

She certainly has her supporters who wholeheartedly agree with all the sinister motivations and actions she attributes to Israel. Those whose sympathies lie strictly with solidarity with the Palestinians, who portray themselves as victims, forcefully exiled from their traditional heritage land, which they just happened to migrate to in the last century in a search for prospects for prosperity than what would accrue to them in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. And where they declared themselves not an assortment of Arabs from the outer region, but 'Palestinians' when that designation was used during the Roman era to denote the Jewish population.

 

Her supporters in Ireland, Italy and in Canada -- through the auspices of Canada's New Democratic Party -- have nominated Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize, lauding her commitment to peace and freedom as pertains Palestinians, pointedly excluding Jews. And a Change.org petition has been announced to gather signatures for her Nobel prize nomination. All stops out to achieve recognition for her noble work and the reward it obviously merits.

 

 

 

"As a former UN official, as the Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, and as a Canadian, I am horrified to see a United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, engage in Holocaust distortion and inversion."

Deborah Lyons, Canadian Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism 

 

"Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is the perfect recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize."

"It is time to recognise her work as the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, and her tremendous and courageous work to highlight the destruction of Gaza by Israel. At a time when politicians in Europe and America are failing to step up to the plate for peace, Albanese continues to work in a hostile international environment to bring an end to the war in Gaza, to bring about a lasting peace and to save lives in Palestine."

"Albanese stands as a counterweight to the hypocrisy of politicians–especially in Europe and the United States–from whom one would expect efforts to end the carnage in Gaza and the West Bank, rather than the prevailing support, tolerance, or wilful ignorance of Israeli war crimes."

Labour’s MEP for Dublin Aodhán Ó Ríordáin nominates Francesca Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize with S&D colleagues

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning"

"On 26 January, in response to allegations received orally from Israeli officials regarding the alleged involvement of 12 UNRWA staff in the 7 October attack against Israel, and upon ascertaining that the individuals were indeed UNRWA staff members, the UNRWA Commissioner-General decided to immediately terminate the appointments of these staff “in the interest of the Agency,” in accordance with applicable staff regulations, in order to protect its ability to deliver humanitarian assistance. This decision was communicated through a statement."

UNRWA Website

 

"More than 100 employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are involved in terrorism, some holding simultaneous positions within Hamas and the Agency, Israel’s delegate told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today while representatives of States in the region and beyond expressed concern about that country’s systematic disinformation campaign against the Agency."

"It was an UNRWA social worker who kidnapped Jonathan Samerano from Kibbutz Be’eri, Israel’s delegate said, as she recalled how three years ago in the Fourth Committee, she had urged UNRWA to be accountable for the hateful indoctrination of children in its classrooms.  Her country had cautioned about “rockets and terror tunnels found underneath UNRWA schools in Gaza” and “textbooks calling Jews Satan’s helpers”.  However, its warnings went unheeded.  The 7 October events show a deep infiltration of the Agency, with employees taking part in the “abhorrent” acts of violence."

"Over the years, Israel has presented evidence that some UNRWA teachers were terrorists, some aid workers were murderers and certain classrooms were used as weapons storage sites, she said.  These neutrality breaches were never investigated.  Accusing UNRWA schools of “spreading anti-Semitic and jihadist ideologies” with “mathematical lessons centered on counting murders and suicide bombers”, she questioned UNRWA’s claims of school curriculum promoting gender equality, respect and tolerance.  Calling for accountability, she said her country “will not accept that aid flows through an organization complicit in terror”."

"Speakers in Fourth Committee Call Israel’s Charges of UNRWA’s Collusion Baseless Fallacies About an Agency Offering ‘Food on the Table’, ‘a Glimmer of Hope’"

United Nations, Meetings Coverage and Press Release, 14 November 2024

United Nations Website Photos

On November 22, 1974, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 3236, "Question of Palestine" recognizing the Palestine Liberation Oranization as the Palestinian representative, noting their "right" to a state. The resolution demanded that the 700,000 Palestinians who fled from Israel in 1948 when combined Arab militaries attacked the fledgling Jewish State, be allowed to return. No mention was made at that time, or any subsequent time, of the 800,000 Arabized Jews who were exiled from Arab countries where they had lived for millennia in the ancient diaspora.

The 'right of return' applies only to Palestinians, not to the Jews whose properties and goods were confiscated when they were forced to flee the Arab countries they called home until 1948. No UN agency was set up to offer them humanitarian aid and proclaim them refugees in perpetuity. They found their own solutions, some settling in Israel, others going to international destinations, finding refuge abroad. In the very same time-frame, when Pakistan broke off from India in a cataclysmic divide in 1947, amidst the deadly violence, a million refugees resulted.

There has never been a move by the United Nations to demand those million refugees be permitted to return to their homes in India and Pakistan. When Turkey sent its military to occupy Greek Cyprus there were no demands that the 200,000 refugees who fled the violent conflict, be returned to Cyprus. Resolution 3236 voting saw 89 countries in favour, eight against and 37 abstentions. It was that resolution that led to the UN granting observer status to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the original Palestinian terror group under Yasser Arafat. And when Arafat was invited to address the General Assembly, he wore a gun in a holster, as his version of a peace symbol.

Institute for Palestine Studies

It took a decade for the PLO to gain legitimacy at the United Nations; from the time it was created in 1964 to the passing of the Resolution ten years later. In the intervening years it became renowned for terrorist violence, hijacking aircraft and vessels at sea, holding hostages and killing Israelis in suicide bombings. The Soviet Union helped the PLO draft their charter, asserting that 'Palestine' is an Arab homeland, Israel's establishment was 'null and void', even though the Soviets were among those in 1947 at the UN voting for Partition and the establishment of the Jewish State. 

In the San Remo agreement of 1920 the Jewish people were to be given legal land title to what is now known as Israel, including Judea and Samaria (now called the West Bank) and Jordan, the total land mass identified as the British Mandate of Palestine. Despite which the British later cut TransJordan out, handing it instead to the Hashemites of Arabia, as a consolation prize when they gave the Wahhabist House of Saud, Arabia, to be transformed to Saudi Arabia. Yet no one, much less the United Nations questions the legitimacy of the State of Jordan, 60 percent of  whose population is Palestinian; ergo a Palestinian state.

Haiti "the State has Completely Collapsed"

"Every Haitian thinks that we are being abandoned by the whole world."

"If I was in a foreign country and I believed at any moment my life could be at risk, I would leave too."

"[But] what about the ones who can't leave?"

Dr. Wesner Junior Jacotin, Haitian physician

"Those who are here to stop the mess are running away from it."

"Leaving a capital in total anarchy is an act of cowardice."

Reginald Delva, former Haitian minister of the interior

Charred vehicles in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on March 9, 2024. The U.S. Embassy in Haiti is evacuating some of its personnel from the nation's capital as rampant gang violence intensifies. CLARENS SIFFROY/AFP/Getty Images

Haiti, the impoverished, crime-ridden, woebegotten half of the island of Hispaniola that it shares with the Dominican Republic, is in a chaotic mess of immense proportions, a total breakdown of civilized mores, with roaming masses of Haitian criminals assaulting all the arms of government, including the police and the military, with free reign to spread terror among the population, where they rape, and loot, destroy and murder at will. 

Echoes of the dictatorship-rule in the 1950/60s of Papa Doc Duvalier and his dreaded Tontons Marcoutes acting on behalf of the Duvalier reign, collecting 'taxes' from residents, similarly threatening, looting, raping and murdering. The Duvalier reign in  Haiti had the tacit approval of the United States when Haiti became a getaway for Americans seeking a holiday spot with no rules of civilized conduct.

At Duvalier's death, his son, Baby Doc Duvalier exercised a stint at governing the  ungovernable nation  of blacks whose heritage on the island stemmed from their status as enslaved black Africans set down on Hispaniola when the original indigenous population was decimated by diseases brought by the presence of western European colonizers like France and Britain, who established plantations and used enslaved Africans in slave labour. 

The two countries on the island couldn't be further apart in their fortunes and their social, cultural, historic and economic outcomes, Haiti is a pathetic failure of a country, while its neighbour enjoys a far superior state of civil engagement; the contrast between a successful nation and one that is a perennially ungovernable state whose people live in primitive conditions of fear of the criminal class which their authorities are incapable of controlling.

 

A resident carries tires to be added to a burning barricade to deter gang members from entering his neighbourhood, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, November 19   [Odelyn Joseph/AP]

 

As conditions in the island nation steadily descended from bad to horrible, United Nations personnel in the capital Port-au-Prince were being evacuated for safety's sake. Embassies and international aid groups including Doctors Without Borders operating a few still-functioning hospitals have been forced to suspend operations, given gangs storming into greater areas of the capital.

 

Most recently the UN Security Council debated whether to begin an official peacekeeping mission with its background of failed interventions in the Caribbean nation. After the earthquake and tsunami of 2010 that devastated Haiti, UN troops had arrived to aid in maintaining calm and helping in reconstruction, but they also engaged in sexual exploitation, and their presence led to an outbreak of cholera from unsanitary practises contaminating water systems.

 

Despite which, the population and government officials were prepared in their desperation to welcome UN soldiers returning, but it was not to be, when both Russia and China used their veto power, arguing that there is no peace to keep, in Haiti. The United Nations had some 300 employees in 18 different agencies engaged in Haiti. Dozens assigned to the UN Integrated Office in Haiti, a political mission known by the acronym of BINUH, have been evacuated.

 

 

Petionville, a Port-au-Prince neighbourhood where aid groups and their employees are based were raided by gangs and although police and local residents fought back and killed many, the gangs have not been put out of commission. At least 220 people were killed due to a dozen attacks from November 11 to 19. The UN migration agency revealed that 41,000 people had fled their homes in November.

The Kenyan police staffed international force sent to Haiti in June has faced heavily armed gangs. The UN feeds 40,000 people daily. According to Pierre Esperance in Port-au-Prince, only senor staff remained at most embassies. "Everyone is gone -- Canada, Japan, the U.S. The state has completely collapsed."

 

Residents question a person who is not from the neighbourhood after an attempted overnight attack by gangs on the affluent hillside suburb Petion-Ville sparked a violent civilian response, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 19, 2024. REUTERS/Ralph Tedy Erol/File