Archives for 2016

2 September 2016 – Israeli Colonization Continues Further Eroding the Two-State Solution

Palestine Letters GENERAL FINALExcellency,

It is with grave concern that I write to draw your attention to the current situation in the Occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, where the Palestinian people are deeply suffering from Israel’s nearly 50-year illegal foreign occupation. With each passing day Israel, the occupying Power, accelerates its illegal settlement campaign and strategic and systematic home demolitions further confirming its true intentions to maintain its occupation of Palestine and to construct and expand illegal settlements and annex Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This colonization campaign is in clear breach of international law and in absolute defiance of the international community’s strong condemnations. They are also in complete contradiction of the two-State solution based on the pre-1967 borders and are further dimming the prospects for peace. [Read more…]

بيان صحفي

بعث السفير الدكتور رياض منصور، المراقب الدائم لدولة فلسطين لدى الأمم المتحدة، بثلاث رسائل متطابقة الى كل من الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة ورئيس مجلس الأمن (ماليزيا) ورئيس الجمعية العامة للأمم المتحدة حول تدهورالوضع في دولة فلسطين المحتلة  بشكل يومي واستمرار معاناة السكان المدنيين الفلسطينيين نتيجة تصعيد إسرائيل إجراءاتها العقابية وغير القانونية بما في ذلك هجماتها ضد قطاع غزة المحاصر وأنشطتها الاستيطانية المستمرة في جميع أنحاء الضفة الغربية المحتلة، بما في ذلك القدس الشرقية، ذكر فيها أن المدنيين الفلسطينيين الأبرياء، بمن فيهم النساء والأطفال، يتعرضون يشكل مستمر للقتل والاصابات من قبل قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي  مشيرا الى العدوان الإسرائيلي  الأخير يوم، الأحد، 21 أغسطس، عندما قامت قوات الاحتلال بشن اكثر من 50 غارة  على شمال قطاع غزة، مما اسفر عن اصابة أربعة فلسطينيين على الأقل، بينهم شاب يبلغ من العمر 17 عاما، وتسببت في حالة من الذعر والرعب على نطاق واسع ل 1.8 مليون مدني فلسطيني يعيشون في حالة من البؤس تحت حصار إسرائيلي لاإنساني وغير أخلاقي يدخل الآن عامه العاشر مؤثرا بشكل خطيرعلى كل جانب من جوانب الحياة  الفلسطينية وعلى الأوضاع الإنسانية والاجتماعية والاقتصادية والنفسية للمدنيين في قطاع غزة. وطالب منصور  المجتمع الدولي، بما في ذلك مجلس الأمن، اتخاذ إجراءات جادة لوضع حد للحصار الإسرائيلي الجائر المفروض على قطاع غزة ووقف الاعتداءات الإسرائيلية ضد  السكان المدنيين هناك  [Read more…]

23 August 2016 – Israeli Colonization in Al-Khalil and Attacks against Gaza

160823 Palestine LettersExcellency,

The situation in the Occupied State of Palestine continues to deteriorate daily and the Palestinian civilian population continues to suffer immensely as Israel intensifies its unlawful punitive measures and actions, including in connection with its attacks against the besieged Gaza Strip and its ongoing settlement activities throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. As innocent Palestinian civilians, including women and children, continue to be killed and injured with impunity by the Israeli occupying forces, collective punishment measures are being simultaneously imposed against the entire Palestinian population, deepening the collective suffering and exacerbating the volatile situation on the ground. [Read more…]

18 August 2016 – Israeli Colonization and Repression Campaign Escalates

Excellency,

160818 Palestine LetterIt is with regret that I must draw your attention to the ongoing misery and hardships being endured by the Palestinian people, who continue to suffer the injustice and indignity of Israel’s illegal foreign occupation.  Tensions are surging as Israel, the occupying Power, presses on with its campaign of repression against Palestinian civilians in tandem with its destructive and gluttonous colonization campaign, both with grave consequences on our people and the prospects for peace. [Read more…]

27 July 2016 – New Illegal Israeli Settlements

160727 Palestine Letters FINALExcellency,

I regret to inform Your Excellency that conditions in the Occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, are worsening as Israel, the occupying Power, continues its illegal and provocative practices, including in connection with its settlement activities and collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

In grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention, notably Article 49 and Article 33, Israel persists with its colonization of the Palestinian land, the confiscation and destruction of Palestinian property, and forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. The cumulative effect is one of increased humanitarian suffering, frustration and hopelessness threatening to further destabilize the already perilous situation on the ground. [Read more…]

22 July 2016: Continued Israeli Violations Against the Palestinian People

Excellency,160722 Palestine Letter

It has been one month since our last letter regarding the situation in the occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Regrettably, the situation continues to deteriorate further and the Palestinian people, particularly the children and youth, continue to suffer the gravest of consequences as a result of Israel’s nearly 50-year illegal belligerent foreign military occupation. With each passing day, violation after violation is committed against the entire Palestinian population by Israel, the occupying Power, and the very party with the legal obligation to protect it. These ongoing violations are in stark breach of international law, humanitarian law and human rights law and contrary to international norms and morality. With every violation committed against the Palestinian people by Israeli occupying forces hope dwindles and a peaceful reality becomes more distant. [Read more…]

Excerpts from a letter to the international community from Rafat Badran, the father of a young Palestinian boy, Mahmoud Badran, who was brutally murdered by the Israeli occupying forces on 21 June 2016:

Mahmoud Badran1Last Friday, my wife Amal and I lived our greatest nightmare when we buried our precious son Mahmoud. He was 15 years old.

A few days earlier, he was enjoying an evening of relative normalcy, an occurrence all too rare in the life of a Palestinian child. It was the Holy Month of Ramadan, and after spending time celebrating with our family, Mahmoud, along with his friends and cousins, ventured out to a local village pool. After swimming for several hours, the group piled into the car to return home, smiling and fatigued, relishing some relief from the pervasive and cruel conditions of Israeli military occupation. And then suddenly, Israeli soldiers riddled the car Mahmoud was riding in with bullets, hitting several of the children. Four of them are still recovering from their wounds. Mahmoud was killed. [Read more…]

Statement by H.E. Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour before the United Nations Security Council, Open Debate on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine question, New York, 12 July 2016:

Mr. President,

At the outset, we congratulate Japan on its skilled leadership as President of the Security Council and express appreciation for the convening of this important open debate. I also thank the United Nations Special Coordinator, Mr. Nikolay Mladenov, for his valuable briefing to the Council.

Mr. President,

The Security Council is meeting against the backdrop of an extremely volatile and tense situation on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and ongoing deadlock in the efforts to create a viable political horizon to resolve for once and for all this deadly, destructive and tragic conflict. It is also meeting against the backdrop of ongoing regional and international initiatives aimed at salvaging the two-State solution and the prospects for peace and charting a way forward for their realization. Regrettably, however, for various reasons, none of those initiatives have come to fruition and the political will to act responsibly and boldly – in line with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, in the interest of justice and human rights, and for the sake of peace and security – remains perilously absent.

The Arab States continue to stretch their hand in peace, supporting the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including to self-determination and independence, while also striving to open a new era of peace, stability and security in our region. For over 14 years, the Arab Peace Initiative has offered a bold path forward and yet Israel, the occupying Power, remains intransigent, belittling this most significant initiative and failing to reciprocate time and time again and obstructing the revival of a political horizon on its basis. [Read more…]

22 June 2016 – More Palestinian Children Tragically Killed by Israel

160622 Palestine LetterExcellency,

Since our last letter to you, on 16 June 2016, the Palestinian people, including children, have continued to be killed, injured and terrorized as a result of Israel’s ongoing violations of international law, humanitarian law and human rights law throughout the Occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem.    Unprotected, despite the very clear provisions of international law according protection to civilians under foreign occupation, the Palestinian people continue to endure countless human rights violations and war crimes at the hands of the Israeli occupying forces. Tensions have consequently remained high and anger, fear and frustration among our people are rising as the faith that peace can ever be achieved continues to fade more with each passing day.

Each letter that we send to Your Excellency, not only contains a list of just some of the crimes committed by the occupying Power against the Palestinian people and their land, but it tragically contains names and stories of innocent lives that were lost at the hands of the occupation. And with each name and story, a new cycle of hate and anger fester among an occupied people who have been left defenseless against a monstrous occupying Power that unleashes it lethal weaponry against them on a daily basis. No doubt Israel, the occupying Power, has been bolstered by the culture of impunity and lawlessness that continues to prevail due to the failure by the international community to hold Israel accountable for any of its violations and crimes against the Palestinian people and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Such impunity has not only absolved Israel from its legal obligations as an occupying Power, but has emboldened its continued perpetration of crimes without fear of punishment. [Read more…]

16 June 2016 – Israeli Collective Punishment Measures against the Palestinian People

Excellency,160616 Palestine Letter

Tensions continue to escalate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the unrelenting, illegal and repressive practices being carried out by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people it has been holding captive under its nearly five-decade long occupation.

For the Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation, there is never a moment of peace or security.  Besides the suffocating control of nearly every aspect of daily life, precluding any sense of normalcy, the occupying Power seems determined to do all that it can to make their already-difficult living conditions as unbearable as possible. I draw attention, for example, to an incident that occurred yesterday, 15 June 2016, when the occupying Power deliberately cut crucial water supplies to large areas of the occupied West Bank, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians without access to safe drinking water. [Read more…]