Excellency,

I write once again to urgently draw attention to the deteriorating situation in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, as Israel, the occupying Power, persists with its aggressions against the Palestinian people in breach of international law, United Nations resolutions and bilateral agreements. While Israeli officials continue spewing hateful and inflammatory rhetoric against our people and leadership in the run up to the Israeli elections, the Israeli Government is intensifying its illegal, repressive measures aimed at proving its brutality against our people in the race for right-wing votes.

Such extremism has heightened insecurity and resulted in the loss of more innocent Palestinian lives, including children. Yet another young boy has been killed by the Israeli occupying forces, which continue using live ammunition against unarmed civilian protesters. On 22 February, as Palestinians in Gaza demonstrated during the 48^th week of the Great March of Return, Yousef Sa’id Al-Daya, age 14, was shot in the chest with live ammunition in another display of excessive and indiscriminate force by the Israeli military, which also caused injury to 115 people, including 16 children, 10 women, a journalist and a paramedic. We call for accountability for his murder and the murders of the hundreds of innocent civilians that have preceded him. The perpetrators of these ruthless crimes cannot go unpunished. [Read more…]

Excellency,

We continue to call on Member States of the United Nations to intensify their efforts, individually and collectively, in line with their obligations under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, and consistent with the relevant UN resolutions, to hold Israel, the occupying Power, accountable for its violations in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem. In this fifty-second year of the occupation and seventy-one years since the onset of the Al-Nakba, we will not relent in calling for international law to be upheld and for fulfillment of the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights and legitimate national aspirations.

While not possible in the context of these letters to document every single Israeli crime against our people, we will continue to alert the international community as to Israel’s illegal policies and practices in our determined pursuit of international action and measures of accountability to bring an end to this illegal and abhorrent situation.

Accordingly, I must draw attention to the risks of further destabilization of the fragile and tense situation on the ground as the occupying Power is intensifying its provocations, incitement and illegal measures against both the Palestinian people and their leadership. In this regard, the Israeli government has once again decided to seize and withhold Palestinian tax revenues, collected by Israel on behalf of Palestinians in accordance with an agreement between the two sides, in a blatant act of theft and piracy directly intended to undermine the Palestinian leadership and causing harm to Palestinian families. By Israel’s own admission, this illegal withholding of our tax revenues is aimed at among the most vulnerable segments of our society – the families of our thousands of political prisoners and our martyrs – in an attempt to collapse the social safety net provided to these families and to deepen their deprivation and want. [Read more…]

Excellency,

I write to you in follow-up to our numerous letters alerting the international community to the illegal policies and constant incitement by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. In the recent period, such illegal practices and reckless inflammatory rhetoric and provocations appear to have been deliberately escalated by the occupying Power, exacerbating the insecurity of the Palestinian civilian population, who are being targeted by more and more violence by Israeli military and settler forces, risking innocent lives and further destabilization of the fragile situation on the ground.

We condemn the Israeli occupying forces’ indiscriminate, lethal force against Palestinian civilians, including the latest murders, perpetrated on Friday, 7 February, of two Palestinian children, Hasan Eyad Shalbi, age 13, and Hamza Mohammed Rashdi Ishteiwi, age 17. Both were shot to death with live ammunition, one to the chest and one to the neck, during the Great March of Return protests in the besieged Gaza Strip, and dozens people were injured, adding to the thousands of casualties since these protest began on 30 March 2018.  At the same time, Israeli occupying forces and extremist settlers continue their violent rampages against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, terrorizing the population and causing harm to civilians and destruction of their properties. [Read more…]

Excellency,

I am compelled to write once again as Israeli crimes against the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, persist and continue to cause casualties and destruction, including death and injury to innocent civilians. In particular, Israeli settler violence and terror against Palestinians has sharply escalated, heightening the insecurity of our civilian population and further underscoring the need for international protection for them as this illegal occupation becomes only more brutal and extreme with every passing day. [Read more…]

Excellency,

I write to you today to once again to convey our grave concerns about the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. We reiterate our appeal to the international community to give this matter due and urgent attention, as we urged yet again during the recent open debate of the Security Council on 22 January.

As affirmed in the briefing by the United Nations Special Coordinator, Mr. Nikolay Mladenov, and as reflected in reports by OCHA, UNRWA, UNICEF and other UN agencies present on the ground, the start of the new year has witnessed the continued decline of the situation, exacerbating the already dire conditions arrived at by the end of 2018.

In contempt of the Security Council and in breach of its unambiguous obligations under international law, Israel, the occupying Power, continues to escalate its unrelenting barrage of repressive, disparaging, and illegal measures against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Such impunity is clearly being emboldened by the failure of the international community to hold Israel accountable for its violations, a failure that has undoubtedly enabled the perpetuation of this illegal, colonial foreign occupation. But this is not a preordained or irreversible situation; the international community can and must uphold international law and ensure accountability aimed at alleviating the plight and suffering of the Palestinian people and ultimately bringing an end to this illegal occupation and historic injustice. [Read more…]

Excellency,

As the Security Council continues to address the Palestine question month after month, amidst constant calls by the international community for responsible action in line with its Charter duties, Israel, the occupying Power, continues to exploit the Council’s inaction with the intensification of its illegal and destructive policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, further destabilizing the situation and further undermining the prospects for a peaceful solution.

Central to the pursuit of the occupation’s illegal agenda has been the use of inflammatory rhetoric and incitement, which persist with alarming intensity. In this regard, it is imperative to draw attention to recent provocative statements made by the director and founder of the Israel Land Fund, Mr. Arieh King, and a so-called “city councilman”. In a public statement on social media, King has called for demolition of parts of the walls of the Old City in Occupied East Jerusalem, constituting yet another of the ongoing, countless attempts by the occupying Power to illegally alter the character, identity and status of the City and entrench its illegitimate control over the entirety of the City. King stated that the removal of these historic walls, built during the time of the Ottoman Empire, would help reconnect the “old city to the rest of the city forever”. Such a statement is not only inflammatory, but stands in violation of international law, including numerous United Nations resolutions from General Assembly resolution 181 (II), Security Council resolution 252 (1968), and onwards up to resolution 2334 (2016) and resolution ES-10/20, and must be firmly denounced and condemned. [Read more…]