YouSaid · the spoken record

Mansour

lines on the record: 2,038
first: 2006-03-30
most recent: 2023-12-22
sittings or episodes: 126
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

“Lives will be saved, humanitarian aid will be allowed in, thousands of people, including Palestinian children, will be rescued from under the rubble, and all those whom we could have saved days ago but who died alone, under the rubble, shouting for help that never came, will be buried. It will allow those held captive to be released. It will allow the civilian infrastructure needed for the survival of our people to be repaired. It will allow help to reach those who are wounded or sick. The primary goal of international humanitarian law is to protect civilians, including those who are wounded or sick. In Gaza, those are the ones who are suffering most from the Israeli assault. What is happening will have long-term effects that no one should underestimate. It is a failure of humanity of a terrifying magnitude.”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“Nothing justifies war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide — nothing. There is no honour in defending Israel when it is committing such crimes, only shame. The bombings and incursions must stop now. Humanitarian aid must come in now — not drop by drop, just to pretend that the criminal siege has been lifted, but effectively bringing it to an end. Fuel must come in now. Thousands — indeed, millions — of lives hang in the balance. Our hospitals have been destroyed. Our people have no food or clean water. God sent them rain while the Council was still trying to get Israel to let fuel in to enable water pumps to function. The madness must be brought to an end. The moment the bombs stop, we will see results.”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“Paragraph 1 of the resolution demands that all the parties comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially children. We are fully committed to all of those rules, but do they apply to Israel? Is Israel heeding that demand? The Council has been calling on Israel for 40 days now to uphold the laws of war, yet it has chosen to continue breaching them openly and brazenly. In fact, I should say that the Council has been demanding that Israel respect international law for decades, yet Israel has dismissed the Council’s calls and has continued its crimes against the Palestinian people. Has the Council ever held Israel accountable? Is it going to hold Israel accountable for rejecting the resolution it adopted this afternoon?”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“It did not condemn Israel’s indiscriminate attacks, its assault on hospitals and schools or its killing of United Nations staff, journalists, humanitarian personnel, doctors and rescue teams. It did not condemn the arbitrary imprisonment of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children or call for their immediate and unconditional release. The resolution did not condemn Israel’s racist and disgusting propaganda methods, which have been mocked all over the world and which are an insult to our intelligence. And yet those methods are still echoed by some politicians and media at the expense of their own credibility. Selective outrage breeds double standards and shows disregard for Palestinian lives, along with a refusal to recognize undeniable Israeli crimes.”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“The Council has finally acted today by adopting resolution 2712 (2023), a humanitarian resolution focused on children. If we are going to talk about the condemnations missing from the resolution, I have several points that I would like to remind the Council about. But before I do that, I just want to inform Council members that a few minutes ago the Foreign Ministry of the State of Israel rejected the resolution, saying that it will not implement it and that it will continue its course of action as it wishes. What is the Council going to do? It just adopted a resolution that Israel has said it will not implement. I would like to remind the Council that the resolution did not condemn Israel’s killing of 11,000 Palestinians, an overwhelming majority of whom are civilians, including 5,000 Palestinian children.”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“Gaza bleeds. Death, devastation and destruction are everywhere. No one has been spared — not our children, not our women, not our elderly, not our civilians. Nothing has been spared — not our hospitals, not the United Nations shelters and schools, not our water plants, not our homes. All that should have been protected has become the primary target of this murderous campaign. The Security Council should have called for a ceasefire a long time ago. It should have called for a ceasefire today. It should have heeded the calls of the United Nations, including the Secretary-General, and of every humanitarian organization on the planet for a humanitarian ceasefire. It should have been convinced that there is no military solution — especially not one that relies on the commission of atrocities — and it should have advanced political solutions.”
2023-11-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9479 (2023) · source
“I count our meetings in Palestinian death, devastation and destruction. We met first when hundreds of Palestinians had been killed. We meet yet again today, when 11,000 have been killed in Gaza, including 4,500 children. As we meet, if one listens well, one can hear in the Chamber the shouts of our children under the rubble, abandoned by humankind. As we meet, only a few hundred trucks have entered Gaza in 30 days and 10 times more souls have left to the skies. Israel is allowing enough trucks to pretend it is not imposing a siege, but not enough to save lives. Israel is implementing imaginary humanitarian pauses, whose only goal is to force people to flee — not to offer them some relief that their survival is guaranteed.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“They are telling the world that they just want the Palestinians to go south for their safety — never mind that some Palestinians have made it all the way to Rafah and are still being bombed. What is south of Rafah? I wonder. They want us out of our country, out of our land. Their strategic enemy is the independence of our State, the freedom of our people. The only options they have ever given us are to submit, leave or die; or, in international legal terms, apartheid, ethnic cleansing or genocide. Gaza has shown that in shocking terms. And in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli occupation forces and settlers have killed 350 Palestinians since the beginning of the year — half of them in the last month — and have forcibly displaced hundreds more, seizing large areas of land. The Security Council meets again today.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“So they bomb and bomb and bomb — civilians, children and civilian infrastructure. They deprive our people of the objects essential for their survival. But let no one dare accuse them of forced transfer. Forget about the memo by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence that says that they want to displace us from Gaza. Forget about the statement of their Foreign Minister about the fact that Gaza would shrink after the war. Forget about the map that Netanyahu held in the General Assembly with Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Forget about Netanyahu’s confession that they intended to retain security control over Gaza. Forget the chants of their soldiers. Forget the speeches of their leaders, .”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“He rejected any intimation that Israel was not upholding the laws of war while committing war crimes and crimes against humanity on camera and while his representatives were unable to hide their genocidal intent. Bombs dropping everywhere, everywhere — north, south, east and west. Bombs dropping on schools, universities, hospitals, United Nations shelters, cars, convoys, people walking and ambulances — bombs killing civilians, doctors, journalists, United Nations staff and humanitarian rescue teams. Where should Palestinians go: to the sea, or out of the Gaza Strip? Israel feigns surprise. It asks, why are they staying, why are they dying and not listening? It is because our entire nation has experienced in its flesh the grand exodus. Even when facing imminent death, it hesitates before leaving. That is our national trauma.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“He spoke of mighty vengeance and human animals, describing us, and declared that he would impose a terrifying siege on 2.3 million people, more than half of them children — more than 1.1 million children — the flagrant collective punishment of an entire people. He called for the release of 200 hostages, taking more than 2 million hostages in the process. He demanded condemnation of the killing of 1,000 Israeli civilians and killed 10,000 Palestinian civilians in the process. He proclaimed his right to self-defence while occupying, colonizing and denying every right to the Palestinian people, including our right to self-determination, our right to protection and our right to defend ourselves. He preached of the need to prevent the destruction of Israel while continuing his campaign to destroy Palestine.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“They are standing up, but everything else within them and around them has crumbled. The same suffering that traumatized my generation is now tormenting yet another Palestinian generation. We often said at the time that if the world knew — if it had witnessed our pain, if it had seen an entire people being killed and uprooted — it would never have allowed that to happen. We were so wrong. It did not matter that the massacres in Gaza were being reported live; they were being justified by pundits and spin doctors with all kinds of excuses. The fog dissipated eventually, but only too late, and positions became clearer but not yet clear enough to rein in Israel, to tell it enough is enough. To be fair, the killer never hid his intentions.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“Children injured, orphaned and traumatized, walking distances that they should never have to explore — between death and displacement, between loss and loss. There is more rage and outrage, more pain and suffering, beyond what the human mind can comprehend, beyond what any human heart should have to bear. There is so much silence within and the noise of bombardments without. Our entire life, we scream but cannot be heard. How can anyone scream louder than all this death that surrounds us? How can anyone scream louder than the noise of the bombardments? I cannot bear these images of a wave of human beings with no tears, as their eyes have dried up, with broken hearts — small children carrying burdens that would break the shoulders of strong men, discovering the meaning of death before enjoying the taste of life.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“I am an old man, old enough to have been born when the Nakba occurred, to have grown up in the tents and refugee camps of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East alongside tens of thousands of Palestinians, and to have listened to the stories about our life before the Nakba, stemming from the vivid and wounded memory of my parents. My generation dedicated its entire life to putting an end to the Nakba. On this seventy-fifth anniversary of the Nakba, instead of seeing it end, we see images that remind us of the worst of our times. What will this generation in Gaza remember? They will remember the horrors, the massacres, the trucks carrying people, carrying lifeless bodies and shattered hopes. They will remember walking with a small bag in which to fit the remains of life.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“I thank China, the President of the Security Council, for convening this important meeting and for your leadership of the Council in these times of crisis. I also want to thank the briefers, who have shared disturbing reflections on the facts of the catastrophic situation faced by the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip — facts that should pain the human conscience. To my brother Marwan Jilani, I want to convey through him our salutations to the heroes of the Palestine Red Crescent in carrying out their mission to save lives. As we speak here, hospitals have become the Israelis’ primary target. Hospitals are being besieged, and their vicinity is being bombed. What we should say to them from the Security Council is to stop the massacre. Anyone? The World Health Organization? Someone can and must act now to stop the massacres.”
2023-11-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9472 (2023) · source
“I know that there is a short period of time until the end of your presidency, but if by any miracle you, Mr. President, can lead the Security Council to adopt a position of stopping this war and allowing the hundreds of trucks with humanitarian assistance to enter the Gaza Strip, we will tip our hat to you, Sir, and to the Security Council members.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“And whoever is standing in the path of the implementation of the Security Council’s will should be removed from the way so that we can see the implementation of the two-State solution based on the Council’s resolutions, based on international law and based on the terms of reference. Council members agreed to all those things, but they are not acting on them. They keep repeating them, and they think that, by repeating them, they did their duty. No, they have to do more. They have to take the practical steps to allow the two-State solution to become a reality. We have said time and time again — I repeat — there is no military solution to the conflict. We have yet to demonstrate that there is a peaceful one. Prove us wrong. Every minute counts. Every minute is the difference between life and death for Palestinians in Gaza.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Will Council members continue to be paralyzed or do they want to act on the advice they are giving the Palestinian people? Implement the two-State solution that we accepted. Who is stopping Council members from implementing it? Who is stopping Council members from taking steps in order to push the occupation to an end, to allow for the independence of the State of Palestine? Who is stopping Council members? Do not keep repeating to me “two-State solution”. Tell me how Council members are going to defend it and how they are going to implement it, so our people can believe them and have faith in what they are saying and respect what they call for when they see them marching towards implementation.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“No assault or war will ever end the conflict or resolve the injustice, it will only deepen and widen it. We have said time and time again, there is no military solution to the conflict. We have yet to demonstrate that there is a peaceful one. I listen to Council members all the time telling me about the two-State solution, and they repeat it and repeat it and repeat it, but they do not tell me what single step they are willing to take in order to stop the other side from destroying the two-State solution before their eyes. Is it not enough to wake up and say the resolution that the Security Council adopted calls for the implementation of the two-State solution? Show resolve to implement those resolutions. The representatives in this Chamber are the Security Council.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Stop the killings in the West Bank by settlers and occupation forces and the forced displacement under way there. Palestinians, as human beings, have rights that must be upheld, and they are entitled to protection and entitled to be defended. Many Council members talk about one narrative, about one State to defending itself. When our children are being killed, do we have the right to defend them? Do we have the right to defend our families? Do we have the right to defend our schools? Do we have the right to defend our mosques? Do we have the right to defend our churches? Do we have the right to defend our homes, our soil and our nation? Do we have rights or are rights only the monopoly of one side? Our people have, as a people, rights that have long been denied and must now be recognized, so we can all live in peace and security.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Allow people who still have homes standing to go home and allow millions of people to start thinking once more about how to rebuild their lives despite the depths of the death, devastation and destruction they endured, despite the indelible traumas. Treat us as human beings with the respect we deserve. We are not subhuman beings. We are not from another planet. We are exactly like each and every Council member. We are humans, human beings. Treat us in that manner with the respect we deserve. Show respect for our inherent dignity, not in words but in deeds, in action, by doing something to stop this crime against our people, our children, our women, our wounded and our sick. No one should justify our killing or find reasons to give more time to the killer. Call for an end to this assault on an entire nation.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Allow the brave humanitarian workers, the heroes, to perform their life-saving duties even as they mourn their colleagues — 64 UNRWA staff killed in Israeli attacks. Allow them to conduct their sacred mission in safety and not under the bombs. Allow hospitals to resume their work to save lives and not be transformed into morgues. Allow members of the same families who have survived to embrace each other and to mourn their loved ones who did not. Allow us to pay the tribute owed to the families wiped off the face of this Earth and whose names join the long list of bereaved families etched in our collective memory.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Given that 11 members of the Council have voted in favour of the resolution, three abstained in the voting and one voted against, it is clear that the text enjoys broad support and must serve as the basis for a clear and unequivocal position of the Council at this critical juncture. Every day and every night, 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza face death. Save them; look at them as human beings. Do not look at one side only and completely ignore this tragic humanitarian calamity. Wake up from taking revenge. Look at us as human beings. Save them. We have 2,000 people under the rubble. Allow us to find them; save those who can still be saved and bury in a dignified manner those who have perished. Allow the 20,000 wounded to be properly treated. Allow doctors to fix broken bodies and God to heal wounded souls.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“We salute him, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and its Foreign Minister, who was participating with us, along with many others in the General Assembly, and we salute what we have accomplished together. We also salute the member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for their relentless mobilization, the countries of the global South for their support, as well as all the countries that engaged constructively and responsibly to allow us to adopt a substantive humanitarian resolution, with overwhelming support from across the globe — 121 countries versus 14.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“The Council should live up to its responsibility instead of maintaining this paralysis for who knows how long while thousands of Palestinian innocent civilians, including children, are being slaughtered. The Security Council must follow the example of the General Assembly and its wisdom and uphold its responsibilities to put an end to this bloodshed, which constitutes an affront to humankind, war crimes and crimes against humanity and a clear and imminent danger for regional and international peace and security. I want to thank the Group of Arab States, led by Ambassador Hmoud from Jordan, who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in steering the Arab Group during this very difficult month.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“It stressed that humanitarian aid and access cannot be further delayed or obstructed and must be at levels that correspond to the immense needs created by this inhumane Israeli siege and the indiscriminate attacks Israel is perpetrating as we speak. Thousands more lives hang in the balance. General Assembly resolution ES-10/21, a powerful moral resolution that 11 members of the Security Council voted in favour of, three abstained and one voted against, must be immediately and fully implemented. If a vote took place in the General Assembly, why can it not happen here? Among the 11 members of the Council that voted yes and the three that abstained are four permanent members — three voted in the affirmative and one abstained in the voting. Do what the larger organ is doing.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“The General Assembly, representing the countries of the world, adopted a resolution grounded in humanity, morality, legality and the rejection of double standards, justifications for the killing of innocent civilians, the siege against them, their captivity and their forced transfer. It took a stand that we will not forsake humankind, we will not forfeit international law. The General Assembly acted. The Secretary- General acted. The army of humanitarian agencies, the heroes leading them and those who are working to implement that message acted. But there is one important organ not acting; it is the Security Council. The General Assembly called for an immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce (see A/ES-10/ PV.41). That must happen immediately.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Let me repeat — 3,500 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel in just three weeks, more than the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones, combined, since 2019. Every five minutes, a Palestinian child is killed. How many more days will the Council wait — paralysed, not acting and not carried out its duty to maintain international peace and security by stopping the war — to say enough, to recognize that this is a war against our children? How long will it take the Council to recognize that thousands of children are being killed before its very eyes while it remains paralysed? These are our children, who, like all children, are children of God, children of light, angels on Earth. I say enough darkness, enough death. Let us save the lives of all children — our children and the children of others.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“They want to depopulate the Gaza Strip completely and throw its entire population into the lap of Egypt and the Sinai desert. More than 8,000 Palestinians have been killed, including more than 3,000 in the south of Gaza, where Israel has pushed — forcibly transferred — hundreds of thousands of people. Those staggering figures keep rising with every minute that action is delayed to stop the onslaught against our people. More than any other, one figure explains the magnitude of this human-made tragedy: 3,500 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel in just three weeks, which is more than the annual number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, according to the Save the Children Fund, as mentioned by Ambassador Nusseibeh from the United Arab Emirates.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“Refugees comprise 70 per cent of the population of Gaza. More than 1.4 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes — again, I am citing Mr. Lazzarini. Virtually all of our people in Gaza are now homeless, displaced and moving from one family home to another, from a hospital to a church, from a mosque to an United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school — sleeping in their cars, sleeping in the streets and still being killed wherever they go, convincing them they will not be safe anywhere in Gaza. A leaked document prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence confirms that, in fact, relocating Palestinians from Gaza to tent cities in Sinai is not a threat we imagined but a reality Israel is trying to impose.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“If we genuinely respect their calls and what they are doing, let us not only listen closely to them but carry out their requests. In that spirit, allow me to deliver my statement. Dag Hammarskjöld said that “the United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from hell”. Gaza is now hell on earth — that was said not by me, but by Mr. Lazzarini himself and many others. Gaza is now hell on earth. Saving humanity from hell today means for the United Nations to save Palestinians in Gaza. The 2.3 million Palestinians living there are enduring suffering that no human being should endure. They are besieged and bombed, with nowhere safe to go — again, Mr. Lazzarini himself said that there is no safe place in the Gaza Strip. Half the homes in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“They are the best faces of the United Nations and the best among us, led by a hero by the name of António Guterres, who stood outside the Rafah crossing and made his brave humanitarian call for a peaceful ceasefire, for humanitarian convoys to reach everywhere in the Gaza Strip, for lives to be saved, for the war to be ended and for hospitals and every institution that is providing life to our people to be saved. Those are the best faces of the United Nations, and if they are in fact the best faces — and we truly believe that they are and express our gratitude to them — I believe that we have to listen to everything that they have said and to their important call and requests for a humanitarian ceasefire and humanitarian convoys up to scale, as the Secretary-General requested, of a minimum of 100 truckloads every day.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“In addition, I am personally delighted to see you, Mr. President, for the third time because I consider you a good friend from the time we served together as Permanent Representatives of our States. I also want to thank the three briefers, Commissioner- General Lazzarini, Executive Director Russell and Director Doughten for their briefings and for their moving calls, as it is coming from people who are in the field, leading teams in the field and trying to save the lives of the Palestinian people. We do not only express our gratitude and appreciation for what they do, but we also join them in accepting condolences for those who have lost their lives, paying the ultimate price for trying to save the lives of the Palestinian people.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“I want to begin by welcoming you, Mr. President, to the Chamber and thanking you for leading the deliberation of this emergency meeting requested by our colleagues from the United Arab Emirates and China, which we appreciate. The fact that you, Mr. President, are with us for the third time this month is an illustration of Brazil’s commitment at the level of the Foreign Minister, and, I am sure, of the urgency with which President Lula da Silva hopes to do everything possible in order to bring about an end to this carnage and to the tragedy that the Palestinian people are going through, particularly in the Gaza Strip. We, the Palestinian people in the State of Palestine, and our people everywhere, particularly in the Gaza Strip, along with our leadership, really appreciate Brazil’s commitment and effort.”
2023-10-30 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9462 (2023) · source
“They require serious and responsible leadership, which the Council has failed to provide. Some members are missing an opportunity to change our region for the better. Whatever their calculations may be, they are wrong. May they change course before it is too late. Reality on the ground will overtake any plans they may have — shaping it or enduring it is a decision that must be made now.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“So Israel will deny responsibility for the massacre at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, just as it made every effort to deny its responsibility for the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and Muhammad Al-Durrah and for the many massacres it has perpetrated over the decades, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It will blame the Palestinians for their own deaths, as it has always done, and it will attempt to present evidence to that effect to the Council. Do members recall the last time somebody presented evidence in this Chamber to justify war? Somebody came with technological devices and pictures to convince the Council. Remember the last time somebody presented evidence in this Chamber to justify war. I am sure the Council, the media and the world will not be fooled by such theatre again. These are serious times.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“This was not a moment to make the same mistakes that got us here in the first place. Lastly, Israel does not deny that it killed entire families — infants, children and their parents, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents — with sometimes up to 45 members of the same family being slaughtered. It has done so repeatedly through the years and is doing so again, this time in the Gaza Strip. It has now killed 3,500 Palestinians, almost all civilians, including more than 1,000 children. It admitted to killing all of them but insisted it could not do otherwise. Their deaths were not its fault, even though it killed them. But the hospital massacre had such an impact on global public opinion that it had to change tactics and change its original story to a new one.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“It has not upheld international law unequivocally, equally or responsibly. And in the next few hours, more Palestinians will be killed, tensions in the region will rise to newly dangerous levels and anger and resentment will explode. Every one of us will be asked what we did when all of that was happening. We will all be asked what we did to prevent what will happen next. The Council’s failure to shoulder its responsibilities after 10 days of Israel’s massacres of the Palestinian people, and after the killing of hundreds of people gathered in a hospital to find shelter and care, will mark public opinion in our region and the world for a very long time and affect people’s belief in the law’s ability to protect all people, as well as their perceptions and reactions. This was not a moment to foster more despair and more impunity.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“Anyone who thinks that this is a situation under control, for which a plan can be designed and implemented, is making false and irresponsible assumptions. This is the kind of war where we know how it starts but have no clue how it ends. Even now, it can be stopped, and it should be stopped immediately. Any further delay is a risk that no one should take. The Council should have met today to heed the call of the Secretary-General, of religious leaders around the world, including the Pope, of Arab States, of the Muslim countries, of the global South, of an overwhelming number of States around the world and of billions of people, including the millions who have been marching in the streets everywhere. Stop the bloodshed. Stop it now. Listen to them. But the Council has not heeded those calls.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“There is no speech, legal contortion or political cover that can clear Israel of its responsibility for the Palestinian civilians it is killing. For 75 years now, Israel has explained and brazenly justified how it had to dispossess us, occupy our land and kill our people — all with full impunity. Killing more Palestinians will never make Israel more secure. Seventy-five years of experience should have been proof enough for those who want to learn. There is no logic, moral or law in the world that can justify the killing of a people — innocent children, women and men — as a pretext for making another people secure. The whole world is watching. It is watching us. The events of the past 10 days may shape the next 10 years in our region and beyond. What happens next will be decisive.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“We told the Council months ago to take action to save lives — all lives. It did not hear us then. It should not make the same mistake now. People are being killed as we speak. A humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in Gaza on live television. We heard what Mr. Griffiths said. A political disaster is under way and yet the Security Council is unable to say the only thing that truly matters — stop the bloodshed. I repeat, stop the bloodshed. Those who think they can avert a humanitarian catastrophe and a regional spillover while Israel continues bombing and killing Palestinians must think again. The region is united in telling the Council that it is not possible. Listen to those countries. The only way to prevent both disasters is to stop the criminal aggression against our people.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“Everyone here says that civilian lives should be protected, and yet so far some Council members are still unable to call for a stop to the assault and for an immediate ceasefire. Those who cannot or will not call for a ceasefire will lose any credibility or authority, and they will share some of the responsibility for the devastation that is occurring now and what will occur next. No one should want to be seen as complicit in these mass killings or their continuation. Had the Council called for a ceasefire two days ago and acted accordingly, it would have saved hundreds of lives. Maybe saving hundreds of Palestinian lives is not such an important objective to pursue for some. But is anyone sure that Palestinian lives are the only ones they would be saving if the Council were to act?”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“There is no right under international law to commit massacres. Israel is perpetrating massacres in Gaza every single day. For more than 10 days now, we have seen it kill entire families, bombing shelters, schools, hospitals, residential buildings and convoys. We have heard it tell people to head to southern Gaza and then seen it bomb the south. Members have heard and seen Israel telling people that they had a choice between forced displacement and death and then subjecting them to both. It is beyond belief that some still speak of the right to self-defence of an occupying Power that has made it clear that it is seeking blind vengeance and the forced transfer and annihilation of our people.”
2023-10-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9443 (2023) · source
“I ask the members of the Council to think of their credibility the day after, and to think of the deepening divide between the West and the Arab and Muslim world, between North and South and between communities. Our conflict is a political one, not a religious one. That is what makes it solvable. However, given its regional and international significance, it has an impact on coexistence and peace across the world. If we are to avoid a regional or international spillover, the massacres must stop. The work should start there and start now. We are grateful for the efforts of all who are mobilizing to stop the carnage, allow humanitarian access and put an end to the forced transfer. We will continue working with them. Every minute counts, and the Palestinians in Gaza have no time to lose.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“It is important to recognize the need to protect civilians and to respect international law; it is far more important to actually provide such protection and uphold the law. Nothing can justify the killing of civilians, said all members of the Council repeatedly, just a few days ago. Regardless of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people and their legitimate grievances; regardless of the pain and suffering they endured and continue to endure; regardless of the dispossession, occupation, colonization, blockade, killings and mass imprisonment, they cannot resort to violence to free their land or protect their people. By the same logic, then, nothing can justify the killing of Palestinian civilians. Discrimination and double standards are not only unjust; they undermine the rule of international law everywhere.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“The Council has the staggering numbers of those who have been killed. I wish members could take a look at the lives of those people and how they persisted with courage and creativity despite monumental hardships, including a blockade and repeated assaults, only to see it taken away in an instant. Think of the pain of those who survive. Think about what the rest of their lives will look like, including for the more than 10,000 people thus far who have been wounded, if they survive this nightmare. In the next hour, Israel will kill 12 Palestinian civilians, including five children. And then again in the next hour and the next and the next, until the Council decides to act.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“They said they would cut water, electricity, fuel and food for millions of Palestinians — and they did so, in an inhumane and unlawful collective punishment, as bombs destroyed every remaining aspect of life in the Gaza Strip. Three things must be done now — anything else would be legally, morally and politically unacceptable. First, the assault on our people must stop, now. Secondly, immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access must be allowed throughout the Gaza Strip, now. Thirdly, the forced transfer of our people must be stopped, now. Civilians should be protected wherever they are. Israel has no right to force them to choose between forced displacement or death, or to subject them to both. Nowhere is safe in Gaza. Families embrace one another every night, not knowing whether it is for the last time.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“We stood in the midst of the storm and stated that no civilians should be killed, and that international law must be upheld. At the same time, Israeli officials were speaking of mighty vengeance. Do Palestinians — including the 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, whose lives are being shattered once again as we speak — not have much to avenge? That logic will destroy us all. It should not be tolerated. It is not enough for the Council to state that it disagrees with it; the Council needs to actually stop it. Israeli officials said, justifying their assault on our people in Gaza, that they were fighting “human animals”. What would have been the reaction if any Palestinian official had done the same?”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“As I told the Council months ago, “[r]egardless of how difficult it seems today for anyone to step in and take bold action, trust us when we say that the price of inaction is infinitely higher”. (S/PV.9309, p.6) We are at that moment. Taking those decisions then would have saved many lives now. Further delays will only condemn more people to certain death. What is worthy of the Council’s unconditional support? It is the rule of international law and human rights, justice and peace, so that no Palestinians and no Israelis are killed anymore — I repeat, so no Palestinians and no Israelis are killed anymore; so that our people can finally live in freedom and dignity in their ancestral land; and so that two States, Palestine and Israel, can live side by side in peace and security in line with Council resolutions and international law.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“We are asked to show restraint. And we are told that violence is not the answer, even as Israel continues colonizing and annexing our land and maiming and killing our people. Why, then, when Israelis are killed, would anyone condone the unhinged violence being unleashed against our people? Double standards. Why would the Council be unable to call for a ceasefire now, to stop the assault and the massacres? Stopping the killing and the destruction is indispensable. The humanitarian and health systems in Gaza have collapsed. Over 1 million people have been displaced. People cannot even bury their loved ones and mourn them. Lifting the siege and ensuring immediate and unhindered humanitarian access are equally urgent to save lives.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source