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

“One would think that by now Israel would have understood that there is no power on Earth — I repeat, no power on Earth — that can accomplish such a feat, regardless of how many crimes it is ready to commit. Every day, Israel kills Palestinians, oppresses Palestinians and displaces Palestinians. Yet somehow it is always outraged when they react, when we react. It then goes on to say that its violent, repressive and cruel actions were justified by their reactions. But history has taught us that regardless of their respective actions, there can be no equating a colonial Power and a colonized people, the occupier and the occupied, the oppressor and the oppressed. There is nothing that justifies colonialism and apartheid, nothing that justifies oppressing an entire nation and depriving it of its right to self-determination.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Israel is not only attacking a Muslim or a Christian holy site, in total disregard for the feelings not only of Palestinian Muslims and Christians but of Muslims and Christians all over the world. It is also targeting the Palestinian identity of the city. That is its true enemy. Israel proclaims the city its eternal and indivisible capital, but Palestinians in the city, and their faith, traditions and existence, are trampled on and viewed and treated as a constant challenge to that proclamation. Israel is the occupier. It feels and acts as such in East Jerusalem. It erects military checkpoints, conducts mass arrests, and forcibly displaces the sons and daughters of this land. It continues its attempt to uproot our nation from its ancestral land.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“But does not the fact that this situation occurs every year beg one simple question? Why are the occupation forces there in the first place? That is what Israel hopes people will forget — the fact that East Jerusalem is occupied and unlawfully annexed, in breach of the Charter of the United Nations. Israel has no rightful claim or sovereignty over any part of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. It has no authority over Al-Haram Al-Sharif, where the historic and legal status quo must be upheld and the authority of the Islamic Waqf and the custodianship of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan respected. We should make no mistake.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“That is no surprise, as Israel accuses even our human rights and humanitarian non-governmental organizations and our human rights defenders and peaceful civilian protesters of terrorism. The distortions are endless, offensive and dangerous. Jewish extremists and settlers are not just visitors, as Israel claims. They are in fact pursuing an agenda when they enter Al-Haram Al-Sharif. They are seeking a takeover. How do we know that? We just listen to them. They do not hide their intentions. They proclaim them. When Israeli forces allow them to enter the site and provide them with protection and support, they do it knowingly. Pretending not to understand the outrage provoked by such assaults on Al-Haram Al-Sharif, when each time it triggers the same reaction, is outrageous.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Israeli officials are clearly the only people who believe that such actions are anything but a flagrant violation of the historic status quo. When its illegal and violent actions were condemned, Israel resorted to its favourite justification — security. It is the one-size-fits- all justification — security to justify illegal occupation; security to justify forcible displacement; security to justify an inhumane blockade; security to justify killing children on their way to school; security to justify bombing entire neighbourhoods; security to justify attacking our people, our land and our holy sites. And as if that were not enough to dissuade countries from criticizing Israel, they labelled our worshippers terrorists.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“And at its heart lies Jerusalem, Al-Quds, where every street and stone is testimony to the unique history to which it stands witness. Each year thousands of Orthodox Christians flock to the Holy Sepulchre to witness the holy fire, the symbol of the resurrection of Christ. Israel has decided to disrupt that millennia-old religious tradition, severely restricting the number of believers allowed to come to the site. And yet Israel claims that it is upholding the historic status quo. A few days ago, the Israeli occupying force stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque Al-Haram Al-Sharif yet again, shooting at worshippers and desecrating the mosque with military boots and violence. Some 200 Palestinians were wounded, among them women and children, and more than 400 people arrested. And yet Israel claims it is upholding the historic status quo.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“I congratulate you, Madam President, on your country’s stewardship of the presidency of the Security Council for this month. I thank Mr. Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for his briefing and for his efforts at this critical juncture. I would also like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to all the countries of our region and beyond, as well as to the Secretary-General, for rising in defence of the historic and legal status quo in Jerusalem. In these sacred weeks, in the holiest of lands, we are reminded of its identity. It is a land of diversity and pluralism, not exclusion and exclusiveness. Everything in its DNA rejects monopoly and discrimination. It is barely visible on the map of the world, but its significance reaches every corner of our globe.”
2022-04-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9021 (2022) · source
“Israel was an ally of the apartheid regime in South Africa. That is not surprising given that they shared the same vision and the same policies. Our people are resilient, and they will carry on with their legitimate struggle for freedom and dignity, regardless of what the rest of the world does. But the reality is that we need international mobilization. Peoples around the world are standing by our side. All present here condemned the unlawful policies and actions of Israel. But condemnations alone will never suffice to deter Israel. It is time to translate words into action, action that provides protection to all our long-suffering people, action to end this illegal occupation, action to end apartheid.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“They could not fit the streets of Jerusalem or Al-Khalil, the Gaza Strip, the Jordan Valley or the villages under Israeli settlers’ constant attacks and terror. They could not fit the millions of Palestine refugees denied the right to enter their own land. They could not fit Palestinians of the village of Al-Araqib, in the Negev, demolished 197 times by Israel and rebuilt 198 times by Palestinians. Al-Araqib, along with Beita, Bil’in, Ni’lin, Khan Al-Ahmar, Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan, Al-Shuja’iya, Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahia, Zeitoun, Al-Khader, Nablus, Jenin and every single refugee camp show that apartheid is real. They also show that our people will not surrender to it. Everyone was against apartheid in South Africa once it had been defeated. But history remembers well those who actually fought against it.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“But it is apartheid. If Israel could challenge the facts or the law, it would not resort to such ruthless smear campaigns. Irrational arguments that are neither law-abiding nor human rights-respecting are its offence of choice. The Council may not be ready to use the word “apartheid”, but apartheid is and has been our reality for a while now. Israel may be outraged by the word “apartheid”, but everyone else should be outraged by the policy. One month ago, the Israeli representative brought a stone into this Chamber to help members visualize the violence by Palestinians that Israelis are confronted with (see S/PV.8950). I am terribly sorry, but the doors of this Chamber could not fit Israeli F-16 planes, tanks, warships, military jeeps, drones, bombs and missiles or the rest of their mighty military arsenal.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Israel has proclaimed that actions that ought to be condemned under international law are acceptable if committed by Israel, loudly declaring that anything else would be purely anti-Semitic. The Security Council condemning settlements is anti-Semitic. The General Assembly calling for the realization of Palestinian rights and the achievement of a just and lasting peace on the basis of international law is anti-Semitic. The Human Rights Council calling for a halt to human rights violations is anti-Semitic. The International Court of Justice determining the illegality of the wall and settlements and calling for their dismantlement is anti-Semitic. The International Criminal Court opening an investigation into war crimes is anti-Semitic. Amnesty International issuing a fact-based, evidence-based, law-based report is anti-Semitic.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“We all know why that is: apartheid. Israeli laws and courts have guaranteed impunity to Israeli settlers and occupation forces while criminalizing the very presence of Palestinians on their land and their legitimate struggle for freedom. That is persecution and apartheid. Israel labels Palestinian human rights defenders and civil society organizations as terrorists, while Israeli leaders, who incite State and settler terrorism or themselves commit terrorist acts, sit within the Israeli Knesset and Government. Israel has arrested nearly 1 million Palestinians during its occupation, not for what they have done but for who they are. Yet not a single Israeli has been condemned for all the crimes committed against our people. The occupying Power is always innocent ,and the people under its occupation are always guilty.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Israel considers that its right to security justifies all of its crimes, yet it denies the right of the Palestinian people to security, depriving them of the most elementary form of protection and any right to defend themselves. Israel kills and maims Palestinians — including children, women, the elderly and people with disabilities, in the streets, in their schools and in their homes — and openly claims that it does not have to answer for its actions. Why? Once again, apartheid. Israel says that it is barbaric to withhold bodies and deprive loved ones of their ability to offer their deceased a dignified burial. However, by that it refers only to the withholding of the bodies of Israeli Jews — because it sees no problem in withholding hundreds of Palestinian bodies to this very day, some for over three decades.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“In occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinians can build only within 13 per cent of the city, most of which has already been built up. They have to watch as their houses are demolished while settlements grow everywhere around them, reaching their doorsteps. In the so-called Area C of the occupied West Bank, Palestinians are confined to 1 per cent of the land, while two thirds of that area, including the Jordan Valley and its resources, are confiscated and dedicated to Israeli settlements. Israel establishes so-called national parks as a pretext to expropriate our land while uprooting trees that are thousands of years old. All of that is apartheid. In the Gaza Strip, 2 million Palestinians have endured a 15-year-long blockade and one aggression after another, targeting all and sparing no one.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“Israel proclaims the right to self-determination for Jews everywhere in the land, yet denies the Palestinian people their right to self-determination anywhere in their ancestral land. Again, that is apartheid. Different laws apply to Israeli settlers and Palestinians under occupation, which explicitly privilege those who are illegally present on our land and discriminate against its lawful inhabitants. That is settler colonialism and apartheid. Israel’s zoning and planning policies ensure the confinement of Palestinians, when it does not forcibly displace them, to the areas where they already lived decades ago, as well as granting unlimited expansion to Israeli settlers. It is maximum Palestinian geography with minimum Palestinian demography. That is textbook apartheid.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“It is a war waged against one Palestinian generation after another; a war that Palestinians endure from the moment they are born, in every aspect of their lives, and even after they die. Israel proclaims that, if one is Jewish, one has a right of return that withstood the passage of thousands of years, yet is outraged that Palestinians still claim their right to return to the land and homes they were uprooted from 70 years ago. It does not see the irony in its outrage and denial of their right to return. Why is that? The answer is: apartheid. Israel states that Israeli Jews are entitled to reclaim and retrieve any property they owned prior to 1948. Meanwhile, it has passed laws to expropriate Palestinian properties and land — both the ones they owned then and the ones they live in now. That is apartheid.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for convening this important meeting and for the Russian Federation’s leadership of the Security Council for the month of February. I also thank Mr. Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, for his briefing on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. Speaking to a journalist about my decision to take the floor today, he responded: “What for? Your voice will be drowned by the drums of war”. But in my country the war is ongoing, even when the drums cannot be heard. It is a war that has been waged daily against our people for nearly 75 years now. It is a war of dispossession, displacement and the denial of rights.”
2022-02-23 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8973 (2022) · source
“They will continue reinventing their just struggle until they achieve their national, collective and individual rights. One way or the other, they will live in freedom and dignity in their homeland. If we believe that the way for that to happen is through the two-State solution based on 1967 borders, action can no longer be delayed. As the saying goes: “actions speak louder than words”.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“The only question worth asking is what incentives does Israel have to change its behaviour? What disincentives does it face if it persists with the same policies? Those who are leading these colonial policies are hoping to transform the international community into a bystander or a silent witness or, at worst, a critical commentator. But the international community is an actor and a decisive one at that, and it must act as such. It is important for the international community to signal as soon as possible that it is determined to ensure that we are on the right track and will not allow anyone to derail the process. If the Council cannot make determinations and policies related to the maintenance of international peace and security, then who is? The Palestinian people will not disappear.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“Thirty years ago, when the Madrid Peace Conference was held, it was not an expression of the will of the parties, but rather a reflection of the strong will of the international community that left the parties with no option but to show up. The Conference was not successful in itself, but it generated a dynamic that allowed peace efforts to reach new heights and to achieve a breakthrough. If anybody had assessed the chances of success when Yitzhak Shamir was Prime Minister of Israel, they would have thought that those efforts were doomed and therefore useless. The statements and political positions of Israeli Prime Ministers cannot be the decisive factor that determines whether peace efforts have a chance of success. They are not the only party that decides and guarantees success.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“We need the Security Council to accompany the steps it deemed necessary to reach the destination, with the enforcement of consequences for those who refuse to move forward on that path. Let us start by putting the brakes on illegal unilateral measures. Let us start by exploring every available avenue in order to provide the Palestinian people the protection to which they are entitled. Let us mobilize the goodwill and available resources around the globe by convening an international conference under the auspices of the Quartet that would involve the actors who can make a contribution to peace. Let us not think that momentum appears by magic; it is generated and sustained by our collective action.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“But the alternative is so dire that the Council will eventually need to intervene, and by then it will be much more costly and much more difficult. The Security Council has determined clearly the way forward. It has created a mechanism to be an expression of its will — the Quartet. Who is better placed to have their hands on the steering wheel? We need a collective approach that relies on the positions already adopted by the Council, including resolution 2334 (2016), which was mentioned by previous speakers today, and those of the international community at large. That approach must explore the tools available at the national and international levels in a genuine spirit of multilateralism and commitment to the peaceful resolution of conflicts, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“They could intervene to deal with the flames generated by Israeli provocations at Haram Al-Sharif, to stop the forcible displacement of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan, to broker a ceasefire after Israel kills dozens of Palestinian families, as it did in May, or to stop the latest announcement of settlements that would destroy the chances of peace, as we have witnessed in recent days. We truly value such efforts, but they only slow Israel down on the destructive path on which it is embarked; they do not stop it. We need the Security Council to take hold of the steering wheel. To some, it may seem useless now or difficult given competing priorities or requiring too much political capital for little progress.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“I therefore turn to the Security Council and to the institution as a whole. They have expressed clear positions. They have been steadfast in their opposition to illegal unilateral actions. They have given generous assistance and support to Palestine statehood and the Palestinian people. They have invested in peace for decades and decades. Of course, they could continue to intervene each time that we reach a breaking point, such as when Israel decides to formalize its annexation, as it did a year ago.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“It calls that Palestinian acceptance of the unlawful reality that it has created. To achieve that, it tries to convince Palestinians that they are better off if they stop struggling and accept the premise that international law does not matter, that Palestine is no longer a priority and that Israel will never be held accountable for its actions. It wants them to lose hope so that they finally surrender. But what Palestinians rely on is not hope alone but faith — the deep-seated faith that humans cannot surrender to their chains and that the servitude and captivity of a nation will never be compatible with the human condition. The very history of those around this table and of the United Nations is a tale of the rebellion of peoples against their chains and valiant struggles for liberation and justice.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“Did it not manage to ensure, since 1967, the inability of Palestinians to build on more than 60 per cent of the West Bank and on 87 per cent of East Jerusalem, facilitating its plan to unlawfully annex maximum land with minimum Palestinians? While Palestinians are besieged in fragmented, and even walled, enclaves, their land and resources will therefore remain under Israeli control, their fundamental rights will be denied and a dual system will ensure privileges for one group and discriminate against another. I know that it sounds familiar. It is called apartheid, and anyone who believes that that is a welcome prospect is blinded by ideology and a feeling of supremacy that is destructive to both those who hold it and those who suffer from it. Israel thinks that the last part of its plan is Palestinian surrender.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“But Israel’s violation vision is clearly guided solely by its colonial appetite, as proved over and over by its policies and practices, which breach international law, including the Council’s resolutions, and are the cause of deep anguish and hardship for the Palestinian people, who have suffered the wrath of its occupation and the misery of exile for generations. It has decided to ignore all signals that demonstrate how unwise its plans are. After 75 years of such policies, aimed at the dispossession, forcible displacement and denial of the rights of our people, while in 1948 two thirds of our people were forced to leave their homeland, Palestinians are on the verge of being a majority of the population living between the Jordan River and the sea. However, Israel believes that it can seize our geography and control our demography.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“Given that Israeli stance, it does not make much sense to say that we will wait until the parties are ready and willing, because not only is one party telling the Security Council that it will not adhere to international law and the international consensus, but it is also actively violating it, with no regard for the Council’s appeals. How do we therefore hope to reach the destination of a just and lasting peace if Israel is allowed to sit alone behind the steering wheel, determining the course and our collective fate? It is normal to hope that a certain sense of self- preservation and self-interest would push Israel to see that the project that it pursues is self-defeating.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“That is what we refer to as the international consensus, which is based on the two-State solution on the pre-1967 borders. However, it is patently clear that that is not the destination that Israel has in mind. That is clear in its insistence on maintaining its illegal occupation. It is clear in the colonial policies that it pursues on the ground, which openly aim at making such a solution impossible, and in the statements of its officials, who negate our right to self-determination and independence and denigrate the existence of our people.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“We congratulate Kenya on its presidency of the Security Council. We thank you, Mr. President, as Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary of Kenya, for presiding over this important meeting and welcome you to the Security Council. We also wish to thank Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland for his briefing and to extend a special word of appreciation to today’s other briefers, my dear sister Ms. Hanan Ashrawi and Mr. Daniel Levy, adding the important voice of civil society to our deliberations on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine question. Whatever step we take is guided by the destination that we are hoping to reach. The international community identified that destination a long time ago and has never deviated from that determination.”
2021-10-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8883 (2021) · source
“It is time for them to find their natural place in history and geography, among the nations of the world, to enjoy freedom and dignity, return and independence, and to fulfil their right to self-determination, a right that stands among the main principles and purposes of the United Nations and a right that the Palestinian people will not forgo. I thank you, Mr. President, and Council members for their attention to this urgent matter.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“This generation deserves the Council’s support even when it might no longer be expecting it after years of disappointment. Many noted the participation of a team representing Palestine in the Olympic Games, a strong symbol, but my duty is to remind the Council of the challenges that those athletes had to face to make it all the way there to Japan, and also to speak of the athlete that lost his life or was paralysed or is detained, of all those whose dreams could not be fulfilled because of the occupation and injustice that continue to mar every aspect of Palestinian life. When we speak of untapped potential in Palestine, there is no greater resource than our people, who have displayed their spectacular abilities and talents in the worst possible conditions.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“It has a mechanism, the Quartet, established for that sole purpose, and we support in that regard the Russian proposal to convene the Quartet at the ministerial level. The Council must be the catalyst for determined international action to steer us away from the path we are on and drive us towards safety. A lot has been written about this new Palestinian generation — that it was desperate, seeking individual salvation rather than national liberation, that it had lost interest in politics, that it could coexist with occupation so long as its needs were provided for. This generation responded with a resounding message: there is no alternative to our freedom. It has displayed courage, unity, determination and pride in being Palestinian. It has already vanquished the occupation by defeating fear and despair.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“Within these halls and around this table, there are representatives of nations that know only too well that freedom is the only path to peace. Their positions are informed by their own history and by the universal principles and international rules that the Organization was built to uphold. There is no reason for those rules and principles not to apply in Palestine or for those who violate them to continue enjoying impunity. The Council has, unfortunately, demonstrated its limitations in times of aggression and war. That means that it has an even greater duty to actively pursue peace. It knows the road that leads to that destination; it is inscribed in its own resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016). It has the tools to help implement those resolutions.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“When companies implement Council resolutions, they should not be criticized; they should be saluted. We need to see more of this kind of action, and we need to see respect for resolutions of the Security Council — not falsely accuse them of things that they are not doing. We are moved by the signs of international solidarity with the Palestinian people all around the globe this year — the solidarity of those who marched, spoke out and took action. Many of them had marched in earlier decades, against apartheid, colonialism, segregation and injustice. Many of them were born after all those struggles allowed freedom to prevail, and they refuse to see the Palestinian people denied the freedom that all human beings are entitled to. Some of us around this table were part of those historic movements.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“There are reasons to be hopeful: the resilience of the Palestinian people; the ability of so many to see that only peace provides a sustainable and safe future for all; a United States Administration that adheres to the international consensus; an international community that shares clarity on the objective of two democratic States, with an independent and sovereign State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital; as well as more and more actors, States, companies, funds and organizations upholding their obligations under international law and the Council’s resolutions to distinguish between the territory of the occupying Power and the occupied territory, not to render aid or assistance to illegal actions and not to recognize the situation created by those illegal actions.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“There are many reasons to despair, but there is a good reason to continue fighting for just and lasting peace, which is the alternative. We have to name the alternative that is becoming more and more obvious every day: apartheid on both sides of the green line. That is the alternative. I repeat: it is apartheid on both sides of the green line. The past couple of months unequivocally refuted the claims that the situation was under control while annexation is under way; that peace is possible while ignoring or sidelining the Palestinian people; or that East Jerusalem could remain occupied forever or that efforts for peace could be delayed indefinitely. We need to maintain a sense of urgency and generate the momentum to move forward.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“The Security Council has called on the parties to demonstrate in word and practice their commitment to peace. Occupation and peace cannot coexist; they are mutually exclusive. Advancing peace requires ending the occupation. As we speak, peace is at stake in Sheikh Jarrah, as we heard, and Silwan as the occupation continues to creep into our homes. It is at stake in Beita, where the battle against illegal settlements has reached new heights. It is at stake in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, where annexation plans are being advanced daily. It is at stake in the Gaza Strip, where the inhumane Israeli blockade continues. It is at stake at Al-Haram Al-Sharif, where events demonstrate that our warnings about attempts to divide the holy site are well founded.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“But there is no task more difficult than being a parent deprived of any means to afford their children any sense of stability or security. There is no safe haven in Palestine. Children are killed in their homes, in their schools and in the streets. They can experience an arrest when they are as young as five or six years. They fear forcible displacement from their homes from the day they are born. In Jerusalem, in Gaza and in every corner of our country that is the reality with which parents and children are confronted. Let us therefore talk about the future by addressing how to change the reality of our children today. The battle for peace will be won or lost on the ground by ending the galloping annexation and occupation and by upholding Palestinian rights.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“While I understand the sentiment, when we speak of dispossession, displacement and denial of rights, we are actually speaking of the present reality of our people, not of an old chapter in our history, an ongoing dismal reality and injustice. We fear that the future being drawn on the ground aims at making that our perpetual reality. Some people try to explain to us how not to place our children in harm’s way, overlooking the central and hard fact that the occupation, violent and belligerent in every manifestation, is the harm placed in our children’s way every day. Every job becomes more challenging in Palestine. A teacher, a doctor, a nurse, a journalist and a representative of the people can be arrested or killed for doing their duty.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“At the outset, I thank France for its presidency, which has shed light on issues of importance for Palestine and humankind, including the critical matter of the protection for civilians. I take this opportunity to declare that the State of Palestine is proud to have joined the call for action to strengthen respect for international humanitarian law. I also wish to thank the two briefers for their clear and sober portrayals of the situation on the ground and the dire reminder of the need for urgent international action to uphold international law and the Security Council’s resolutions in our collective search for justice and peace. We are often told that we should not air past grievances and that we need to focus on the future.”
2021-07-28 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8826 (2021) · source
“Despite all of the killing and destruction, we, the Palestinian people, are a living nation that thrives because of its history, legacy, civilization, culture, poetry, dreams, creativity, bravery, diversity, love, anger, tolerance, patriotism and humanity. We resemble our land and belong to it, and will never abandon it; either we live in it or it lives in us as generations of revolutionaries follow one after another, “like twenty impossibles”, as said by one of our great poets. Here in Palestine, we have a past, a present and a future — regardless of who agrees and who objects.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“We commend all regional and international efforts to put an end to the Israeli aggression against Gaza and to launch a serious political process that places Palestine, which is the Middle East cause, at the top of the list of priorities. We reiterate, however, that the success of such a political process will be contingent on ending the ongoing aggression against our people, our land and our sanctities, and on the ability of the Council to implement its resolutions, as well as on the international community’s ability to reject double standards and to enforce respect of the international rules adopted and enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, in addition to international law and all international resolutions.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“That would ensure the revival of economic life, the provision of fuel, medical equipment, medicine and construction material, as well as the sustainable functioning of the power plant so as to end the humanitarian tragedy that the Palestinian people in Gaza have endured for the past 15 years. It would also allow the youth in Gaza to achieve their maximum potential and creativity. The past few weeks have demonstrated that Israel’s claim — that the question of Palestine no longer inhabits the hearts and minds of peoples in the Arab and Muslim world or of peoples worldwide, and that it has become a marginal issue — is false and void. The Palestinian question cannot be overlooked or ignored neither regionally nor internationally.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“The Council’s responsibility is not only to adopt resolutions here, although we value that, but to change the reality there in order to protect the Palestinians there and to ensure that freedom and peace prevail there. The reconstruction of the besieged Gaza Strip must be a top priority right now, as we have heard and which we welcome, starting with providing immediate health care and humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced persons, especially in the context of the pandemic. But the Council and we know well that the solution in Gaza Strip must be a radical one in a manner consistent with the unity of our people, land and destiny, while lifting the Israeli blockade completely against Gaza and ensuring the freedom of movement of people and goods.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“For how long are we supposed to be patient — until the next massacre occurs, until children under occupation grow into adults, until a family is displaced for the third or fourth time, or until the settlements expand to ultimately cut off the veins of life in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley? Does the Council want us to be patient until an entire generation grows up knowing nothing but siege and deprivation? The battle for existence in Palestine, and Jerusalem at its heart, is taking place on the ground, house by house, and in the alleys of the Old City, in our Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Sepulchre, and on every hilltop, neighbourhood, village and camp. Peace cannot be achieved in the city of peace without the recognition of Palestinian sovereignty and respect of the Hashemite custodianship.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“The Council has preserved the international consensus against all attempts to legitimize occupation and colonization and to distort the terms of reference. Now that the Trump Administration has gone, and along with it the propaganda and illusions it sought to promote, the United States has returned to the international consensus and the Quartet has been reactivated, it is no longer enough to simply reiterate the provisions of international law. We have full respect for international law, of course. Quite simply, the Council is duty-bound to implement it. Please do not ask us to be patient. We have been so patient. Jacob was the prophet of patience, and our patience has run out — because, as every hour passes, we endure more suffering.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“With regard to the Security Council and the international community, for decades they have set out an international vision for peace. The Council’s resolutions have defined the bases and parameters for a solution. It also determined the obligations of the parties and obligations on countries not to recognize illegal actions or support the perpetrators of such actions. The Council also called for the need to distinguish between occupied territory and the territory of the occupying Power. And it called for respect for international law. It is now up to the Council to implement those resolutions and establish a just and comprehensive peace as foreseen in various resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, including resolution 2334 (2016).”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“It will choose annexation, besiegement, blockade and destruction. At the same time, it will demand security and stability for itself, because Israel does not acknowledge the failure of its colonialist and racist policies, which are the source of violence and the root cause of the conflict. We Palestinians will not surrender. We will not be subjugated by this miserable occupation. That is what Israel must understand. That is the reality Israel must face. The Palestinian people — young and old, women and men — will not throw in the towel. The Palestinian people will continue to call for freedom, independence and self-determination. We will accept only the path that leads to the freedom of our people, upholds our national dignity and guarantees all our rights as enshrined in international law.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source
“The postponement by the Israeli courts of decisions on the forcible displacement of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan did not free families from the ongoing aggression by settlers, or spare them the tragedy endured in occupied Jerusalem. It did not mean that Israel’s provocations that the Al-Aqsa Mosque have ceased, or that measures to change the status of the city and its character have stopped. This has not put an end to Israel’s colonial appetite, or the desire to annex occupied Palestinian land, remove Palestinians from their land, or besiege them on it. It does not put an end to restrictions on their freedoms. As Professor Khalidi has said, today we all stand at a crossroads. If we leave things to Israel, it will simply choose the same path and the same approach. Israel will choose to impose apartheid upon us.”
2021-05-27 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8782 (2021) · source