YouSaid · the spoken record

Riad Al-Malki

lines on the record: 70
first: 2020-06-24
most recent: 2021-05-16
sittings or episodes: 5
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

“This call is the ultimate demonstration of our commitment to peace and to a path based on inclusion not exclusion, legality not illegality, negotiations not diktats, and multilateralism not unilateralism. I know many countries represented in the Council have already expressed support for President Abbas’ initiative, and we look forward to continuing to work with everyone to see it materialize, including through meetings of the Security Council such as today’s, which is being held under the presidency of the Russian Federation. Only under pressure did Israel decide to freeze its plans for formal annexation of areas beyond occupied East Jerusalem.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“If we have been punished while making such choices while Israel, on the other hand, is rewarded, what is being encouraged, peace or violence?S/2020/1055 Despite decades of oppressive Israeli policies and measures aimed at bringing us to our knees politically and financially, President Abbas, in his message to the General Assembly (see A/75/PV.10), called on the Secretary-General, as he has done before the Security Council in the past, to undertake, in cooperation with the Security Council and the Quartet mandated by this body to advance peace, preparations to convene an international conference with the participation of all concerned parties early next year, in order to engage in a genuine peace process, based on international law, United Nations resolutions and the relevant terms of reference.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“We could have adopted disruptive behaviour, since constructive behaviour is underrated these days. We did not. We could have contributed to transforming this political conflict into a religious one, fuelling it so we were not the only ones to feel its flames. We did not.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“We cannot allow Israeli unilateralism to prevail while the world continues to call for bilateral negotiations. It is no longer enough to call on the parties to negotiate. This call must be accompanied by measures to incentivize respect for obligations and to dissuade the adoption of illegal unilateral actions. It is no longer enough to say settlements are illegal. One must ensure accountability, distinction and non-assistance. It is no longer enough to speak of a two-State solution. It must be accompanied with the recognition of the State of Palestine and support for its sovereignty over the territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem. We could have tried to find answers to Israel’s violence through violence, to be heard and considered relevant. We did not.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“By 1999, the parties had identified final-status issues that should be negotiated based on internationally agreed terms of reference and parameters. Here is Netanyahu’s stance on these issues: Jerusalem, including occupied East Jerusalem, shall be Israeli; illegal settlements shall remain in place; refugees shall remain refugees; Israel shall continue to control our borders; and Israel shall control all of the Jordan Valley, and with it most of our natural resources. These positions are contemptuous and unlawful, and they translate into a simple truth: Israel does not want to end its illegal occupation; it wants to make it permanent. Why are we the ones who are labelled “intransigent”? It is time to abandon the failed recipes of the past.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“It is preposterous to consider that Israel’s right to security could justify its occupation and oppression of an entire nation for decades, or denying us our right to self-determination and to a sovereign and independent State, or negating our own right to security. It is absurd to claim that it is the Palestinian side that does not want negotiations, when Israel is the one trying to illegally pre-empt the negotiations on all final-status issues on the ground every single day. It is ludicrous to claim that the obstacle to peace is Palestinian intransigence, when our positions are actually aligned with the international consensus and the resolutions of the Security Council, while Israeli positions and policies are flagrantly in breach of international law and United Nations resolutions.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“At the outset, I wish to thank the Russian delegation for presiding over this meeting and for the leadership role that Russia has played in pursuit of peace in the Middle East. Let me also thank my brother Mr. Mohamed Ali Nafti for participating in today’s meeting, and to welcome Mr. Dang Minh Khoi. I also want to thank Mr. Mladenov for his briefing. It is time to drop the old talking points. It is ridiculous to claim that the Palestinians “never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity”, when in fact the Palestinian Liberation Organization signed an agreement with Israel just months after the start of the first-ever negotiations between the two sides, despite all the shortcomings of those accords, which history has proven.”
2020-10-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/1055 (2020) · source
“The Secretary-General highlighted in his report the urgency of reversing the dangerous trajectory we are on. We are at a crossroads, and to reverse course, before it is too late, the international community must take hold of the steering wheel.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“Allow me also to seize this opportunity to thank the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary General of the League of Arab States and the Ministers for their participation today as a clear signal of the urgency and gravity of the matter. I also wish to thank France and the Council members — past, present and incoming — for their consistent, principled stances, including against annexation. Allow me, finally, to thank the countries and groups, including the Group of Arab States, which has been fully mobilized in the lead-up to this meeting, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries and the European Union, which continue working to advance freedom, justice and peace, conscious of how this could transform our region and the world.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“In fact, they have a legal and moral obligation to use that power through non-recognition of, and non-assistance to, illegal actions and through distinction and accountability. Upholding their obligations is the only path to ensure Israel abides by its own obligations. At the end, allow me, Mr. President, to thank you for convening this important meeting. I also wish to express our appreciation to the Secretary-General for his S/2020/596 report and relentless efforts, and those of his envoy, to advance peace. If Security Council resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016), were implemented today, peace would be a reality tomorrow.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“That is why we call for an international peace conference and a multilateral mechanism that will help advance peace by holding the parties accountable and ensuring that negotiations are neither a smoke screen nor a time-wasting exercise while Israel finalizes its colonial plans but, rather, that they are the path to just and lasting peace. While Israel spares no effort to erase the pre-1967 borders, the Green Line, the world must consolidate them, including by recognizing the State of Palestine and by making any unilateral encroachment over the Green Line a red line. Every State has the power to help us change course before it is too late, the power to help end the Israeli occupation and salvage the two-State solution, the power to save lives, the power to preserve our global order.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“We accepted the pre-1967 borders, thus agreeing to a historic compromise encompassing only 22 per cent of historical Palestine; yet Israel has spared no effort to undermine those borders. The entire world recognizes the significance of the Arab Peace Initiative and the promise it holds for our region. Where is the Israeli peace initiative? Even with the United States plan, Israel said it is ready to grab immediately whatever parts of our land the plan unlawfully grants it, while expressing readiness to negotiate the rest indefinitely.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“This ideology has fostered a narrative that Palestinians should be grateful that Israel was ready to give them back any part of our own land, fragmented and besieged enclaves, Bantustans, which Palestinians may even be allowed to call a “State”. Genuine negotiations must aim at ending occupation to achieve peace, not at perpetuating occupation and calling it peace. We remain committed to peace. We have presented to the Quartet our position in writing on all final-status issues. We have never retracted any proposal we have made to find a compromise, unlike Israel, which says we must renegotiate all over again with each new Government. We have accepted the long-standing terms of reference and international law as the basis for negotiations, while Israel has rejected and violated them.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“From a security perspective, it is utter nonsense, as it replaces internationally recognized, defendable borders with a system of military control and subjugation that only fuels conflict and violence. It is, as stated in the Secretary General’s report (S/2020/555), calamitous for Palestinians, Israelis and the region. The only explanation for it is an extremist ideology rooted in denial of the Palestinian right to this land, disregard for international law and negation of history. It is this ideology that has undermined negotiations time and time again, with Israel using negotiations as cover for its continued colonization.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“They cannot survive annexation.As we celebrate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, let us honour the purposes and principles of the United Nations — respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction, the suppression of acts of aggression and the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State. Annexation, whether partial or total, gradual or immediate, is the ultimate breach of the United Nations Charter and cannot go unchallenged. From a legal perspective, annexation is not only unlawful, it is a crime under the Rome Statute. From a political perspective, it will ruin the chances for Palestinian- Israeli and regional peace.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“It must also be made clear that annexation will irreversibly impact Israel’s relations with Palestine and the region. The Oslo Accords were supposed to transform us into peace partners, but, regrettably, Israel has continued waging a war against Palestinian lives and rights. It has violated the letter and spirit of the agreements and, with annexation, is taking a decision that will defeat their very purpose. The interim accords were supposed to pave the way for an end to occupation and a final peace agreement.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“The global position also remains unwavering on the illegality of Israel’s policies, including settlements. That wide international front, reflected in the gathering in the Jordan Valley just two days ago, with broad Palestinian and international mobilization, in the ministerial meeting of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees held yesterday and in this high-level Security Council meeting, is strong and remains our best hope. Israel needs to know that annexation will have immediate and tangible repercussions. That is why we have called on the international community to adopt effective measures, including sanctions, to deter annexation and all the other unlawful policies that have prepared the ground for annexation.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“Israel judges, but cannot be judged. The only true bias towards Israel is the one shielding it from accountability and emboldening it by considering its illegal actions as so-called realities that need to be endorsed rather than reversed. Israel is testing the resolve of the international community, thinking its colonial appetite will prevail over the collective international will to advance regional peace and security and preserve the rules-based multilateral order. We must prove it wrong. The international community remains committed to the rule of international law and to the international consensus on a just solution to the Palestine question. It opposes annexation in no uncertain terms, as reaffirmed in recent weeks in statements made from capitals from every corner of the globe.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“It ignores that the road cannot end there and continues downhill towards an escalation of the conflict resulting from an oppressive regime combining colonialism and apartheid. It does not care that humankind has been down this road before, or that former colonial Powers and liberation movements alike have all reached the same conclusion: such a regime cannot prevail and will lead only to more injustice, instability and insecurity. As many times before, Israel seems determined to ignore that big red stop sign the international community erected to save lives. Israel thinks, as has been its experience so far, that it will not be fined or arrested. It believes that Security Council resolutions are binding for others, that international courts have jurisdiction over others and that sanctions are for others.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source
“We often use the image of a crossroads to explain how significant a moment in history is. It means that the next decisions and actions to be taken will determine the course of history and the fate of nations. There is no doubt that this is such a moment. For now, the driver is Israel, and it seems it will not stop at the crossroads to assess the implications of its choices because it is drunk on power, propelled by infinite impunity, motivated by one single thought under whose influence it has been operating for decades: grabbing a maximum amount of Palestinian land with a minimum number of Palestinians on it. Israel is under the illusion that that is the destination and that, once it reaches it, it will be able to enjoy the view.”
2020-06-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/596 (2020) · source