S/PV.5824
5824th meeting
Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 10 a.m.
New York
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question
The President (spoke in Arabic): I shall now make a statement in my capacity as the representative of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
At the outset, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Pascoe for his briefing to the Council this morning.
As the Permanent Observer of Palestine has said, since the end of the Annapolis Conference, just a few weeks ago, Israeli occupation authorities have escalated their aggression against the Palestinian people in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. In the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Israel kills, intimidates, terrorizes and causes starvation. What is the purpose of that escalation directly in the wake of the Annapolis Conference? Finding the answer to that question does not require much intelligence or a great deal of thought. Regrettably, there is nothing new about Israel’s actions, including its ignoring of international law, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and its imposition of collective punishment. I believe we would all agree that Israel’s behaviour is consistent. However, our memory may sometimes be highly selective.
It is unthinkable that an occupying Power should deprive 1.5 million people living on a narrow piece of land of the freedom of movement, even preventing them from having access to life’s basic needs — food, medicine and fuel — from any source, including the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which has been unable to deliver supplies.
Meanwhile, Israel is continuing its military attacks with the most modern and lethal sorts of weapons. The primary victims of those attacks are civilians, including women, children and older persons. It is indeed unfortunate and regrettable that the Israeli representative attempted this morning to imply that Israel was punishing Palestinians because they elected one particular Palestinian movement and not another.
I am beginning to wonder how to describe this situation. How can we categorize preventing access by 1.5 million people to food, medicine, fuel, movement and other necessities? Members can see with their eyes what is taking place in the territories occupied since 1967, and have heard the statements by officials on the ground, as Ambassador Urbina has reminded us. As UNRWA Commissioner-General Karen Koning AbuZayd has said, we are very concerned and feel great fear with regard to what is taking place on the ground. The Commissioner-General has also said that more than 600,000 Palestinians living in Gaza City are now living in complete darkness. Bakeries have closed and hospital generators are no longer working. Mr. Pascoe also confirmed that to us this morning. This desperate appeal went on to recall that Gaza cannot live on food convoys alone; what is required is to preserve human dignity in Gaza. Does that human dignity mean nothing to the Security Council?
We do not believe that these practices against civilians can be justified on any pretext; nor can they be equated with any other acts. Due to the unjust closures, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached an unprecedented level of deterioration. Civilians, including children, are being killed and sick people are dying because the occupying Power is preventing patients and medical personnel from reaching hospitals and is blocking deliveries of medicine. Some people even face death by starvation because they can no longer get food. People are living in darkness. Much of the Gaza Strip is under waste water, because the sewage pumping station is not working due to the lack of fuel as a result of the closure of all crossing points in Gaza. All of that is due to the fact that the occupying Power has decided to label Gaza a “hostile entity”. That is unprecedented. Never in history has an occupier made such a claim.
The humanitarian situation in occupied Gaza has reached a state that requires the Security Council to urgently shoulder its responsibility. We must remember what has happened in the past when the Council has not acted in other places. Need I recall those events? The Security Council must assume its responsibility under the Charter. It must adopt urgent measures to protect the civilian population in Gaza from attempts at genocide by the occupying Power. I am sorry, I cannot find another word to describe what is happening there. The Security Council must adopt urgent measures to lift the siege on Gaza immediately, before it is too late.
Have members not heard yet another appeal by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which stated that it would be forced, in two days’ time, to halt the provision of supplies upon which 900,000 Palestinians entirely depend if the situation continues as it is? Even from a moral point of view, the Council must not let the Israelis have a free hand to close and open crossings whenever they please, to allow a fuel convoy to pass through today but not tomorrow. The Council must force the occupying Power to respect international law by putting an end to the policies of siege and closure.
Allow me to remind the Council that we have a draft presidential statement before us that focuses on the humanitarian aspects of the situation in response to the concerns that members expressed yesterday in consultations. I am hoping that it will receive sufficient support.
I now resume my functions as President of the Security Council
I give the floor to the representative of Saudi Arabia.
