NEW YORK: The State of Palestine Tuesday submitted its first resolution to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) as a follow-up on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“I have the honor to introduce the draft resolution under consideration in this Emergency Special Session, entitled ‘Advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and from the illegality of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’, Palestine ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Masnour said before the 10th special emergency session of the UNGA in New York.
The draft resolution comes as part of a push by the Palestinian leadership and people to formally demand an end to the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories within 12 months. It is based on the ICJ’s advisory opinion, wh
ich found that Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories was “unlawful”, and that its “near-complete separation” of people in the occupied West Bank breached international laws concerning “racial segregation” and “apartheid”, and grounded in international law.
During his speech, Mansour added that ‘the draft resolution ‘focus]es[ . . . on the obligations of Israel, all States and the United Nations and other international organizations in accordance with international law. It also calls for a number of individual and collective actions to uphold the law and implement the relevant United Nations resolutions on the question of Palestine.’
‘It is time for the General Assembly to uphold its mandate and for all States to uphold their own obligations to ensure Israel complies with its own in the face of its blatant non-compliance and relentless breaches,’ he stressed.
Mansour emphasized the quest of accountability and justice as the cornerstone of the draft law.
‘The Court’s advisory opini
on showed that there is no doubt about the facts or the law. But the law is not there to merely serve as a measuring stick of violations. It is there to prevent those violations, and when that does not work, it is there to punish them, to bring them to a halt, to ensure accountability, to ensure justice.’
‘It seeks action for accountability, the fundamental path for justice in any case, and Palestine cannot be the exception,’ he added.
He highlighted the Palestinian people’s ‘grave historic injustice’ and steadfastness and resilience over the many long years of oppression, suffering and struggle to achieve their legitimate national aspirations and inalienable human rights, including their rights to self-determination and to freedom.
He touched upon the inhuman practices against Palestinians, including the ongoing Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of 41,252 Palestinians and injuring 95,497 others, Israeli army and colonists’ assaults, denial of rights and dispossession.
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The sustained abuse by Israel of its position as an occupying Power, through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory unlawful,’ he said.
He called for an immediate end to the ‘unchecked ]and[ undeterred Israeli impunity’, a step which he deemed an essential prerequisite for bringing about ‘a genuine change that could lead to peace and to the implementation of the two-State solution.’
‘But the solution is right before our eyes, it is the one endorsed by the international community as a whole and enshrined in numerous United Nations resolutions. It is an independent and sovereign State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side, in peace and security with Israel.’
He call on the UNGA member states to vote in
favor of the draft resolution as an expression of their commitment to ‘uphold international law, not sacrifice it on the altar of cold and reckless political calculations’, ‘reject double standards’, ‘treat my people with the respect they deserve, and to recognize the rights they are entitled to.’
‘Each country has a vote, and the world is watching us, to see if we can live up to the commitments we undertake and to the principles we claim as ours at this historic and crucial juncture for humankind. Please stand on the right side of history. With international law. With freedom. With peace,’ he concluded.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA