Palestine
Emphasizes Important Positions at 54th Session of U.N.
In carrying out
its work at the United Nations throughout the 54th Session, the delegation of
Palestine has striven to emphasize and reaffirm several important Palestinian positions. These positions have been affirmed in the
statements made by members of the Mission, on various issues of direct concern to
Palestine, before the different committees of the U.N. General Assembly. The statements have been made under agenda items
such as the Right of Peoples to Self-Determination, the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Report of the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, and the General Debate of the General
Assembly.
The following is
an outline of some of the important positions and principles that the Palestinian side
reaffirms and adheres to:
The Right of the
Palestinian People to Self-Determination:
The realization
of the right of peoples to self-determination is enshrined in the Charter of the United
Nations and embodied in human rights instruments. It
is the responsibility of the international community, mainly the U.N., to guarantee the
enjoyment by all peoples of this fundamental right. Combating inequality, oppression and
securing the right of peoples to self-determination should be among the international
communitys top priorities. More serious
actions are required in this regard, especially for people living under foreign occupation
or alien domination.
Real engagement
in the peace process requires the recognition by Israel of the right of the Palestinian
people to self-determination. It is
inconceivable to recognize your adversary as a people, while at the same time refusing to
recognize their right to self-determination. The
peace process cannot reach its normal, logical, and successful conclusion without such
recognition.
The Palestinian
State:
The establishment of the
independent State of Palestine, in exercise of the right of Palestinian people to
self-determination, cannot be subject to any veto neither within the peace process
nor outside of it. This is a natural and inalienable right, which cannot be negated or
supplanted.
The
realization of by the Palestinian people of the right to establish their independent
state, with Jerusalem as its capital, will provide the definitive guarantee for the
establishment of a permanent peace in the Middle East. It will also be a validation of the
Charter of the U.N. and its numerous resolutions for over fifty years, beginning with
resolution 181, which called for the establishment of two States in Palestine, one Jewish,
which is Israel, and one Arab, which is Palestine. The time has come for the international
community, represented by the General Assembly, to reaffirm this right and seriously work
toward its realization.
The coming Millennium
Summit, with all the renewed hope it represents for the people on earth for a new and
promising beginning for all of us, must represent a decisive deadline for the achievement
of peace in the Middle East. We look forward
to the participation of Palestine as a Member State in the U.N. in the deliberations of
this Millennial Summit, and we trust in your support of this Palestinian determination to
achieve independence so that Palestine will take the position it deserves within the
family of nations.
The Palestine
Refugees:
It is
imperative to reaffirm basic and constant principles regarding the 3.6 million Palestine
refugees. In establishing the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the General
Assembly recalled its resolutions 212 (III) of 19 November 1948 and 194 (III) of 11
December 1948, affirming in particular the provisions of paragraph 11 of the latter, in
which the Assembly resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and
live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest
practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing
not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of
international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities
responsible.
The
Palestine refugees, like any other refugees in the world, have natural established rights
to their homes and their properties. Beginning
with resolution 194 (III), the General Assembly has annually reaffirmed this right for
over five decades. It is an inalienable
individual right, which cannot be diminished or supplanted with the passage of time. This right should not to be confused with the
right of displaced persons to return to the territory occupied by Israel since 1967, which
was affirmed in Security Council resolution 237 (1967) and which should have already been
effected during the transitional period of the peace process. Further, the rights of the Palestine refugees to
return to from where they fled should not to be confused with the right of every
Palestinian to come to the Palestinian State and become a Palestinian citizen. This is a sovereign right of the future Palestinian
State and is part of its responsibility towards the Palestinian people everywhere.
UNRWA:
The
international community should not let the refugees feel as though it is abandoning its
responsibility towards the Palestine refugee issue in the absence of a just solution, as
they continue to languish in what were set up as temporary camps and shelters over a half
century ago. It is imperative that the
important and essential work of UNRWA continues in all its fields of operation, namely
Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip,
until a definitive solution to the refugee problem is reached with the implementation of
the relevant U.N. resolutions. There is no way to
achieve peace, stability and security in the Middle East without a solution for the
question of the Palestine refugees and the implementation of resolution 194 (III).
Jerusalem:
The goal of the current
peace process is the implementation of Security Council resolutions 242, 338, 425 and the
principle of land for peace that is the total Israeli withdrawal from all the
Palestinian and other territories occupied in 1967, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, the Holy
City of Jerusalem, the first of the two qiblahs and the third holy sanctuary of Islam, the
place from which the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) ascended to heaven, and the cradle of Jesus
Christ (PBUH).
Jerusalem, the Holy City, is at the heart of the
question of Palestine. This is the city that
does not accept exclusive ownership and that demands a just solution, which takes into
consideration the legitimate interests of the two peoples and the three great monotheistic
religions, with all the necessary guarantees. On
that basis, the Palestinian side maintains that Arab Jerusalem must be the capital of
Palestine.
Israeli
Violations and the 4th Geneva Convention:
The
existence of the peace process requires urgent changes on the Israeli part, not on the
part of the international community, upholding international law and the principles of the
U.N. Charter. The existence of the peace
process requires, for example, that Israel cease its violations of international law and
accept the applicability of the 4th Geneva Convention to all of the territories
occupied in 1967 and abide by its provisions. It
certainly does not require that the international community abandon international
humanitarian law.
There
exists an established international consensus on the applicability of 4th
Geneva Convention to all the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, as well
as to all the other Arab territories occupied by Israel in 1967. This applicability has been reaffirmed in 25 U.N.
Security Council resolutions and in a multitude of resolutions of the General Assembly and
other bodies of the U.N. The crux of the 4th
Geneva Convention is to protect the civilian population, individually and collectively, who at a given
moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation,
in the hands of a Party to the conflict or occupying Power of which they are not nationals
(Art. 4) and is applicable in all cases of partial or total occupation
(Art. 2).
The
Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, remains occupied territory all of it. Whether Israeli tanks and Israeli soldiers are
inside the city of Ramallah, for example, or surrounding that city, does not make any real
legal difference. Israeli claims that the
majority of Palestinian people are not subject to Israeli occupation under the present
circumstances are untrue. Such claims,
however, are indicative of Israeli thinking which contemplates an apartheid-system as a
solution. That is totally unacceptable. The Israeli occupation of all the territory
occupied since 1967 must end. That in itself is the historic comprise being made by the
Palestinian people towards achieving peace in the Middle East.
Israeli Settlements:
Among
the most incessant of the violations being committed by Israel are those involving its
illegal colonial settlement campaign in the occupied territory. As we speak, illegal
settlement activities are being carried out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
including Jerusalem, by the Israeli authorities. These illegal practices and measures
encompass innumerable violations of international law and international humanitarian law,
such as the confiscation of land and property for the building of settlements and bypass
roads, the exploitation and theft of natural resources and the transfer of more Israeli
settlers into the occupied territory. The violence perpetrated by extremist settlers is
another outgrowth of these illegal activities.
Settlement
activities are not only illegal, contravening international law and resolutions of the
United Nations, they are also in violation of the agreements reached between the two sides
and their continuity will destroy the peace process. |