NEW YORK, Tuesday, 25 April 2023 (WAFA) – Foreign Minister Riyad Malki today stated that it was the time to bring the Nakba and the Palestinian people’s dispossession and displacement from their land to an end.

“75  years ago our people endured the Nakba . . . Almost overnight, two thirds of our people became refugees. 75 years later, the Nakba continues. The denial of our rights and the displacement and replacement of our people is still underway with one objective, pursued in broad daylight: Annexation. It is time to bring the Nakba to an end,”  Foreign Affairs Minister Malki stated before the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York.

Malki made his remarks during a quarterly open debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, chaired by his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Highlighting the protracted denial of the Palestinian people’s rights, he said: “This  is the most protracted refugee crisis in the world. The most protracted denial of national, collective and individual rights in the world. The most protracted protection crisis in the world. The longest occupation of an entire territory in modern history. So the question begs itself. Why is it still ongoing?”

He reminded the international community of its responsibility to “ensure international law is respected” regardless of the identity of the perpetrators and regardless of the identity of the victims as well as the UNSC of its responsibility to uphold the UN Charter and implement UN resolutions.

“The reality on the ground is the result of failure not fatality. Because while the international community has adopted clear positions, it did not back them with decisive action. Why is it that when it comes to Israel, the international community can take a stance but can not act upon it?”

He slammed the international community for its failure to end its policy of double standards in dealing with Israel and for fostering Israeli’s impunity.

“There is nothing that undermines more the authority and credibility of international law than double standards, selectivity, schizophrenia. How is Israel being held accountable for breaching the law, the Charter, countless UN resolutions over decades and decades?” he said.

“How many Israeli officials have been held accountable in any form or shape for pursuing colonial settlements on our land, for forcibly displacing our people, for the targeting and indiscriminate attacks against our civilians, for demolishing the homes and structures many of you have funded? What consequences did they face?”

While Malki welcomed any initiatives intended to “restore a political horizon in line with the internationally recognized terms of reference” and reaffirmed commitment to “uphold]ing[ our own obligations and to pursue a peaceful path forward”, he stressed that the Palestinian people could not coexist with Israel’s settler-colonialism and occupation.

“We appreciate all efforts to spare the life of Palestinians and to improve their lives but they are no substitute to a political solution.  We cannot coexist with occupation,” he said.

He blasted the international community for its failure to enforce deterrent sanctions against Israel and called it to make the Israeli colonial occupation of the Palestinian territories “costly”

“There is a simple principle that underlies all of international law and international justice: deterrence is the only way to prevent recurrence. The only discussion worth having is how can you mount a collective response that would deter anyone from breaching international law and would ensure everyone commits to peace, in words and deeds,” he said.

“As long as Israel reaps the benefits of its occupation, while we pay the cost, annexation and apartheid are the only reality we are left with. Make the occupation costly and I can assure you it will come to an end. The Israeli people themselves will make sure it comes to an end,” he added.

He renewed his call on states that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine to do so as a means to salvage the moribund two-state solution.

“Recognize the State of Palestine if you have not done so yet. How can any country that supports the two-solution and peace justify not recognizing till now the State of Palestine without which there is no two-state solution?,” he said.

“If you don’t recognize the State of Palestine now when it is under vital threat, when will you do it? When the two-state solution is definitely dead and buried?” he added.

He also renewed his call for supporting Palestine’s request for full membership in the United Nations.

“Why would this Council who has been calling for a two-state solution for decades not recommend membership of the State of Palestine to the General Assembly? I have no doubt that the General Assembly will agree once that recommendation is made. Is there a better way to embody international support to the two-state solution than to have the State that has been unjustly deprived of membership since 1948 finally become a UN member? Why would Israel which violated the very conditions of its membership, namely resolutions 181 and 194, and continues violating the Charter, be entitled to membership and we, who honour the UN Charter, be deprived of it?”

He also highlighted the genuine need to ban Israeli colonial settlement products, sanction settlement and list settlers as a terrorist organization.

“Ban settlement products, ban trade with settlements, sanction those who collect funds for settlements and those who advocate for them and those who advance them. List as terrorist organizations the group of settlers that are killing, maiming, burning in front of the whole world because they are certain they will not be held accountable. Link, in deeds not words, your relations with Israel to Israel’s commitment to international law and peace. Take measures to roll back annexation and to end occupation.”

He also urged the international community to take Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

“Support every effort to uphold international law rather than obstruct it, starting with the ICJ. In short, incentivize freedom, justice and peace and disincentivize oppression, perpetual occupation and annexation. Peace that has eluded us for so long will then finally be within our grasp,” he concluded.

K.F.