10 July 2014 – Statement by Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, before the United Nations Security Council, Emergency Meeting on the Israeli Military Aggression against the Palestinian People

Mr. President,

I come before the Security Council – upon the instructions of the Palestinian leadership under President Mahmoud Abbas, and with the support of the Arab Group, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People – to urgently appeal to this Council to uphold its Charter duties for the maintenance of international peace and security.  We call on the Security Council to act immediately to protect civilian lives, which are being lost and destroyed with each passing minute of the Israeli military aggression being waged against the Palestinian people in Occupied Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

I speak on behalf of the suffering and grieving Palestinian people, who are enduring yet another barrage of death, destruction, trauma and terror, which is being perpetrated willfully and maliciously against them by the Israeli occupying forces before the eyes of the world as it persists with its nearly five-decade long belligerent military occupation.

This illegal, inhumane Israeli occupation is unjustifiable under any context and contravenes all principles of international law, human decency and moral conscience.  It is an occupation, including armed forces and terrorist settlers, that intentionally perpetrates the murder, burning and maiming of children; the killing and wounding of women, men and elderly persons; extrajudicial executions; the destruction of homes; the theft and colonization of another people’s land; the forced displacement and dispossession of civilians, rendering them homeless and impoverished; the desecration of holy sites, especially in Occupied East Jerusalem; and the abduction, imprisonment and detention of thousands of civilians, including children. It is an occupation that proves again and again its racist, aggressive, expansionist agenda and lack of respect for the sanctity of life and rights of the Palestinian people, who history has condemned to the misfortune of suffering under this occupation.

And, yet, absurdly and offensively, the Israeli Government perpetrating this criminal occupation claims to be the only so-called “democracy” in the Middle East and claims to have the “most moral army” in the world, even as this Government is composed of members openly advocating and inciting for the killing and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and engages in such ruthless military attacks against a defenseless civilian population.

Mr. President,

I come before the Security Council to say: Enough of the bloodshed of the Palestinian people, enough of their oppression under the Israeli occupation, enough of this injustice, and enough of this violence and conflict that is inflicting so much suffering on innocent people on both sides and undermining regional and international peace and stability.

In the past few weeks, I have conveyed many formal letters to the Council drawing urgent attention to this crisis, with barely any reaction, with the exception of the press statement of 2 July regarding the heinous killing and burning of the Palestinian youth, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, by Israeli settler terrorists in Occupied East Jerusalem.  In those letters, I have detailed the illegal actions being committed by Israel in grave violation of international humanitarian law, particularly the 4th Geneva Convention, human rights law, and international criminal law, namely the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.  It is without a doubt that human rights violations, war crimes and State terror are being systematically committed by the occupying Power.

For days, Israel has persisted with its relentless attacks, launching hundreds of airstrikes and artillery bombardment against civilian areas in the Gaza Strip, terrorizing our people, killing dozens of civilians and injuring hundreds.  The critical humanitarian situation in Gaza, long suffering under Israel’s occupation and blockade, is rapidly deteriorating and, in this holy month of Ramadan, life there has come to a standstill with fear and panic widespread.  As the majority of the civilians in Gaza are refugees and camps continue to be among the targets of Israeli military attacks, UNRWA has declared an emergency in Gaza.

In the West Bank, Israeli military raids continue daily in Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps, and casualties continued to be caused by the excessive, lethal force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians, including peaceful demonstrators.  Homes have been demolished and, since the start of the recent crisis on 12 June, more than 850 Palestinians have been arrested and detained, bringing the total number of Palestinians captive in Israeli jails to more than 6,000, including children, women and elected officials.  Moreover, settler violence, terrorism, incitement and  against Palestinian civilians, especially children and farmers, and acts of destruction against Palestinian homes, orchards and religious sites, continue unabated, under the protection of the Israeli occupying forces and under the full responsibility of the Israeli Government that has transferred them there illegally to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

At this moment, the Palestinian death toll stands at more than 80 people, while hundreds more civilians have been wounded by Israeli airstrikes, tank shelling, live ammunition, rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas canisters and beatings, and many are in critical condition.

Children – who in Gaza constitute over half of the population – are suffering disproportionately and, similar to Israel’s military savagery of December 2008-January 2009 and November 2012, are among the many victims. Deepening the trauma, families also continue to bear multiple tragedies, with some families being decimated by Israeli attacks – another family of 8 people murdered today, among them 5 children.  We bear witness to their suffering and recall here some of the many lives that have been lost to this insane, inhumane Israeli brutality.

Mr. President,

We reject the audacious claims by Israel that the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza is being used as a so-called “human shield”, while it knowingly and intentionally strikes at densely-populated civilian areas. And, we reject the claims of “self-defense” by Israel, while – despite the prohibition under international law – it deliberately carries out reprisals and collective punishment against the Palestinian people in declared retaliation and revenge – directly called for by the Israeli Prime Minister himself – for the killing of the three Israeli settlers, which the Palestinian leadership has clearly condemned.

We recall here that it was Israel that abruptly suspended the peace negotiations in April in response to the reconciliation of PLO and Hamas, a legitimate and necessary step long-called for by our people as well as the international community. And, that Israel has publicly declared its opposition to the Palestinian national unity government and has used every baseless pretext to incite against and undermine the Palestinian government, with the aim of forcing its collapse, including via this latest military aggression.  We condemn such cynical tactics, provocations and illegal behavior, and call on the international community to also condemn it.

There can be no justification for the killing of innocent civilians, no matter where, when or by whom.  All pretexts suggesting otherwise must be rejected, and instead all efforts must be exerted to bring a halt to the violence and terror that is being perpetrated against civilians, including by measures to uphold and enforce respect for international law.

The Security Council cannot remain paralyzed and marginalized as Israeli war crimes continue against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip and in the rest of Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, and a new cycle of violence consumes everything in its path. The Council must bear its responsibilities; it must act to protect the civilian lives, de-escalate the current crisis, and salvage the prospects for peace and security in our troubled region.  Failing to do so, it will further diminish its own credibility and be complicit in allowing innocent children, women and men to die and the situation to further destabilize, with far-reaching consequences.

We call in specific for protection for the Palestinian people.  Israel has clearly violated and abdicated its responsibility as an occupying Power to ensure the safety and well-being of the civilian population under its occupation. Therefore, the international community, in line with legal obligations – and here I stress the obligations of the High Contracting Parties to the 4th Geneva Convention –  must ensure protection for our people until the end of this military occupation.  In this regard, I wish to inform the Council that President Abbas has officially conveyed to Switzerland, the Depository, a request to convene the High Contracting Parties to consider measures to uphold their obligations, under common article 1 and article 146 regarding penal sanctions for grave breaches, and enforce the Convention in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem.

Mr. President,

The Palestinian people, whose resilience and steadfastness we honor and praise, look to the Security Council at this critical moment to uphold its resolutions and abiding principles to, first and foremost, save lives and also to save the prospects for a just, peaceful settlement of this conflict, based on the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders, on which the international community is united, yet which has been so gravely undermined by Israel.  A firm message must be sent by the Council to Israel to immediately cease its aggressions against the Palestinian people and to abide by its obligations under international law.  Moreover, it is high-time that Israel, the occupying Power, be held accountable for its countless human rights violations and war crimes, including the killing of Palestinian civilians, the wanton destruction of Palestinian property and the malicious colonization of the Palestinian land.

We call on the Security Council to act now to stop the bleeding in Occupied Palestine, including this latest Israeli war on Gaza, and to revive our dying hopes in the prospects for an end to the occupation, an end to this tragic conflict and the achievement of peace and for the realization of the Palestinian aspirations for their freedom, rights and justice that have been too-long denied.

I thank you, Mr. President.