Archives for January 2021

Statement of H.E. Riad Malki, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine before the Security Council, 26 January 2021

Mr. President, 

Allow me at the outset to congratulate Tunisia on its skilled presidency of the Security Council and to express our appreciation for the high-level convening of this open debate, as well as to wish my brother Othman Jerandi a swift recovery. I also wish the President of Mexico a swift recovery. May this year witness an end to this terrible pandemic. Let me note in this regard that the occupying Power has not provided any vaccines to the Palestinian people under occupation to this day, insisting it is under no obligation to do so.

Allow me to also thank Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for his participation and to seize this opportunity to thank Russia for its leading role in the Quartet in the most difficult of circumstances, and President Putin for his repeated efforts to bring the parties together, as well as the Foreign Ministers of Ireland, Mr. Simon Coveney, Mexico, Mr. Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, and Norway, Ms. Ine Eriksen Søreide, colleagues that I have worked closely with to advance peace, and the Deputy Foreign Minister of Estonia, Mr. Rein Tammsaar, for participating in this meeting. 

I congratulate Mr. Tor Wennesland for assuming his functions as the UN Special Coordinator. We look forward to working with him in his new capacity to advance a just peace. I also welcome my brother Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who remains a tireless advocate of peace. 

I also wish today to express our appreciation to the States that concluded their Security Council terms, Belgium, Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa, thanking them for their commitment to international law and peace, and for their support for the rights of the Palestinian people; while also expressing our congratulations to India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway and wishing them every success as they undertake their terms on the Council.

Mr. President,

The countdown for the demise of the two-State solution is underway. Some say the time has already elapsed. It is our collective responsibility to salvage the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders before it is too late. 

Some wonder if this is the right time for peace. But the very reasons that demonstrate how difficult achieving peace is going to be, including the situation on the ground, the mistrust, the illegal unilateral actions, should prompt more, not less, international involvement, especially since we all agree that we are running out of time.

How much trust was there when the parties to the conflict met in Madrid 30 years ago? How ready were they to negotiate? How willing was then Israeli Prime Minister Shamir to make peace?  How pleased were the Palestinians that the PLO could not even send its own delegation? What did the situation on the ground look like? The world decided it was time to solve this conflict and was not going to take “no” for an answer. I can tell you with certainty, without Madrid, we would not have made it to Oslo. 

The momentum for peace is something we create, not something we wait for, and I know there is no lack of willingness around this table and beyond to see peace prevail.

We thus reiterate our call for a collective approach mobilizing the international community and demonstrating its resolve to achieve peace. In this context, we call for revival of the Quartet and its engagement with partners and the parties, as well as for the continued mobilization of this Security Council. We also reiterate our call for the convening of an international peace conference that can signal a turning point in this conflict, like Madrid did three decades ago, and to launch final status negotiations based on the international terms of reference and parameters. Our call for multilateral engagement is not an attempt to evade bilateral negotiations, but rather an effort to ensure their success.

Mr. President,

Does anyone here believe that Israel has really dropped its annexation plans? Or is the reality actually that it is finalizing those plans on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as we speak, advancing over 3000 new settlement units in the last few weeks alone, accelerating demolition of Palestinian homes and the displacement of our people, with settlers’ violence reaching an all-time high, and with repeated provocations at the holy sites, especially at Al-Haram Al-Sharif? 

Israel’s goal has always been the same: grabbing maximum Palestinian geography with minimum Palestinian demography. The outcome of this policy is known. Millions of Palestinians enduring oppression, discrimination and blatant segregation, denied their most basic rights and deprived of control over their land, their resources, their borders and their lives. Who would accept that? We cannot. Would any of you? The question therefore remains how to convince Israel to choose peace not annexation, or in the words of former US President Jimmy Carter, peace not apartheid.

In 2016, the Quartet stressed the urgent need for affirmative steps to reverse the negative trends on the ground in order to “prevent entrenching a one-state reality of perpetual occupation and conflict that is incompatible with realizing the national aspirations” of the Palestinian and Israeli peoples. In response to the rapid deterioration of the situation on the ground, the Security Council adopted resolution 2334 (2016), a roadmap to salvage the two-State solution and achieve peace. 

In his speech explaining why the United States did not resort to the veto, Secretary Kerry explained that the two-State solution was a Palestinian interest, an Israeli interest, a regional and international interest, but also a US interest. He stressed that the “critical decision about the future – one state or two states – is effectively being made on the ground every single day”, noting that “the status quo is leading towards one state and perpetual occupation, but most of the public either ignores it or has given up hope that anything can be done to change it”, adding that “with this passive resignation, the problem only gets worse, the risks get greater and the choices are narrowed”.

This lucid assessment about the urgency to act to salvage the two-State solution was followed by four years where the Trump administration used the United States’ might and influence to support Israel’s unlawful efforts to entrench its occupation and control, breaking with decades of US diplomacy. Even the most vulnerable, millions of Palestine refugees, were not spared as the Trump administration withdrew US funding from UNRWA seeking to bring the Agency to collapse in spite of the international consensus on its indispensable role pending a just solution. What if these considerable resources were used to advance freedom, justice and peace, not annexation and apartheid? 

Mr. President,

The last four years have tested our collective resolve, yet the international consensus has endured and prevailed. The members of this Council, of the Quartet, the Munich group, and the international community as a whole stood up against annexation, reaffirmed their support for Palestinian rights, supported UNRWA, and continued to work for a just and lasting peace. Now is the time to heal and repair the damage left by the previous US administration.

President Abbas has congratulated President Biden on his election and expressed our hope for the resumption of relations and positive engagement. We look forward to the reversal of the unlawful and hostile measures undertaken by the Trump administration and to working together for peace. We welcome the decision of the new administration to rejoin the international law-based order and hope the US will play an important role in multilateral efforts for peace in the Middle East.

Mr. President,

This is not a time for passive resignation but a time for resolute action. Without such action, neither reversing negative trends on the ground, first and foremost illegal settlement activities, nor resuming meaningful final status negotiations, will be possible. The deterioration of the situation on the ground is directly linked to the attempts of one party to prejudge and dictate the outcome of negotiations, implementing annexation that would destroy any prospect for a sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine, while pretending to accept a two-State solution.

There are those who ask: what can be done that has not been tried already? But did the world truly use the toolbox available to it to end this occupation and conflict? 

How does the world deal with other conflicts? Does it say that the parties shall negotiate and just wait for them to be ready and agree? Or does it find the necessary resources to push parties towards negotiations and away from unlawful unilateral actions, including by upholding third parties’ obligations? Does it only condemn violations or make sure that their cost far outweighs their benefits by creating incentives for compliance with obligations and disincentives for their breach? Does this Council in adopting its resolutions accompany them with the means to ensure their implementation as per its Charter duties, or does it offer its resolutions as mere advice for the parties to decide if they take it or not? 

Since both parties say they are committed to peace, why not allow the deployment of international observers truly empowered to assess compliance? Why fear consequences for whomever breaches their legal obligations? Why not conduct final status negotiations under international auspices? Why reject the idea of binding timeframes? This is the path towards changing the dramatic reality underway in Palestine. We stand ready to do our part and will continue fulfilling our obligations.

Mr. President, 

An entire nation is yearning for freedom and its calls must be answered. We do not ask for anything more than what the UN Charter prescribed for all peoples, nor will we accept anything less. We cannot accept a future of walls and blockades, humiliation and subjugation. We will spare no effort in advancing an independent, sovereign, viable, contiguous and democratic State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. We will do by resorting to peaceful means alone, even in the most challenging of circumstances. 

While we pursue our long journey to freedom and peace, we call for immediate protection for our people, who are equally entitled to security, until such time where we can ensure their protection as a sovereign State. 

President Abbas has issued a decree calling for Palestinian legislative and presidential elections, as well as for the Palestinian National Council. This is an integral part of the efforts to resume our democratic life and to achieve national reconciliation and unity. We thank all those who are supporting these efforts and ask for international support and assistance to ensure the integrity of these elections, including by helping to avert and remove any Israeli obstacles to their conduct, notably in East Jerusalem, as well as respect for the outcome.

In this period of electoral campaigns, there are those who, in trying to secure votes, remain committed to international law, the two-State solution and peaceful means, and those who instead announce settlements, advance annexation and persist in their provocations. May people not be duped by the ills of demagogy, supremacy and domination and rather choose the path of equal rights, mutual respect and shared dignity. With your help, may our future be one of freedom, security and prosperity for all. A future of peace, not apartheid. Thank you.

22 January 2021 – Illegal Israeli Settlement Colonization

Excellency,

I must again draw your attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the escalating illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people.

As detailed in previous letters, Israel’s evident annexation intentions have reached new heights of violations with the Israeli Prime Minister announcing plans for further settlement construction and expansion on our occupied land. In addition to the 800 settlement units announced last week, Israel has issued tenders for 2,500 illegal units, with more than 450 to be built in settlements in Occupied East Jerusalem, constituting yet another blatant breach of international law and UN resolutions.

Such actions must be countered as a matter of obligation under international law and UN resolutions, but also because they continue to obstruct the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, an erga omnes right; to shred the Palestinian State’s contiguity; and to destroy the viability of the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders as envisaged by the international consensus.

This cycle of settlement expansion and encroachment is not new to the Palestinian people, as year after year, Israel steals more of their land and forcibly displaces more Palestinian families, while disguising itself as a partner for peace. According to the Israeli advocacy group Peace Now, Israel advanced construction of over 12,000 settlement units in 2020 alone, the highest number in a single year since the group began recording statistics in 2012, construction that would illegally transfer hundreds of thousands more Israeli settlers to Occupied Palestine. How do such violations and destructive actions signal any intent for peace?

The international community must explicitly demand once again that Israel immediately cease all of its illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Israel must be abide by its legal obligations, including under the 4th Geneva Convention, as reaffirmed in Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), or bear the consequences of its rogue behavior that has deliberately prolonged oppression and injustice and undermined the drive for peace and security.

Demolitions and forced evictions also continue apace as a central tool of this illegal occupation and its settlement colonization. UN OCHA reports that in 2020, Israeli occupation forces displaced nearly one thousand Palestinians, almost half of them children, as a result of demolition of Palestinian homes and forced evictions. As documented by OCHA, “The cumulative number of structures demolished or seized in 2020 (849) across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the number of Palestinians displaced as a result (996), are the largest since 2016. The number of donor-funded aid structures targeted in 2020 (156) is also the highest since 2016.

On 14 January, a Palestinian family in East Jerusalem had to self-demolish their home under pressure from the occupation’s demolition orders and threats. Abu Hamad, the homeowner, said that he had to demolish his home, built 10 years ago and inhabited by seven family members, and to remove the rubble to avoid the excessive costs and fines if demolished by the occupation authorities, who in a depraved system not only illegally and traumatically deprive people of their homes, but cruelly impose financial loss on them for those demolitions.

On 17 January, Israeli occupation forces also issued demolition orders to a primary school and a mosque in Masafer Yatta, south of Al-Khalil (Hebron). The school, which is funded by the European Union, expects to enroll 50 students in three marginalized Palestinian communities. On the same day, a separate demolition order was taking place in Anin, west of Jenin, where Israeli occupation forces bulldozed more than ten vendor stalls, affecting the livelihoods of many vulnerable families. On 18 January, occupation forces issued demolition orders to eight Palestinian families in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, whose homes were built to accommodate the village’s growing population.

It is widely known that Palestinian structures continue to be demolished and seized under the pretext of lacking occupation-issued building permits, which are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain. According to the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, Israel has rejected nearly 99 percent of Palestinian building permit applications over the years. Whether it’s a home, school, house of worship, health center, or a donor-funded project, the occupation does not discriminate in its demolition policy as the objective is explicit: to uproot Palestinians from their lands and replaced them by fanatic Israeli settlers in ever-expanding and encroaching settlements.

The violence and harassment of those settlers against the Palestinian civilian population also persist unabated. On 17 January, settler mobs from the illegal settlements of “Eli” and “Shilo” attacked Palestinians near the village of Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, damaging homes and properties. As usual, the attack occurred in full sight of Israeli soldiers who stood by as the settlers carried on with their State-backed violence, proving once again that accountability is the exception, not the rule, when it relates to the occupation.

Even in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Israeli attacks and military raids have escalated. In a single night, Israeli occupation forces conducted 17 military raids across the West Bank, and arrested 41 Palestinians. Many of those arrested take part in weekly demonstrations against their lands being confiscated for the construction of illegal settlements and outposts, revealing the extent to which Israel rejects any form of civilian protest to its illegal occupation.

Further disregarding its legal obligations as an occupying Power, Israel’s exploitation of the pandemic is evident through its discriminatory vaccination campaign. Israeli and international human rights groups have criticized Israel’s vaccination campaign, pointing to the fact that hundreds of thousands of illegal settlers have clear access to the vaccine, while the millions of Palestinians living under its 53-year belligerent occupation are excluded, further exposing the occupation’s institutionalized discrimination in the West Bank and Gaza.

On 18 January, the World Health Organization office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory raised a number of public health concerns over Israel’s unequal distribution and access to vaccines. While Israel boasts about its vaccination campaign and success in acquiring millions of doses, its total disregard for international law vis-à-vis obligations must be given due and urgent attention. Israel must be demanded to respect its legal obligations. Article 56 of the 4th Geneva Convention specifically stipulates that an occupier has the duty of ensuring “the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.”

In this regard, we draw urgent attention to the plight of Palestinian prisoners, including children, who are being detained in occupation jails in the time of pandemic. On 16 January, Abdul Muizz Al-Jubeh, age 59, was transferred to a medical center due to complications resulting from contracting the coronavirus. On 21 January, Fo’ad Al-Shobaki, the eldest Palestinian political prisoner in occupation jails, contracted the virus after coming into contact with an Israeli prison guard. Like many Palestinian prisoners, Mr. Al-Shobaki has an intensive medical history, including prostate cancer and heart disease. Israel must heed the international community’s call and release vulnerable prisoners, particularly women, children, older persons and those with pre-existing medical conditions, and must release administrative detainees being held in Israeli prisons.

It is clear that the occupying Power has intensified its attacks and violations in recent weeks in preparation for yet another round of elections. Unfortunately, the current Israeli political landscape offers little to no hope for respite as officials and candidates cynically compete over who can do more harm to the Palestinian people and two-State solution. Impunity is delivered to the occupation through international inaction, resulting in Israel advancing its colonial project at the expense of Palestinian rights and deepening hardships. The cycle of violations suffered by the Palestinian people continues because Israel’s preference to maintain the status quo, or worse, has not been met with international action aimed to end the occupation and injustice.

As Newton’s third law of motion states, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Likewise, the international community is obligated to hold Israel accountable through tangible action. The Security Council in specific bears Charter and moral duties and must implement its own resolutions to this end, including resolution 2334 (2016). Only such responsible action can help to end one of the gravest injustices of our time. The Palestinian people look to the Council, General Assembly and international community as a whole to give them hope in this new year by joining together to confront the harsh reality we face with concerted action to uphold the rule of law to protect human rights and ensure justice, the foundations of a just peace and security between Palestine and Israel.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter made available to the members of the Security Council for their immediate, valuable consideration and also distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

13 January 2021 – Israeli Violations and the Need for Accountability

Excellency,

I must again draw your attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the escalating illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people.

In the absence of accountability, the systematic, deliberate, and provocative expansion of the occupying Power’s settlements in our land has regrettably carried into 2021. Yesterday, the Israeli Prime Minister announced plans for yet another 800 settlement units in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, shamefully boasting: “I am pleased to announce that we will build 800 new apartments in Judea & Samaria, including in Nofei Nehemiah & Tel Menashe, the late Esther Horgan’s community. We are here to stay. We continue to build the Land of Israel!”

Israeli occupation authorities also recently approved new settlement plans to seize more than 1,000 dunums of privately-owned Palestinian land in Qalqilya in the northern West Bank for settlement construction and expansion. As Israel enters yet another round of elections, the cynical connection between this grave breach of international law and the pandering for votes by Israeli politicians is patently clear. In Israel’s so-called “democracy”, settler colonialism and military occupation are apparently the keys for political victories.

In fact, although Israel allegedly “suspended” its de jure annexation scheme, its de facto annexation project continues unabated in grave breach of the law. Measures to acquire more Palestinian territory by force, home demolitions, forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, and other blatant violations of human rights and international law are being taken daily in plain sight. Undeterred, Israel is also seizing more Palestinian land for settler-only highways, tunnels, and overpasses to connect illegal settlements, while further fragmenting Palestinian cities, towns, and villages.

With the expansion of settlements of course has come expansion of the illegal settler population, which has grown four times faster than Israel’s population in less than three decades. The international community must realize that the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, is being heavily and aggressively altered in the absence of accountability for such illegal measures.

We reiterate that whether colonization and annexation are implemented partially or totally, gradually or en toto, de facto or de jure, the international community is obligated to respond with serious, tangible action based on international law and the relevant UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). Only consequences can bring a halt to such illegal and destructive behavior.

This includes the inhumane demolition of homes by which Palestinian civilians continue to be rendered homeless, even in a time of pandemic. Contravening the WHO’s guidance and health recommendations, such as social distancing and staying at home, and in grave breach of international humanitarian law, Israel demolished hundreds of Palestinian homes and displaced hundreds of Palestinians throughout Occupied Palestine, with East Jerusalem being a prime target, since the pandemic began.

In 2020 alone, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that Israeli occupation forces demolished 145 structures, including two donor-funded structures in East Jerusalem, displacing 361 Palestinians, including women and children. One week into 2021, OCHA reports that Israel has already demolished 22 structures in East Jerusalem, including four donor-funded structures, displacing 30 Palestinians, including women and children.

Occupying forces also continue to harass, intimidate and violently attack Palestinian civilians in attempts to drive them from their land. On 7 January, Israeli soldiers surrounded and invaded the village of Al-Mughayir, near Ramallah, banning its residents from entering and exiting. The village has been frequently attacked by occupation forces and colonial settlers, with much of the village’s land facing threat of confiscation to facilitate the expansion of nearby illegal settlements.

On the same day, Israeli occupation forces demolished eight residential structures in Beit Iksa, near Jerusalem, under the pretext of construction without a permit, which Palestinians have virtually no chance of obtaining from occupation authorities. According to the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, Israel has rejected nearly 99 percent of Palestinian building permit applications over the years, stunting Palestinian development and housing needs while at the same supporting and serving the expansion of its illegal colonial settlements.

In addition to punitive home demolitions, holy sites and houses of worship remain in the crosshairs of Israel’s illegal policies and practices. Recent Israeli excavations near the Buraq Wall, also known as the Western Wall, further expose Israel’s provocations and illegal measures affecting Al-Haram Al-Sharif and the entire Old City through its ongoing Judaization projects and attempts to erase the City’s Muslim, Christian and Arab character and identity. Not only do such provocative actions violate international law and UN resolutions, they further inflame religious sensitivities and risk further destabilizing an already volatile and fragile situation.

Ranging from home demolitions to night raids, and occupation-backed settler violence to forced displacement, the occupying Power has intensified its repressive measures against Palestinian civilians during the pandemic. With the international community focused on overcoming COVID-19 and its severe impact on peoples, societies and economies everywhere, the occupation blatantly exploits the situation, reaffirming not only Israel’s rejection of international law, but also its callous disregard for the challenges collectively facing our world. Instead Israel repeatedly proves that it prefers to pursue its narrow, illegal self-interest to the grave detriment of the rights of the Palestinian people, the stability of our region, and the viability of international law globally.

Rejecting recent attempts to undermine international law and multilateralism, it is the Security Council’s duty to ensure that the law is safeguarded and applied. Continued inaction is politically dangerous and morally unacceptable. Israel must be demanded to cease its violations or bear the consequences. It is Israel that is in the wrong, not the Council for upholding its duties.

Moreover, Israel must be reminded of its legal obligations to ensure the health and safety of all civilians under its occupation, without discrimination, including access to proper medical care for Palestinian detainees and prisoners, including those afflicted with COVID-19, who face deliberate medical negligence as a cruel form of punishment. In this regard, we must refer to the tragic death of a young Palestinian man, 20-year old Mohammed Ayed Salaheldin, who had been imprisoned by Israel and died this week of cancer just months following his recent release. Moreover, to date, it has been reported that at least 191 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel have contracted the COVID-19 virus, that several are in serious condition, and that Israel continues to inoculate prison authorities while denying the vaccine to Palestinians they are holding captive. We reiterate our appeal to the international community to give this matter urgent attention and to act to ensure respect for obligations to save lives and to pursue immediate accountability in case of continued violations.

The impact of the pandemic has also made more dire the situation in the Gaza Strip, where the health care system has been crippled by Israel’s 13-year blockade and repeated military aggressions. That Israel maintains full control over Gaza’s crossings and borders, as well as airspace and maritime zones, is without question, imposing on it clear legal obligations as the occupying Power, including to ensure access to essential medicines and supplies.  The disrespect for these obligations is striking as we witness Israel boasting about its vaccination campaign even as it excludes Palestinians living under Israeli occupation while providing it to its settlers in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. As stated on 6 January by, Amnesty International as “millions of Palestinians living under Israeli control in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will receive no vaccine or have to wait much longer – there could hardly be a better illustration of how Israeli lives are valued above Palestinian ones.”

Israel must be demanded to respect its legal obligations and specifically as proscribed by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention specifically stipulates that an occupier has the duty of ensuring “the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics.”          

Against a backdrop of inaction, Israel’s ongoing crimes and violations prove that the occupying Power has no regard for the well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under its control, no respect for international law, and no intentions whatsoever to actualize the two-State solution on the 1967 lines in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). While Israel chooses occupation and oppression over peace and justice, the international community must choose responsibility and accountability. The Security Council in specific must be faithful to its principles by upholding its Charter duties to end this grave injustice and justly and finally end this illegal occupation and resolve this conflict. Continued inaction will reward immoral violators whose goal is to destroy any chance of a just peace.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the text of the present letter made available to the members of the Security Council for their immediate, valuable consideration and also distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

5 January 2021 – Israeli Human Rights Abuses and Violations

Excellency,

In light of recent developments, I am compelled to once again draw your attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the ongoing and escalating illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power.

For the Palestinian people, this new year, as every year, has begun with grave violations of international law and human rights abuses perpetrated by the occupying Power as its ruthlessly entrenches its control over Palestinian land and Palestinian lives through brutal and exploitative measures, including in this time of heightened vulnerability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, Israeli forces shot and killed another young Palestinian man, ‘Ahed Ikhlil, age 25, from the town of Beit Ummar in the Occupied West Bank. This killing was preceded on 2 January by the shooting of Haron Abu Aram, age 24, at close range by Israeli occupation forces in Masafer Yatta. This young man is now permanently disabled, paralyzed from the neck down, making him the latest victim of Israeli impunity. In an attempt to justify the attack, Israeli occupation authorities claim the incident turned violent. However, video footage proves otherwise, as Abu Aram posed no threat and lay motionless on the ground after being attacked for trying to defend his land and his property, including a generator for his family’s home, which the Israeli soldiers were trying to confiscate.

Like many Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, Abu Aram was in the process of rebuilding his family’s home, which was recently demolished under the pretext of construction without a permit. Yet, as highlighted repeatedly by Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov, Israel, violating its Fourth Geneva Conventions obligations, makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain such permits, as it aims to deliberately restrict Palestinian development and dispossess Palestinian families, creating a coercive environment impairing their well-being and livelihoods and forcing them to leave their land.

For all of these systematic abuses and violations, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators be brought to justice. The absence of accountability has clearly only emboldened such illegal behavior, with near-daily demolition orders issued and threats made against Palestinian families. In fact, according to OCHA, the year 2020 witnessed the highest number of demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures by the Israeli occupation forces since the documentation of this practice began and all indications are that Israel is set to continue this illegal, destructive practice if not deterred.

In 2020, exploiting the international community’s inaction, Israel also continued its violent arrest and detention campaign in Occupied Palestine. In the course of just one year, the Israeli occupying forces detained 4,636 Palestinians, including 543 minors under the age of 18 and 128 women. Israel has also persisted with its policy of administrative detention, the most arbitrary form of detention by the Israeli military holds Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial, often tortured and subjected to other forms of ill-treatment and human rights violations. 380 Palestinians are currently being administratively detained by Israel without charge, among them children and women.

Governments, human rights groups, and other international organizations have called for the release of these Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons without being charged, tried, or convicted. As expected, such calls are blatantly ignored by Israel, adding more to the massive record of documented violations perpetrated daily against the Palestinian people under its 53-year belligerent occupation.

Massive arrest campaigns and raids by the occupying Power are daily occurrences throughout Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, with utter disregard for the state of emergency in the West Bank due to the pandemic. In just one example, while conducting campaigns and raids on New Year’s Eve, on 31 December, Israeli occupation forces violently stormed homes and damaged properties, and arrested 16 Palestinians, including four minors.

Hundreds of Palestinians being held captive in Israeli prisons also suffer from critical illnesses, among them many who are chronically ill. It is known that at least 10 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel,  including 81-year-old Fouad Shoubaki, the oldest prisoner, have cancer and are in need of special medical treatment. From Israel’s medical negligence of prisoners to the inhumane practice of necroviolence by which the occupying Power withholds the bodies of Palestinians it has murdered, international law obligations continue to be trampled and the Palestinian people pay the ultimate price for such impunity and lack of accountability, deprived of their most basic human rights and fundamental human dignity.

We appeal to the international community to address Israel’s collective violence and dehumanizing practices against the living and deceased, in order to ensure respect for international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, by the occupying Power. Legal obligations are just that – obligatory, without exception – and cannot be disregarded and violated without consequence.

In this regard, it is no coincidence that Israel has begun the new year with plans to seize more Palestinian land and expand its illegal settlements. Undeterred as the international community once again failed in the past year to follow up its demands for a cessation of Israel’s colonization and annexation schemes with action, the occupying Power continues apace with such illegal measures. In fact, it seems to even be encouraged to do so as international partners fawn over recent agreements signed between Israel and Arab States while ignoring the reality of what is being perpetrated on the ground in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, on a daily basis.  That reality exposes Israel’s colonial agenda as clearly as ever: more Palestinian land without the people.

On 3 January, Israeli occupation authorities approved plans to seize more large tracts of Palestinian land in the Bethlehem area to facilitate the expansion of its illegal settlement network while further fragmenting Palestinian cities, towns, and villages. These plans are part and parcel of Israel’s plans to consolidate a ring of illegal settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem, causing irreversible damage to the contiguity of the State of Palestine and the viability of the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders.

Clearing the area of Palestinian civilians and properties before seizure of the land continues to be the usual Israeli practice as it systematically and gradually swallows up the Palestinian land, dunum by dunum. More Palestinian homes, as well as internationally-funded humanitarian structures, have thus continued to be demolished, exacerbating the already severe crisis caused by the pandemic. In just one recent incident, on 29 December, Israeli occupation forces demolished Palestinian homes and structures in Yatta, south of Al-Khalil (Hebron), and Nweimeh, south of Jericho. The following day, Israeli occupation forces uprooted dozens of olive trees and razed large tracts of privately-owned land in the village of Jab’a, near Bethlehem.

Extremist Israeli settlers have continued their violent rampages, also uprooting and burning trees and agricultural crops, destroying the livelihoods of more Palestinian families, who continue to live under their constant threats, harassment and vulnerable to their violence. At the same time, extremist and fanatic Israeli settlers continue their dangerous incitement and attacks on holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque at Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

The international community must explicitly demand once again that Israel immediately cease all of its illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Settlement activities constitute a flagrant violation of international law amounting to grave breaches, i.e. war crimes. Israel must be demanded to abide by its legal obligations, including under the Fourth Geneva Convention, as reaffirmed in Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), or suffer the consequences of its rogue behavior. All perpetrators of crimes against the Palestinian people, whether Israeli government or military officials or settlers illegally transferred to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, must be held accountable to the full extent of the law, including international criminal law as codified in the Rome Statute.

Absent accountability, Israel’s over 53-year occupation is entrenching by the minute. Those familiar with Israel’s conduct know that a new year will not change its illegal behavior. As long as impunity is coupled with the lack of accountability, Israel will remain shielded while international law, including legislation by the Security Council, are trampled and undermined. The negative, dangerous and dark trends created by this illegal occupation can only be reversed through accountability that upholds international law and the relevant UN resolutions. The time for mandated action is more indispensable than ever; it is the only hope to reverse course and salvage the prospects for a solution that ensures that justice, freedom, equality, dignity and peace prevail. The implementation of Security Council resolutions and applicability of international law will depend on whether the Council seizes the opportunity to put an end to Israel’s crimes and violations, insisting on upholding the Charter without exception and fulfilling its responsibilities to confront injustice wherever it may occur.

This letter is in follow-up to our 699 letters regarding the ongoing crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine.  These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 29 December 2020 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2020/xxx) constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations being committed against the Palestinian people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. 

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have this letter distributed as an official document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer