Statement by Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour before 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear weapons (NPT), 29 April 2015

Madam President,

At the outset, I extend our deepest sympathies to the people and government of Nepal. Your country is in our thoughts and we wish you strength and courage during this tragic time.

Allow me to congratulate Your Excellency on your election as President of this very important 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear weapons (NPT). We would also like to extend our congratulations to all the members of the Bureau. We are confident that with your profound experience and capabilities you will lead our deliberations to a successful conclusion.

The State of Palestine aligns itself with the statements delivered by the Kingdom of Bahrain on behalf of the Arab Group and the Islamic Republic of Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). [Read more…]

Statement by Ambassador Feda Abdelhady Nasser before the United Nations Security Council, Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question, 21 April 2015

Mr. President,

Allow me, on behalf of the delegation of the State of Palestine, to thank H.E. Mr. Nasser Judeh, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, for chairing this important meeting of the Security Council. We congratulate Jordan on its Presidency, with full appreciation for the Jordanian delegation’s efforts to address the many critical issues on the Security Council’s agenda, including its principled, unwavering support for the just cause of Palestine.

At this time, we also express our appreciation to the delegation of France for its skilled leadership of the Security Council in the month of March.

We thank H.E. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for his briefing and his unrelenting calls and efforts for peace, humanity and justice. We congratulate his new Special Representative and Special Coordinator, Mr. Nikolay Mladenov, on his appointment, wishing him success and affirming our readiness to cooperate with his efforts.  We also reaffirm deep appreciation to Mr. Robert Serry for his years of service. We recognize his efforts in support of the Palestinian people and Government through many critical periods during his tenure, including three brutal Israeli wars against Gaza, and his constant efforts to advance solutions to emergent problems and promote peace, including his impassioned entreaties to the Council to act to bring an end to this devastating conflict, which remains a threat to international peace and security. [Read more…]

Statement by H.E. Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour, Security Council Debate on “Children and Armed Conflict”, 25 March 2015:

I thank you for convening today’s debate on children and armed conflict. I also thank Special Representative Leila Zerrougui for her briefing, as well as the UN agencies supporting Palestinian children, including UNICEF and UNRWA.

Mr. President,

 

As the Security Council considers the situation of children in armed conflict around the world, we appeal to the Council not to forget Palestinian children, who are suffering extreme hardship, shocking acts of aggression, oppression, and gross human rights violations due to the Israeli occupation and persistence of this conflict for nearly seventy years.  Israel, the occupying Power, is in continuous, grave breach of international law, including, inter alia, the 4th Geneva Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UN Charter, and Security Council resolutions. It is without a doubt, that Israel systematically fulfils three of the six criteria used to assess grave violations against children. [Read more…]

Statement by Mrs. Somaia Barghouti, Senior Adviser, the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine, before the Commission on the Status of Women, 59th session, New York, 13 March 2015

Madam Chair,

At the outset, please allow me, on behalf of the delegation of the State of Palestine, to congratulate you on your election to the presidency of this important commission. We wish you and all members of the Bureau all success.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express our deep appreciation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for his report regarding “the Situation of and assistance to Palestinian women” (E/CN.6/2015/5), in which the tragic situation of Palestinian women is addressed. The report stated: “expressed deep concern about the grave situation of Palestinian women in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and the critical socioeconomic and humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.” Moreover, it emphasized that: “Restrictions on movement and access, increased settlement expansion and settler violence, demolitions of Palestinian infrastructure and displacement, the fragmentation of the territory and the closure of the occupied Palestinian territory, particularly the Gaza Strip, continue to have a negative gender differentiated impact on the lives of Palestinian women and their families.” My delegation considers this report to be very important however, we would like to express our concern regarding how this tragic situation was portrayed as the result of a conflict between two equal parties, Israel and Palestine, rather than taking into consideration that the Palestinian people have been suffering for more than 48 years under Israel’s illegal colonial military occupation and its oppressive and racist practices. [Read more…]

16 January 2015 – State of Palestine welcomes the opening by ICC Prosecutor of a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine

State of Palestine

Palestine Liberation Organization

January 16, 2015

State of Palestine welcomes the opening by ICC Prosecutor

of a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomes the opening of a preliminary examination of the situation in Palestine by the Prosecutor. The announcement comes following the lodging by the State of Palestine of a Declaration under article 12 (3) of the Rome Statute granting jurisdiction to the Court to investigate crimes committed in the occupied territory of the State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, since 13 June 2014. Palestine considers this an important positive step towards achieving justice and ensuring respect for international law.  [Read more…]

15 January 2015 – Statement by Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour before the United Nations Security Council, Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question

(Check against delivery)

Mr. President,

On behalf of the State of Palestine, I congratulate the friendly country of Chile on its Presidency of the Security Council and wish you all success in steering the important agenda of work, confident in your able leadership. We also welcome H.E. Mr. Heraldo Munoz, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile, and his chairing of this important debate. I also express our appreciation to the delegation of Chad for its honorable and capable stewardship of the Council in December.

Today, I also extend the warm congratulations of the State of Palestine to the new members of the Security Council – the friendly countries of Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela – as they assume their solemn responsibilities to uphold the Council’s Charter duties, its resolutions and international law. We pledge to them, as to all the members of the Council, our full support and cooperation, and express confidence in their principled service on the Council. [Read more…]

30 December 2014 – Statement by H.E. Ambassador Dr. Riyad Mansour before the United Nations Security Council, Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question

 (Check against delivery)

Mr. President,

I come before the Security Council on behalf of the leadership of the State of Palestine and the Palestinian people, a long-suffering, yet proud and dignified people, who remain steadfast and fully committed to the achievement of their inalienable rights, justice and their legitimate national aspirations, including to self-determination, freedom and independence, and who remain committed to the pursuit of political, diplomatic, peaceful and non-violent means for the achievement of these objectives, for which there is overwhelming and longstanding global support.

Mr. President,

We have endured the passage of yet another year that has inflicted on the Palestinian people more loss and tragedy and the deterioration of the situation on all fronts due to the illegal, destructive and oppressive actions of Israel, the occupying Power.  It has been a year that has witnessed the breakdown of yet another political process – despite the genuine efforts of the United States with the full support of the League of Arab States and all other major stakeholders, and the good faith efforts and cooperation of Palestine – and the deepening of another political impasse due to brazen Israeli intransigence, creating a totally unsustainable situation, roundly acknowledged by all. [Read more…]

15 December 2014 – Statement by Ambassador Riyad Mansour before the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (thirteenth session), General Debate, New York

Mr. President,

I would like to wish you warm congratulations on your election as President of the Assembly of States Parties and would like to express our appreciation and gratitude to the outgoing President, Ambassador Tina Intelmann, for her hard work and dedication over the past three years. I also wish to thank the outgoing judges for their expertise and contributions to the Court and to the international community and congratulate the newly elected judges.

Mr. President,

It is a very special moment for the State of Palestine as we were invited to participate in this meeting under rule 94 as an observer State for the first time.  On behalf of the Palestinian people and their leadership, we are profoundly grateful for this invitation and we have listened very closely to each statement made, from the opening session and throughout the General Debate. The collective messages being conveyed by States Parties and observers, including with regard to combating impunity, upholding justice, defending human rights and institutionalizing complementarity, have been resounding, heard loud and clear. The importance of universality of the Rome Statute and the call to States that have not ratified the Rome Statute and joined the International Criminal Court was heard even louder. In this regard, it should be noted that there is in fact a consensus among the Palestinian people, their political organizations and their leadership to join the ICC. The time to join will be decided by our leadership at an appropriate time. We may very well be the 123rd State Party to join the ICC.

Mr. President,

We view the ICC as the international legal and peaceful mechanism to combat impunity and seek accountability and justice.  It is the Court where the Palestinian people desire to seek justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity being perpetrated against them by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.  If crimes are being committed against our people and we are unable to prosecute the criminals, isn’t the ICC the correct place to go to? If the Rome Statute states that “the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies,” is a war crime, then, in the case of illegal Israeli settlements and settlers in our occupied land, isn’t it logical to go to the ICC so as to prosecute and bring an end to this ongoing war crime and to prosecute this continuing crime? When more than 500 Palestinian children are mercilessly killed and more than 3000 are injured in 50 days by the occupying Power during its aggression against the southern part of the occupied State of Palestine in the Gaza Strip, shouldn’t these crimes be prosecuted and those responsible for committing them be punished?  When entire Palestinian families have been killed by the occupying Power and their family tree will literally no longer grow, shouldn’t these crimes be prosecuted in the ICC? [Read more…]

3 December 2014 – Statement by Ambassador Ms. Feda Abdelhady-Nasser before the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

Mr. President,

On behalf of the delegation of the State of Palestine, I wish to begin by thanking the Deputy Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Ms. Margot Ellis, for her participation in today’s meeting and her briefing on the work of UNRWA over the past year.

 

The updates she has given on the Agency’s financial shortfalls and the instability of its operational environment as well as growing needs of the Palestine refugees due to the deterioration of conditions in all fields of operation attest to the ongoing need for strong donor support of UNRWA. At the same time, the many accomplishments of UNRWA in this past year despite these challenges attest to the very real impact of its humanitarian mission in the lives of more than 5 million Palestine refugees and the important role played by the donor community and the Host Countries in supporting UNRWA’s mission.  We reiterate our gratitude for this principled support for UNRWA’s mandate and for the longstanding compassion for the Palestine refugees, both of which have been clearly reaffirmed today. [Read more…]

6 November 2014 – Statement by Ms. Feda Abdelhady-Nasser, Ambassador, before the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (4th Committee), Agenda Item 51: Report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

Mr. Chair,

On behalf of the State of Palestine, I express our deep appreciation to the members of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.  We thank Ambassador Palitha Kohona of Sri Lanka, Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Hussein Haniff of Malaysia and Ambassador Fode` Seck of Senegal for their efforts and for the report (A/69/355) submitted on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the Occupied Syrian Golan and the serious recommendations made therein.

We also thank the Secretary-General and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the comprehensive reports prepared pursuant to the General Assembly resolutions regarding “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan” (A/69/348) and “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” (A/69/347). These reports attest to a systematic pattern of human rights violations as a result of the illegal, oppressive and destructive policies and measures that continue to be carried out by Israel, the occupying Power. [Read more…]