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

“Nothing in natural law or international law allows for the targeting of civilians and such indiscriminate, barbaric attacks against them. Israel has killed, as of now, 3,000 Palestinians, overwhelmingly civilians. More than half of them are women and children. More than 1,000 Palestinian children have been killed so far in the present assault. Israel has killed entire families, several generations at a time. As of this moment, 47 families totalling 500 people have been massacred. There may be even more under the rubble, with 1,000 people unaccounted for. They are most likely under the rubble. How does one justify that? One cannot. Every day, Palestinians are killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers. That has been the case for years now, and yet we are always the ones being pressed to choose the peaceful path forward.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“Prove them wrong; restore hope in collective action. The Council now has important decisions to make — decisions that will determine what the coming days will look like for the Palestinian people, for the region and for the entire world. We implore the Council to be guided by the rule of international law, with no exception or exceptionalism allowed. Do not send the signal that Palestinian lives do not matter. Do not dare say that Israel is not responsible for the bombs it is dropping on their heads. Do not justify the killings. Do not blame the victim — do not do that. What is happening in Gaza is not a military operation, it is a full-scale assault against our people. It is massacres against innocent civilians.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“For 10 days, the Security Council has been watching Israel assault more than 2 million Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. People are being killed, injured, displaced and terrorized. Israel has not spared a single Palestinian family in Gaza. No one should forget that these are human lives, that Palestinian lives matter too, and no one should entertain the illusion that killing more Palestinians will ever make Israelis more secure. Israel has besieged the Gaza Strip for 17 years, has launched repeated aggressions against our people there. Did it make it more secure? How can it convince anyone that killing more innocent Palestinians, children, women, men, old and young, is the answer? I have come to the Council many times with that message. The Palestinian people no longer believe help is on the way.”
2023-10-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9439 (2023) · source
“Every life is sacred, but the life of a child holds special meaning, as it is the most vulnerable, with promises yet to be fulfilled. Protect our children, as they are the primary target of the warmongers. They always come for the next generation. The peacemakers should do the same. War and peace start there. Hope and despair start there as well. The Palestinian people will not die in silence or in vain. They will not surrender. They will not yield. They will continue their struggle for freedom, while always striving for peace. They no longer believe that help is on the way. Prove them wrong. Restore hope in collective action. We need to show that the peacemakers will not accept defeat, because they are well aware of the alternative to peace. In the coming weeks and months, we will all have important decisions to make.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“Fares Abu Samra was 14 years old when he was killed a few hours ago by the Israeli occupying forces who shot him in the head during an Israeli military incursion into Qalqilya at dawn. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the year, including 37 children. Our children are, from the moment they are born, confronted with forcible displacement, arbitrary arrests, blockades, walls, destroyed homes and schools, killing and maiming. Despite those evils, our nation has found a way to ensure that they are educated in order to find, with the international community’s support, ways for them to express their talents and creativity and to help them grow with some semblance of childhood and some sense of hope. But if we fail to protect their lives, all that vanishes with a bullet.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“A very large number of countries — approximately 50 countries — have submitted such statements, which, as far as I know, is the largest number that the Court has ever received. If we are to be guided by the rule of international law and the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, then we have an obligation to act, to hold Israel accountable and to advance just and lasting peace. Wherever we do not defend those principles, the warmongers prevail. And they promise us just that — war. Jenin is a case in point. Those who want peace need to stand up to them. They need to act. They need to act now, boldly and decisively. The Charter starts with the words “[w]e the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Save this Palestinian generation from the scourge of war.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“Israel is pursuing a settler State in our territory and some countries continue to delay recognition of the State of Palestine and its membership in the United Nations — a decision they should make with no further delay. The investigations of the International Criminal Court need to start yielding results, as a matter of justice for the victims and deterrence for the perpetrators. The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice will give guidance to the United Nations and all States on their legal obligations, and I take this opportunity to thank all States and regional organizations that have submitted written statements in support of the Court’s jurisdiction and role.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“They do it because no one will hold them accountable, and no one is providing the Palestinian people with the international protection they deserve. We have resolutions that address all those issues with clear determination but with no implementation. We need an action plan, with the necessary resources and the will to implement it. We cannot allow the warmongers to have momentum and the peacemakers to have regrets. We need to generate momentum against occupation and for peace. We need a forum in which we can discuss and take concrete steps to roll back and end the settler-colonial occupation and advance just and lasting peace.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“We need to translate United Nations resolutions into an action plan, with measures to be taken by every peace-loving State on Earth to dissuade Israel from entrenching its occupation instead of ending it. Israel has effectively annexed large parts of the Palestinian territory and restricted Palestinians into disconnected enclaves, with confinement for Palestinians and expansion for Israeli settlements. It wants maximum Palestinian land with minimum Palestinians. If it can build Israeli settlements and destroy Palestinian homes without consequences, it will continue to do so. Settlers are armed. They walk into our villages, torch our homes, burn our crops and wreak havoc in our streets because they can.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“There are more than 700,000 Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, so let us start by calling things by their name. The Israeli occupation is a settler-colonial occupation. The international community as a whole has called for ending that occupation. The only way to do that is by addressing its settler-colonial nature. Israel gives incentives to settlers. The world needs to ensure there are disincentives for becoming a settler, opening a business in a settlement, going to university in a settlement, farming in a settlement or opening a bank branch in a settlement. We have one task — one task that can determine if we head towards peace or fall into further conflict.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“At the outset, allow me to congratulate you, Madam President, on your country’s assumption of the presidency of the Council, and to thank Mr. Khaled Khiari for his briefing. Why is it that the warmongers are full of certainty and the peacemakers are full of doubt? Why are the warmongers implementing their decisive plan while we are unable to implement United Nations resolutions? We know exactly where their decisive plan, or to be more accurate their destructive plan, leads. And we know that our collective vision is the only viable path to freedom and peace. The Israeli Government is a Government of the settlers, by the settlers and for the settlers. The settler Ben-Gvir has once again stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque/ Al-Haram Al-Sharif in yet another provocation and breach of the historical status quo.”
2023-07-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9387 (2023) · source
“Why is it that now, 56 years since the start of the Israeli occupation and with all the Israeli violations committed against Palestinian children in the past 25 years, despite being a standing item on the Security Council’s agenda, Israel, the occupying Power, has never been listed for its violations against Palestinian children? As long as Israel is not listed for its violations against Palestinian children, its commitment will not be serious; its violations will continue, and the credibility of the United Nations children and armed conflict mandate will be undermined. That is to the grave detriment of the Palestinian children who are in need of the Council’s protection and to the detriment of our international system, which continues to be undermined by this ongoing failure to uphold international law equally in all circumstances.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“Look at the destruction there, the demolitions across the West Bank, the forced displacement and expulsion of families, the destruction of schools, forcible transfers, settlement growth, the racist and hate speech used by Israeli officials, the provocation and incitement and the settler violence, as witnessed in Turmus Ayya and in Huwwara. Look at the toll of those violations on Palestinian children. It is very regrettable that the current Israeli settler Government was given another chance, another free pass, to evade accountability and more time to kill, persecute and oppress. Listing and delisting parties is a method created by the Security Council because the Council Members saw it as an effective method to deter, protect and hold perpetrators accountable, and it has proven an effective method for the past 25 years.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“It is evident that Israeli violations against Palestinian civilians, including children, are increasing in both intensity and occurrence. Look at what happened in May in the besieged Gaza Strip, where Israel’s air strikes killed four children asleep in their beds. Look at what is happening in Jenin refugee camp, where four children were killed by Israel’s brutal assault and many others seriously wounded, and where more than 3,000 Palestinians have been forced to flee for safety from the lethal Israeli onslaught.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“It undermines the universality of the children and armed conflict mandate and the credibility of the United Nations list worldwide. Israel’s so-called commitments, shared with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General during her most recent visit to the region, are simply empty words. Their actions, every single day, prove that. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2006, with Israel killing more than 40 Palestinian children. Since the start of 2023, more than 30 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel, and the United Nations has warned that if this pace continues, 2023 is going to be even more deadly for Palestinians than 2022.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“Israel’s reputation apparently matters more than the lives of the Palestinian children and the traumatic pain of their bereaved families. Let us be clear and honest about the facts — the reason Israel was not listed is not because somehow its violations against Palestinian children have decreased or, suddenly, Israel decided to respect its obligations under international law. Previous Israeli Governments did not do that, and we do not expect the most extremist Israeli Government, with fascist elements in it, to do it now. Not listing Israel is a failure to uphold the children and armed conflict mandate. It is an abandonment of Palestinian children. It is depriving the Palestinian people of the international protection they are entitled to.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“What is the Council waiting for to implement its resolutions and offer the Palestinian people international protection? When will it activate the mechanisms it has established to protect civilians? When will it pursue accountability measures that are known to deter such crimes, which endanger the lives of civilians, including those of children, the most vulnerable? It is shocking to us that while we are calling on the international community, including the United Nations, to provide international protection for the Palestinian civilian population — including children, of course — we see that the decision has been made to place that protection somewhere else, to protect Israel and shield it from any accountability and responsibility.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“The decision not to list Israel is very offensive, and the claim that Israel was not listed because it supposedly decreased its air strikes — while ignoring the larger number of children killed by Israel in 2022 and the rising numbers of child casualties and violations of children’s rights by Israel in 2023 — is even more offensive. Only days after the release of the report, Israel launched 10 air strikes on the Jenin refugee camp, a densely populated civilian area, wantonly and willingly endangering human lives, including those of children. Not only has Israel failed to uphold its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the Palestinian civilian population, but it targets them deliberately and systematically, killing, maiming and terrorizing.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“According to the report, Palestinian children were killed and maimed by both Israeli air strikes and live ammunition, abducted by Israeli settlers, illegally denied access to medical and humanitarian assistance by the Israeli authorities and subjected to attempts to recruit them and use them as human shields by Israeli occupying forces. All of those are triggers for listing, yet Israel was not added to any of the report’s lists. The conclusion of the report does not match the data it verifies. It actually contradicts it.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for convening this important and timely debate on children and armed conflict. We have once again received the report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2023/363) with deep disappointment at the suffering of children around the world and at the dismissiveness of the suffering of our children. Once again the lives of Palestinian children seem not to matter, and the violators of their rights are held to standards that are different from the universal criteria set forth in the children and armed conflict mandate. The Secretary- General’s report mentioned that the State of Palestine was among the areas in which the highest number of violations against children were verified in 2022.”
2023-07-05 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9366Resumption1 (2023) · source
“These are needed as a prelude to action, not as a substitute for it. We stand ready to do our part as Palestinians for as long as we humanly can. But time is running out. Regardless of how hard taking the necessary decisions may seem now, the consequences of not taking them are infinitely greater.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“For the global South, and for many people across the world, Palestine is an indicator of how healthy or how ill the international law-based order is. Let me repeat: Palestine is an indicator of how healthy or how ill the international law-based order is. They see in our fate the proof of double standards and injustice, of the fact that this system is designed to work for some and not for others. It creates grievances far beyond Palestine. It entrenches mistrust and misunderstandings. We should be standing shoulder to shoulder together, finding ways to provide protection, pursue accountability and achieve justice, so that freedom and peace can prevail. Is there anywhere where these discussions are taking place? The stakes are too high to just go through the motions of meeting and stating and condemning. We repeat ourselves a great deal.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Do Council members want to see thousands of Palestinian women and children — civilians — slaughtered at the hands of terrorist settlers under the protection of the Israeli authorities before they wake up? Is it not the Council’s responsibility to prevent these massacres from taking place before they take place? When will Council members wake up? The Israel Government and the settlers are betting that there is nothing they could do that would change the equation and lead to accountability. They are betting that Council members will continue not to act. And if they are right — and they have yet to be proven wrong — if they are right, God help us all, because what we have seen is not the last word; what we will see will be even worse.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“That is the job of all diplomats and of all people at this table. I have spent my life navigating these realities, and yet everything about this situation feels wrong. Political realism should dictate action not inaction. The world has invested so much in peace but has never taken the necessary decisions to protect its investment from the colonization that deprived us and the world from the benefits of this investment. Is there anything that this Israeli Government or Israeli settlers would do that would change the equation and bring about accountability? Do Council members want the Government or the settlers to do more before they wake up and do something based on what they believe and what they have decided?”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“We are grateful to the international community that this year it acknowledged the Nakba and called for a commemoration at the highest level in the General Assembly (General Assembly resolution 77/23). The commemoration happened and acknowledged the Nakba of the Palestinian people, which was a giant step in the direction of reconciliation. How come the entire world cannot stand up to the settlers and their sponsors? If every Council member says that settlements are illegal and that they should stop — and each Council member does — why are we not succeeding in stopping this evil behaviour — the theft of our land and the threats to the lives of our people — from continuing? How come the entire world cannot stand up to the settlers and their sponsors? I understand political, geopolitical and diplomatic realities. That is my job.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“They believe in the sanctity of life. They believe in just peace, not unjust wars. Some have experienced first- hand the evils of colonialism. All have fought for their independence. Many consider that their tenure in the Security Council must be to preserve and consolidate the international law-based order. They all support the two-State solution, based on the 1967 borders; they all support an independent Palestine living side by side with Israel. They all condemn settlements. They all condemn violence and terrorism against innocent civilians. How, then, is what is happening in Palestine is possible? If we all stand for and honour these lofty principles, why is what is happening in Palestine happening in Palestine? How come it has been happening for so long? It has been 75 years since the Nakba. The Nakba is what happened to us.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“And, by the way, there is another victim: the credibility and authority of the list and of this international law-based order. What message is being sent to the Palestinian people? I ask Council members to please think hard: what message is being sent to the Palestinian people? No one wins if despair prevails. Let me repeat: no one wins if despair prevails. Despair will not lead to surrender; it will lead to more anger. The Palestinian people are faced with an existential threat, and every day they become increasingly convinced that there is no help on the way. I ask the mighty Security Council and the mighty international community to show them that help is on the way. Around this table we have brothers, sisters, friends and allies. We have people who believe in what we believe. They believe in the rule of international law.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Not listing Israel, given the actions of Israeli occupation forces and settlers against Palestinian children, gives them licence to continue killing and maiming our children, which should have led to the country being listed in the recent report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict (S/2023/363), but the Secretary-General chose not list Israel in that report. We were told to be patient, that these are complicated processes, that they take time, that there are stages and that violators need to be given every chance before listing them, as an incentive to correct course. And then we saw other situations where things were much simpler and happened much faster — where a different logic is at play. Our people have fallen victim once again to these double standards.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Can it be that the ICC is the only institution not aware of the crimes under way and of the criminals committing them, when these perpetrators are confessing their crimes every day, committing them in broad daylight, legislating them, adopting budgets for their commission, spelling them out in Government guidelines and plans, and boasting about them? Why is it that accountability must be immediately delivered to some and can be obstructed forever for others, like us?”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Why does the Council not then implement it in order to provide us with protection until the end of the occupation, when we will have independence and freedom in our homeland. We sought accountability. Does not everyone here recognize it as the best way to prevent the recurrence of crimes? Are not Palestinian victims entitled to justice? Are they less human or less worthy? Are their lives less relevant? We have left no stone unturned, pushing for commissions of inquiry, trying to activate universal jurisdiction, joining the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“I often repeat myself by telling the Council that it adopted resolution 904 (1994) when the massacre in Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi took place in 1994. Why does the Council not implement that resolution and all other resolution? Who is preventing the Council from doing so? Resolution 904 (1994) stipulates that settlers should be disarmed, not given more weapons, and certainly not be allowed to build new militias of 25,000 settlers to make up yet another force attacking our people. That resolution also stipulates a temporary international presence to protect our people from those who are supposed to protect us in accordance with international humanitarian law. When those who are supposed to protect us, kill us, what are we supposed to do? We come to the Security Council; it adopts a resolution.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“What would my colleagues here today do if they were a Palestinian, if their life was made of blockades and walls, if every day could be their last, killed in the street or their homes, if settlers or soldiers could invade their homes and harm their children, if they were deprived of their land and freedom and if their human dignity was under daily assault? What would they do if they faced that situation on a daily basis? We asked for protection, a protection our people deserve, a protection they are entitled to. Is protection on the way? The Council adopted resolutions; the Secretary- General produced reports. Is there any concrete idea being worked on that would provide some level of protection for our people and our children? Anything?”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“But what does one usually do in the face of terrorism? One arrests and prosecutes. Will that be done? One blocks accounts and drains financial means. Will that be done? One prevents terrorists from travelling. Will that be done? One holds accountable those who give terrorists the means to perpetrate their attacks. Will that be done? The Israeli Government simplified the process for settlements approval and gave the keys to Smotrich so that Netanyahu can pretend to be the hostage of the most extremist elements in his Government, while his rhetoric and his policies are what got them to power in the first place. Israel approved more than 5,000 settlement units just yesterday. I think that even the Israeli Government is stunned by how much it can get away with and, therefore, just keeps crossing every red line, every day.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“The settlers knows that their actions are condemned worldwide — and that has been demonstrated once again today — that their image is tarnished, but as long as they can displace Palestinians and transfer more settlers, they will continue. The only will facing them is the will of the Palestinian people. But they have the military, financial and political advantage. Who cares about the moral ground and international law if no resources are deployed to uphold them? The settlers have at their disposal all the resources of the Israeli State. So they continue doing all they can to grab land — they steal, they terrorize, they destroy, they burn and they kill. The heads of Israeli military services themselves could not but speak of the settlers’ terrorism. But who will rein it in? The Council condemned this terrorism — as it should.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“For years, we have been warning of what is unfolding before our very eyes, of the cost of Israeli impunity with regard to the Palestinian people and peace. This Israeli Government is bringing to its ultimate conclusion a plan decades in the making — a State for the settlers in place of the Palestinian State. Israel has always had a colonial settlers’ agenda, but now the settlers themselves control Israel and the agenda. The settlers believe that this is their chance to get it over with. They look around, they hear a lot of noise, but see no real resistance except the one the Palestinians themselves are mounting through their resilience and steadfastness in keeping their ancestral land.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Allow me to congratulate you, Madam President, and the brotherly nation of the United Arab Emirates on assuming the presidency of the Council and for your efforts to mobilize the Council to address, as it is its responsibility, the situation in Palestine, notably the occupation and colonization of our land in breach of international law and the Council’s resolutions. I thank Mr. Tor Wennesland for his briefing, and I thank Mr. James Zogby for being with us in this important meeting of the Security Council and for his powerful statement. Mr. Zogby has been a good friend of mine for many years. I am delighted to see him in our meeting and to see him share with the Council his insights and thoughts.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“Yet, they continue to behave in that manner. That is why I will not dignify those assertions, and I think that the example speaks for itself. These are the types of peacemakers that the Council is invited to work with — filled with hatred, rejection of the other, rejection of any notion of peace, accusing the victims of being the victimizers. This is the theatre of the absurd. Those are not the peacemakers that we are extending our hand to. Let me now go back to the text of my speech.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“I accept your apology, Madam President. I will not dignify with a response the customary barrage of lies and distortion in complete contradiction to international law, the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council and General Assembly. We must reject that behaviour. To those who repeat it and — judging from the representative’s body language — their expression of outrage and resentment, thinking that the continuation of that behaviour will change the positions of the members of the Council and the international community is an exercise in futility. Nevertheless, stubborn fascist enemies of peace will not learn from the fact that the Council is not responding in any positive way to this failed attempt over the meetings that we have so often.”
2023-06-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9361 (2023) · source
“It is the responsibility of the Council — and also of every State Member of the United Nations — to actively pursue the implementation of those resolutions, first and foremost resolution 2334 (2016). The trends identified and condemned in that resolution have continued unabated. They must be stopped and reversed. The alternative is more pain, more blood and more hate. No one can afford that. There are many who say that what it would take to achieve justice and peace is just too much to ask. We call on them to think about what failing to do so would entail. The price is infinitely higher — it is whatever political capital is needed to uphold international law and the resolutions of the United Nations in order to advance a just and lasting solution. Freedom is worth it. Peace is worth it.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“We came to say that an apartheid had emerged instead of peace, and unfortunately the subsequent events confirmed our statements every time. I tell Council members today that every effort must be mobilized to stop annexation, the violence against our people and all other provocations. We should all fear the fire that we cannot extinguish. We all have a duty not to wait, but to act now with all means at our disposal in order to prevent a fire that will devour everything it encounters. Seven years ago, the Council adopted resolution 2334 (2016). If it had been implemented, we would have achieved peace. The Council, guided by the Charter of the United Nations, has adopted resolutions grounded in international law.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“It cannot tolerate exclusiveness or exclusion, monopoly or intolerance. Its vocation is to serve as a model for humankind and as a beacon of freedom, justice and peaceful coexistence. Let us live up to that vocation. I came to the Council a few months ago (see S/PV.9174) with a warning about where we believed things were heading on the ground. We came again and again, asking for protection for our people, long before what happened in Huwwara and what happened in Jenin, Nablus and Jericho. We came asking for international engagement, saying that on the ground the two-State solution is becoming an illusion and annexation is the only reality. We came with a warning about what that would mean, not only for our people but for all peoples.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“We welcome it with families and communities holding funerals and with thousands of Palestinian prisoners entering a hunger strike to ensure their most basic rights and respect for their human dignity. Some worshippers turn to Haram Al-Sharif in their tens of thousands — and on Fridays in their hundreds of thousands — while others turn to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre around Easter time. They are unsure if they will be able to access those holy sites and pray in peace there, free from assault and provocations. Our people — the Palestinian people — need the Council’s solidarity and support to preserve them from more agony and loss. As we approach the religious holidays for the three monotheistic religions, we are reminded of what makes that land holy. Its story, its significance and its identity lies in its diversity.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“We are being unreasonably reasonable in order to try and prevent the bloodshed and to try and find a way back towards a different horizon — one where hope is still possible. That is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of wisdom that has been acquired at great cost. In that connection, we express our appreciation to all those regional and international actors making efforts to shape such a horizon. Again, our people exist, and there is no force on Earth that will deny us our existence and our connection to our beloved homeland of Palestine. They deserve freedom. They have waited and suffered long enough. It is time to move forward, to live and let live, to end the occupation, and to all live in freedom and peace and security. The holy month of Ramadan is upon us, as is Easter.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“How does one justify colonizing their land, demolishing their homes and forcibly displacing families and communities? How does one justify burning their villages and humiliating their elders and their children? One has to dehumanize them in order to justify such acts. Not all Israeli officials go as far as denying our existence. Some are content with denying our rights. Some are content with denying our humanity. Some are content with denying our connection to the land that we love. Again, it took us decades to move from reciprocal rejection to mutual recognition. Everything we have accomplished, collectively, is being undone and destroyed before our very eyes. We must respond collectively. The Palestinian side has decided to leave no stone unturned to try and prevent things from going down a path that we all know only too well.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“The statement by the Israeli Minister was not about the past — which would have been grave enough — but about a vision for the future, which is infinitely more dangerous. He denies our existence in order to justify what is to come. That statement was not made in a vacuum. It was not part of a theoretical exercise. It was made as the unlawful annexation is more clearly under way than ever. It was made as more Palestinians are being killed every day. Last year was the deadliest year in the West Bank in more than 15 years, and yet somehow the past three months were even worse. How does one justify killing Palestinians in the streets? How does one justify keeping 2 million of them under an inhumane blockade for more than 15 years?”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“We have thrived and suffered; we have lived and died; and we have witnessed joy and heartaches. We have accumulated personal memories and endured collective tragedies. We were, we are and we will be the Palestinian people. We have endured dispossession, displacement, discrimination and the denial of our most fundamental rights and our very existence, but we have not and we will not disappear. It took a lot of bloodshed and suffering for us and for the Israelis to move from reciprocal rejection to mutual recognition. It took decades. It took effort and commitment. It took sacrifice and courage. We thought we had charted a new path — and yet, 75 years after the Nakba, an Israeli Minister is yet again denying our very existence.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“Allow me, at the outset, to commend the brotherly nation of Mozambique for its able leadership of the Security Council and for holding this important meeting. Allow me also to stress that the report of the Secretary-General presented by Special Coordinator Wennesland demonstrates once again persistent breaches of the Charter of the United Nations and of Council resolutions, notably in relation to the unlawful acquisition of Palestinian territory by force through settlements and their associated regime and its continued denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to life. We, the Palestinian people, do exist. We, the Palestinian people have existed on that land for a long period of time. We, the Palestinian people, will continue existing on that land.”
2023-03-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9290 (2023) · source
“Nusseibeh for putting forward the presidential statement and for all their efforts towards its adoption, and I thank Council members for their engagement and support. The Council has thereby once again confirmed its long-standing position in no uncertain terms. That message has to be advanced and translated into a time-bound action plan, a concerted effort by the United Nations and its Member States to set us on a different path — one that leads to freedom, justice and peace. Every action we take now matters. Every word we utter matters. Every decision we adopt matters. We do not have the luxury of fatalism. The Palestinian people deserve freedom and an end to the historic injustice of the Nakba they endured 70 years ago and that is still ongoing today. All peoples in our region and beyond deserve to live in peace.”
2023-02-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9263 (2023) · source
“They are a crown for our heads in their symbolization of our pride and dignity. (spoke in English) The international mobilization we have witnessed in the past few days must be sustained and amplified. Today the Council expressed its clear opposition to those policies yet again, in a united, unequivocal manner, in the first presidential statement it has adopted on Palestine in almost a decade. And while we condemn in the strongest terms the illegal unilateral settlement policies and practices, many countries, including many Council members, have expressed condemnation of those illegal acts as well. I want to take this opportunity to thank the United Arab Emirates and my sister Mrs.”
2023-02-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9263 (2023) · source
“The international plan should start with Jerusalem, where Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies find their ultimate expression; where Israel’s annexation, announced 43 years ago, continues to be met with defiance by the Palestinian people as a whole, and by Jerusalemites in particular; where Israel hopes, through collective punishment and political and geographical suffocation, to subdue our people, to no avail. In that connection, I would like to say a few words in Arabic. (spoke in Arabic) They will not succeed in breaking the will of our great Palestinian people, in particular in Al-Quds Al-Sharif. Those are our heroic people, who have been steadfast in Al-Quds Al-Sharif today and always. From this rostrum, I salute them warmly and shake their hands. They are keeping their heads and ours high.”
2023-02-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9263 (2023) · source