Shahid Bolsen Briefs South African Activists on the Article 6 Campaign

Good evening, esteemed guests, colleagues, and friends. It's an honor to welcome you all to this critical gathering tonight, and we are here not just as individuals, but as voices of conscience, as advocates for justice, and as strategists for a world that must no longer tolerate oppression, hypocrisy, and crimes committed with impunity. Now tonight, we stand at the intersection of two powerful campaigns, each vital in its own right, but together capable of reshaping the global order. Firstly, which is our article six campaign, the United Nations is not fully in alignment with its mission to uphold its principles because The United States Of America violates its charter with impunity from illegal wars to shielding genocide via veto. Article six calls for the expulsion of a rogue state to persistently violate the charter.

That is to say The United States Of America and South Africa must lead this charge. The second campaign is with regards to sanctions, Maersk, and other full and others fuel Israel's genocide just as corporations once sustained apartheid in South Africa. And the ICJ ruling demands that we sanction them just as apartheid era enablers were held accountable. And just like Namibia right now aims to hold them accountable. So tonight's meeting is about a strategy.

It's about solidarity and the action that we must take because we need to act more than anything else in a legal way, in a in a diplomatic way, which is beyond mass protests. As I mentioned, we need legal, diplomatic, and, of course, economic pressure that forces change. And our goal is to merge these campaigns into a global movement, one that holds The United States accountable and one that cuts off the lifelines of Israel's genocide. So our speakers will now detail the path forward. We have with us, brother Shehee Bolson.

He's a renowned geopolitical analyst and founder of Middle Nation who has exposed the hypocrisy of the so called international order. Brother Shahid, the floor is yours. Please talk to us about our Article six campaign.

K. I've been introduced to all of you, and, it's it's my honor to to be, involved in this meeting and to have been asked to to participate in this meeting. It's it's truly an honor to be addressing so many very vital and crucial important and active voices. The article six campaign is relatively self explanatory, to be honest. We've identified that the key when we were we were motivated initially because of, obviously, the genocide being perpetrated in Gaza.

But we identified that the the genocide in Gaza is in fact not so much an Israeli genocide being being perpetrated by the by Israel, but it's it's an American genocide. It's American backed, it's American funded, and America provides political coverage for it, and America has enabled it by means of their their veto power at the United Nations. And then, of course, if you look at what America has done over the last eight decades of the United Nations existence, you can see that this is what they have consistently done, which is basically to manipulate the United Nations, the mechanisms of the United Nations to turn the UN into little more than an instrument for the internationalization of American policy, and and to shield themselves, and to shield their allies and their client states from any accountability through their domination of the UN. So rather than addressing the symptoms of the problem, the symptoms of the problem being manifest in Gaza today, in the West Bank today, in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, in Congo. We can go all around the world, and see, in in Libya, in Somalia, in Sudan, on and on and on.

Obviously, Afghanistan for the last twenty years. These are the symptoms of America's impunity, which they have secured by their domination of the United Nations, which has allowed them to actually fulfill exactly what article six in the UN Charter stipulates, which is rather it it it fits the bill for exactly what qualifies a nation to be expelled from the United Nations, which is persistent violations of the principles of the UN Charter. There's not a country today in the world, there's not a member state of the United Nations that has more persistently violated the principles of the UN Charter than The United States. In fact, they they violate the principles of the UN Charter as a matter of foreign policy. So what we've identified is that if you want to stop the genocide in Gaza, if you want to stop Israeli crimes, there's not a way to do it except to get to to target the one that is providing Israel with impunity under the coverage of American impunity.

If you take away America's impunity, you will immediately take away Israel's impunity because Israel has been able to do everything that they have done. I think the the overwhelming majority of vetoes issued by The United States, at the Security Council have been in favor of Israel, to guard Israel, to provide coverage for Israel, to protect Israel, and to defend Israel, from the global consensus. So we don't believe that there is an approach, more effective than going to the root cause of the problem. In this case, the root cause of the problem of Israeli impunity. The root cause of that problem is American impunity.

And that American impunity has been secured by means of their domination of the United Nations. But we have, identified, alhamdulillah, that there is actually a legal mechanism for resolving that problem. It doesn't take a revolution. It doesn't take violence, it doesn't take anything except actually implementing what is in the charter itself. So so all we're all we're calling for is accountability and we're calling for the actual implementation of what is on paper in the United Nations Charter, which is to expel a member state that has persistently violated the principles of the UN Charter.

And as I say, there isn't a country in the world today that has done so more persistently, insistently, and consistently than The United States Of America. So it is absolutely eligible for the invocation of Article six and to be expelled. So that's what we are calling for. We have a petition that now has surpassed a 100,000 signatures worldwide, and now we are interested in escalating that that campaign to the political and diplomatic level because obviously in order to invoke article six at the United Nations, a member state has to do it. So a member state is gonna have to raise that issue to the Security Council, and then the Security Council will take a vote on it, and then it will be passed to the general assembly.

And then you need a two thirds majority, in favor of that. We believe that the vote at the general assembly is more or less a given. We believe that, China and Russia on the Security Council are more or less of a given. And under Trump, and the way that he has alienated both France and The UK, and Europe overall, we believe that the time is right, where we might even be able to get those two states to abstain, if not actually vote positively in favor of the removal of The United States. But either way either way it goes at the Security Council, we believe that it's important and it's necessary to raise this issue at the United Nations, to remind the world that this article exists in the UN Charter.

That it can't just be that, that, one particular state gets to be above the law consistently and all the time. That you do have to be held accountable. That there that that the United Nations doesn't actually exist in order to provide impunity for any member state. It's quite the opposite. The United Nations exists to make sure that all countries obey the law, to make sure that that no country is above the law.

But the situation that we have now and the situation that we've had for the last eight decades, is that the sheriff of the town is the biggest outlaw. We we try to bring a case to court and find that the judge is a criminal. So how are we going to get any kind of justice? That criminal judge has to be removed and the sheriff's badge has to be removed from the chest of the outlaw. There's no other way to do it.

You can try everything that you can try, but as long as America controls the instrument or the the institution that is responsible for the enforcement of international law, well, you're not gonna get justice. And and so we believe that that that invoking article six should be, the rallying cry of anyone and everyone. Pardon me? I'm sorry?

Oh, hey, Sorry about that.

Okay. Please. That this should be the rallying cry of anyone and everyone who is supporting Gaza, and anyone and everyone who wants to end the genocide, and anyone and everyone who wants to end Israeli expansionism and the Zionist project. Because anything else that you're gonna try is either symbolic or it's basically a nonstarter because America can veto it. America is continuing to provide impunity.

It can can can and will continue to provide impunity by means of its own impunity to Israel. Israel is not gonna be held accountable no matter how many resolutions you pass, no matter how many marches you you partake in, no matter how many rallies you have, no matter how many protests you have, even no matter how many sanctions you propose, America is always gonna be there sitting on the bench to overrule. So this has to be taken care of, and there is a mechanism, a legal mechanism for doing it. So the article six campaign is the intersection of morality, of justice, of legality, and protest, and resistance. That's pretty much the statement that I'll make about it, and, any questions or or comments, I'll be happy to respond.

Thank you so much. You know, you've you've unpacked a lot. What you may what you said makes absolute sense. We do believe in this campaign. We believe that, you know, the way forward is legal, is strategic, and this is something that would be long lasting.

So the reason why we've called this meeting is we want to merge these two campaigns because we think they can work together. Has made a point, a valid point, by saying that as long as The United States Of America is in the United Nations, we would most likely be hit with every sort of blockage because they would veto, they would, you know, throw any sort of span in the works like they're doing. I mean, history has shown us. You know? This is how they operate.

This is how they use the United Nations for their benefit. And we don't believe that the United Nations is a bad institution that we mustn't bother with it anymore. We believe that it can be function the way that it is meant to function and that the global South is meant to benefit and that we're all supposed to be working on equal footing. And we also history has shown us The United States Of America is not planning on rectifying their behavior. And the only way that we can actually, as the global South, as the rest of the world can function and and and and, you know, as and cooperate with each other peacefully is without The United States in the United Nations because they use the organization.

They've corrupted it. And and this is how they cause cause crimes or commit crimes with impunity. So we like said, you know, first, we we work these two campaigns in tandem, knowing that, we probably have less blockages, far less blockages once The United States Of America is removed.

Yeah. I wanted to say a few things. First of all, obviously, anyone with a heart and and a mind would support having sanctions imposed against Israel. However, as the brother said, we know that America will will veto it or that America will take action against it, but there but let's do it anyway. I'm not in favor of futile action.

If you want to impose sanctions on Israel, the easiest and the straight most straightforward and most unified way to do that is to do it through the United Nations, to have it actually imposed by the United Nations, economic embargo, economic sanctions, arms embargo, and so forth. All of that can be done by the United Nations, but it can't be done by the United Nations as long as America sits on the Security Council and can veto that. So again, we come back to the same issue, which is that the root of the problem, the root of not being able to solve the problem is America's impunity that it provides to Israel. There's not a way to get around this. We're we're we're trying to come up with strategies without addressing the real problem, and and we can do that certainly, and that's what we've done, and we've seen the result of it.

To try to go from country to country to country and convince this or that country to impose unilateral sanctions against Israel is a is a major task. You're talking about millions, if not tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars in trade that they might be undertaking. And if you're talking about, putting the sanctions on shipping companies, well, that affects global trade, not just Israel. If you're putting sanctions on like if if South Africa, for example, was putting sanctions against Maersk, well get things shipped to you in South Africa by Maersk ships. And this goes on and on.

You just can can can extrapolate from that all of the ramifications of trying to get country by country by country unilateral sanctions imposed. That's a much much more difficult task in my opinion than getting countries to agree to uphold the charter that they signed, the United Nations charter, to uphold that charter by invoking article six, which is a part of that charter. And we have many many countries around the world who have been victims of American aggression, American hostility, American coercion. You know, many countries, one violator. And as I say, everyone can identify that without America's backing of Israel, the the entire Zionist project would collapse.

Without America's veto, there would have been a ceasefire a year and a half ago. And it would have been and and Israel would not be allowed, it would not be able, wouldn't be empowered to, defy the global consensus. Because the global consensus is very clear. That already exists. That already exists in every general assembly vote pertaining to the Palestinian issue.

So it's just a matter of of removing the impediment to justice, which is America at the United Nations. You can get sanctions imposed once that happens. And this is a, in my opinion, this is a very unifying effort, and this is the most straightforward way to pursue sanctions. And with regards to the procedures of invoking Article six, the only real concern is the idea that America itself would veto it. But we've already looked into the the the procedural aspect of that, which is that when a dispute or when when a resolution is framed as a dispute, then the country that is party to that dispute is would not be allowed to veto it on the Security Council.

So if article six is raised at the Security Council in the context of it being a dispute with The United States, then The United States would not be allowed to veto it. And then as I say, then the only concern would be the position of France and The UK. But either way, I still believe that this is a much more straightforward, a much more direct line to the source of the problem, to the root of the problem, than trying to go from country to country to country to convince those countries to impose unilateral sanctions against, against Israel. That's a very uphill battle in my opinion. It's a worthwhile battle.

But why do it the hard way when you could do it in a much more straightforward way is what I'm saying.

Brother Shahid, I saw your hand up. I think, you would like to add something?

Yes, I would. First, thank you, doctor, for making time to attend. It's very nice to meet you, very nice to see you. Although it's horrifying to hear what you have to say. You mentioned that everyone is shocked at the the inactivity of the world or the the the failure of the world to put sufficient pressure.

I think we all know why. It shouldn't be shocking. Everyone knows why. It's because America is backing Israel. It's because the so called most most important, most powerful country in the world, the the so called superpower is backing Israel.

And it's holding back, it's restraining the global consensus, which all is on the side of the Palestinians, which is just another way of saying that they're on the side of international law. They're on the side of humanity. But they're being held back by The United States and by fear of The United States because of because the last eight decades of the United Nations existence has shown the world very clearly that America gets to act with impunity. America gets to support their client states, their attack dog states, and no one is supposed to do anything about it. This is why we have the article six campaign, which is calling for the invocation of article six and the expulsion of The United States from the United Nations.

So that the United Nations can be free from the domination of The United States, and actually implement international law, enforce international law as it is supposed to be done. Unless and until that happens, you're going to be trying to convince countries who are afraid because you're dealing with basically, a serial killer who has impunity from the law and can come after you at any time. That impunity has to be removed. There's simply not another way to handle this situation, in my opinion, than dealing with the core of the problem, which is the impunity that Israel enjoys as a result of their being a client state of The United States Of America. They have they are shielded under America's impunity.

And as long as that exists, countries are going to be very you know, we we were talking about putting sanctions on the shipping companies. I think there's only one shipping country company in the world that I know of that has voluntarily chosen to not ship to Israel, and that's a Chinese shipping company. All others are engaged in this. And as you mentioned, with the with the weapons coming from The UK, everyone knows what they're supposed to do to be on the right side of America, and everyone knows what would put them on the wrong side of America, so they try to do the one and avoid doing the other. And this is as a result of the fact that everyone knows that America gets to do whatever they want and act above the law, and anyone who follows what America wants them to follow gets to also act above the law just as we're seeing now.

So the only way to resolve this problem is to remove that impunity, and the only way to remove that impunity is to remove The United States itself from the United Nations, and this doesn't take, as I said in the beginning, it doesn't take a revolution, it doesn't take any sort of a war, it doesn't take any violent action, it is a legal mechanism that already exists in the United Nations Charter. It's just activating article six of the United Nations Charter, which everyone signed. Everyone who's a member of the United Nations is a signatory to that. All we're saying is that the United Nations should act according to what has been put on paper. Now I understand South Africa is in a a very difficult position and may not be in the position to lead that campaign in terms of group raising the issue at the United Nations, but there are many countries around the world that have suffered and that have been victimized by The United States.

In fact, I think you'd be hard pressed to find one that wasn't. But we also have an organization called the Friends of the United Nations in defense of the UN Charter, which includes several major countries, several obviously member states of the United Nations, and they could potentially raise this issue at the United Nations so that we can bring that. And I think that if even if we were to, as I said before, even if we raised Article six at the Security Council, and even if it got turned down, as I say, if we if we frame it correctly as a dispute, then America won't be allowed to veto it. They won't be allowed to vote at all. They have to abstain.

Potentially, France could abstain, potentially the UK could abstain, they haven't even vetoed anything since the, like, late nineteen eighties, they haven't even used their veto power since, like, '89. Russia and China, I think, would be on board. But even if it did get vetoed, that in and of itself would make sanctions much easier. That would make it much easier to bring a a lesser request, a lesser demand, which is to to to call for sanctions. But in my opinion, it it doesn't make any sense to me, and I think in in my personal opinion, I find it it's immoral to pursue an impractical or ineffective action to help people who are in such need as the people of of of Gaza and the people in the West Bank, the Palestinians.

It's immoral to not do what is the most potentially effective measure that you can rather than going for half measures. So in my opinion, if you support sanctions, you know, like, even even we were mentioning about looking the the system. I'm sorry. I forgot which which sister her name was, mentioned about the the history of South Africa and their struggle against apartheid. Well, apartheid would have ended much sooner in fact if The United States had not been at the United Nations, if they had had Article six invoked against them, decades ago.

Because, the United Nations tried to impose sanctions on South Africa, and they were very gradual, and they were very incremental, and they were very, sort of half half hearted because they were afraid, and there was diplomatic and political pressure by The United States. And there was a a threat of sanct sorry, of veto by The United States about the, sanctions against South Africa. So, in fact, even if you do recall the history of the anti apartheid struggle, it would have been much easier, if from the beginning you had invoked article six against The US. You could have gotten the global consensus, actually heard at the United Nations. And as I say, the global consensus is on the side of the Palestinians.

The global consensus is on the side of the people of Gaza. The global consensus is on the side of international law and on the side of humanity. But The United States, because of their position at the United Nations, is able to hold everyone back, is able to restrain everyone, every country, is afraid to stand up, is afraid to put pressure because they know that if they do put pressure unilaterally unilaterally, then pressure will be put on them by The United States, and no one will be able to stop them because America has has secured impunity for itself and its actions by their control of The United Nations. So in my opinion, as I said, the the most sensible thing, the most effective thing, the most practical thing, the most straightforward thing is to pursue the invocation of article six and have The United States Of America expelled from the United Nations in a while, Adam. Okay.

Sorry. I I couldn't respond earlier. I had a problem with my with my Zoom. Brother mentioned that he he was surprised that the idea that invoking Article six, which exists, is more difficult or or would that I think that it would be easier than trying to go from country to country to country and get unilateral sanctions imposed while those unilateral sanctions would also affect the business community of those countries and their local economies. Yes.

Of course, I think it would be easier because it does already exist in the UN Charter. It's just a matter of law and having the law actually implemented and enforced. The question is going to be who is willing to do it. That's all. But that's not a more difficult question than who's going to be willing to impose unilateral sanctions against Israel, which will affect their own business community, their own corporations, their own companies, as well as their own shipping companies.

You mentioned Russia and China. I I mentioned earlier, you weren't here at the time, that the only shipping company in the world right now that has voluntarily chosen, to not ship anything to Israel is a Chinese shipping company. So they're already doing that. I'm not sure how you will lobby China and Russia to impose unilateral sanctions against, Israel. And what where that goes, if you if you play it out, is that, Israel would just become more dependent upon The United States.

The whatever whatever lack they have from sanctions by Russia or China will be made up by The United States, by increased exports to The United States and imports from The United States, which is good for both of those countries. The Russia has actually called for UN sanctions against Israel. Obviously, that's a dead a dead end. That's a nonstarter, and we know why. Because America will veto it.

So again, we go back to this issue. You said that the issue the main issue is to save lives and to prevent the expulsion of the Palestinians. Obviously, that's why we're all here. I'm not sure that imposing or trying to lobby countries to unilaterally impose sanctions against Israel is a more effective way of or or a faster way of saving lives than raising the issue at The United Nations so that UN resolutions can actually be enforced upon Israel. It seems to me that that's a more effective approach, and Allah knows best.

But, in terms of like like, I'm not sure how how I haven't seen a proposal about the sanctions plan. Like, which countries you wanna focus on, which companies you wanna focus on, and if you've done a a sort of a research about what are the ramifications of that for the local for the domestic economy. And, for example, even what to what extent those the the affected companies as well as well as the shipping companies obviously, you're not just talking about the shipping companies. You're talking about the people who use them. To what extent those companies have influence on the domestic politics of this or that country.

It seems to me that the idea of of trying to lobby for unilateral sanctions to be imposed by individual countries, is a much more complex issue. It's a much more complex, proposal than saying that a member state of the United Nations should invoke an existing, article in the UN Charter and have it implemented at the United Nations. It seems to be a much more direct approach. Because, again, there's there's no way around, the fact that the reason that Israel is able to do everything that they're doing is because of America's backing and America's backing at the United Nations. And unless and until that issue is resolved, you're not going to get anything resolved ultimately.

You can try and put as much pressure as you can, and we've been, as we've seen for a year and a half, protests, marches, the BDS campaign, alhamdulillah, they've been successful in in as much as they can be. But I think that we also have to think about the fact that, her brother mentioned earlier about, how the BDS campaign is about boycotts and by, the popular support, on the on the grassroots level, people supporting boycotts, why haven't they moved into sanctions? Well, there's a reason for that. There's a reason why they haven't tried to get governments to impose sanctions because they know perfectly well that they will not. Because this is a very, a very complex issue to try to raise.

But certainly, call for sanctions. Certainly, call for the, opening of the border and the, movement of humanitarian aid into into Gaza. Absolutely. And like I say, any other demand has to wait. But this is part of the game that they play with us.

They keep us always reacting to their violence. They keep us always reacting to their brutality, always reacting to emergencies. And we can never develop any sort of a long term strategy for dealing with them. And in my opinion, there isn't a long term strategy that's more effective and more practical, than the Article six campaign. Thank you so much.