NEW YORK, Saturday, December 15, 2018 (WAFA) – Riyad Mansour, Palestine Permanent Observer to the United Nations, urged the Security Council on Friday to act quickly to bring a stop to Israeli acts and measures against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.
“I write today to draw urgent attention to the dangerous deterioration of the situation on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as Israel, the occupying Power, continues to act in a lawless and aggressive manner, fueling a new cycle of violence, intensifying inflammatory rhetoric and incitement, causing more civilian casualties, including by perpetration of extrajudicial killings, and further entrenching its illegal colonial occupation, in grave violation of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” said Mansour in a letter addressed to Leon H. Kacou Adom, President of the Security Council.
“As this letter is being written, Israeli occupying forces continue to carry out violent military raids in Palestinian villages, towns, cities and refugee camps, terrorizing the civilian population, harming civilian life, and arresting and detaining more people, especially young males,” he said.
“These operations have been carried out in conjunction with countless raids by the occupying forces and armed, extremist settlers, who persist in their rampages under the protection of the occupying forces with absolute impunity for their attacks on the defenseless Palestinian civilian population and the destruction they are systematically and deliberately causing in their terror campaign.”
He also referred to the “inflammatory rhetoric and incitement by Israeli government and military” against Palestinians, including President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as continued illegal colonization of the occupied Palestinian land.
Mansour urged the Security Council and the international community to “act responsibly to convey a clear message to Israel, the occupying Power, that all such illegal policies and practices must be ceased and that Israel will be held fully accountable for its failure to comply with international law and the relevant UN resolutions.”
He appealed to the Security Council “to act with urgency to address this critical situation, in line with its Charter duties and own resolutions, including in particular resolution 2334 (2016), including the necessary measures to ensure the protection of the Palestinian civilian population under this cruel and illegal Israel occupation.”
M.K.
