Hello Nations…Hello Hambaka

“Hello Nations…Hello Hambaka”

(Hambaka is an Egyptian expression means  non sence )

By Ayman Okeil

While reading news regarding the US intentions to use the Veto against draft resolutions calling for a fire cease in Gaza, the movie scene of “Hambaka” hits my mind, for the late actor “Tawfik Al-Dakn” in “Ebn El-Hetta” movie when he stated “Hello Nations..”, in which he referred to the deficiency of the United Nations and the Security Council, one of its main bodies, in addressing the Arab issues whenever they called for intervention, as described by critics.

This footage was filmed in 1968, following the Israeli war on Arabs in 1967. According to others, the late actor was mocking the complicity of some permanent members of the Security Council, Foremost among them is the US, when dealing with Israel’s constant attacks on its neighbors. This led me to look for the number of times the US used the Veto, when I found that it used it 80 times in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict throughout the existence of the Security Council as follows: 46 times to prevent condemning Israel and 34 times to prevent Palestinians from obtaining their historical rights. The last veto used by the US was on 8 December 2023, leading to the denial of a draft resolution appealing a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza.

After 55 years of the aforementioned scene, the United Nations did not move any forward, precisely the Security Council, which is mandated to peacefully settle disputes among states and is the only UN body whose decisions are supposedly obligatory. The reason, from my view, is that the deficit system grants 5 states in the Security Council the Veto power, these states are the US, the UK, France, China and the Russian federation. This right is a privilege for the previous countries as permanent members of the Security Council. The flaw is that this privilege undermines the concept of democracy itself, which grants everyone equal votes, and contradicts with the principle of equality in the sovereignty of states.

Moreover, the veto power restricts the Security Council and restrain it from taking any collective measures against any of its permanent members or their allies.

Based on my nearly 15 years’ experience in engaging with the United Nations, its bodies and human rights mechanisms, I affirm that the reform of this high-level organization cannot succeed without fundamental solutions, through expanding the base of the permanent members of the security council in accordance with the geographical distribution of the UN, and granting the human rights council in Geneva the due autonomy in its decision-making as a main body of the UN, not as a subsidiary body of the general assembly.

I previously stated that the human rights council, which is one of the charter-based UN bodies, “lacks the stick for the disobedient” and that the diplomatic relations among states control and undermine the council. Therefore, any steps that ignore the reform of the Security Council and the international human rights mechanisms, including the human rights council, may lead us to constantly reiterate the theme of the late actor Tawfik Al-Dakn when he said “Hello Nations…Hello Hambaka”.