YouSaid · the spoken record

Jaafari

lines on the record: 2,603
first: 2006-07-21
most recent: 2019-11-22
sittings or episodes: 185
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Is this so-called international law designed on the basis of criteria that have nothing to do with the criteria of our Member States but much to do with the narrow interests of some influential States in the Security Council, with the aim of protecting Israel and holding it above international law? Is this the reason? Or is there a problem in understanding the terminology so that some do not consider the Palestinians unarmed civilians like all others in the free world? We note here that the Charter of the United Nations does not give a State the right to violate civilians' rights, including the rights of civilians under occupation, using the excuse of self-defence. Rather, the Charter obliges the occupying Power to meet clear requirements.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Let us admit here that Israel's aggressive behaviour has a unique trait - let us call it a shortcoming - that no usurper in history has yet achieved: it violates humanity's entire legal tradition in one go, with no exception. Here we ask this Council to tell us which legal obligations Israel has upheld since the Security Council placed the item of the protection of civilians in armed conflict on its agenda in the late 1990s. We also ask the Council to inform us where and when has it held Israel accountable for its violation of international criteria and laws pertaining to the protection of civilians. The important question, whose answer would be much appreciated by us and by many others, is why are there two standards in the implementation of international law, and why is Israel exempt from the implementation of these standards?”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The Israeli forces also rounded up several families and led them to an empty house, then bombed them from aircraft in a flagrant breach of the Third Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners. Moreover it has used internationally banned weapons such as white phosphorus in bombing its enemies, who are women and children. The criminal acts that Israel is perpetrating constitute a unique case of wholesale violation of all the principles and tenets of international law and international humanitarian law, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols, as well as international conventions on the protection of children. These crimes are war crimes and genocide that must be prosecuted.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Its response was to kill more than 400 children and approximately 200 women, not to mention the elimination of entire families. Moreover, the Security Council statement stipulated the need to grant safe and unhindered access of humanitarian personnel to provide aid to civilians in armed conflict in accordance with international law. What was Israel's response to this statement? Its response was to deny medical and food aid completely despite international calls to the contrary, the most recent of which was resolution 1860 (2009). And what were its aims through this? To kill those it could not kill directly by depriving them of food, medicine, water and electricity.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Incidentally, we would like to remind the Council that this collective prison called Gaza occupies an area of only approximately 363 square kilometres. It is a strip of land that is 35 kilometres long and about 6 to 12 kilometres wide. It is equivalent to the area of one of the Nazi detention camps that humanity mistakenly thought were a painful experience never to be repeated in the future. However, Israel has insisted on such a repetition. Let us review together what was stated in the Security Council's statement on the protection of civilians, of 27 May 2008 (S/PRST/2008/18). The Council reaffirmed that parties to armed conflict are responsible to take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of affected civilians, in particular giving attention to the specific needs of women and children. What was Israel's response to these words?”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“According to the science of philosophy, rational thought would presume that repeated calls upon Israel to put an end to these practices should logically lead to its immediate cessation of these illegitimate policies and practices. That is what the rational thought of philosophy would assume. Unfortunately, Israel did not just ignore these calls and the demands issued several months ago, during the truce. Rather, it escalated its aggressive practices and launched a cowardly military operation targeting the unarmed civilians that it is holding prisoner in this detention camp called the Gaza Strip. It has killed and wounded thousands and is continuing to do so at this very moment, thus completely undermining the concepts of international legitimacy, international law and international humanitarian law.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“At that time, seven months ago - which happens to be the duration of the truce with Israel - I described the inhuman situation of civilians in Gaza as a result of collective punishment policies that are legally actionable and that are embodied in the siege and in the deprivation, oppression and tyranny that Israel has practiced against civilians under the umbrella of a so-called truce. This so-called truce has in fact led to the transformation of the Gaza Strip into the biggest collective detention camp in the world, while its residents have been deprived of the most basic requirements of life. The situation I described was the tragic situation during the truce of the past seven months, as Mr. Holmes, who is sitting to my left, can attest.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“These lands are being manipulated in a way that is very close to genocide and ethnic cleansing. In a statement I made to this Council on 27 May 2008, I referred to Mr. Holmes' statement to the Council in November 2007 on the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially Gaza, which he described at the time as reaching the limits of what is bearable for any community. I would now like to recall what Mr. Holmes said in his statement of 27 May 2008. "In Gaza, Israeli air attacks and ground incursions continue to result in unacceptable Palestinian civilian casualties" (S/PV.5898, p. 3).”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“We are referring, of course, to the protection of civilians in armed conflict. Although some theorists like to commend what they call the great developments in and evolution of international law, civilians in armed conflict and those living under foreign occupation and settlement are still suffering from all forms of violence and forced displacement; as well as the intentional deprivation of humanitarian aid, not to mention the confiscation of land. In short, those civilians are still being subjected to everything that is contrary to the law, their only fault being that they reside in so-called areas of armed conflict or that their lands have been occupied by others and have been managed and administered in their absence - or even in their presence.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): It is indeed appropriate that we should meet on the issue of the protection of civilians in armed conflict at this particular time. Despite the legal developments and international agreements on the protection of civilians in armed conflict that have emerged since the establishment of the United Nations, starting with the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and the numerous resolutions subsequently adopted by the Security Council, civilians are still paying the heaviest price in armed conflicts. It is indeed ironic that the gap between text and implementation - between what the law dictates, on the one hand, and what is practiced on the ground, on the other - is gradually growing wider.”
2009-01-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6066Resumption1 (2009) · source
“The whole world knows that Israel is imposing an unjust siege and carrying out a sadistic and pathological holocaust against more than 1.5 million people in Gaza and a similar number in the West Bank. The occupying Israeli authorities have done nothing to stop the aggressive terrorist attacks committed by Israeli settlers against the Palestinians in Hebron and in other parts of the West Bank. Despite all of this, the representative of Israel tells us that the evacuation of one house of those hooligan settlers in Hebron is a great accomplishment that rises to the level of inventing the wheel or even landing on the surface of the moon.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“In conclusion, I believe that the representative of Israel has today once again used the forum of the Security Council to falsify the facts concerning the Israeli practices of organized State terrorism over the decades in the region. The representative of Israel believes falsely that by including the name of my country in her statement, she can divert attention from the root cause of the problem of violence and terrorism in our region, which is the Israeli occupation of Arab territories and the crimes against humanity that have been perpetrated by successive Israeli Governments against the unarmed people of Palestine in their occupied land, as described by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Richard Falk.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“The Syrian Arab Republic, which upholds international law, has appealed to the United Nations and the Security Council in particular to shoulder their responsibilities to prevent the repetition of this serious violation and to lay the responsibility for the killing of innocent Syrian civilians squarely on the aggressors in order to maintain security and stability in the Middle East. Developments in the Middle East require the Security Council to assume its responsibility to maintain international peace and security, restore occupied territory to its legitimate owners and stop the Israeli aggressors from achieving their objectives. That is the only way to bring about a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East and to restore stability to that very important part of the world.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Worse still, the United States occupation forces in Iraq committed an aggressive act against the Syrian Arab Republic on 26 October 2008, targeting a civilian building in the town of Abu Kamal. Labourers inside the building were shot, eight Syrian civilians were killed and one was injured. This aggression was unjustified and constitutes a serious violation of Syrian sovereignty and of the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter. It demonstrates the insistence of the current United States presidency to pursue its policies until the last day of its administration. Those policies have led to nothing but death and destruction in the region and have only contributed to the rise of tensions, destabilization and chaos there.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Despite all of this, the withdrawal of Israel from our occupied Syrian Golan to the 4 June 1967 lines and the achievement of peace is a national priority for the Syrian Arab Republic. We have therefore entered into indirect talks with Israel, through Turkish mediation, which we are thankful for. We would have liked to have agreed on a basis to start direct negotiations under the auspices of multiple international partners, but the matter requires an American will to make peace in the Middle East one of its top priorities. The United States must abandon the deliberate disregard and neglect that have been its practice for nearly seven years and led to the deterioration of the situation in the region.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“It is unacceptable and illogical that we, the Arabs, should be called upon to provide evidence of our desire for peace, despite the fact that we have proclaimed it repeatedly and called for it on many occasions, in particular since the holding of the Madrid Conference in 1991. It is time for the Israelis to provide evidence of their desire for peace, to express, through their actions, their readiness to bring about peace and to convince us, the Arabs, of that readiness. The Israelis are the ones who are occupying our territory, committing aggression against our people and displacing millions of our people, and not the other way around. They undertake all these actions, and then they ask for protection and guarantees and use these as a smokescreen in order to pursue their extortion and obtain more concessions from us.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“We have identified these important and serious issues to the various specialized United Nations agencies, and we are still waiting for those agencies to take the necessary action, in keeping with their core mandates under the United Nations Charter. It seems to us that the clearest possible expression of the truth, as stated by President Bashar Al-Assad, is that peace is not the major preoccupation of the Israeli Government. Its major preoccupation is security, in its narrowest sense: their security, which cannot be achieved, from their point of view, except at the expense of our rights and our security.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Israel continues to disregard General Assembly resolution 62/85, which states that the ongoing Israeli occupation and annexation of the Syrian Golan as a fait accompli hamper the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in the region, and calls on Israel to withdraw fully from the occupied Syrian Golan to the lines of 4 June 1967, in implementation of the relevant United Nations resolutions. Israel continues to plunder the natural resources of the Golan, including its water resources, and to plant mines, which have led to 589 injuries, including 17 to children. Israel, the occupying Power, continues to bury nuclear waste in our occupied Golan.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“The Syrian Arab Republic emphasizes the importance of restoring Palestinian national unity through national dialogue and reconciliation in order to strengthen the Palestinian negotiating position, support the will of the Palestinian people and end Israel's attempts to attack the Palestinian people and their aspirations. The Syrian Arab Republic, as chair of the Arab summit, is attempting to achieve that. Israel continues, as the Council knows, its occupation of the Syrian Golan, flouting international law and resolutions, including resolution 497 (1981), which declared Israel's decision to annex the Syrian Golan as null and void and having no legal merit.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Thus, my country, the Syrian Arab Republic, stated in its message to this Council that it looks forward to immediate measures to be taken by the Council to address this humanitarian crisis, which is no less dangerous than other humanitarian catastrophes. The United Nations should act quickly in this crisis and pressure Israel to open the crossing points immediately. The Syrian Arab Republic would like once again to reiterate its continuous and firm support for the right of the Palestinian people to the restoration of their occupied territory and to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Al-Quds as its capital.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“The Minister recalled that Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip, including the complete closure of all crossing points, is a collective threat to the lives of Palestinians that has led to a grave deterioration of all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip, including the humanitarian situation, thereby increasing the suffering of Palestinians. That collective punishment includes the cutting off of potable water, electricity, food, medical supplies and fuel; and has led to an increase in poverty, hunger and unemployment. Despite the efforts of the Secretary-General and his repeated calls to the occupying Power to put an end to such practices, it has not yet responded.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Before the eyes of the occupying Power, settlers continue to attack Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, as well as their holy places. On 25 November 2008, on the instructions of the President of the Syrian Arab Republic in his capacity as chair of the Arab summit in Damascus, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Syria sent identical letters to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council calling on the United Nations to assume its responsibilities with regard to Israel's inhuman and immoral actions in Gaza.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Having lately and abruptly discovered its virtues, Israel also responded to the Arab Peace Initiative by brazenly attacking Lebanon in the summer of 2006 in an attempt to undermine all efforts at peace. Israel has also continued to reject calls to withdraw from occupied Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan, while increasing settlement activities therein. As we meet again today, the entire world is witness to what Israel, the occupying Power, is doing to the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank: imposing a siege, causing hunger and starvation, destroying property, carrying out extrajudicial killings, detaining Palestinians and forcibly displacing them at a rate unprecedented in modern history. It is doing so through its use of organized State terrorism against unarmed Palestinians.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“The Council may recall that, when the Arab Peace Initiative was launched in Beirut in 2002, Israel's response was to invade the West Bank and to carry out massacres in and lay siege to Jenin and Nablus, while also killing unarmed Palestinian women and children, desecrating places of worship and implementing a scorched-earth policy, in addition to detention and collective punishment. Israel has continued to build settlements despite the repudiation of the international community. It is also continuing construction of its apartheid wall of separation on occupied Palestinian territory, in blatant disregard of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“That Initiative illustrates the clear desire of Arab States to achieve peace once Israel demonstrates genuine readiness to comply with the just peace requirements, including by withdrawing from all occupied Arab territories to the 4 June 1967 lines and enabling the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Al-Quds as its capital. At the Arab summit held in Damascus on 29 March 2008, Arab leaders reiterated the need to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East on the basis of resolutions of international legality, the Arab Peace Initiative and the principles of the Madrid Conference.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): At the outset, I would like to express my gratitude to you, Mr. President, for presiding over the Security Council this month. I would also like to thank the Permanent Representative of Costa Rica and all the members of his delegation for having guided the work of the Council last month with great skill and wisdom. I also wish to thank Mr. Robert Serry, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for the briefing he has given us. Syria has chosen peace as a strategic option and has expressed its readiness to achieve it since its participation in the Madrid Conference, 17 years ago. We did so also in the run-up to the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut, which launched the Arab Peace Initiative.”
2008-12-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.6049 (2008) · source
“Perhaps we should consider building a museum to commemorate Israel's record-breaking behaviour so that people will remember what it has done and history will live on in our memories.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Let us imagine life in the occupied Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories when Israeli F-16s bomb civilian vehicles and kill their occupants, or when an Israeli military vessel fires on Palestinians on the Gaza shore, killing entire Palestinian families. Let us try also to imagine the staff member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) who, seeking to provide humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people in Gaza, is stopped at Israeli checkpoints and prevented from rendering that assistance to those in need. Let us imagine children studying in UNRWA schools in Gaza when their building is completely destroyed by gunfire, indiscriminately killing and injuring the students inside. I do not wish to go on at great length.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Maimonides was a student of the Arab-Islamic philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi. After his expulsion from Andalusia, Maimonides was welcomed by Arabs in Morocco and Egypt. Arab-Islamic culture, represented by the philosopher Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes, was the first in history to try to reconcile reason and religion. Arab-Islamic culture, which gave Ibn Khaldun to the world, established the science of sociology. Some 35 per cent of the space- and astronomy-related terminology used around the world derives from the Arabic language and Arab scientific discoveries. In 1967, Israel destroyed the espionage vessel USS Liberty because it had recorded orders given to Israeli officers to kill Egyptian prisoners of war by burying them alive. The representative of Israel described for us his vision of life in Israel.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Israel was among the first in the world to engage in air piracy, doing so against a Syrian civilian aircraft in 1955. In 1973, Israel was the first to shoot down a civilian passenger plane, a Libyan aircraft, killing 108 passengers. In 1968, Israel destroyed the Lebanese air passenger fleet on Lebanese soil. Israel has been the world's biggest aggressor against peacekeeping forces; according to former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that aggression has been deliberate. There is no clash of cultures or within a culture, nor between civilizations or within a civilization. The clash has always been between colonialists and peoples aspiring to freedom. The Arab-Islamic culture so despised by the Israeli Ambassador is that which gave Jews their own philosopher, Moses Maimonides, to take pride in.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Israel has been condemned a record number of times by the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Human Rights Council. Also, it holds a record number of vetoes cast by an influential State in the Council to protect it, a record number of 44. The General Assembly considers foreign occupation to be the worst kind of terrorism and the worst kind of injustice. Thus, the continuation of the Israeli occupation of Arab territories is the worst kind of terrorism. Israel has assassinated the largest number of Palestinian children, such as Mohammed al-Durra, Huda Ghalia and nine-year-old Emam al-Hams, the schoolchild Whom an Israeli soldier killed with 30 bullets. Israel was the closest partner of the apartheid regime in South Africa when the regime was imprisoning the freedom fighter Nelson Mandela.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“We would have liked the Permanent Representative of Israel to have ended his tenure at the United Nations with some reflection on what he has done, awakening an awareness that would bring his country nearer to peace, instead of showing disdain and trying to falsify history in a theatrical manner that is not convincing to anyone. The Israeli representative talked about the contributions of Member States to international civilization, but he did not speak of what his country has contributed since its creation by this international Organization. He forgot to mention What his country has contributed through massacres in Deir Yassin, Sabra, Shatila, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, Qana, Beit Hanoun, Gaza, Bahr al-Baqar and many other places.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Syria, which has repeatedly emphasized peace as a strategic option on the basis of the outcome of the Madrid Conference and the Arab Peace Initiative, would like to stress again that peace and security will not be achieved in the region without an end to the Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab territories in Palestine, the Golan and Lebanon. In that context, we would like to emphasize again the important role of the Security Council in ending the Israeli occupation of Arab territories through the implementation of its resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973).”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Israel, the occupying Power, is a signatory to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which makes it imperative for Israel to implement its provisions. To give some credibility to this discussion, Syria calls upon the Council to place pressure on Israel to permit without delay the resumption of family visits by Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan to their country, Syria, through the Quneitra crossing point. Twenty- seven years on, we are still awaiting mechanisms for the implementation of Council resolution 497 (1981), rejecting the Israeli decision to annex the occupied Syrian Golan and holding the occupation null and void.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Israel continues its repressive policies against Syrian citizens, unlawfully confirming them in jails and detention centres in conditions that expose them to the danger of death. Israel continues to violate the rights of Syrian prisoners of war (POWs) in Israeli detention centres, which has led to a decline in the health of Syrian POW Bushr al-Muqt. The Syrian Government has called on the Secretary-General and on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to intervene to save his life. Once again, Syria calls upon the Council and the United Nations to put pressure on Israel to release all Syrian POWs without delay, some of whom have been in prison for 25 years, including the Syrian journalist Atta Farhat, who was arrested by Israel while working as a journalist.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“The Council's inability to halt Israeli settlements in the occupied territory over the past few weeks because of the objection of one delegation, specifically concerning the draft resolution submitted on this matter by the Arab Group, regrettably reflects policies that experience has shown to be a failure and indicates a lack of respect for the purposes and principles of the Charter. The situation of Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan is not very different to that of the Palestinians. The occupying Power is still violating the private property of Syrian citizens in the Golan, confiscating land, plundering the natural wealth and water of the Golan, burying toxic nuclear waste and expanding illegal settlements in that area.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“The situation has deteriorated because of the illegal repressive measures taken by Israel to expel Palestinians from their homeland and to confiscate their land, as well as its plans to continue expanding its settlements and building the apartheid separation wall, in violation of the provisions of international law and the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice. Those violations seriously require us to hold the Israeli Government to account before the international community. The international community, including the Security Council, should shoulder its clear responsibilities in this context. It should take concrete and immediate measures to implement international law, setting aside policies of double standards, thus restoring the role of the Council in the maintenance of international peace and security.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“What is even worse is that certain international parties have sought to justify those aberrant Israeli measures and have prevented the international community, and the Council in particular, from taking measures to stop those violations. We would like to point out that the United Nations Charter does not give any State whatsoever the right to violate the rights of civilians under occupation on the pretext of self-defence. The Charter lays down specific and clear legal obligations for every occupying Power vis-a-vis such people, both from the humanitarian point of view and regarding all other aspects under international law.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Extrajudicial killings have continued, as have the starvation, injustice, coercion, collective punishment, confiscation of land, human rights violations, compulsory expulsions and displacements and the closure of crossing points. The latter has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, preventing the population from getting the basic needs of life and impeding the humanitarian assistance work of international organizations. Israel has even been trying to reduce the question of Palestine from a question of the just struggle of a suppressed and repressed people living under occupation to a matter of merely providing humanitarian services such as ensuring supplies of food, electricity, medication and water for the besieged Palestinian people.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“In parallel, Israel's unprecedented refusal to respond to international legitimacy on the Israeli- Palestinian track and on Israeli settlement policies in the occupied Arab territory, as well as the military training exercises it continuously undertakes, show clearly that Israel is not serious about seeking peace. It is continuing its occupation, aggression, settlement- building, military escalation and provocation, rejecting the elements of peace that are supported by the entire international community. Israel, the occupying Power, has continued its hostile and aggressive policies against the Palestinian people despite the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Despite the fact that proximity talks have begun between Syria and Israel through a Turkish mediator - negotiations that aim at exploring intentions and at finding common ground for moving on to direct negotiations at a later stage - the sudden adoption by the Israeli Knesset of a reckless resolution stipulating that if two thirds of its members approve or provide for any attempt to withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan, the proposal must then go to a general referendum, runs counter to the goal of establishing a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“The process seeks the restoration of Arab rights, the return of Palestinian refugees and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with its capital Al-Quds, and full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan to the borders of 4 June 1967 and from the remaining occupied Lebanese land.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“We thank the President for giving us the opportunity to speak before the Security Council in the framework of its monthly discussion of the situation in the Middle East. We are full of hope that the Security Council can consider all the issues on its agenda, and in particular, the question of the Middle East, leading to the end of the foreign occupation of our Arab land and to the achievement of a comprehensive and just peace in the region. At the summit held in March in Damascus, Arab leaders emphasized the importance of working to bring about a comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East based on the relevant international resolutions, the principle of land for peace, the Madrid terms of reference and the Arab peace initiative.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): I would like at the outset to congratulate you, Mr. President, upon the assumption by your friendly country, Viet Nam, of the presidency of the Security Council for this month. For us, Viet Nam is a symbol of sacrifice as well as of the struggle against foreign occupation and colonialism. It is also a symbol of the victory of right and justice over injustice. I thank the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs for his very valuable briefing. I align myself with the statement to be made by the representative of Cuba on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement. I would like to seize this opportunity to thank all those who spoke before the Council today and referred to the importance of the proximity talks between my country, Syria, and Israel.”
2008-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5940 (2008) · source
“Finally, despite the great importance that the Syrian Arab Republic attaches to the Council's consideration of the issue of civilians in armed conflicts, I call on the Council to address the issue of civilians suffering under the yoke of foreign occupation in Palestine and the Golan with equal seriousness and momentum, and in an objective and impartial manner, free from the use of double standards. We also call on the Council to undertake an in-depth study of the reason for the suffering of those civilians, namely the Israeli occupation.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source
“We are full of hope that those parties will translate the positions that we have heard in this discussion into facts on the ground, particularly the positions with a firm basis in international law. Speaking of international law, the Israeli occupation of the Golan is a two-fold occupation giving rise to two crimes because Israel not only occupied the Syrian Golan in 1967, but also issued a provocative and unjust decision to annex it. That decision was unanimously rejected by the Security Council in its resolution 497 (1981), which decided that Israel's annexation decision was null and void and that called upon Israel to rescind it forthwith.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source
“Since Israel is an occupying Power and a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, it is incumbent on it to implement the Convention's articles 25, 26, 30 and 142, as well as article 74 of the first Additional Protocol to it, in order to allow and facilitate family visits of persons in the occupied territories. My country has sent letters in this regard to the Secretary-General and the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council, and to international governmental and non-governmental organizations to intervene to help to solve the problem of permitting Syrian citizens from the occupied Syrian Golan to visit their families.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source
“In the same context, Israel persists in its policies that aim to cut all forms of contact and communications between members of Syrian families separated by the occupation. In addition, on 15 April 2008, Israeli authorities confiscated the Syrian identification cards that had been given to Damascus University students from the occupied Syrian Golan during their trips home to their towns and Villages. Syria calls upon the Council, with a View to giving credibility to this discussion, to pressure Israel to permit the immediate resumption of Visits by Syrian citizens living in the occupied Syrian Golan to Syria proper, through the Quneitra crossing point.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source
“I should like to refer to the cases of Syrian citizens held as prisoners of war, namely, Bishr Al-Maqt and Sitan Al-Wali, the latter having had a nephrectomy, which is a surgical procedure to remove a kidney that is due to a tumour. My Government has called upon the Secretary-General, the Red Cross and other concerned international parties to intervene to save their lives. I would like to remind the Council, in this context, that Syrian prisoner of war Hael Abu Zayd had suffered from similar symptoms, which led to his death from cancer in 2005. Therefore, we once again call upon the United Nations and the Security Council to pressure Israel to release those prisoners of war without delay, including Syrian journalist Atta Farhat, who was detained by Israel because of his nationalist activities as a journalist.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source
“Israel's new settlements council in the Golan won the approval of the occupying Power to begin to construct a new tourist resort on 40 dunums of land near the Israeli settlement of "In Am", which was established in Syria's Wadi Nakhil Al-Tiba region. The settlements council, in cooperation with the extremist religious settlement of Unitan, has devised a plan to attract thousands of settlers in order to increase their numbers in the Syrian Golan to over 50,000. Israel is continuing its policy of suppressing Syrian civilians in the occupied Syrian Golan, illegally imprisoning and detaining them in conditions that threaten their lives.”
2008-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.5898Resumption1 (2008) · source