Mission Documents

29 December 2020 – Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza and Settler Terror

29 December 2020 by

Excellency,

I write to draw your urgent 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. These unlawful and inhumane actions continue to cause widespread human suffering and to aggravate an already volatile situation.

In the midst of the holiday week and Christmas celebrations, Israeli warplanes launched an indiscriminate aggression on the Gaza Strip. For the second year in a row, the occupying Power has marred Christmas in Palestine through direct military attacks, targeting civilians, homes, and even a children’s hospital, causing civilian casualties and destruction to civilian structures and traumatizing yet again the Palestinian civilian population besieged in Gaza for more than thirteen years now by Israel’s immoral and illegal blockade that is the cause of grave humanitarian suffering. We condemn all of these illegal actions by the occupying Power against the Palestinian people.

Israel’s attack on 26 December on the Mohammad Al-Durra children’s hospital and a rehabilitation center for disabled persons caused extensive damage and spread fear among the children, their families and hospital staff, whose lives were threatened by such indiscriminate airstrikes. The bombardment of civilian areas is prohibited by international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. Several children, including a 6-year old girl, were injured in the airstrikes and significant damage was caused to nearby homes and properties. Such breaches by the occupying Power demand urgent international action, first and foremost to save civilian lives and to deter further violations.

We reiterate our call for international protection to the Palestinian people, in line with the provisions of international humanitarian law, against Israel’s cruel and repressive measures. Israel’s shameless exploitation of the pandemic, which is wreaking havoc in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as elsewhere in the world, should not be met with silence. The occupying Power must be called out for its violations and its deliberate exploitation of this time of pandemic to intensify its illegal practices and policies aimed at further entrenching its military occupation and inhumane blockade and undermining all Palestinian efforts to contain the virus and care for the civilian population.

The international community, including the Security Council, must demand that the occupying Power forthwith comply with its obligations under international law or bear the consequences for its unlawful behavior. This must include,inter alia, respect for the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict. Laws intended to protect children’s rights cannot be so systematically and flippantly ignored without accountability.

As the list of Israeli crimes expands daily, we must ask: how many more Palestinian children will have to bear Israel’s aggression and disregard for their lives until the law is upheld and given tangible meaning? Where is the outrage and action by those who are the custodians of the law, whether the Security Council, the General Assembly, the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions, the States parties to the human rights covenants, all States Members of the United Nations as per their Charter obligations? We appeal to the international community to act, to uphold those obligations, to protect innocent civilian lives in Palestine, including those of the most vulnerable, the children.

Once again, we must also call attention to the havoc being caused by Israel’s illegal ongoing settlement campaign in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, which continues to severely undermine the prospects for a two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders as envisaged by international consensus. Last week, Israel advanced plans to so-called “legalize” more illegal settlement outposts. The aim is clear: to expropriate more Palestinian land for expansion of its illegal settlements and advancement of its de facto annexation plans, which have never ceased for one minute.

Despite Israel’s claims of “suspension” of annexation plans, disguising itself as a trusted partner for regional peace, the reality is that is has never ceased its annexation practices, not even for a single minute, as proven in its constant destruction and expropriation of Palestinian homes and properties, forced transfer of Palestinian families and blatant settlement construction with thousands upon thousands of settlement units advanced in this year alone.

We reiterate that whether annexation is implemented partially or totally, de facto or de jure, it is illegal and the international community must respond with serious, tangible action, in respect of international law and relevant UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), the provisions of which are unequivocal in this regard.

Absent accountability, the reality being imposed on the ground is undeniable: Israel is creating an irreversible, coercive environment where Palestinian cities, towns and villages are disconnected and fragmented, destroying the contiguity of our territory and the geographic, social and economic viability of our State. At this very moment, Palestinians in Bethlehem and Jerusalem are witnessing their lands vanish into Israeli-declared “state lands” as the occupying Power aims to expand and merge the noncontiguous illegal settlements of “Givat Hamatos”, “Gilo”, “Har Gilo”, and the so-called ‘E-1’ area. Enjoying the Israeli government’s direct support and continued international inaction, state-sponsored settler organizations are pushing to achieve a massive settlement bloc that will destroy the two-State solution.

Israel also persists with its repression and attacks against Palestinian civilians who dare to object to the occupation’s illegal colonization of their land, On 25 December, Israeli occupation forces attacked Palestinian protestors in two separate incidents in demonstrations against Israel’s expropriation of Palestinian land near Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, and Deir Jarir, northeast of Ramallah. One Palestinian protester was injured by an Israeli rubber-coated bullet and others suffered suffocation from teargas and stun grenades fired at the civilian protesters. Mr. Ayman Alawi, the mayor of Deir Jarir, was shot in the head by an Israeli rubber-coated bullet as he joined the citizens of the town in protesting Israel’s expropriation of the village’s land for illegal settlement activities.

According to a report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on 24 December, such illegal policies and practices by Israel, the occupying Power, have only escalated in the recent period. In just the two-week period between December 8 and 21, Israeli occupation forces killed one Palestinian, injured more than 70 others, detained over 150 Palestinians, and demolished 22 Palestinian-owned structures. Since OCHA began documenting the practice of home demolitions and forced evictions, 2020 has recorded the second highest number of demolished Palestinian-owned structures and properties. Such breaches of international law have dispossessed hundreds of Palestinian families, affecting thousands of people. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the occupying Power has not hesitated to render hundreds more Palestinians homeless as it pursues its illegal colonization and annexation schemes.

In this regard, the Israeli occupying forces are routinely accompanied by extremist Israeli settlers and settler militias in their violent attacks against Palestinian civilians, destruction and property, forced evictions and displacement, expansion of illegal settlements, and acts of incitement and provocation, including at holy sites in Occupied East Jerusalem. Likewise, aided and abetted by the occupation forces, Israeli settler violence and terror has escalated in the recent period, with settlers attacking Palestinian civilians, razing large areas of Palestinian land, and uprooting and burning trees across the occupied West Bank. While unconditional security is provided to settlers by the occupying forces, the Palestinian civilian population remains vulnerable due to the occupation’s starkly different treatment of Palestinians and settlers, with the latter enjoying rights and protection that the former is completely deprived of, as Israel imposes its racist, discriminatory, apartheid regime in Occupied Palestine in grave breach of international law.

Absent accountability, it is clear that such injustice and impunity will only continue to rise, causing more human suffering, diminishing hopes for a just solution, and further impairing the viability of international law, which is being trampled before the world’s eyes with no reaction. As we approach a new year, we urgently appeal to the international community to make this the year where the law is upheld and impunity is stopped. It is time for the international community to assume its responsibilities towards this unlawful situation in Palestine. International law, including the relevant United Nations resolutions, must be upheld and, where breached consequences, must follow. Only implementation and accountability can reverse these negative and destructive trends and salvage the possibility for a just, lasting and comprehensive solution by which the Palestinian and Israeli peoples can live in mutual peace and security. There is no other way.

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 15 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

7 December 2020 – Letter on Israeli Killing of Palestinian Children and Attack on Church

07 December 2020 by

Excellency,

Despite our repeated appeals for international action to deter Israel from its criminal behavior towards the Palestinian people, the lack of serious efforts to hold the occupying Power accountable and ensure protection to the Palestinian people, as prescribed by international humanitarian law, has left our people even more vulnerable to the brutality of this occupation.

The failure to impose consequences that would reign in Israel’s unlawful actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, has propelled a vicious culture of impunity by which this colonial occupation has only become more entrenched, more destructive and more violent over time, with home demolitions, land appropriation, settler violence and terror, extrajudicial killings, mass arrests, and de facto annexation unabated and escalating.

Such impunity, including direct attacks against civilians, among them children, have become more frequent and shockingly normalized by the occupation, even more so during the pandemic. Today, four Palestinian men were shot and injured during an Israeli military raid of the Qalandiya refugee camp, three of them reported to be in critical condition. On 25 November, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Noor Jamal Shuqeir, age 38, at a checkpoint in East Jerusalem, claiming that Mr. Shuqeir was involved in an attack. However, as details emerged, Israeli authorities revised their claims, stating that it remains unclear if Mr. Shuqeir intended to carry out an attack. According to footage released by the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, Mr. Shuqeir was running away from an ambushing group of Israeli soldiers before being fatally shot. Such extrajudicial killings have become a systematic practice of the occupation, amounting to war crimes against the occupied civilian population.

In this regard, on 4 December, a 14-year-old boy, Ali Abu Alia was shot and killed by Israeli occupying forces in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah. Ali is the fifth Palestinian child to be killed by Israeli live ammunition this year. Ali was among community members protesting Israel’s colonization policies in and around the village. There is absolutely no justification for such use of force against civilians and certainly not children.

The Palestinian people are compelled to ask; how many more Palestinian children will be robbed of their lives until Israel abides by international law? This heinous murder should remind the international community that children are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention and other provisions of international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, paradoxically, Palestinian children continue to be routinely killed and maimed by the occupying forces, while the perpetrators are routinely shielded from responsibility. We call on the international community to act to bring an end to the occupation’s state-sponsored killing of Palestinian children, for which Israel must be fully held accountable.

As the international community remains overwhelmed with the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact, Israel intention to exploit these extraordinary circumstances is glaring. Rather than respecting the law and acting in solidarity with the international community at a time of global crisis, Israel is instead challenging every international norm and the international consensus on a just solution, bringing both to a breaking point. The fact is that, absent action making such rogue behavior consequential, Israel’s policy of ‘displace and replace’ has only intensified. Such systematic ethnic cleansing and colonization constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, and must be countered by the international community in both word and deed.

The proliferation of illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in particular in areas in and around occupied East Jerusalem and Bethlehem in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibition on transferring civilian population into occupied territory, is deeply rooted in Israel’s overall annexation schemes. The so-called “suspension” of such plans should therefore neither be cause for relief, nor applause, by the international community, as more Palestinian land is actually being devoured daily as the Israel lays the groundwork for de jure annexation.

We reiterate that whether annexation is implemented partially or totally, gradually or in one fell swoop, de facto or de jure, it is illegal and requires that the international community take serious, tangible action, in accordance with the clear obligations stipulated by international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016).

In this regard, it must be noted that, in the last month, there has been an alarming spike in Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes and forced eviction of families, deliberately rendering hundreds more civilians homeless in the midst of a raging pandemic. According to OCHA, Israel has demolished more than 500 Palestinian homes and structures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the start of 2020, with East Jerusalem a prime target. These decades-old policies, coupled with settler violence and impunity, aim to achieve demographic and territorial control of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, by driving the Palestinian people off of their land, ensuring Israel’s control of territory with as minimal Palestinian demography as possible.

The extensive territorial fragmentation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory is reflected in the growing presence of illegal Israeli settlements and settlers. As Israel, continues to cut off, isolate and wall-in Palestinian villages, towns and cities, the threat of settler violence and terror has simultaneously increased in every aspect of Palestinian daily life. On 4 December, an extremist Israeli settler attempted to burn down the Gethsemane Church in occupied East Jerusalem in this holy season for the Christian faithful. Fortunately, the attack, which burned several pews in the church, was thwarted by local Palestinian citizens who handed the perpetrator over to Israeli authorities, who would later shockingly claim that the attack by a Jewish extremist against the church was somehow not motivated by ideological beliefs.

Over past years, Israeli settlers have carried out several heinous attacks against Christian and Muslim sites, as well as priests and other religious officials, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Such behavior has undoubtedly been fueled by Israel’s constant illegal measures, including its dangerous excavations and provocations in connection with holy sites, including its demolition last week of the stairway leading to the historic Yusufia cemetery in occupied East Jerusalem. The aim has clearly been to undermine the Palestinian people’s connection to their land and holy sites, including to Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the legal and historic status quo of which Israel continues to repeatedly violate, threatening to ignite a full-blown religious conflict.

Urgent action is required to prevent the proliferation of such provocative and hateful attacks. There must be accountability, which is a rare occurrence as Israeli settlers and fanatics, the direct beneficiaries of the two-tiered system in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, operate in a State-sponsored environment of impunity. We condemn this attack on the ancient Gethsemane Church, and call on the international community to condemn all such provocations and incitement and all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, as reaffirmed in resolution 2334.

It is high time for the international community to stand for its commitments and obligations to address these ongoing crimes. We call on the international community, including the Security Council, to use all means available to it to uphold international law and implement UN resolutions and to demonstrate to the Palestinian people that they are not alone in the struggle for their inalienable rights and self-determination, as prominently enshrined in the UN Charter.

One thing that Israel, the occupying Power, fails to see is, although it enjoys the inaction of the international system, is that it is rapidly losing its credibility in the eyes of the peoples of conscience of the world, for whom resolving this grave injustice remains a matter of urgency and priority. We appeal once more for collective action, based on the longstanding international consensus enshrined in the relevant UN resolution, to bring a halt to these crimes against the Palestinian people by holding Israel accountable for its illegal 53-year occupation. This must include, inter alia, firm respect of the obligations of non-recognition, non-assistance and non-complicity with its illegal settlement colonization enterprise in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Only accountability can remedy this grave situation and also finally prove opportune that international law applies to all without exception, including to the Question of Palestine.

This letter is in follow-up to our 697 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 17 November 2020 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2019/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 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

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Identical Letters

General Statement after Vote by Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, Resolutions under Agenda Item 38: Question of Palestine, 75th Session, 2 December 2020

02 December 2020 by

Thank you Mr. President,

I wish to take this opportunity to express the State of Palestine’s sincere gratitude to all the Member States that voted in support of the important resolutions that have just been adopted by the General Assembly under agenda item 38, Question of Palestine, once again by a resounding majority.

We convey additional appreciation to those countries that cosponsored these resolutions for their strong endorsement and support, and express in this regard our special appreciation to Senegal, Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, for leading the co-sponsorship of these resolutions, to Namibia, Vice-Chair of the Committee for presenting the resolutions to the Assembly; and to Afghanistan, Vice-Chair and Acting Rapporteur of the Committee, for presenting the annual report of the Committee, reflecting on the ongoing plight of the Palestinian people, the continued search for a just solution, and the Committee’s continuous efforts in this regard, in line with its General Assembly mandate, since it was established in 1975, forty-five years ago.

We renew our gratitude in this regard to all Members and Observers of the Committee and to the Division for Palestinian Rights and the Department of Global Communication’s Special Information Programme on Palestine for all of their efforts, advocacy and outreach in support of the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and the achievement of a just, lasting and peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Question of Palestine as a whole in accordance with international law and the relevant UN resolutions.

Mr. President,

The resolutions adopted today constitute important contributions by the General Assembly, in line with international law and the letter and spirit of multilateralism, towards addressing the fundamental issues and prolonged challenges we continue to face more than seventy-two years since the Nakba that befell the Palestinian people in 1948 and the dire consequences and painful hardships they continue to endure to this day, including the continued deprivation and denial of the right to return of more than 5.6 million Palestine refugees and the cruel, fifty-three year Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land and oppression of the Palestinian people since 1967.

Central to all of the resolutions just adopted, both the programmatic and political, is the goal of a just, lasting, comprehensive and peaceful solution to the Question of Palestine that will bring an end to the Israeli occupation, fulfill the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including to self-determination and freedom in an independent, sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the pre-1967 borders, and a just solution to the Palestine refugee question on the basis of General Assembly resolution 194 (III). These are the pillars of a just and lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace and of genuine security and stability for both peoples and the region, pillars on which the international consensus remains strong, as reflected in the overwhelming support once again for the resolution on the “Peaceful settlement of the Question of Palestine”.

Mr. President,

We reject the offensive remarks by the Israeli representative against the integrity of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian people and against the States who have sponsored and voted in favor of these resolutions. This is not the so-called “Question of Palestine”, as he flippantly stated, it is in fact the longest standing item on the UN agenda. And, once again he went on to insult the General Assembly by claiming everyone in this chamber is “detached from reality”. On the contrary, this is reality and what has been said here in the General Assembly are not so-called “Palestinian talking points”, these are the international talking points, this is the international consensus, the consensus that Israel – the occupying Power – continues to reject, obstruct, deny, belittle, and attempt futilely to destroy.

The debate today in this chamber, with the participation of countries from every region of the globe, is clear expression of international law and its respect by the international community. The exception is Israel, which refuses to abide by international law, flagrantly trampling the Charter, international humanitarian and human rights law and UN resolutions, having gotten too accustomed to violating the law with zero consequences.

We reiterate what was stated in our intervention earlier today: it is high time for accountability for such blatant and systematic breaches of international law and violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people. Only accountability can change this miserable situation and give hope for a future of justice and peace. Peace cannot be built on the basis of illegality and oppression. Peace is built on the foundation of justice, that is international law, and upon compromise, and no one, no one, has made a greater compromise for peace than the Palestinian people and their leadership.

The hypocritical and degrading claim by the Israeli representative that this institution’s approach has “failed” perhaps should highlight even more the need for concrete action by States to implement the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly and of course the Security Council, to give meaning and substance to the commitments made, to give life to the international consensus, and to ensure accountability for such illegal and contemptuous behavior, which we all know is what is causing so much grief and suffering in Occupied Palestine, what has undermined every single peace initiative and negotiations across over two decades, and what is preventing the establishment of genuine peace and security between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and in the Middle East region as a whole.

We urge mobilization of the necessary political will to change course of decades of inaction towards real action for a peaceful end to this conflict. We call for respect of these resolutions and the obligations and commitments affirmed therein. Implementation is not only paramount for the realization of just solution, but equally paramount for the credibility of this organization and the viability of our international rules-based order for the benefit of all countries and peoples.

Mr. President,

In closing, I wish to reiterate our deep gratitude for principled support given to the resolutions on the Question of Palestine and for the support and solidarity to the Palestinian people expressed in the debate and in the many messages of solidarity received in these past days, from all corners of the globe, from countries small and large, in commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. These resolutions reflect the collective will of the international community to uphold the law as it pertains to the Palestine question and ultimately contribute to a just, lasting and peaceful solution. For this, the General Assembly should be proud.

I thank you, Mr. President.

Filed Under: About Palestine, Mission Documents, Statements Tagged With: statements, United Nations General Assembly

Statement by H.E. Dr. Riyad Mansour, Ambassador, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, before the United Nations General Assembly, Agenda Item 38: Question of Palestine, Agenda Item 37: Situation in the Middle East, 2 December 2020, New York:

02 December 2020 by

Mr. President,

We thank you for convening the General Assembly address the Question of Palestine as we mark 73 years since the Assembly’s adoption of resolution 181 (II) and decision to partition historic Palestine. The consequences of that decision continue to unfold to this day as the Palestinian people have been left without remedy for the injustice done to them, enduring decades of exile as refugees since the 1948 Nakba, decades of foreign occupation and oppression, and denial of their most basic human rights.

Mr. President, we deeply appreciate the principled stance you have affirmed and your calls for respect of United Nations resolutions and the mobilization of international efforts to end this injustice and achieve Palestinian-Israeli peace and security, crucial for both regional and international peace and security.

Today, we also reiterate our deep gratitude for the support and solidarity extended by the international community, including unequivocal support for the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, to live in freedom, independence and dignity in their homeland, an inalienable right we will never forsake.

The messages received on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People – from governments, parliaments, civil society and peoples of conscience across the world – reassure us, even in these difficult times, of the strength of this support, firmly rooted in the UN Charter, international law, and the principle of the equality of all peoples and nations. Your solidarity has helped us persevere despite the many hardships and crises faced by generations of Palestinians, who remain steadfast in the struggle for their rights and the belief that justice and peace will ultimately prevail.

Mr. President,

While grateful for this global solidarity, we come today with an urgent appeal for action to back it up. Statements are not enough. The time is past due to fulfill the longstanding promises to Palestine that have kept an entire people in limbo for over a century. States must fulfill their obligations under international law, including in implementation of UN resolutions and obligations under the 4^th Geneva Convention, if we are ever to heal these wounds and enter a new era of justice and peace.

Without action – without accountability and real consequences – it is painfully apparent that Israel, the occupying Power, will continue to ignore the international community and trample international law, violating the rights of the Palestinian people and destroying the prospects for genuine peace, security and coexistence. Words and commitments must be backed by serious action, employing all legitimate political, legal and popular means available. History teaches us that this is how all other forms of colonialism and apartheid were defeated. Palestine cannot be the exception.

Decades of appeasing this illegal occupation have not worked, and neither have the attempts to break will of the Palestinian people, as proven in recent years despite the pressures of one punitive measure after another. Attempts to bully and exhaust them into accepting partial solutions will never work; the Palestinian people will never accept less than their legitimate national rights, less than their full human rights, less than freedom.

A just solution rests in international law. It is that simple. International law is rightly at the center of the international consensus on the Palestine question and the parameters enshrined in General Assembly and Security Council resolutions and in the Madrid principles and Arab Peace Initiative.

We respect and have long aligned ourselves with the international consensus, in word and deed. The two-State solution was devised by the international community, but the Palestinian leadership was courageous enough to accept it, over 32 years ago, when it made the major, historic compromise of declaring the independence of the State of Palestine on the 4 June 1967 lines.

There is only one State that has never accepted the internationally-agreed parameters and never truly and honestly endorsed the two-State solution, instead continually working against it, undermining it every single day with countless illegal and destructive policies and practices: Israel, the occupying Power.

Mr. President,

The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory since 1967, including East Jerusalem, is illegal in every aspect and must end. This occupation is propped up only through systematic breaches of international law, many amounting to war crimes, and long ago passed the threshold of legality. Whether the settlement colonization and annexation of our land, or the repression, collective punishment and apartheid against our people, all must end.

Those who believe Israel has actually suspended or ceased its annexation plans are, willfully or mistakenly, ignoring what is happening, every single day, in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem. Settlements are being rabidly expanded as Israel moves ahead with plans to construct thousands more settlement units in just the period since its so-called “suspension” announcement, especially in the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas, proving over and over that it rejects the two-State solution and has no intention to end its occupation.

The occupying Power also persists with its wall construction, confiscation of Palestinian land, exploitation of natural resources, dangerous excavations under holy sites, and violations of the historic status quo at Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Hundreds more homes and civilian structures, including schools and clinics, have been demolished. Palestinian families are being evicted and dispossessed, rendered homeless even in this time of pandemic, as our civilians are forcibly transferred in an ongoing ethnic cleansing. Extremist settlers and militias, abetted by the Israeli military and openly funded and incited by the Israeli government, also continue their reign of violence and terror, attempting to drive our people from their land.

The scope and scale of the occupation’s human rights violations are too vast to enumerate here, but are corroborated by the many reports of UN agencies and international organizations. Palestinian children, women and men tragically continue to be killed and injured in daily military raids on Palestinian cities, towns, villages and refugee camps. Palestinians, especially young males, continue to be arrested, administratively detained, imprisoned, medically neglected and tortured, with nearly five thousand now captive in Israeli jails, including at least 155 children. The bodies of Palestinians killed by the occupying forces continue to withheld, obstructing their proper burial and deepening the trauma endured by their families.

Moreover, Israel continues to collectively punish the Palestinian people and impose a racist, apartheid regime controlling and blighting every aspect of their lives. The occupying forces routinely threaten, humiliate and abuse Palestinian civilians, particularly at the hundreds of military checkpoints restricting freedom of movement and fragmenting our land into walled-in, isolated Bantustans. Most shocking remains the illegal 13-year blockade by which Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into an open-air prison and methodically inflicted a humanitarian crisis on the entire civilian population in what constitutes a massive violation of human rights tantamount to a crime against humanity.

This cruel and deliberate deprivation of 2 million people is nearing the brink of disaster, averted only by international humanitarian support, foremost via UNRWA, which itself faces a financial crisis threatening continuity of its vital assistance to 5.6 million Palestine refugees across the region. We appeal for attention to this crisis, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade and calling for support to UNRWA to ensure the well-being of the refugees pending a just solution to their plight.

Mr. President,

Against this dire backdrop, humanitarian support and positions of principles remain of utmost importance. But neither assistance nor statements alone will ever be enough to rectify this situation. The occupation in all of its manifestations is illegal, immoral, an affront to the rules-based order, and must end.

To those who claim “the same old methods won’t work”, we say: We fully agree. The situation is beyond untenable and attempts to continue “managing” the conflict unacceptable and dangerous. The international community needs to break out from the old cycle of appeasing Israel even as it flagrantly breaches the law, violates human rights, and destroys the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders.

The failure to uphold the law and human rights standards when it comes to the Israeli occupation and the failure to enact consequences for violations has only emboldened more violations. States must act on their responsibilities and commitments and end the double-standard of rewarding, rather than punishing Israel, for its illegal behavior. It’s singling out for exception treatment must end here and now. There is no alternative if we are to change the dismal situation that prevails.

Accountability is the key to deter further crimes, spare the suffering of more innocents, and create a credible horizon that can take us from talking and dreaming of a just peace to making it a reality. Accountability is a legal obligation and is what can ultimately compel compliance in the face of decades intransigence and help us open a new chapter that brings both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples peace, stability and security.

The General Assembly’s resolution “Peaceful settlement of the Question of Palestine”, along with other relevant resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334, have long set forth the legal obligations of States and the pillars of a just peace. Those terms of reference and parameters continue to enjoy broad international support. Significantly, this international consensus has not wavered despite Israel’s constant undermining of the two-State solution and the punitive actions and pressures by the Trump administration. Clearly, when the will for justice and peace is strong, nothing is irreversible.

What is needed now is the political will to take concrete action, including lawful countermeasures to bring the necessary pressure to bear to bring a halt to Israeli violations, and collective efforts to salvage and restore peace prospects, which are diminished every day that action is delayed.

We urge all States to uphold international law in regards to the Palestine question, in word and deed, including through support for our UN resolutions and tangible efforts to implement them at the national and international levels.

We urge support for President Abbas’ call for an international peace conference in 2021 based on the international consensus enshrined in UN resolutions as the most effective means to resolve this conflict and establish a just and lasting peace. We call for activation of the Security Council in line with its Charter duties, the Quartet in line with its mandate, and all concerned regional and international partners for this purpose.

We urge continued support for the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including to self-determination and independence, and call for recognition of the State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, by States who have not done so.

We urge the continued provision of humanitarian and development assistance, including to the Palestine refugees through UNRWA, until a just solution to their plight in accordance with resolution 194 (III), which affirmed their right to return.

Lastly, we call for practical measures to ensure respect for the Charter and all relevant provisions of international law. This must include support for international accountability mechanisms, including legal action in courts, including at the ICC and ICJ. Israeli government officials, organizations, and corporations and individuals aiding and abetting this illegal occupation must be held accountable. We also call on all States to ensure they are not complicit with Israel’s illegal actions. States have a duty not to recognize as legitimate the unlawful situation created by Israel’s policies and measures in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, including as a result of its settlement activities; not to render aid or assistance in maintaining this unlawful situation; and to distinguish, in all of their relevant dealings, between the territory of the occupying Power and the territory occupied since 1967, including with regard to Jerusalem, as called for by Security Council resolution 2334 (2016).

One very basic yet crucial step in this regard is to ban the entry to markets of settlement products – produced in illegal settlements and with natural resources illegally exploited from our land. This is a minimal ask, as is the obligation to ensure that agreements signed between any State and the State of Israel are not applied to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. This is where accountability begins and how the road to a just solution and a better future is paved.

Mr. President,

The Palestinian people and leadership remain steadfast in their pursuit of justice and peace. The path we have chosen to resolve the Question of Palestine, the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict and cornerstone of peace and security in the Middle East, is a peaceful path. We are committed to diplomatic, political, legal and non-violent means to realize our rights. This includes negotiations, to which we long ago committed, but is not exclusive of other efforts and cannot be detached from respect for international law and UN resolutions, the guarantors of a just solution.

We urge all who believe in the purposes and principles of this organization and the rule of law to join us in our peaceful efforts. In this regard, we urge support for the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, whose mandate is rooted in the relevant resolutions and international consensus and whose work has always upheld the spirit of multilateralism, dialogue and peaceful settlement of conflicts at the heart of the UN. We reject the false claims that the Committee is biased or anti-Israeli; this is simply not true and the Committee’s efforts with partners from across the international community, including parliamentarians and civil society, both Palestinian and Israeli, is testament to that fact.

We are grateful to the Committee for its support for the Palestinian people’s rights and its constant, positive engagement aimed at promoting just, lasting, comprehensive peace, whereby the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, can live side by side with Israel, based on the pre-1967 borders, in peace and security. We thank Senegal and Ambassador Cheikh Niang, Chair of the Committee, for undertaking this important responsiblity over the years, and thank all other Bureau members – Vice-Chairs Afghanistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Namibia and Nicaragua – along with all Committee Members and Observers for their unwavering, principled support. We also thank the Division for Palestinian Rights, as well as the Department of Global Communications’ Programme on Palestine, for such commendable efforts.

In closing, we renew our appreciation to Secretary-General António Gutteres for his leadership on the Palestine question, including through the good offices of his Special Representative and UN Special Coordinator, and our deep gratitude for the tireless efforts of the many UN agencies assisting the Palestinian people – UNRWA, OCHA, UNDP, UNICEF, OHCHR, UN Women, WFP, WHO, UNFPA, UN-HABITAT, UNCTAD and UNMAS – with the generous support of States, organizations and partners from around the world. We urge continuation of this life-saving and hope-giving support, while at the same time, once again, urging the international community to redouble the efforts to fulfill the political, legal and moral obligations towards the Palestine question, and to act forthwith to bring an end to the occupation, assist the Palestinian people in achieving their long-denied rights, including to self-determination and freedom, and finally achieve a just and lasting peace.

I thank you, Mr. President.

Filed Under: About Palestine, General Assembly, Mission Documents, Statements, Uncategorized Tagged With: statements, UN Resolutions, United Nations General Assembly

25 November 2020 – Letter on the Plight of Mohammed el Halabi

25 November 2020 by

Excellency,

I write to you to convey the somber letter and urgent appeal of a Palestinian father in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Khalil el Halabi, regarding the plight of his son, Mohammed el Halabi, who has been held captive by Israel, the occupying Power, since June 2016, imprisoned without any evidence of the charges brought against him and enduring forced interrogations and torture aimed at pressuring a confession from him for a crime he did not commit. Mohammed has long engaged in humanitarian work in support of his people was the recipient of a UN Humanitarian Hero award in 2014 in recognition, inter alia, for his tireless work with Palestinian children in Gaza who have been afflicted with cancer, and is recognized widely for his humanitarian efforts.

I share this letter with you at the request of his father, urgently appealing for any advocacy and action that can help to address Mohammed’s plight and facilitate his release from Israeli prison. I also take this opportunity to reiterate the Palestinian leadership’s abiding call for the release of all Palestinian children, women and men that are being unlawfully detained and imprisoned by Israel, the occupying Power, including administrative detainees, and for urgent attention in particular to the most vulnerable of the prisoners, including children, the sick and elderly and especially in this time of global pandemic, and urge the international community’s mobilization in this regard.

I would be grateful if you could bring my letter and the annexed letter of Dr. el Halabi to the attention of the Members of the Security Council for their urgent consideration.

Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer Mission of the

State of Palestine to the United Nations

To: Members of the UN General Assembly

Members of the UN Security Council,

By way of Dr. Riyad Mansour

Permanent representative of the State of Palestine to the UN

I am writing to you in regards to the case of my son, the engineer Mohammad Khalil Al Halabi who has been unjustly held in Israeli jails since June 15th 2016. He has been presented at 152 sessions of Israeli courts in one of the longest courts known without any proof being presented publicly against him. Even his lawyer is not allowed to see what they claim is the reason for his arrest. What the Israelis say publicly that he diverted money from the organization he was working for World Vision has been refuted by reputable governmental agencies of the Australian government who was the main donor and by the world’s leading audit companies.

My son was tortured for two months as the Israeli interrogators tried to extract a confession from him and as a result, he has lost 40% of his ability to hear. The torture included putting a dirty bag over his head and forcing him to sit for a long time while preventing him from food and sleep. He was held in an isolated room 25cmx25cm with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He was threatened with rape and he was subject to loud music. All to force him to confess to a crime he has never committed.

World Vision and the Australian government conducted intensive investigations of the alleged crime and found no proof of any irregularity in his work and both have condemned his continued arrest as has most international organizations including the OCHA which produced a very strong statement calling for his immediate release.

His lawyer has told the media that the Israelis know he is innocent but they are not willing to climb down the tree that they had ascended to so as not to be embarrassed and the result is this prolonged never-ending court delays. My son could have been released a long time if he plead guilty but he refuses to plead guilty to a crime he never committed.

Mohammad Al Halabi has been honored for his work by President Arafat and has received your own UN’s Humanitarian Hero Award in 2014 for his tireless work with cancer children in Gaza and his relentless effort to try and ease the humanitarian disaster to the people of Gaza.

I hope that this letter can be distributed to all member states and that my son’s name is publicly mentioned by all including His Excellency the Secretary General, perhaps that could force the Israeli government to agree to release him and end this long and unjust detention of an innocent man.

Finally, my message to the Israeli government: this is not the way to make a just peace. A peace that will allow our children to live in peace. We are seekers of a just peace and a just solution to our cause which requires that the issue of prisoners is addressed.

Dr. Khalil el Halabi

Gaza

November 25th 2020

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Identical Letters

17 November 2020 – Escalation of Israeli Settlement and Annexation Measures

17 November 2020 by

Excellency,

I write in follow-up of our recent letters regarding the crimes and violations that continue to be perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people. The occupation’s cruelty and brutality have persisted, even in this time of global pandemic. This includes relentless colonization and annexation measures that are destroying the viability of the two-State solution and violating the independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine, depriving the Palestinian people of their inalienable right to self-determination and freedom.

Impunity for such gross violations has alarmingly become normalized when it comes to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, as accountability remains absent. This has been exacerbated by the current US administration, which has created a wholly permissive environment for the occupation and moreover acted in complicity in a manner undermining international law and the international consensus on a just solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As a result, Israel has been hyper-emboldened, escalating its crime spree with zero fear of consequences, forcing the Palestinian people to grapple not only with the same challenges being faced by the entirety of the international community due to the spread of COVID-19, but also with constant violations of their rights, well-being and security and threats to their very existence.

As the world focuses on mitigating the pandemic’s impact and aiding the most vulnerable, Israel carries on shamelessly with its violations, accelerating its illegal settlement colonization and annexation schemes. As our countries intensify cooperation to advance multilateralism, Israel instead exploits the pandemic to advance its policy of unilateralism. As healthcare workers and medical supplies are dispatched throughout the globe to contain the spread of the virus, Palestinian medical facilities are being shut down by the occupying Power.

As countries around the world work to protect their citizenry and infrastructure from the ravages of natural disasters like hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes, Palestinian homes and properties are being punitively destroyed by Israel as it continues its settlement march. This has included the demolition of humanitarian development projects, particularly those provided as support by EU States, including schools and shelters. As a result, hundreds more Palestinians have been rendered homeless and deprived of their property and livelihoods by this illegal occupation, creating even more need and endangering the lives of the most vulnerable, including children.

In this regard, the occupying Power is yet again flaunting plans to construct more settlements in Occupied Palestine in flagrant breach of international law and UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). Ignoring the global appeals to cease this illegal practice, and following its announcement of plans last month to construct nearly 5,000 settlement units, the Israeli “Housing Ministry” opened the bidding process for the construction of more than 1,200 settlement units in the illegal settlement of “Givat Hamatos”. If implemented, this nefarious plan will seal off the city of Bethlehem, disconnecting it from Jerusalem, and gravely undermine whatever potential remains for realizing the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders as this illegal occupation cements its separation and isolation of millions of Palestinians into fragmented Bantustans, oppressed under a two-tiered system of law centered on institutionalized discrimination akin only to apartheid.

As underscored by the UN Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov in his statement on 16 November, “If built, it would further consolidate a ring of settlements between Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. It would significantly damage prospects for a future contiguous Palestinian State and for achieving a negotiated two-State solution based on the 1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states.”

It is patently clear that the Israeli government is attempting to impose a fait accompli on the ground before the Trump administration leaves office, acting as though international law and the will of the rest of the international community mean nothing. The plans by the US Secretary of State to visit the illegal Israeli settlement of “Psagot” is the most recent glaring example of the warped relationship between the occupying Power and current US administration. We deplore all of these attempts to give legitimacy to Israeli settlements illegally established on stolen Palestinian land.

Such actions flagrantly violate international law and UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) and all relevant resolutions that preceded it, which affirmed the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and called upon all States not to recognize them as legitimate and not to render any assistance to the occupying Power in their maintenance. Moreover, Security Council resolution 2334 unequivocally called upon States “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”. We urge all States to uphold their legal obligations in this regard, stressing that such distinction will truly make a difference in advancing not only accountability but ultimately a just solution.

Another matter that requires urgent attention is Israel’s ongoing practice of necro-violence, by which the occupying Power seizes and withholds the bodies of Palestinians it has murdered. This inhumane practice is directly linked to Israel’s wider policy of repression of the millions of Palestinians living under its occupation, tantamount to collective punishment as they are prohibited from burying their loved ones in accordance with cultural and religious rituals.

In this regard, we highlight today the plight of Kamal Abu Waar, age 46, who died in an Israeli jail last week as a result of medical negligence despite repeated calls for his release due to his deteriorating health. Israeli prison authorities prevented Abu Waar’s family from seeing him in the last few months before his death and continue withholding Abu Waar’s body, ignoring numerous requests by family members and human rights organizations to return his body for proper burial.

As occupying Power, Israel is responsible for the lives and well-being of prisoners, whether held in Israeli prisons in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or in Israel in violation of the 4^th Geneva Convention. Israel is currently holding nearly 5,000 Palestinians in its military prisons, including hundreds of children and men and women held without charge or trial through the unlawful practice of administrative detention, whose release has been continually called by governments, human rights groups, and other international organizations. The Palestinian leadership reiterates these calls and calls again for the necessary medical treatment of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and immediate release of all vulnerable prisoners, particularly women, children, older persons and those with pre-existing medical conditions, especially in this time of pandemic.

In spite of these continuous and escalating violations, the Palestinian people remain steadfast in their legitimate struggle against the occupation. Here, we recall that this week marked 32 years since the Palestinian leadership declared the independence of the State of Palestine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 lines and the relevant UN resolutions. That Declaration, made on 15 November in Algiers, constituted a very painful and historic compromise meant to pave the way to peace. While Israel has never reciprocated and never compromised, that Declaration brought universal recognition of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and widespread global recognition of the State of Palestine, which now numbers 139 countries. These are facts that cannot be ignored.

Yet, despite the fact that Palestine’s acceptance of the two-State solution and engagement in good faith negotiations across decades has been responded to with constant attacks by Israel on their rights and on the two-State solution, the international community has regrettably not been compelled to act on legal obligations and responsibilities to bring an end to this injustice. Despite Israel’s absolute contempt for international law and complete departure from the two-State solution, the lack of concrete action to hold it accountable has only emboldened its rogue behavior, prolonging this illegal, colonial foreign occupation to the detriment of the Palestinian people, the region and international community as a whole.

Continued lack of accountability wrongly conveys acceptance of the unjust status quo whereby the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to freedom, sovereignty, and peace, as enshrined in the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions, are ignored in an era where international law applies to some, but not all. This absence of real consequences for Israeli crimes raises questions of complicity and liability among States as continued inaction only enables Israel to further manipulate international law and entrench its colonial occupation at the direct expense of inalienable Palestinian rights and international peace and security. As stressed by the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, “The international rule of law matters and, if we are to avoid the rule of the jungle, it must be obeyed. And if the rule of law matters, then so must accountability”.

The international community, including the Security Council, have a role to play in correcting the wrongs of history and promoting justice and peace. Since the UN’s founding, the question of Palestine has been a crucial test of the very meaning, applicability and efficacy of international law. The international community bears a legal, humanitarian, and moral responsibility to end the longest military occupation in modern history and to assist the Palestinian people to achieve self-determination and independence, a promise pledged long ago and at the core of the international consensus on a just solution. We thus appeal again to all States to act responsibly and urgently, individually and collectively, to uphold international law in regards to the Palestine question and to implement all relevant UN resolutions. This is as imperative for ending this injustice as it is for preserving a rules-based international order.

This letter is in follow-up to our 696 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 9 November 2020 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2019/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.

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

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Identical Letters

9 November 2020 – Escalating Israeli Violations against the Palestinian People

09 November 2020 by

Excellency,

I write to once again draw attention to the critical situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, due to the illegal policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power, being perpetrated relentlessly and mercilessly against the Palestinian people.

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and its vast short and long-term effects, the Palestinian people have neither been spared nor been given a reprieve from Israel’s oppression. On the contrary, the occupying Power has persisted with its attacks and violations with zero regard for international law or for the pandemic’s severe impact on all, only worsening their plight. The escalation of these attacks and violations is clearly deliberate as the Israel openly exploits the international community’s immersion in the fight against the pandemic as a chance to further entrench its illegal 53-year occupation and colonial settlement regime.

Home demolitions, land appropriations, ethnic cleansing, arrests and detentions, and killing of civilians have not stopped. One might think such policies would cease during a pandemic. However, judging by the historical record, one should not be surprised as Israel has repeatedly demonstrated its complete disregard for international law, for the humanity of the Palestinian people, and for the serious humanitarian impact of COVID-19. The failure to ensure accountability for such gross violations has only bolstered the Israeli Government’s sense of impunity, allowing it to believe it can continue getting away with its crimes even as a pandemic rages across the globe and highlights the many vulnerabilities of our human family and the need to uphold human rights in all circumstances.

On 25 October, a Palestinian boy died of injuries after being beaten by Israeli occupying forces near Ramallah. Amer Abdul-Rahim Snobar, age 18, was taken to a local hospital suffering from severe neck injuries sustained from the butts of the soldiers’ rifles and died thereafter. Like most killings committed by Israeli soldiers, we fear that the perpetrators of this murder will not be held accountable, perpetuating the sense of impunity and the degradation of Palestinian life. International humanitarian law places Israel under the legal obligation to provide for the welfare of the population living under its military occupation, and it is imperative that the international community remind Israel of its legal obligations and hold it to account.

Accountability is equally urgent in regards to Israel’s illegal settlement regime and the violations committed by the hundreds of thousands of settlers it has illegal transferred to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. Settler violence has sharply risen during the pandemic, harming Palestinian civilians, damaging properties and crops, and hampering their livelihoods, making even more coercive and dangerous this situation of occupation. As autumn marked the start of the olive harvest season in Palestine, fierce settler attacks have intensified, targeting communities whose well-being and sustenance are dependent on the harvest season. In this regard, we welcome the 5 November statement by UN agencies and international NGOs in Occupied Palestine calling for the protection of Palestinian civilians from the violence, damage and theft being perpetrated by Israeli settlers and for Israel to abide by its international law obligations and to hold the perpetrators of these crimes accountable.

In recent weeks, settler attacks against Palestinian farmers have included burning of fields, uprooting trees, stealing harvests, assaults on harvesters, including children, and vandalizing properties. All of this has been done under Israeli army protection. While millions of Palestinians are subject to the law of Israel’s military rule, illegal settlers enjoy near-absolute impunity. Israel’s desire to protect its illegal settlers under the pretext of security does not and should not justify its discriminatory, apartheid policies against Palestinians living under its occupation.

Equally rampant is Israel’s proliferation of illegal settlements throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in breach of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, as unequivocally reaffirmed in Security Council resolution 2334 (2016). On the heels of its announcement of the construction of nearly 5,000 more settlement units, on 2 November, Israel approved the destruction and confiscation of approximately 200 Palestinian businesses and buildings in occupied East Jerusalem as part of a plan to expand illegal settlement projects disguised as so-called ‘technology parks’. The occupying Power has served dozens of eviction, informing of the deadline of December 30 to leave before the demolitions are carried out.

Such policies endanger the lives and livelihoods of many families who are now threatened with home demolition and forced displacement. Moreover, the advancement of such illegal policies will alter East Jerusalem’s landscape and demographic composition through the inevitable transfer of Israeli settler population and appropriation of Palestinian land, resources, structures, assets, and more, all in grave breach of the law and the rights of our people.

The occupying Power’s policy of demolition of Palestinian homes and structures cannot be divorced from its ongoing attempts and plans to annex our land. Disregarding international law, and the added sensitivity of the pandemic, Israel has intensified its inhumane practice of home demolitions and forced evictions, rendering hundreds more Palestinians homeless and violating countless of their human rights.

On 3 November, Israel demolished an entire community’s residences in Khirbet Humsa Al Bqai’a, leaving more than 70 people, among them 41 children, homeless and even more vulnerable in this time of pandemic. According to OCHA, Israeli authorities demolished 76 structures, including homes, animal shelters, latrines, and solar panels, making this the largest forced displacement operation in over four years, adding to the thousands of properties destroyed and thousands of families displaced from their rightful homes.

Israel must immediately end its unlawful policy of demolitions and abide by its obligations as an occupying Power. The extensive destruction of property and forced transfer of protected people in an occupied territory are grave breaches of international law. Moreover, such cruel policies further impede the socioeconomic development of the Palestinian people, directly impacting their rights to shelter, healthcare, education, livelihoods, movement, safety, and wellbeing. Although international condemnations have been issued, they will not be enough to stop Israel from continue to carry out such inhumane policies. As long as accountability remains absent, Israel will persist with such demolitions and every other colonization measure as its objective is clearly to devour more Palestinian land without Palestinian inhabitants. As OCHA has reported, demolitions are a key means of creating an environment designed to coerce Palestinians to leave their homes.

It is time for the international community to act. This dangerous level of impunity by the Israeli Government is enabled by a lack of accountability. Israel’s systematic violations are widely documented and reported, however, inaction has permitted the occupation to entrench, compounded by looming threats of annexation, ongoing settlement colonization, territorial expansion, ethnic cleansing, and other heinous crimes, with grave impact on the Palestinian people and the prospects for a just peace and security.

Israel’s failure to comply with international law and relevant UN resolutions undermines the two-State solution on the 1967 lines, constitutes a threat to regional and international peace and security, and goes against the core principles of the UN Charter. The international community cannot remain silent or indifferent in the face of these crimes. We therefore once again appeal for responsible and decisive action to be taken, including the Security Council and General Assembly, in order to align Israel’s behavior with international law and all relevant UN resolutions, including resolution 2334.

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

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Identical Letters

29 October 2020 – Israeli-U.S. Agreement and Illegal Israeli Settlements

29 October 2020 by

Excellency,

Israel, the occupying Power, continues its violations and aggressions against the Palestinian people, entrenching its illegal colonial occupation, causing immense human suffering, and destroying the prospects for a just peace. With every passing day, it is trampling international law, mocking the international consensus, and dismantling the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders. Regrettably this is being done with the full support and complicity of the current United States administration.

When it comes to the Palestine question, this US administration persists with its disrespect for international law and the resolutions and authority of the UN Security Council and absolute disregard for the rights of the Palestinian people. Following the provocative declaration made by the US Secretary of State in November 2019 that the Israeli settlements established in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are “not per se inconsistent with international law”, and following the issuance by the US President of his so-called “Vision for Peace”, which, inter alia, attempts to legitimize Israel’s theft and colonization of the Palestinian land, the US and Israel yesterday signed agreements extending further US recognition and support to the illegal Israeli settlement regime and ongoing annexation attempts.

The agreements signed directly violate UN resolutions, including Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) and all that preceded it, which affirmed the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and called upon all States not to recognize them as legitimate and not to render any assistance to the occupying Power in their maintenance. Moreover, this constitutes yet another step undermining the viability of the two-State solution and taking us yet farther away from the potential of a just, secure and lasting peace.

While being presented as mere “scientific cooperation” agreements, these agreements are cynically intended to bolster Israeli sovereignty claims in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as well as the Occupied Syrian Golan, by specifically extending US-Israeli cooperation to include the Israeli settlements, which had been excluded from previous such agreements. Not hiding the unlawful intentions in this regard, Israeli Minister Zeev Elkin provocatively declared yesterday that the agreements were “a big achievement for Israel’s sovereignty” and “another step towards international recognition of our rights” in the West Bank.

In this regard, we remind that Israel is not the sovereign in any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in East Jerusalem, the annexation of which is illegal, null and void, and without any legitimacy. Israel is the occupying Power and it is bound by the rules of international law, including international humanitarian law and specifically as proscribed by the Fourth Geneva Convention, and by the relevant UN resolutions, which it is obligated to respect in accordance with the Charter.

We further recall in this regard the provisions of Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), by which the Council, inter alia, unequivocally:

Reiterated “its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard”;

Underlined “that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations”;
Called upon States “to distinguish, in their relevant dealings, between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied since 1967”.

These are the demands of the Security Council, not simply the Palestinian narrative, and must be respected without exception. Moreover, these demands and the relevant resolutions remain at the core of the international consensus on the fundamental requirements and parameters for a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as reaffirmed yet again by one State after another at the Security Council debate held on 26 October 2020.

Here, we recall the ultimate aim of the international community’s efforts and Security Council legislation on this matter, an aim that was reaffirmed in resolution 2334 and continues to be reaffirmed in all relevant resolutions: to bring an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 and to achieve a comprehensive, just and lasting peace on the basis of the relevant UN resolutions.

That objective is being gravely undermined every single day by the destructive policies and measures being enacted by Israel, the occupying Power, in the occupied State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, in violation of international law and the rights of the Palestinian people, including their inalienable right to self-determination, and by support being given to this illegal occupation, which only allows it to continue expanding and entrenching itself, only further delaying the realization of a just solution and the fulfilment of Palestinian rights and freedom.

We call on the international community, including the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations, to act on their legal obligations and responsibilities to bring an end to this injustice. We call on the Security Council to uphold its Charter duties and live up to its determination to examine practical ways and means to secure the full implementation of its resolutions, including in regards to ongoing efforts to convene an international peace conference for this purpose. We also recall the Council’s determination, as affirmed in resolution 2334, “to support the parties throughout the negotiations and in the implementation of an agreement”.

In this context, we stress that creating an environment conducive to peace requires respect for the law and accountability. We call on all States not to recognize the illegitimate situation imposed by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and not to render any aid or assistance in this regard. Moreover, we appeal for lawful countermeasures to ensure accountability. Only through consequences for the violation of the law and international consensus can we ever hope to bring a halt to these crimes and salvage the prospects for peace. We recall here the Human Rights Council’s database of businesses linked to the Israeli settlements, and reiterate our call for countries to, among other lawful measures, ban the import of settlement goods illegally produced in Occupied Palestine and with the exploitation of our natural resources.

We urge vigilance in regards of the obligation to differentiate between Israel and the territories it continues to occupy. Agreements signed between States and Israel must not cover any of the territories occupied by Israel since 1967. In this context, we also expect that the quarterly report of the UN Secretary-General on the implementation of Security Council resolution 2334 refer not only to steps taken in respect of this demand, but also in its violation. This is essential for ensuring an accurate reflection of the reality we are dealing with and ensuring the accountability that has been too long missing and that is a pillar of justice, without which peace is not possible.

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

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents, Uncategorized Tagged With: Identical Letters, israeli settlements

Statement by H.E. Riad Malki, Foreign Minister of the State of Palestine, before the Security Council Open Debate, 26 October 2020

26 October 2020 by

Mr. President,

At the outset, I wish to thank Your Excellency Deputy Minister Vershinin for presiding over this meeting and for the leadership role of Russia in the pursuit of Middle East peace. Let me also thank my brother Mohamed Ali Nafti, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Tunisia, and H.E. Dang Minh Khoi, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, for participating in this meeting. I also wish to thank Mr. Mladenov for his briefing and efforts.

Mr. President,

It is time to drop the old talking points.

It is ridiculous to claim that the Palestinians “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”, when in fact the PLO signed an agreement with Israel just months after the start of the first ever negotiations between the two sides, despite all the shortcomings of those accords, which history has proven.

It is preposterous to consider that Israel’s right to security could justify its occupation and oppression of an entire nation for decades, or justify denying us our right to self-determination and to a sovereign and independent State, and or justify denying our own right to security.

It is absurd to claim that it is the Palestinian side that does not want negotiations, when Israel is the one trying, on the ground every single day, to illegally preempt the negotiations on all final status issues.

It is ludicrous to claim that the obstacle to peace is Palestinian intransigence, when our positions are actually aligned with the international consensus and the resolutions of this Council, while Israeli positions and policies are flagrantly in breach of international law and UN resolutions.

The parties identified final status issues that should be negotiated based on internationally-agreed terms of reference and parameters by 1999. Here is Netanyahu’s stance on these issues: Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem, shall be Israeli. Illegal settlements shall remain in place. Refugees shall remain refugees. Israel shall continue to control our borders. Israel shall control all of the Jordan Valley and with it most of our natural resources. These positions are contemptuous and unlawful, and they translate into a simple truth: Israel does not want to end its illegal occupation, it wants to make it permanent. And we are the ones labeled ‘intransigent’?

It is time to abandon the failed recipes of the past.

We cannot allow Israeli unilateralism to prevail while the world continues calling for bilateral negotiations.

It is no longer enough to call on parties to negotiate, this call must be accompanied by measures to incentivize respect for obligations and to dissuade from illegal unilateral actions.

It is no longer enough to say settlements are illegal, one must ensure accountability, distinction and non-assistance.

It is no longer enough to speak of a two-State solution, it must be accompanied with the recognition of the State of Palestine and support to its sovereignty over the territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.

We could have tried to find answers to Israel’s violence through violence, to be heard and considered relevant. We did not.

We could have adopted a disruptive behaviour, since constructive behaviour is underrated these days. We did not.

We could have contributed to transforming this political conflict into a religious one, fueling it so we are not the only ones to feel its flames. We did not.

Despite decades of Israel’s oppressive policies, and of measures aimed to bring us to our knees, politically and financially, President Abbas called in his message to the General Assembly, as he has before this Council, the UN Secretary-General to undertake, in cooperation with the Quartet, mandated by this body to advance peace, and the Security Council, preparations to convene an international conference, with the participation of all concerned parties, early next year, to engage in a genuine peace process, based on international law, UN resolutions and the relevant terms of reference.

This call is the ultimate demonstration of our commitment to peace and to a path based on inclusion not exclusion, legality not illegality, negotiations not diktats, multilateralism not unilateralism. I know many of your countries have already expressed support to President Abbas’s initiative and we look forward to continue working with all of you to see it materialize, including through meetings of this Council, such as this one held during Russia’s presidency.

Mr. President,

Israel decided, only under pressure, to freeze its plans for formal annexation of areas beyond occupied East Jerusalem. But it has not renounced its decades-long policy aiming to control maximum Palestinian land with minimum Palestinians, in other words maximum Palestinian geography with minimum Palestinian demography. Its de facto annexation continues with the advancement in recent days of 5000 settlement units deep into the West Bank, including in and around occupied East Jerusalem. The international community must act to salvage peace, or we will all bear the consequences.

As long as Israel does not bear the cost of occupation, and instead continues reaping its benefits, it will never negotiate in good faith. The international community must address the shortcomings of the past, by linking its relations with the parties to their respect of their obligations under international law and the peace process, by helping them reach an agreement and implementing it and by enforcing a binding timeframe.

The international peace conference can generate the necessary momentum and mobilize the international community at large to help the parties negotiate a peace agreement that will forever change our region. Anything else is volatile, and it is futile.

Two-third of our people were forced into exile, and we did not surrender. Tens of thousands were killed, and we did not surrender. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and we did not surrender. The equivalent of half of our male population, over 800,000 Palestinians, was arrested and we did not surrender. What makes anyone think we would surrender now?

Israel often wonders why we enjoy such international solidarity. It is because former colonial powers and liberation movements alike know these colonial policies well: violence, subjugation, intimidation, mass arbitrary imprisonment, discrimination, humiliation, fragmentation of the land, confinement of the occupied people, expansion of illegal settlements, exploitation. They cannot support such actions. History has taught them better.

The international consensus, UNRWA’s mandate and role, the Palestinian people’s resilience have all been sorely tested. And yet they prevail. It is now time to take the initiative. There isn’t a people too many in the Middle East, there is an independent state missing. You cannot solve the Middle East equation by denying this fundamental factor. You cannot end this conflict without freedom for the Palestinian people, and our freedom will never be compatible with Israeli soldiers in our streets, Israeli drones in our skies and Israeli control over our borders.

Ask Maher Al-Akhras who has been on hunger strike for over 90 days to denounce, at the peril of his life, the most arbitrary form of detention, the so-called administrative detention, ask Amer Snobar, barely 18, and beaten to death yesterday by Israeli soldiers who had apprehended him and kept hitting him on his head and neck with the butt of their rifles until he could no longer breathe, ask the mother of the child killed on his way to school, the athlete whose leg was amputated after a sniper acted as if he was playing a videogame, the owner of a house built by years of sweat and destroyed in an instant, and the farmer whose crops were burnt by settlers, they will all tell you “we will not coexist with occupation”. We want to end occupation, so we can coexist, so we can know justice, so we can be free, so our region can know true peace and security.

Thank you Mr. President.

Filed Under: About Palestine, Mission Documents, Security Council, Statements Tagged With: security council, statement, UN Security Council

15 October 2020 – Israeli Settlements and Other Violations

15 October 2020 by

Excellency,

I write to 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, perpetrated against the Palestinian people.

Most letters circulated in the recent period by the Security Council mention the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting its severe and multidimensional effects. The evolving situation has brought forth several important lessons which stress the principle of collectivity and shared humanity.

Regrettably, however, this is not the case in Palestine, where Israel, the occupying Power, continues to exploit the pandemic, aggressively advancing its settlement colonization and annexation schemes, entrenching its 53-year military occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. As the international community focuses its collective efforts on mitigating the dire impact of the pandemic on people, societies and economies globally, Israel has instead seized it as an opportune moment to further trample the law and further harm the Palestinian civilian population under its illegal occupation. Despite Israel’s claim to desire peace and stability, such dangerous and illegal actions prove otherwise, clearly pointing to its true desire: more Palestinian land.

Just this week, on 14 and 15 October, the Israeli government approved the construction of another 5,000 settlement units in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, primarily in areas deep inside the West Bank. Such duplicity cannot be ignored as Israel persists with its violations and further undermines the two-State solution on the pre-1967 lines, paving way for an apartheid one-State reality, while it simultaneously disguises itself as a regional partner who believes in advancing peace and stability, attempting to promote its standing in the international community based on false credentials.

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.

To Israel, “suspending” its annexation plans obviously does not mean that it intends to abide by international law as it continues to pursue all measures aimed at the colonization and annexation of our land. Annexation has not stopped, it is happening every single day with every settlement expanded, every home demolished and every Palestinian family forcibly displaced.

While many in the international community have directly called on Israel to permanently abandon its annexation plans, the occupying Power continues to ignore these calls, proceeding apace with its illegal schemes, swallowing up more Palestinian land by the day. The lack of accountability has undoubtedly enabled and emboldened such grave breaches, which are destroying the two-State solution and constitute the main obstacle to peace.

Home demolitions and forced evictions are continue to be everyday occurrences for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. According to OCHA, Israel demolished more than 500 Palestinian buildings in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the start of 2020, with a total of 134 structures demolished in in East Jerusalem alone. Disregarding international law and the sensitive urgency of the pandemic, Israel has intensified its inhumane practice of home demolitions and forced evictions, rendering hundreds more Palestinians homeless.

Israel uses the pretext of ‘construction without a permit’ to justify its illegal policies. Yet, as repeatedly reported by UNSCO, Israel, breaching all of its legal obligations as the occupying Power, makes it nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain such permits, as the objective is to deliberately restrict Palestinian development and dispossess Palestinian families, creating a coercive environment that forces them to leave their land. Moreover, as highlighted by Special Coordinator Nikolay Mladenov during his last Security Council briefing on the Question of Palestine, many Palestinians are actually forced to demolish their own homes in order to avoid the heavy demolition fees imposed by the Israeli government.

The fact is that while Israeli settlers enjoy the Israeli government’s full support for the illegal expansion and construction of settlements and outposts in occupied territory that facilitates the illegal transfer of these settlers to our land, Palestinian civilians cannot construct a single room or home in their own land without obtaining the nearly-impossible permit from Israeli authorities. Moreover, not only do Israeli occupation forces take part in attacks on Palestinian civilians through home demolitions, forced evictions, military raids, and other crimes, they also protect armed and fanatic settlers in carrying out attacks against Palestinians throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Aided and abetted by the occupation forces, Israeli settler violence has escalated in the recent period, including the destruction of Palestinian-property, vandalism, uprooting trees, and direct attacks against civilians.

As October marks the start of the olive harvest season in Palestine, our people face the constant threat of settler violence. In the past week, Israeli settlers perpetrated numerous attacks against Palestinians and stole olive harvest across the West Bank. In the village of al-Jabaa settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and destroyed 300 trees in two attacks. More than 1 million productive trees have been destroyed by the Israel occupation since 2000, according to a 2019 UNCTAD report. Needless to say, the majority of the complaints against such attacks are rarely investigated by Israel.

Along with the spike settler violence, Palestinian access to farmlands continues to be undermined by the Israeli military’s severe restrictions on the freedom of movement, particularly due to the Wall, military checkpoints, and randomly erected roadblocks. Occupying forces routinely block agricultural roads to obstruct the movement of farmers during the olive harvest season, impairing the livelihoods of thousands of families. Furthermore, settler violence and military restrictions equally undermine the central role of olive harvest in Palestinian culture, society and history.

Israel’s inhumane policy of administrative detention also continues to endanger Palestinian, including children and women. Incarceration of civilians without trial and without charge is a routine practice by the occupying Power that has inflicted untold suffering on the Palestinian people. At least 350 Palestinians are being administratively detained among the nearly 5,000 being imprisoned by Israel. Governments, human rights groups, and other international organizations have called for the release of Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons without being charged, tried, or convicted.

The case of Maher al-Akhras, a 49-year old Palestinian man and father of six children who has been on a hunger strike for more than 80 days since his arrest and administrative detention by Israeli occupation forces in July, is one such case requiring immediate attention. According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, al-Akhras is “on the verge of death” as he protests his unlawful incarceration.

As the occupying Power, Israel is responsible for the lives and wellbeing of prisoners, whether held in Israeli prisons in the Occupied Palestinian Territory or in Israel, which violates the Fourth Geneva Convention due to the illegality of transferring prisoners outside of occupied territories. Given the pandemic’s impact and the increase in transmission rates in the region, 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, including Mr. al-Akras, whose life is in present danger.

Turning to the situation in the Gaza Strip, we once again sound the alarm about the deplorable humanitarian and socioeconomic conditions there due to Israel’s 13-year blockade that has inflicted such severe deprivation, hunger and misery on its two million inhabitants. Israel regularly bans the entry of fuel shipments, using punitive measures that endanger the livelihood of millions of vulnerable people. As previously stated by many States, United Nations agencies, and international organization, Gaza’s overburdened health care system cannot cope with additional suspensions or reductions of power sources while facing the threat of COVID-19. In this regard, according to a WHO report, COVID-19 cases in Gaza have risen by 84 percent, compounding the hardships and fears being faced by the Palestinian people, who are prevented by the occupation of accessing international tools and capabilities to deal with the challenges and consequences posed by the pandemic.

In this context, we must reiterate our appreciation for the assistance being extended to the Palestinian people from across the globe and in spite of the challenging circumstances facing countries in this era of COVID-19. This includes in particular the vital assistance being provided through UNRWA, OCHA, UNICEF, WHO, WFP and other UN agencies and humanitarian organizations on the ground and direct assistance by the international donor community.

Considering Israel’s half century old occupation and incessant violations, the Palestinian people are sadly not surprised at the escalation of crimes and exploitation of this time of pandemic by the occupation. This is the direct result of lack of accountability for an occupation that has only expanded its territorial control by the day over the last 53 years. Given its complete departure from the two-State solution, Israel’s calls for “peace” should not be trusted until the international community sees a correlation in Israeli behavior with international law, the relevant UN resolutions, including resolution 2334, and the internationally-agreed parameters for a just solution, which remain at the core of the international consensus. Until then, the international community, including the Security Council, must hold the occupying Power accountable, rather than rewarding its dangerous behavior with silence and inaction, while ignoring the pain and suffering endured by the people living under its military rule.

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

Dr. Riyad Mansour

Minister, Permanent Observer

Filed Under: Identical Letters, Mission Documents Tagged With: Identical Letters

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7 December 2020 – Letter on Israeli Killing of Palestinian Children and Attack on Church

General Statement after Vote by Ambassador Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Deputy Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, United Nations General Assembly, Resolutions under Agenda Item 38: Question of Palestine, 75th Session, 2 December 2020

Statement by H.E. Dr. Riyad Mansour, Ambassador, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, before the United Nations General Assembly, Agenda Item 38: Question of Palestine, Agenda Item 37: Situation in the Middle East, 2 December 2020, New York:

25 November 2020 – Letter on the Plight of Mohammed el Halabi

17 November 2020 – Escalation of Israeli Settlement and Annexation Measures

9 November 2020 – Escalating Israeli Violations against the Palestinian People

29 October 2020 – Israeli-U.S. Agreement and Illegal Israeli Settlements

Statement by H.E. Riad Malki, Foreign Minister of the State of Palestine, before the Security Council Open Debate, 26 October 2020

15 October 2020 – Israeli Settlements and Other Violations

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