‘At the United Nations, the flag of human rights still flies at half-mast’ 

Black and Palestinian leaders share their thoughts on W.E.B. DuBois’ foresight: From its 1945 founding in San Francisco to its 2024 hearings in The Hague and New York, the United Nations would fall short when colonized peoples petitioned for intervention against genocide. Palestinian children improvised this swing among the ruins of Gaza where Israeli bombs and tanks have destroyed more than 50% of the homes since the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should end those genocidal acts. – Photo: Quds News Network by Arlene Eisen San Francisco – Nearly 80 years after representatives from 50 countries gathered here at the venerable Veterans War Memorial Building to sign the United Nations founding documents, the building still hosts ceremonies, cultural events and conferences. Yet for decades, the site’s glorious past has been eclipsed by waves of the City’s destitute who make the surrounding streets their home. In 1945, W.E.B. Dubois, the towering Black scholar, NAACP leader and Pan Africanist, served as an advisor to the United States Delegation that met daily in the same Veterans War Memorial Building. He reported: “We have failed essentially at San Francisco. It is not utter failure but it is failure because we have surrendered...