16 June 2021 – Israeli Colonization and Human Rights Violations in Palestine

Excellency,

I write once again to draw urgent attention to the deepening hardships and vulnerabilities being endured by the Palestinian people as Israel, the occupying Power, escalates its illegal policies and practices in tandem with the rising lawlessness it has cultivated among the most extreme elements of its population, particularly the settlers illegally transferred to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

Carrying on with its violations of the 21 May “ceasefire” – violations that have never in fact ceased – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have launched yet more brutal attacks against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population. This has included yesterday, 15 June, another round of terrorizing airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, as well as assaults on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem that left dozens of people wounded.

IOF brutally attacked Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem and forced Palestinian shops to shut down to make way for an anti-Palestinian march by extremist Israeli settlers and far-right politicians. Under the protection of IOF, mobs of settler extremists swarmed through the Old City, chanting hateful slogans and attacking Palestinian civilians and properties in a so-called “parade” to mark the anniversary of Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967. These settler mobs received a so-called greenlight by the new Israeli government to carry out such incitement and violent provocations, proving the ongoing intent to entrench this illegal colonial occupation, regardless of Israel’s political landscape. And, as the occupying Power continues to coordinate, sponsor, and promote settler provocations, Jerusalem’s holy sites, particularly Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, are becoming ever more caught in the dangerous crosshairs of settler extremism.

Such state-sponsored provocations are aggravating the high tensions in occupied East Jerusalem and threatened to reignite the cycle of violence, as the Old City has turned into a military zone to ensure protection for the most extreme components of Israeli society at the expense of rights and presence of Palestinian Jerusalemites, who are being increasingly repressed by the IOF. Palestinians are being daily confronted by extremist provocations, which are forcing them to remain in their homes while marauding settlers pound on doors and windows, shouting “mavet la’aravim”“Death to the Arabs” – and other hateful, racist slogans.

Here, we must reiterate that Israel is not the sovereign in occupied East Jerusalem or in any part of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and has no right whatsoever to “route” or “re-route” such supremacist marches through Palestinian cities and no right to barricade areas throughout Jerusalem, including in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighborhoods, turning them into military zones as it continuously attempts to assert its illegal control, colonization and Judaization of the City.

The fact is that Israel’s illegal policies in Jerusalem are creating a living hell for Palestinians, clearly part of broader efforts to drive them from their homes, including, inter alia, the persistent denial of their rights; forced displacement, home demolitions and residency revocations amounting to ethnic cleansing; desecration of holy sites, and imposition of a two-tier system of laws that blatantly discriminate against Palestinians.

Here, we again recall Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), by which the Council unequivocally condemned “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions”.

Previous letters have warned about the intensity of such systematic Israeli attacks and human rights violations perpetrated against the Palestinian people. Since our last letter, June has followed May’s lethal trajectory as Israeli forces have already killed five Palestinians, including a child, in utter disregard for basic morality and international law. With absolute impunity and international inaction in its possession, Israel is taking its colonial occupation to new extremes, expediting the theft of more Palestinian property and land and expanding illegal settlements, in tandem with its campaign of military raids and arbitrary arrests, and other blatant violations being documented daily despite the “ceasefire”.

In a span of three days, IOF killed five Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank. On 10 June, three Palestinians, including two officers, Adham Eleiwi, Tayseer Ayasa, and Jamel al-Amori, were shot and killed by IOF during a military raid in Jenin. On 12 June, Ibtesam Kaabneh, 28, was shot and killed by IOF near Jerusalem, after soldiers alleged that she was “carrying a knife”. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers deliberately left her to bleed to death by restricting access to medical personnel nearby. This shoot-to-kill policy is rooted deep in the 54-year colonial, apartheid occupation that has permitted its soldiers to indiscriminately target and kill Palestinians based solely on their identity as Palestinians and non-Jews.

The killing of 15-year-old Mohammad Hamayel by IOF is yet another a tragedy borne by yet another devastated Palestinian family. On 11 June, IOF killed Mohammad with live ammunition, shooting him directly in the chest. Like many Palestinian children killed by IOF, Mohammad did not pose any threat to the heavily armed Israeli soldiers who have become accustomed to indiscriminately firing at and killing Palestinians with zero consequences. Beita, Mohammad’s village, has become the scene of weekly demonstrations after Israeli settlers built an outpost in the village. Soldiers regularly fire live ammunition at the civilians protesting against the expropriation of the village’s land for the expansion of an illegal outpost, which will eventually and rapidly transform into yet another illegal Israeli settlement.

Mohammad is the eighth Palestinian child to be killed by IOF in the occupied West Bank in just this year and the third specifically in Beita. Such extrajudicial killings have become a systematic practice of the occupation, amounting to war crimes against the occupied population. Palestinian children, like all children throughout the world, have the right to live a safe, secure and peaceful childhood. Israel’s routine killing of Palestinian children should remind the international community, including the Security Council, that children are protected under the 4th Geneva Convention and other provisions of international law, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a signatory. We call on the international community to act immediately to bring an end to the occupation’s state-sponsored killing of Palestinian children, for which Israel must be fully held accountable.

The wave of mass arrests and large-scale raids by IOF has also intensified with total disregard for the state of emergency that remains in place in the West Bank due to the pandemic, undermining the safety and  well-being of the Palestinian civilian population, in grave violation of international humanitarian law. In this regard, in the early hours of 9 June, IOF raided the main headquarters of the Health Work Committees (HWC) in al-Bireh, damaging and seizing medical and electronic equipment before issuing a military order to close the headquarters for six months. Israeli attacks on health organizations and centers is not new, as HWC’s health center was targeted in a previous raid on 8 March. According to Amnesty International, “The targeting of HWC is part of a wider attack by Israel against Palestinian civil society organizations. Instead of criminalizing organizations providing vital health services, the Israeli authorities should be ending their institutionalized discrimination and systematic oppression of Palestinians.”

Last week, footage also emerged showing a raid in a prison in which IOF used excessive force in one of the most violent attacks against Palestinians being held captive in Israeli jails. Videos show more than 50 Palestinians tied and forcibly thrown onto the concrete floor on top of each other as IOF beat them with batons and beat them randomly, without any resistance from the victims. According to Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, the evidence contradicts Israel’s claims of subduing so-called riots, as the footage clearly shows the abuse of prisoners. Israeli NGO B’Tselem stressed that “The case proves, yet again, that Palestinian victims of violence by Israeli security forces cannot achieve justice via Israeli systems and can hope to do so only in an international court.”

Moreover, Israeli NGO Hamoked stated the following: “The incident is a case of brute, wholesale violence against tied, helpless people. The investigative authorities’ attempt to shirk responsibility, despite the security camera footage, is a badge of shame for the national unit for investigating corrections officers and investigative bodies in general. When that’s the reality, it’s no wonder that the violence of security forces toward Palestinians is so common when that’s how they handle complaints.”

Moreover, just hours before becoming the new Israeli Prime Minister, Bennet doubled-down on his anti-Palestinian rhetoric and occupation-entrenching views, proclaiming that the new government would “strengthen settlements across the whole of the land of Israel.” While many somehow believe Israel’s false portrayal as a “vibrant democracy” based on the emergence of a new government, for millions of Palestinians, the status quo of colonization, apartheid, blockade, and repression remains the reality, imposed by this illegal occupation acting far from any semblance of a democracy.

Israel’s attempts to normalize its occupation must be countered with measures that are capable of stopping such acts of aggression and protecting human lives. The Security Council must rise to its responsibilities and show the international community that the need for accountability outweighs the appeasement which has, until today, exempted Israel from being held to the same laws as every other State.

The Security Council’s inaction only protracts this injustice, compounding the suffering of millions of people and precluding the realization of the peace and security that the Council is duty-bound to maintain. Therefore, the Council must ask itself, will it uphold its duties and resolutions towards ensuring that the right to self-determination is respected and that the historic injustice is ended? Or will it allow this untenable situation to go on, allowing the gross violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in broad daylight? Ending the 54-year Israeli military occupation is the prerequisite for upholding the rule of law and bringing an end to the grave violations being perpetrated every day against the Palestinian people.

The 4th Geneva Convention states that persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a party to the conflict or occupying Power of which they are not nationals. Israel’s belligerent occupation began as “temporary”, deceiving the international community as not a single Security Council resolution has been implemented by the occupying Power. The so-called “temporary” occupation entered its 54th year this month, proving that Israel has no intention whatsoever to end it. Faced with this reality, States and the Security Council must utilize all available diplomatic, political, legal mechanisms and capabilities to assert international law as a source of authority on the question of Palestine in order to make this regime of colonial occupation and apartheid costly and finally bring it to an end, the only path to justice for the Palestinian people and to Palestinian-Israeli peace and security.

This letter is in follow-up to our 724 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 June 2021 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2021/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 10th 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

21 May 2021 – Letter on Article 51 – Self-Defense

Excellency,

I write to you in response to a letter by the Permanent Representative to Israel to the United Nations Security Council on 12 May 2021 (S/2021/463), invoking Israel’s so-called ‘right and duty to defend its people and sovereignty’ and urging the international community to support its ‘fundamental right to self-defense’. 

Israel’s invocation of the principle of self-defense as an occupying Power, is illegitimate and must be countered with a clear response rooted in international law, the same international law that it systematically breaches with contempt yet has the audacity to invoke when it deems beneficial to itself.

Israel’s continued illegal and 54-year occupation of the State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, is an act of aggression and cannot be retroactively justified by reference to the right of self-defense. Indeed, the principle of self-defense cannot be applied by Israel for itself in the occupied territory of the State of Palestine. The occupying Power has no sovereignty rights whatsoever in the occupied territory, to which international law, including humanitarian law, fully applies.

Israel, the occupying Power, cannot invoke the so-called right to self-defense to justify the use of excessive military force against the besieged Palestinian civilian population in the occupied Gaza Strip. As reaffirmed by the United Nations Security Council in its resolution 1860 (2009), the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967.  Israel remains the occupying Power and is thus bound by the relevant provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention and all other relevant provisions of international law, including United Nations resolutions.

The aforementioned letter by the Permanent Representative to Israel to the United Nations Security Council makes an impermissible conflation between Israel’s obligations, as an occupying Power, within the territory under its occupation, and the general principle of self-defense, as guaranteed under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. In this regard, it is imperative to recall that the International Court of Justice, in its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall, clearly established the non-applicability and irrelevance of this ‘self-defense’ argument to the territory under Israel’s occupation. 

As of 20 May 2021, Israel, the occupying Power, has killed over 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, 39 women, and 17 elderly, and injured over 1900 people, many critically wounded, and displaced over 60,000 Palestinians as a result of its most recent military aggression against Gaza. Entire families have been killed and wanton destruction has been caused as Israel deliberately and systematically targeted and caused damage and destruction to vital civilian infrastructure, including health facilities, schools, electricity networks, a desalination plant providing clean water to 250,000 people, commercial and media towers, and residential buildings, totally 450 buildings and structures. It is to be recalled that Gaza has also been under Israel’s blockade, by air, land and sea, for 14 years, in a massive collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population.

Israeli officials are committing grave and serious breaches against a besieged population, before the eyes and ears of the entire world, and yet deign to frame their crimes and violations as ‘self-defense’.  Israel’s willful violations against the protected population and unjustified destruction of civilian property are war crimes, not self-defense, and violate its obligations, as an occupying Power, under international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention, and international human rights law.

As per the law, Israel, as the occupying Power, is strictly prohibited, from both imposing collective punishment and conducting or threatening to conduct, acts of violence and destruction, of which the primary purpose is to spread terror among the protected population under its occupation. None of the rights of protected persons derived from the Fourth Geneva Convention may be terminated by Israel in any case or in any manner whatsoever.

Therefore, we reiterate that its invocation of the ‘right to self-defense’ to justify these systematic violations and crimes it is committing against the Palestinian people must not be appeased. Israel must be demanded to respect its obligations under international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, as has been repeatedly demanded by the Security Council and the General Assembly of in countless resolutions that not only remain unimplemented but are being breached every single day with utter contempt and with grave repercussions on the lives of the Palestinian people who continue to gravely suffer under this illegal, colonial occupation.

This letter is in follow-up to our 720 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 18 May 2021 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2021/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 10th 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

14 May 2021 – Israeli Onslaught on Palestinian Children

Excellency,

As I write to you, Palestinian children are being killed, wounded, orphaned and traumatized in a barbaric Israeli onslaught on civilians that is being perpetrated in broad daylight in flagrant breach of every rule of humanitarian law and every norm of human decency and morality.

Yet, despite our repeated pleas and the appeals of countries and peoples from around the world, the Security Council remains paralyzed, failing to uphold its mandate to maintain international peace and security and protect innocent civilian lives.

As of today, the current Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip, which  began on 10 May, has killed 122 Palestinians, including 31 children and 19 women, and more than 830 people have been wounded. Four of the children killed were Palestine refugee children, all under the age of 12 and students in UNRWA schools, including four from the same family, 2 siblings and a cousin. And in the West Bank today, Israeli occupying forces have killed 6 Palestinians and injured more than 100 others in violent attacks on protesters in various cities and villages.

Rather than celebrating Eid al-Fitr, mothers are burying their babies, children are burying their fathers and mothers, and families are being decimated, among them 13 people killed in a bombing yesterday, including a pregnant woman, her husband and their 4 children and 5 other relatives, in horrific scenes reminiscent of Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, which killed multiple families in their entirety.

Despite the callous narrative spread by Israel’s constant dehumanization and demonization of the Palestinian people, these human lives are being mourned, tears are flowing, the pain is searing, lives have been forever ruined. And so many more lives are at risk as the Security Council remains shamefully silent even as the violations only mount by the hour, causing more death and devastation.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore has warned: “The situation is at a tipping point. The level of violence and the impact on children is devastating. We are on the brink of a full-scale war. In any war, children – all children – suffer first and suffer most”.

There is no question: this premeditated, deliberate Israeli military aggression on unarmed civilians constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity. In addition to missile strikes from war planes against Gaza, the biggest prison on earth, blockaded by Israel by air, land and sea for 14 years, occupying forces have begun a ground invasion, portending only more carnage, as Israeli officials openly vow to kill and destroy, using the most lethal weaponry against an unarmed civilian population, including weaponry banned by international law. But, as we all know by now, the law means nothing to Israel. Surely, the singling-out of Israel – exempted from the rule of law and appeased for decades by the international community no matter the gravity of its violations – has led to this lawless situation, leaving the Palestinian people to the mercy of this cruel colonial occupation regime.

In addition to the killing and injury of so many civilians, the occupying Power also continues to cause wanton and deliberate destruction of civilian objects, including homes, in collective punishment of the civilian population and in yet further grave breach of the 4th Geneva Convention. Already, over 500 homes have been destroyed or severely damaged, leading to the displacement of thousands of people, yet again. In addition, Israeli air strikes have caused damage to 23 schools, several health centers and medical clinics, factories, roads, electricity networks and other vital civilian infrastructure, including the destruction of all police headquarters. Also, reminiscent of past Israeli bombardments of Gaza, 4 UNRWA installations have been hit and damaged by air strikes.

At the same time, Israeli barbarity against Palestinians continues across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as within Israel, with violent, hateful, racist, attacks targeting civilians solely for being Palestinians. Jewish supremacist settlers continue rampaging in Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, in Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Al-Tur and other areas, terrorizing families, causing injuries and damage to homes and properties, including smashing windows and breaking down of doors as they try to attack Palestinians in their own homes.

Israeli settler gangs, emboldened by the occupier’s ruthless violence against the occupied population, are also raiding Palestinian villages elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  And in the streets of Jaffa, Haifa, Lod and other cities, these same supremacist mobs are roaming the streets harassing, intimidating, assaulting, and even lynching, Palestinians. This is the so-called “democratic” Israel, where more than 50 laws have been legislated discriminating against Palestinian citizenry, who are left not only without protection of the law, but without protection of the police from these marauding mobs.

Israeli provocations against Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif also continue at fever pitch. Extremist settlers have been joined by far-right, terrorist members of the Israeli government allied with the Israeli Prime Minister in a constant barrage of inflammatory rhetoric and incitement, threatening further crimes against the Palestinian people and this most holy site and violating the historic and legal status quo.

And yet, the Security Council – despite the sincere efforts by a majority of its members – remains unable to find its voice and speak in unison against these heinous crimes, obstructed by one from upholding its responsibilities to act to stop these attacks and prevent the further destabilization and implosion of the situation. Rather than silence, the Council should be firmly calling for an immediate halt to the attacks on civilians and civilian properties; for a halt to the incitement and incursions against Al-Aqsa Mosque; and for the protection of civilians.

The call for respect for international law, including the Security Council’s own resolutions should be unequivocal, not impossible. This includes not only the Council’s resolutions on the Palestine question from 1948 to the present, but also its lofty resolutions on protection of civilians, including protection of children in armed conflict, protection of humanitarian and medical personnel and facilities, protection of religious and cultural sites. But none are being upheld, even as Israel, the occupying Power, grossly and systematically violates them in blatant contempt and mockery of the Council and its authority.

Rather than decrying recent events as though they occurred in a vacuum, the Council should heed its own decisions vis-à-vis the peaceful resolution of conflicts and recall and address the root causes of this catastrophe: the unending dispossession and oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel, a colonial occupation regime, and one openly practicing apartheid, violating every norm of international law.

Once again, we call upon the Security Council to act in respect of its Charter duty to maintain international peace and security. The Palestinian people cannot be left without protection at the mercy of an occupying Power armed to the teeth. The pretext that Israel “has a right to security and a right to defend itself”, while denying these same rights to the Palestinian people is a shameful pretext that flies in the face of international law and human morality.

What Israel is seeking to “defend” is its illegal occupation, insisting on its control of Palestinian land and Palestinian lives and, if possible, their very erasure, including of Palestinian children. When this distorted narrative of “self-defense” is parroted by those claiming to be champions of human rights and international law, it effectively gives Israel the permission to carry on with its crimes, ignoring that this illegitimate occupation and over 70 years of Israeli uprooting of Palestinians and denial of their rights are the source of all these ills, and ignoring the total asymmetry in this situation of an occupier and oppressor against occupied and oppressed people. This not only exposes hypocrisy and an extreme lack of empathy, but amounts to complicity. 

There must be a clear demand for an end to all attacks, provocations and incitement and for full respect of international law, including humanitarian law. There must be a demand for a halt to Israel’s criminal aggression against Gaza and a cessation of all other illegal Israeli actions and measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, including a halt to its illegal colonization and ethnic cleansing schemes.

There must be concrete action for accountability, as demanded and obligated by international law, to hold Israel and its government, military and settlers responsible for all of their crimes against the Palestinian people. We appeal to the international community to act now to save human lives and for the sake of justice and peace.

This letter is in follow-up to our 715 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 11 May 2021 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2021/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 10th 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

12 May 2021 – Killing of Palestinian Civilians by the Israeli Occupying Power

Excellency,

The situation in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, is becoming graver by the hour as Israel, the occupying Power, continues its onslaught, unleashing all means of lethal military aggression against the defenseless Palestinian civilian population. Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in broad daylight, causing widespread human carnage and suffering and directly threatening risking regional and international peace and security.

We reiterate our appeals to the international community to act to stop Israel’s slaughter of innocent civilians, including children and women, to protect Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif from attacks by the occupying Power and its extremist settlers, and to stop the systematic expulsion of Palestinian families from their homes and ethnic cleansing from their land.

The United Nations Security Council has a foremost duty to act to uphold its Charter mandate to maintain international peace and security and in respect of its own resolutions. We call on the Council yet again – joined by countries and people all over the world, as evidenced in the many statements and appeals issued – to rise to its responsibilities to stop these violations and to save innocent lives.

Since my letter yesterday, I regret to inform that the casualty toll of Israel’s military aggression against the Gaza Strip has continued to rise. As of the writing of this letter, 65 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli air strikes deliberately targeting civilian areas, in grave breach of international law. Among those killed by the Israeli occupying forces are 16 children and 5 women, and several of the casualties are members of the same family. There can be no justification whatsoever for such barbaric attacks on a civilian population and such blatant disregard for human life.

As the Security Council remains silent, Israeli war planes have already today launched over 40 air strikes, preceded by over 100 air strikes over the past two days, terrorizing the entire population. In addition to the dead, more than 330 Palestinians have been injured in these airstrikes, overwhelming hospitals in Gaza, which have already been depleted by years of Israel’s illegal blockade and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, as systematically committed by Israel in its repeated aggressions on Gaza, homes, including multi-story buildings, have been destroyed, displacing dozens of families, and civilian infrastructure continues to be hit, including the central warehouse of the Palestine Red Crescent in Gaza. The occupying army also continue its violence against Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of Occupied Palestine, attacking peaceful protesters and causing more civilian casualties. A 16-year old boy was shot in the head and chest and killed in an Israeli raid on the village of Tubas, and a 26-year old young man was killed by Israeli soldiers in Al-Fawwar refugee camp. Another young Palestinian was run over by an Israeli army jeep suffering multiple injuries and at least 192 Palestinians have been injured by occupying forces across the occupied West Bank today, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

At the same time, Israeli colonial settlers continue their terror rampages, attacking Palestinian civilians, including Palestine Red Crescent medical teams attempting to tend to the injured. Extremist settlers and occupying forces also persist with their provocations, racist and hateful incitement and violence against Palestinian civilians who continue to gather in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem in peaceful protest of Israel’s criminal policies and the plans to forcibly displace Palestinian families from their homes, in what would constitute a blatant war crime.

We remind once again that Israel is not the sovereign in occupied East Jerusalem, regardless of its claims or recognition unlawfully bestowed upon it by any other country. There is absolutely no legitimacy to these claims. It is an occupying Power in our land, has no sovereignty rights whatsoever and is bound by international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, in any and all actions taken there. This includes at Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Israel must cease its violations of the sanctity of this holy site and respect the historic and legal status quo in word and deed and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’s custodianship. It must cease its obstruction of the right of Muslim worshippers to peacefully pray there and cease its incessant intimidation, harassment and attacks on worshippers.

All such attacks, provocations and incitement by Israeli government officials, military commanders and forces, and colonial settlers constitute breaches of international law, for which they must be held fully accountable. The international community, particularly the Security Council, must act with immediacy to demand that Israel cease its attacks against the Palestinian civilian population, including in the Gaza Strip, and cease all other illegal Israeli actions and measures in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, including a halt to plans to forcibly displace and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the City.

Moreover, we call on the international community as a whole to fulfill collective obligations, including as High Contracting Parties to the 4th Geneva Convention, to undertake measures to uphold international law, including measures to compel Israel, the occupying Power, to abide by its legal obligations and to ensure protection to the occupied population. It is high time for the international community to seriously pursue measures to hold Israel accountable for its grave breaches, including, inter alia, at the International Criminal Court. The singling-out of Israel for exemption from the same rules and norms that the rest of the world is obligated to abide by must stop. Innocent lives and the prospect for a just, peaceful, secure future for all are dependent on this.

This letter is in follow-up to our 715 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 11 May 2021 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2021/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 10th 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

11 May 2021 – Israeli Attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Gaza Strip

Excellency,

I must again draw urgent attention to the escalating aggression by Israel, the occupying Power, in Occupied Palestine, which is causing immense human suffering and aggravating tensions, risking further destabilization of this volatile situation, which poses a threat to international peace and security.

Yesterday, 10 May, against the backdrop of the heightened tensions and worsening situation in occupied East Jerusalem as result of intensifying Israeli incitement and violence against Palestinian civilians and holy sites, the Israeli occupying forces began a military aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip. Israeli air strikes have thus far killed 27 Palestinians, including 9 children and one woman, in Gaza. This military aggression is traumatizing an already beleaguered population of 2 million people who have been imprisoned by Israel’s illegal blockade for 14 years, suffering its inhumane impact on all aspects of life, and who are now once again under siege, vulnerable to the occupation’s military machine, deprived of the protection that they desperately need and that they are entitled to under international humanitarian law. There can be no justification whatsoever for such indiscriminate attacks on a civilian population.

Since my last letter to you, the situation in occupied East Jerusalem has also deteriorated at all levels as Israeli violence, incitement and provocation have reached new highs, with both Israeli occupying forces and extremist settlers rampaging through the City and its holy sites, inflaming tensions and sensitivities in this holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Yesterday, 10 May, occupying forces carried out a deliberate, full-fledged raid at Al-Haram Al-Sharif as part of an attempt to escort mobs of settler extremists in a so-called “parade” to mark the anniversary of Israel’s illegal occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Occupying forces raided Al-Aqsa Mosque, surrounding and indiscriminately firing at defenseless worshippers and bystanders. More than 300 Palestinians were injured by the firing of rubber-coated metal bullets, concussion grenades, tear gas canisters, sound bombs, and direct physical attacks carried out by the Israeli occupying forces. Occupying forces even locked Palestinian worshipers in Al-Aqsa Mosque while desecrating the holy site with a barrage of incendiary and toxic agents, including grenades and acrid smoke. More than 80 of the injured have been hospitalized, several in critical condition and with most injuries sustained to the upper body – face, eyes, head and chest. Israeli forces also obstructed medics from reaching the injured and assaulted journalists and medical personnel.

Dozens of other Palestinian civilians were wounded elsewhere throughout the occupied West Bank by the excessive force used by the Israeli occupying forces against civilians protesting Israel’s aggressions on Al-Aqsa and the imminent evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The international community, particularly the Security Council, must condemn all of Israel’s illegal actions and must demand that the attacks against civilians stop and that all illegal measures aimed at altering the character, demographic composition and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem stop, including all violations of the historic and legal status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

In this regard, we again recall Security Council resolution 2334 (2016), by which the Council unequivocally condemned “all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, including, inter alia, the construction and expansion of settlements, transfer of Israeli settlers, confiscation of land, demolition of homes and displacement of Palestinian civilians, in violation of international humanitarian law and relevant resolutions”.

That Israel, the occupying Power, behaves in such an inhumane and rogue manner, violating international law and human rights with impunity, is not new. Every year, Ramadan in Palestine is tarnished by Israel’s flagrant and deliberate crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, including killing and injury of civilians, home demolitions, forced displacement, desecration of holy sites, and vile, violent attacks by settler extremists who have become only more emboldened in recent years by the Israeli government and its occupying forces.

In these days, in coordination with occupying forces, mobs of settlers have repeatedly stormed the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem, attacking residents, intimidating them with hateful and racist slurs and threats, and preventing them from accessing their homes. Unsurprisingly, the latest round of settler incitement was led by Israeli politicians and members of parliament, including Arieh King, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Bezalel Smotrich, with the aim of provoking Palestinian residents facing forced evictions that are purposely aimed to consolidate Israel’s colonial settler presence in occupied East Jerusalem as part of the long-running plans to forcibly and artificially alter the City’s demography in favor of a Jewish majority.

Sheikh Jarrah’s alarming situation has attracted a range of State-backed settler groups determined to uproot Palestinians from their homes, with these extremist groups reinforcing Israeli government plans to entrench the occupation and Israel’s illegal control of the Palestinian land, with as few Palestinians as possible, thereby facilitating its illegal annexation schemes. This is being done through all unlawful means and measures, including through the Israeli “judiciary”, whose decisions overwhelmingly favor Israeli settlers and are part and parcel of the occupying Power’s systematic forced displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people. As stated by the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem concerning Sheikh Jarrah, “The issue today is not a matter of a real-estate dispute between private parties. It is rather an attempt driven by an extremist ideology which denies the right of existence of a person in his own home.”

Disturbing footage has shown settlers, escorted by police and occupying forces, marching through Sheikh Jarrah chanting “mavet la’aravim” – “Death to the Arabs” – and other hateful, racist slogans. Over consecutive nights as Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists gathered in solidarity with Palestinian families facing forced displacement, occupying forces used violent force against peaceful demonstrators. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 17 people were seriously injured due to the excessive use of force. Among others, an Amnesty International report on 10 May has corroborated field documentation of Israel’s brutal repression of civilians peacefully protesting forced in occupied East Jerusalem, with occupying forces deliberately instigating chaos and violence and causing harm to the protesters.

Israeli forces also continue their arbitrary arrests of Palestinians peacefully demonstrators against this illegal occupation and standing in defense of the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and their rights. Among the many arrested was Mariam Afifi, a member of the Palestine Youth Orchestra, who was captured on video being beaten and dragged by her hijab by an Israeli soldier and then taken away. While handcuffed on the side of the road, Mariam asked the soldier, “Do you want your kids to grow up defending the oppressors?” This question must be asked throughout the international community, including in the Security Council, as Israeli impunity rages unabated due to the lack of accountability, destroying yet another generation and destroying any prospect for peace and stability.

International law and accountability mechanisms are impeded today by attempts of false equivocation that deliberately conceal and/or ignore the reality created by Israel’s 54-year belligerent occupation: mass dispossession, systemic discrimination, demographic engineering, forced displacement, and denial of the rights of the Palestinian people and even their very existence in their homeland. For too long, many have championed the rights and liberties of oppressed peoples worldwide, but fallen short on applying the same rights and principles to the Palestinian people.

The continued paralysis of the Security Council on the situation in Palestine is unacceptable. The long-running practice of exceptionalizing Israel at the Security Council has been too costly, only fueling impunity at the cost of human lives, human rights, and the prospects for peace and security and hastening the disintegration of the rule of law. The time is past due to question such historic errors by choosing a different path that holds all States to the same standards of moral conduct based on the principles of justice and dignity and not favoring or privileging one over the other. That is the basis of true justice.

The Security Council must uphold its Charter duty for the maintenance of international peace and security without exception, including in the case of Palestine. We therefore once again call on the Security Council to act with urgency to address this crisis and deepening injustice. The Council cannot allow its resolutions to be so grossly and systematically violated without consequence and cannot allow the situation in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, to spiral out of control.

This letter is in follow-up to our 714 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 6 May 2021 (A/ES-10/xxx-S/2021/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 10th 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

Tenth Emergency Special Session

Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

The tenth Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly was convened for the first time in April 1997, following a request from Qatar, Chair of the Arab Group.

The session followed a series of Security Council and General Assembly meetings regarding the Israeli decision to build “Har Homa”, a large illegal Israeli settlement, in the Jabal Abu Ghneim area of Occupied East Jerusalem.

The tenth Emergency Special Session was last resumed on 15 and 16 January 2009 to consider the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, at the request of the President of the General Assembly.

Below are relevant documents for each time the tenth Emergency Special Session was convened. [Read more…]

ICJ Advisory Opinion on the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory

On 8 December 2003, the General Assembly of the United Nations in its tenth emergency special session adopted resolution ES-10/14, in which the Assembly requested the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to urgently render an advisory opinion on: “the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, as described in the report of the Secretary-General, considering the rules and principles of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, and relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.

On 19 December 2003, the ICJ issued an order, setting 30 January 2004 as the date for written statements to be submitted to the Court on the matter and setting 23 February 2004 as the date for the oral hearings. Below you will find the General Assembly resolutions regarding the Wall; Palestine’s Written and Oral Statement’s to the Court (Arabic and English); an Executive Summary of Palestine’s Statement; the Appendices and Annexes to Palestine’s Statement; and maps and photos regarding the Wall.

Below you will find relevant documents to the proceedings:

General Assembly Resolutions and ICJ Advisory Opinion
Submissions and Statements by Palestine to the ICJ
GA resolution ES-10/13 (21 October 2003Written Statement and Oral Pleadings of Palestine to the International Court of Justice regarding the “Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” -- English and Arabic
GA resolution ES-10/14 (8 December 2003)Appendices and Annexes
GA resolution ES-10/15 (20 July 2004)Executive Summary of Palestine's Written Statement -- English and Arabic
The Advisory Opinion rendered on 9 July 04 by the Intl. Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences of the construction of a Wall by Israel, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem -- English and Arabic
Resolution ES-10-17:Establishment of the United Nations Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (24 January 2007