S/PV.6049
6049th meeting
Thursday, 18 December 2008, 10 a.m.
New York
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question
Mr. Ettalhi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic): As I believe that this is the first open debate of the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, since the Annapolis conference was held a year ago, perhaps it might be useful for us to consider the negotiation events of the past year and to draw certain lessons from them.
As Mr. Qurai’, head of the Palestinian delegation, said about the negotiations, “I do not know if there were any agreements or possible agreements during that period.” However, everyone is aware of what has been taking place on the ground, which clearly indicates the political will and serious resolve to bring an end to the occupation and the continued suffering of the Palestinians, which has lasted for more than 60 years.
Many people have cited statistics. Very briefly, I would like to cite a few statistics of my own to remind us of what has taken place on the ground since 27 November 2007. Over the past year, Israeli attacks against Palestinians increased by 300 per cent. The Israeli army carried out more than 1,700 operations in the West Bank and more than 1,363 in the Gaza Strip, 195 of them during the calm period. Those operations claimed the lives of 544 persons, including 71 children, and left more than 2,362 injured. The Israeli authorities destroyed 332 Palestinian homes and in turn authorized the construction of 2,210 dwellings in the West Bank settlements. The number of barriers restricting the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank increased from 581 to 630. Israel continued to build the wall, with all that that entailed in terms of the confiscation of Palestinian land — including recently the land of the village of Azzoun — given that 84 per cent of the wall is located in the territory of the West Bank. The Judaization of Al-Quds Al-Sharif was intensified; Israeli authorities continued to detain more than 11,000 Palestinians, including hundreds of children. It is regrettable that only one case of an Israeli detainee was highlighted but not those of thousands of Palestinians. While it is true that Israel freed 990 Palestinians during the same period, it also imprisoned another 4,950.
Those are only a few statistics. Unfortunately, they do not tell the whole story, so I shall make a number of clarifications, relying on Israeli testimony as appropriate. First, what Palestinians in the West Bank are experiencing in their daily lives are humiliation and mistreatment, restrictions on their movement, attacks by the Israeli army and settlers, and racial discrimination. Here, I shall quote from an account by an Israeli human rights organization: “The discrimination practiced by Israel in the West Bank increasingly recalls the apartheid system that prevailed in South Africa”. That is a quote from an Israeli source. Here is a quote from another Israeli source:
“In the areas occupied in 1967, the concentration of settlements in the occupied territories and the policies being implemented have created a situation of apartheid and discrimination in the institutions, and the principle of equality has been annihilated in the region. Two groups of citizens under the same legal authority experience two different systems of law: one group enjoys all its civil rights, while the second group is deprived of its rights. Thus, Israel has created a huge modern road network in the West Bank, but that network is for the use of Israelis alone, while Palestinians are forced to travel on dangerous and tortuous roads. The Israeli planning agency imposes restrictions on construction in Palestinian towns and villages, in contrast to the flexibility given to Israeli settlements. While the amount of water supplied to the settlements makes it possible to plant grass and fill pools, many Palestinians have to buy drinking water.”
Therefore, we wonder: what is the objective of those practices in the West Bank, if not to make life impossible for Palestinians so that they must leave, joining the 6 million other Palestinian refugees, thus creating a reality that would make it impossible to establish a Palestinian State? These are not my words; they come from an Israeli human rights organization, which says, “The great change brought about by Israel in the mapping of the West Bank precludes any real possibility for the establishment of a Palestinian State.”
Secondly, with regard to the total siege imposed on Gaza by the Israeli authorities, we all know that the general calm achieved in June was fully respected by the Palestinians. On 4 November, the Israeli army carried out an incursion into eastern Gaza, killing six Palestinians in an attack, so it was only natural that there should be a reaction from the Palestinians. Since 5 November, Israelis have openly imposed a total land, air and sea siege against Gaza, even denying entry to trucks of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. And perhaps members heard today’s announcement that assistance to more than 750,000 Palestinians was being suspended because of an interruption in supplies. Of course, it is true that Israeli authorities open certain crossing points from time to time, but we wonder if that is only for propaganda purposes.
As a result of the siege, there has been a total paralysis of economic activity. Eighty per cent of Palestinian families now live below the poverty line. There has been a total collapse of drinking water and sanitation services; drinking water stations and sanitation facilities cannot function properly, and the Council can imagine the result. There is an almost total shortage of medical supplies in hospitals. There are also obstacles to the proper functioning of the banks and electricity stations that provide about 50 per cent of Gaza’s electricity requirements. How can they call those actions and practices? They are what the Special Coordinator has described as “a flagrant violation of human rights” in Gaza, and I think that is the truth.
Over the course of the year, we witnessed something that we had not seen before — restrictions imposed on Palestinians and attacks against Palestinians. There are 650 settlers in Hebron — a town whose population includes more than 150,000 Palestinians — and that town is experiencing nearly daily attacks against Palestinians by settlers who destroy their homes and their property and do whatever they want under the protection of 2,000 Israeli soldiers. That is an outline of the results of Annapolis — the expansion of settlements, the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, human rights violations and increased violations of international law on the part of the occupation. All of that is unfolding within the silence of the Council, which can be understood by the victims only as a form of collusion, discrimination, bias or double standards being used against them. Those practices and the silence of the Council can only fuel hatred, frustration and despair. How can we follow the path to peace and coexistence in that manner?
If the Council seeks to guarantee the minimal conditions for peace in the region, the very least it could do would be to condemn the occupation and the settlements and halt their expansion; lift the siege on Gaza; stop extremist settler activities in Hebron, protect the Palestinians, and take into account the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu and Richard Falk that all of those who have committed crimes against humanity must be brought to justice.
