YouSaid · the spoken record

Khalidi

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17

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2021-05-27

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2021-05-27

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1

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un-security-council

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1. “As I have recently written, rather than bringing peace, the efforts of the United Nations and outside parties in Palestine have all too often failed to prevent further displacement, further misery, further war. May the opportunity presented by the most recent crisis in Palestine and Israel lead the Security Council to efforts that will break that pattern and set the two peoples on the path towards a just, lasting and sustainable peace and real, equal security.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

2. “That is where the Security Council can and must play a role by insisting that the principle of complete equality of rights and international law be the essential basis of any lasting solution. I know a little bit of the difficulties that the representatives of Council members and the States they represent must confront in dealing with this intractable issue. I understand that it is an issue that has profound resonance within the internal politics of their countries and provokes intense passions on all sides. Nevertheless, this is the moment to grasp that sharp nettle to bring concepts of right, principle, justice and equality to bear in order to overcome the decades of expediency that have given the hollow shell of a process, but have manifestly not brought peace to Palestine or to the two peoples who live there.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

3. “In November 1947, the General Assembly voted for the creation of two States in Palestine. One was eventually established, one was not. For all its many flaws and the injustice to the overwhelming Arab majority of the Palestinian population that it embodied at that time, General Assembly resolution 181 (II) contained one kernel that we can look back on and build on: that is the indisputable principle that two peoples live in Palestine/Israel. In whatever way those two peoples are to structure their relations in the future — whether on a two-State or some other basis — the weaker cannot be left to the mercies of the stronger, with its powerful ally putting its thumb on the already tilted scales.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

4. “I understand that power has its prerogatives and cannot be ignored, but it is time to realize that a century of unmitigated failure should bring this organ to search for a better, a more multilateral, way to structure a negotiation than the unilateral one that has been followed with no success until now. A much bigger step, albeit one that should not be so hard for this organ to adopt, or for the world community to accept, is the principle that, in any projected solution in Palestine-Israel, all citizens of both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and both collectivities must enjoy rights and security on a basis of complete equality. Whatever rights one enjoys, the other must enjoy as well. Those rights include the right of self-determination and political, civil, human and religious rights. That is not such a far-fetched notion.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

5. “I understand how difficult it may be to achieve unanimity today, even on those points, every single one of which has been voted for unanimously or nearly unanimously by the Council or other United Nations bodies in the past, but simply reiterating them is crucially important. Another larger step would be for the Council to assert its prerogatives and forcefully push for a more multilateral and less unilateral structure for the resolution of the Palestine question. The unilateral approach, which has prevailed since the Gunnar Jarring mission, which was eclipsed towards the end of the 1960s, a half century ago, has manifestly failed to bring peace to Palestine or to Israel, and it is time for it to be replaced by more multilateral and less biased efforts.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

6. “Those include the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force, central to the principle of resolution 242 (1967), adopted by this organ in November 1967; the illegality of the colonization of occupied territory by the occupier’s citizens, as set out in the Fourth Geneva Convention; the right of refugees to return and to compensation, as set out in General Assembly resolution 181 (II); and the necessity of an international role in resolving the question of Jerusalem, as had been set out in repeated Security Council resolutions. For the Council simply to reiterate clearly and explicitly that those building blocks, all of which are rooted in international law and United Nations resolutions, are the only possible basis of a just and lasting solution would ameliorate the situation immeasurably.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

7. “That status quo goes back not only to the many United Nations resolutions on Jerusalem or to the British Mandate period; it is rooted in the era of Ottoman rule, and it was hammered out over many decades of war and diplomacy. As we have seen in recent weeks, it is playing with fire, an unholy fire, to allow that status quo to be trampled upon, as has been happening for all too many decades, both in the period of Jordanian rule of the eastern part of the city and, especially, since the Israeli occupation and annexation of 1967. Larger steps should include forcefully reiterating the basic building blocks of the international order, as far as Palestine is concerned, as they have been laid down in Security Council and other United Nations resolutions.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

8. “Surely that small step is within the power of the Security Council. I think that all can see how doing that, which requires forceful action, would improve the situation in Palestine. Small steps include the Security Council working to help cement the unity of the Palestinian people on a democratic basis — a unity that the colonial Power has worked ceaselessly to undermine. That could include United Nations-mandated and -supervised elections that cannot be obstructed either by the occupying Power or by outside Powers that cultivate proxies and meddle in Palestinian affairs. Small steps may include the demand that the status quo regarding the holy sites in Jerusalem — a status quo that has been systematically infringed upon — be strictly respected by all.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

9. “If that false equivalence is maintained and if the lopsided balance of power between the two peoples is allowed to dictate outcomes, there will never be an end to such bloodletting and oppression, and the Security Council will continue to issue empty resolutions with no force for the rest of the twenty-first century, as it has done for the many of the decades. How can the impunity that enormous power grants to one side be overcome? In my view, what are needed are both small steps and big ones. Small steps can include this organ urgently demanding, not requesting from the blockading Powers, but demanding, under penalty of sanctions, that the humanitarian, medical, dietary and other basic needs of the people of Gaza be freed of cruel political considerations and that the collective punishment of 2 million people be ended.”

   2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

10. “They also show that the Palestinians will not give up their struggle to achieve their inalienable rights. A problem that for decades many have hoped would disappear has reappeared in an even more intense and troubling form. It is therefore time to call a spade a spade and to abandon the cruel false equivalence that ignores casualty ratios of from 4, 10 or 20 to 1, that places the occupier on the same footing as the occupied and that puts a nuclear-armed regional super-Power on the same footing as a people that has never been allowed to enjoy self-determination.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

11. “However, if there were a moment to transcend those restraints and for collective action to address a source of suffering that has endured for the better part of a century, this is it. The most recent upheaval in Palestine and Israel has sharpened contradictions, aroused new passions, some of them ugly, and awakened consciences. It has also pricked the bubble of cherished illusions, such as the illusion that no one in the Arab world or globally cares about Palestine. The solidarity marches, the social media explosion, the unprecedented nature of the mainstream media coverage of recent events and the unprecedented wave of solidarity with the Palestinians the world over — all those phenomena together show that, however much some may wish that this were not the case, Palestine is important and cannot be ignored.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

12. “They are the dispossession of the Palestinian people, starting in 1948; the status of Jerusalem; the supposedly temporary military occupation that has endured since 1967; and ensuring that any projected solution is grounded in international law and in the resolutions of the Council and is not based on what happens to be convenient for the most powerful actors involved in the issue. I am a historian of the Middle East and a long-time observer of the proceedings of the Security Council, where my father worked for nearly two decades as a member of the Secretariat. I understand perfectly that power relations structure what is possible and what is impossible. I understand perfectly how difficult it is to make national agendas coincide such that collective action becomes possible.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

13. “They include rebuilding the degraded infrastructure of Gaza with no guarantee that it will not be destroyed for a fifth time; stressing the quality of life for Palestinians without providing them with a clear and fixed political horizon; and, finally, yet again launching a meaningless peace process, structured by the most powerful actors to avoid all the difficult core issues central to achieving a sustainable resolution of the issue. Any effort to achieve real peace and lasting security must belatedly grapple with those painful core issues, which go back to the first efforts of the General Assembly and the Council to deal with the question of Palestine in the earliest years following the establishment of the United Nations. What are those core issues?”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

14. “More seriously, such impunity has been a major obstacle to establishing peace, justice and security for all those who live in Palestine and Israel However, I have not been asked to brief on the failings of the past. Instead, I hope to offer suggestions based on my understanding of the history of the issue, in order to reinforce the efforts of this organ to achieve lasting peace and security in Palestine and Israel in the future. It is clear to me, and I hope that it is clear to Council members, that, whatever their merits, a number of important palliatives currently under consideration are not by themselves going to produce a lasting solution to the problems of Palestine and Israel.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

15. “The same pattern of guaranteeing impunity for violations of international law and Security Council resolutions has recurred repeatedly since then, most recently during the Council’s deliberations on the events in Palestine earlier this month. As all Council members know, since the founding of the United Nations, the Security Council has adopted multiple resolutions on the Palestine problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict Such issues that have taken up more of the time and energy of this organ than any other global issue. Most of those resolutions have not been implemented or respected. In effect, they are in effect dead letters. That systematic disrespect for Security Council resolutions, encouraged by the impunity that I have described, has left the Council and the United Nations itself, I am sad to say, in justifiable disrepute.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

16. “Young people and people of conscience the world over have responded to the images that emerged from different parts of Palestine, and which were diffused especially by social media, but also by mainstream media. Public discourse has begun to shift in consequence. On 9 June 1967, at the height of the June 1967 war, as a college student, I sat in the visitors’ gallery of this very Chamber where the Council is sitting, watching as a permanent member ensured the impunity that allowed a Member State to ignore Security Council ceasefire resolutions and continue its military offensive for another 24 hours. This action nearly 54 years ago exacerbated problems that this body is still wrestling with.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source

17. “Mr. Khalidi: I am deeply grateful to the Security Council and the Chinese presidency for the opportunity to brief the Council, particularly at what may be a new juncture in the evolution of the question of Palestine. All Palestinians, wherever they are — in occupied Arab East Jerusalem, where the latest round of violence started a few weeks ago, in the occupied West Bank, in besieged Gaza, inside Israel, and in the vast Palestinian diaspora — have responded to the events of the past several weeks with an unprecedented degree of unity. These events, and this show of unity, have provoked a worldwide recognition of the realities on the ground — realities of systemic discrimination, oppression and settler colonialism — that can no longer be brushed aside and hidden by stale clichés.”

    2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source