NEW YORK, Tuesday, June 25, 2024 (WAFA) - Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, said “It is time to end this illegal, abhorrent 57-year occupation, time to free the Palestinian people from the endless oppression and torment that their ruthless occupier has inflicted on them for decades and vows to continue inflicting without end, driven by its colonial agenda, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and now genocide, the pillars of its policies against the Palestinian people.”
“No one can survive by simply relying on the power of the sword, especially a sword provided by another. Justice and Peace are the best guarantees for our people. We call on you to go further and act faster to ensure they are not forever lost in this assault, leaving us prey to a reality that will devour us all. Blessed be the peacemakers. This is the time for them to demonstrate they have the will to do what is needed before it is too late,” he said before the UNSC quarterly meeting on the implementation of resolution 2334, 25 June 2024.
Mansour thanked UN Special Coordinator, Tor Wennesland, for his presentation of the Secretary-General’s quarterly report on the implementation of resolution 2334.
“The report of the Secretary-General tells a story – a story you know only too well, but to which you should never grow accustomed. It is a story of dispossession and displacement of communities by violence and unjust laws and orders. A story of colonial settlement and annexation, undeniable, unrelenting, and unapologetic. The story of indiscriminate attacks against Palestinians, mass killing and maiming of an entire civilian population, mass graves, attacks on hospitals, and the UN and its personnel, the killing of humanitarian workers, the wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure and of the conditions of life.”
“It is the story of Israel’s continued attempt to destroy Palestine and its people and the world’s failure to put an end to it,” he added.
“I did not come here to speak about policies that you all know and you all denounce. I am here to make a wake-up call to all of us, that this tragedy underway has been written a long time ago. That all the signs were there and yet no action was taken to address this existential threat we are facing. This is the time to break the taboo of Israel’s impunity.”
He said: “Let me say this in the clearest way I can: no arms to kill us, no money to colonize us, no trade to rob us. Every state has a duty to start from there, to make sure its government, entities, companies and citizens do not contribute in any way, anymore, to Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.”
The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN commended “all the countries who have actively supported Palestinian rights, people and government, provided humanitarian relief, taken legal action, adopted concrete measures aimed at putting an end to these crimes, adopted sanctions against settlements and violent extremist colonists, and of course the countries that have recognized the State of Palestine and supported its membership in the UN.”
He stressed that “much more is needed to restrain the Israeli government who, while you help us build, destroys; while you finance, steals; while you promote Palestinian rights and independence, denies our rights and acts to destroy our state and with it the two-state solution and any chance for peace.”
He asked: “Whose will is stronger, the will of the extremists in Israel or the will of the peacemakers around the world? The Israeli extremists in power are ready to do whatever is necessary to destroy peace. Are you ready to do whatever is necessary to salvage it?”
“We will do our part, as we have done in the worst of circumstances, with an ironclad commitment to the rule of international law, but the party breaching the law every single day must be held accountable. The laws are adopted to ensure justice, and there can be no justice without enforcement. You cannot have one party acting with responsibility, while the other is acting in full impunity, and expect a different outcome than the appalling situation we face.”
This Israeli government is defying every measure you take to support our freedom and to achieve shared peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis alike, he added.
They take punitive measures against us and you. They are openly saying, announcing for the whole world to hear, that in response to our and your actions grounded in international law and aiming at upholding it, they will commit new crimes, he added.
“They openly declare that they will further settle the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, that they will breach the historic and legal status quo and continue with their assaults on the sanctity of the holy sites, and that they will withhold Palestinian tax revenues. They declare so shamelessly, with no concern for the law, convinced that their impunity will live on.”
That is the arrogance of fundamentalists, of colonizers. They attack their closest allies as if they were enemies just because they criticize Israeli policies while showing no hesitation when attacking and insulting all of you. That means criticism is not enough. Consequences are what is needed, said Mansour.
“Let me speak of those who are only mentioned at the very end of this report and barely ever mentioned in this Chamber, left to their suffering and terrible ordeal as if they were not deserving of recognition and respect for their humanity and rights.”
“We are a nation of prisoners. There is virtually no single Palestinian family that did not or does not have prisoners in Israeli occupation jails that were already suffering from arbitrary arrest, torture and ill-treatment, sexual abuse and violence long before the 7th of October. Since then, they have been living in sheer hell. Thousands of Palestinians have been abducted and tortured, many killed while in detention, and several amputated as a result of their ill-treatment. Four times more Palestinians have died in Israeli detention in the last eight months than the number of prisoners who have died in Guantanamo in 20 years. Abduction, torture, enforced disappearance, the use of prisoners as human shields and sexual violence against men, women and children, yes children, are not worthy of outrage if the victims are Palestinians?”
“Some of the first rules of humanitarian law adopted hundreds of years ago were about the treatment of prisoners because they were vulnerable in the hands of the enemy and it was considered an indignity to harm them when they were defenseless. And this was to protect combatants, so imagine when the detainees are civilians, when they are children. An essential part of the freedom of our people is the freedom of our prisoners.”
He said the resolutions of this Council are binding, including resolution 2735. “We call for their full implementation, without delay and as a matter of urgency. Resolution 2735 is clear that there are three phases in the ceasefire proposal, including phase 2 which foresees a permanent end to hostilities and full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The proposal is not subject to a destructive pick and choose that voids the proposal of its meaning.”
“We are well aware of the objective of the conflicting messages from Israeli leaders, notably Netanyahu himself, suggesting this is all a scheme and that the assault will continue under any circumstances. The aim is to sabotage the US initiative without taking the blame for it, to sabotage the efforts of Egypt and Qatar and the international community as a whole. The best way to frustrate Netanyahu’s goals is by achieving an immediate ceasefire. The best way to save human life is by achieving an immediate ceasefire.”
“An immediate ceasefire is indispensable for all, for Palestinians first and foremost to stop the mass killing and maiming and arbitrary arrest and wanton destruction, to stop the mass starvation of our people in Gaza, of whom 96% face catastrophic levels of food insecurity, but also for Israelis held captive and their families, for our region which cannot bear further escalation and destruction, for our humanity, for what remains of our international-law based order,” he said.
T.R.
