During a United Nations Security Council meeting this week, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield launched a full-throated condemnation of Russiaā€™s bombing of Ukraineā€™s largest childrenā€™s hospital on Monday. The attack was a part of a Russian bombing campaign that killed more than 30 Ukrainian civilians.

ā€œWeā€™re here today because Russia ā€¦ attacked a childrenā€™s hospital,ā€ Thomas-Greenfield said. ā€œEven uttering that phrase sends a chill down my spine.ā€

Thomas-Greenfield went on to list a string of Russian attacks on other Ukrainian hospitals throughout the war. She described Russiaā€™s aggression as a ā€œcampaign of terrorā€ and labeled its attacks on civilian infrastructure as violations of international law. Representatives of other countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, echoed Thomas-Greenfieldā€™s denunciations. (Russiaā€™s ambassador denied responsibility for the Monday bombing.)

ā€œIā€™m very glad the U.S. is coming out and so vocally condemning all of those actions,ā€ said Jessica Peake, an international law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, referring to Thomas-Greenfieldā€™s comments toward Russia. ā€œBut at the same time, we donā€™t get any language anywhere near as strong as that when weā€™re talking about Palestinian hospitals, or Palestinian schools, or Palestinian children.ā€

  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    Ā·
    4 months ago

    Couple reasons. First, thatā€™s just false. The US cannot prevent an ICJ ruling, and it would definitely impact Netanyahuā€™s govt on multiple levels with a great many countries including his own. Second, US support is not actually unconditional, as we saw when the bomb shipments got paused. US support is still partial, and could become either stronger or weaker.