September 19, 2024
Mr. President,
We thank Mr. Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for his comprehensive briefing on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. We also thank Ms. Helen Clark for her briefing.
Yesterday, the General Assembly adopted a genuinely historic resolution reaffirming the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which unequivocally states that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian land is unlawful and must be ended. It is encouraging that the overwhelming majority of Council members supported that initiative, which aims to bring about a fair and long-lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to uphold the right of the Palestinians to establish their own independent state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Such an outcome clearly demonstrates that a solution to this problem has long been overdue.
However, owing to our Western colleagues’ efforts, the Council’s discussions on the situation in the OPT have been rather mundane and routine for the past month. That is despite the fact that tens if not hundreds of Palestinian civilians are slain every day. In nearly a year of Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, more than 41,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, almost 100,000 have been wounded and tens of thousands have gone missing.
Yet, Palestinians are dying not just in Gaza. An equally catastrophic crisis is unfolding in the West Bank, which objectively has received less attention from the Council so far. Over 600 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 5,000 have been wounded. In the recent IDF Summer Camps Operation alone, a total of 39 Palestinians, including eight children, were killed; meanwhile, civilian infrastructure was severely damaged by drones, artillery and missiles, resulting in the destruction of administrative buildings, roads, water and electricity systems.
Before our very eyes, the Israeli leadership – taking advantage of the Council’s paralysis due to the actions of the USA – is achieving its objective to drive out the Palestinians from the West Bank. Israel’s settlement activities are gaining momentum at a record pace, literally colonizing the occupied Palestinian land and establishing more and more new settler outposts. In the meantime, Palestinian houses in East Jerusalem and Area C continue to be demolished. Law enforcement is utterly indifferent to radicalized settlers committing acts of violence against the local population. Nevertheless, none of our western colleagues has voiced any concerns about the “erasure of Palestinian identity”. We are no longer even talking about our western colleagues, but rather about the literal erasure of the Palestinian people.
Mr. President,
Israel’s actions go beyond simply rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable. West Jerusalem is deliberately taking measures to make living conditions unbearable for Palestinians in the West Bank as well. Due to Israel’s constant delays in tax payments to Ramallah, the unemployment rate in the West Bank has risen to 40%. Employees of institutions located in neighboring towns cannot get to work due to the lack of roads and numerous Israeli checkpoints. Agricultural facilities are raided by extremist settlers. Israeli attacks have caused damage to 69 schools and five universities, depriving children and youth of an opportunity to receive education.
All of this attests to the fact that West Jerusalem has persistently attempted to resolve the Palestinian question by pursuing a fait accompli policy on the ground, using brute force and financial pressure. The Israeli authorities have nothing to fear, since the boundless support of Washington allows Israel to elude responsibility for any crimes.
Mr. President,
The rapidly deteriorating situation in the West Bank requires the Council’s response, just as the dire situation in Gaza does. Palestinian civilians are being killed and displaced there too. We are all fully aware that what is happening is a deliberate and conscious policy of the Israeli authorities; the collective punishment of all Palestinians has no justification.
However, the Council remains inactive. Unfortunately, its practical efforts on the Middle Est track has been continuously blocked by the USA, which pushed through completely unviable resolution 2735. And since that time the USA has been blocking any attempts to give a fair assessment of Israel’s actions, even when it came to the issue of imperiling the lives and health of UN and humanitarian personnel in Gaza. And let me remind you that since October 7, the United States has cast five vetoes in order to shield its ally and block the Council from adopting an unequivocal demand for a ceasefire.
The only thing that the Americans expect from the Security Council members is to exert pressure on Hamas and not to interfere with Israel’s actions “on the ground”. And all this despite the fact that the notorious “deal” has in fact been repeatedly blocked by none other than Israel, for whose benefit the US has essentially violated Resolution 2735, which did set out the parameters (although quite vague), for such an agreement,
Colleagues, given the growing demand from the entire international community for some concrete steps to improve the situation in the OPT, Council members simply need to demonstrate their political will, summon the courage, push for taking a decision on a ceasefire in Gaza and ensure its implementation. It is not so much Hamas that needs to be pressured, but our American colleagues, who continue to view the Council and multilateral diplomacy in general as an unnecessary burden. Your hard-headed policy to reject the authority of the Security Council and the UN as a whole has not only failed to resolve the current conflict, but it has also become the reason why the conflict has been ongoing for already a year and is about to escalate into a full-scale regional conflict.
The shelling along the Blue Line, arbitrary air strikes on Syria and targeted liquidations in both countries continue unabated. In that context, we strongly condemn the unprecedented cyberattack against friendly Lebanon and its citizens, which constitutes a flagrant violation of its sovereignty and a serious challenge to international law. We view what has transpired as yet another act of hybrid warfare against Lebanon, which has affected thousands of innocent people.
In the context of growing tension in the Lebanese-Israeli border area, such reckless actions are fraught with extremely dangerous consequences, leading to further destabilization of the military and political situation in the Middle East region. The current escalation in southern Lebanon and the Israeli air strikes clearly demonstrate the dangerous threshold that the Israeli-Arab conflict has reached.
Mister President,
From the beginning of the current crisis, Russia has consistently advocated a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire, sustained and secure humanitarian access, the release of all hostages and forcibly detained persons, as well as the relaunch of the peace process on a two-State basis, which would result in the establishment of a Palestinian State coexisting in peace and security with Israel in line with the endorsed international legal decisions.
And we are ready to support any constructive initiative in the Council aimed at attaining those objectives. I would like to believe that the need for decisive collective measures to halt Israel’s operation will also become obvious to our American colleagues. In the meantime, It is Palestinian women and children that are paying with their lives for their hardheadedness and imperialistic ambitions.