General Assembly Session 58 meeting 65

The President

I give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Papa Louis Fall of Senegal, who, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, will introduce draft resolutions A/58/L.23 to A/58/L.26/Rev.1 in the course of his statement.

Mr. Fall (Senegal)

Today marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which is observed on the 29 November, as designated by the General Assembly. It is customary that on the day of observance, the Assembly takes up the item entitled "Question of Palestine".

The President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General, the President of the Security Council and several other high officials addressed the solemn meeting held this morning, which colleagues and representatives from Missions here in New York also attended.

In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I would like to thank you all for your show of support each year and for your active interest and involvement in the tireless search for a just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine.

Before I introduce to you the four draft resolutions approved by our Committee last month, allow me to now refer very briefly to the situation on the ground and the subsequent developments in the political arena.

Over the past several months, the situation in the Occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, remained very tense. There has been hardly any tangible progress in the implementation of the Quartet's road map. Despite years of effort and great reserves of patience aimed at ending the conflict and making peace between the two parties and despite the various agreements reached, the occupying Power has persisted in its illegal actions in the occupied territory. Palestinians still suffer under the Israeli policies of closures and curfews -- an inadmissible form of collective punishment, which compromises their livelihood and hinders their access to their workplaces, schools and families.

The Israeli army often raided Palestinian towns, leaving in its wake death, desolation and destruction. Humanitarian workers were prohibited from delivering essential services to needy Palestinians, especially in refugee camps. While recognizing and strongly reaffirming Israel's legitimate right to security, the Committee nonetheless unequivocally condemns its policy and practice of extrajudicial killings, which are inadmissible under international humanitarian law. In a related matter, the Committee also condemns just as strongly all terrorist attacks -- whatever their origin -- against civilians in Israel, as these acts have no moral or legal justification and only threaten to undo any progress in the efforts to bring the two parties to reconciliation and peace.

Faced with a situation that is as alarming as this one and that has greatly moved the international community, the Tenth Emergency Special Session has been reconvened on two occasions in the last three months. On 25 September, the General Assembly adopted resolution (A/RES/ES-10/12) demanding that Israel, the occupying Power, desist from any act of deportation and threat to the physical integrity and the safety of the elected President of the Palestinian Authority and immediately lift the illegal siege imposed on President Arafat. In its resolution ES-10/13 of 21 October, the Assembly demanded that Israel stop the construction of the separation wall in the occupied territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and dismantle that work, which deviates from the Armistice Line of 1949 and is in manifest contradiction to relevant provisions of international law.

In this regard, the General Assembly asked the Secretary-General to report periodically on compliance with that resolution, with the first report focusing on the separation wall. The construction of the wall prejudges the outcome of future permanent status negotiations and makes the formation of a contiguous Palestinian State virtually impossible. Moreover, those actions heighten the feelings of anger and humiliation among Palestinians and incite more acts of violence.

Wishing to avert the worst case and wishing to extract the peace negotiations from the vicious cycle of violence, prominent Israelis and Palestinians from civil society have reached out to each other in order to explore together other possible paths that might work to end that impasse. Those initiatives, which have been welcomed by the entire international community, are regarded as consistent with the road map and seek to revive it. While those initiatives cannot take the place of official negotiations, the initiatives, including the Geneva Accords, deserve praise and encouragement. We congratulate the parties who have been involved in this noble and courageous undertaking for their efforts, under the enlightened leadership of friendly countries such as Switzerland.

Other positive developments have emerged that signal the possible resumption of a political dialogue between the parties. From that standpoint, we welcomed the confirmation last month of Mr. Ahmed Qurei as Prime Minister of Palestine, as well as the confirmation of the new Cabinet. Negotiations are continuing among various Palestinian organizations for a possible renewal of the ceasefire with Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister recently reiterated his Government's acceptance of the road map. We commend that action, although he did again refer to the 14 so-called clarifications or reservations.

While these small steps are encouraging and remain significant, the Committee calls for full implementation of the road map requirements. It calls on Israel to cease all acts of intimidation and harassment of Palestinians, to lift closures and curfews against the Palestinians and to immediately put a stop to its construction of the separation wall and expansion of settlements. On the other hand, the Committee urges the Palestinian Authority to increase and persevere in its efforts to meet the legitimate security concerns of Israel.

In an effort to give the peace process a fresh impetus, the Security Council on 21 November unanimously adopted resolution 1515 (2003). With that resolution, the Security Council finally endorsed the Quartet's Performance-based Road map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, and called on the parties to fulfil their obligations under the road map, in cooperation with the Quartet, in order to achieve a vision of the two States living side by side in peace and security. Strengthened by that resolution, which demonstrates the Council's intention to remain fully engaged in the efforts towards achieving peace in the Middle East, the international community must remain at the forefront of the search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a just comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The United Nations should maintain its permanent responsibility towards all aspects of the question of Palestine, until it is resolved in a satisfactory manner, in conformity with Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and 1515 (2003). For its part, our Committee will remain committed to supporting the road map and the work of the Quartet, until such time that the Palestinian people are able to finally exercise their inalienable rights.

In this context, I would like to introduce to the Assembly the four draft resolutions approved by the Committee and circulated under this agenda item, namely A/58/L.23, A/58/L.24, A/58/L.25 and A/58/L.26/Rev.1.

Before I do that, however, allow me to inform you that certain delegations have joined the sponsors of the four draft resolutions. Bangladesh, Togo and Mali have joined as sponsors of draft resolution A/58/L.23. Bangladesh and Mali have joined as sponsors of draft resolution A/58/L.24. Bangladesh and Mali have joined as sponsors of draft resolution A/58/L.25. Lastly, Bangladesh, Mali and Togo have joined as sponsors of draft resolution A/58/L.26/Rev.1.

The first three draft resolutions relate to the work of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the work of the Division for Palestinian Rights, and the work of the Department of Public Information, respectively. They reaffirm the important mandate entrusted to those entities in the past by the General Assembly and guarantee continuing support for the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and for a just and peaceful settlement of the Palestinian question.

As in the past, the Committee would retain the central role it has been given concerning that issue and would ensure that resources available to it are employed in a cost-effective manner for all activities mandated by the General Assembly.

The fourth draft resolution, A/58/L.26/Rev.1, entitled "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine" reflects the position of the General Assembly with regard to the essential elements of such a settlement and includes references to the developments of the past year and recent weeks, as I just outlined them. This year's draft has been updated to reflect key developments on the ground and in the political area. Acting on the authorization granted by the Committee membership at the last Committee meeting on 11 November 2003, the Bureau of the Committee has been able to continue negotiations with the various parties involved. As a result, a certain number of amendments have been accepted and introduced by various sponsors, mostly in the preambular part of the draft resolution.

These are the four draft resolutions that I have just submitted for your consideration. They underscore the positions, mandates and programmes that are of fundamental importance, particularly at the present critical stage. I would therefore like to call on the General Assembly to express its support for these four draft resolutions by the greatest possible majority of votes.

The President

I now call on Mr. Victor Camilleri of Malta, Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, to introduce the Committee's report.

Mr. Camilleri (Malta)

It is an honour for me, in my capacity as Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, to present to the General Assembly the annual report of the Committee, contained in document A/58/35.

In the course of the past year, the Committee continued to carry out the mandate given to it by the General Assembly. The report covers the developments through 9 October 2003, relating to the question of Palestine, the peace process and the activities of the Committee since last year's report.

The introduction of the report outlines the Committee's objectives and its general perspective on the events that have taken place in the course of the year.

Chapters II and III summarize the General Assembly mandates of the Committee, the Division for Palestinian Rights and the Department of Public Information and contain information on the organization of the Committee's work during the year.

Chapter IV reviews the situation relating to the question of Palestine, as monitored by the Committee during the year. Special emphasis was given to the various specific aspects of the situation on the ground, including Israeli actions in response to the Intifada; the settlement activity; the implications of the construction of the wall in the West Bank; the situation with respect to Palestinian prisoners; the humanitarian situation and the state of the Palestinian economy; the situation with respect to water resources available to the Palestinians; action by the United Nations system; and the continuing operational difficulties faced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that chapter, the Committee also clearly states its position with regard to extrajudicial executions of Palestinians and terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.

Chapter V reviews the action taken by the Committee and is divided into two main sections. Section A describes action aimed at promoting Palestinian rights in the United Nations, including the General Assembly and the Security Council. That section makes reference to the communications addressed by the Chairman of the Committee to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council and statements made by the Committee over the year in reaction to events on the ground. Also included is information on the participation by the Chairman at various international forums.

Section B contains a detailed account of the implementation of the programme of work of the Committee and the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat. It also provides information on the continued dialogue between the Committee and members of the European Union. The section gives an account of the various international meetings organized in the course of the year; the Committee's cooperation with civil society; the research, monitoring and publications work of the Division for Palestinian Rights; the United Nations Information System on the Question of Palestine (UNISPAL); the training programme for staff of the Palestinian Authority; and the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Chapter VI provides an overview of the work done over the year by the Department of Public Information in pursuance of General Assembly resolution 57/109 of 3 December 2002.

The last chapter of the report contains the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee. In that chapter, the Committee expresses its concern over the lack of serious headway in the political process and the absence of any tangible improvement in the area of security. It emphasizes that the United Nations should maintain its permanent responsibility with respect to all aspects of the question of Palestine until it is resolved in a satisfactory manner in conformity with relevant United Nations resolutions and in accordance with international legitimacy, and until the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are fully realized. The Committee further stresses the critical peacemaking role played by the Security Council and expresses its view that the Council, among other things, could and should encourage steps towards creating an effective mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the road map and for protection of the Palestinian population, including by authorizing the deployment of international observers.

The Committee affirms its intention to continue to promote support for the road map and the important work of the Quartet in pursuance of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of Palestine based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and other relevant resolutions, and the exercise by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights.

The Committee stresses its strong opposition to the illegal construction by the occupying Power of the wall in the occupied West Bank and in areas close to East Jerusalem, and reminds the Government of Israel that this construction has devastating immediate and longer-term implications for the livelihood of the Palestinian people and endangers international efforts at resolving the conflict and realizing the vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, are to live side by side in peace and security, as outlined in the road map.

The Committee calls upon the international community, most notably the Security Council and the General Assembly, to attach the necessary importance to that issue with a view to stopping the de facto annexation of Palestinian land and the construction of the wall by the occupying Power.

The Committee expresses appreciation for the involvement of Governments, intergovernmental organizations and civil society in its programme of international and regional meetings and conferences aimed at helping to promote constructive analysis and discussion of the various aspects of the question of Palestine and to mobilize international assistance for the Palestinian people.

The Committee further commends civil society organizations for their efforts at supporting international legitimacy with regard to the question of Palestine through advocacy and mobilizing public opinion, as well as for their unremitting initiatives to provide relief and assistance to the Palestinian people.

The Committee stresses the essential contribution of the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat in support of the Committee's objectives and requests it to continue its programme of publications and other information activities, including further development of the UNISPAL documents collection. The Committee also notes the usefulness of the annual training programme conducted for staff of the Palestinian Authority, in spite of the difficulties on the ground, and requests the Division to continue it.

The Committee expresses the view that the special information programme on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information has made an important contribution to informing the media and public opinion on the relevant issues. The Committee requests the programme's continuation, with the necessary flexibility, as warranted by developments relevant to the question of Palestine.

Finally, wishing to make its contribution to the achievement of a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine and in view of the many difficulties facing the Palestinian people and besetting the peace process, the Committee calls on all States to join in this endeavour and invites the General Assembly again to recognize the importance of the Committee's role and to reconfirm its mandate with overwhelming support.

I trust that the report I have just introduced will be of assistance to the General Assembly in its deliberations on this very important issue.

The President

I now give the floor to the representative of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, His Excellency, Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi.

Mr. Kaddoumi (Palestine)

Mr. President, I would like to congratulate you on your election as President of the fifty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. We are confident that you will conduct the deliberations of this session with great efficiency because of your unique skills and capabilities.

We would like to commend your predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, the former President of the General Assembly, for leading the work of the fifty-seventh session. We would also like to express our appreciation for the diligent efforts of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his adherence to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations in promoting international peace and security. Finally, we would like to thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its Chairman, Ambassador Papa Louis Fall, for their persistent efforts in the service of the Palestinian cause and in working towards security and stability in the Middle East.

During the past three years of the Palestinian intifada, Israel has worked hard to destroy all the remaining vestiges of the Oslo Agreements and their achievements, whether they are in the form of the Palestinian Authority's institutions and security systems, or in its infrastructure -- all of which were primarily tied to the Oslo era. The escalation of Israeli aggression reached its climax with the siege against the elected Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, at his headquarters, threatening his physical safety. Israel has thus set a precedent in modern history by taking a formal and public decision to liquidate the Palestinian President, Yasser Arafat, when it chooses to do so.

Israel has also worked to obstruct all international initiatives to calm the situation and to resume negotiations. It rushed to implement its political plans on the ground by building a racist separation wall, which draws new borders that would annex large settlements, isolate Palestinians in cantons and determine the sovereignty over Jerusalem, as well as water rights, in its own favour. It has also endorsed a law that prevents the return of refugees to areas occupied in 1948.

Even more dangerous than the foregoing is the Jewish State's success in imposing its concept of peace on the agenda of peace initiatives, limiting the concept of peace to a debate on security and terrorism, thus removing the Palestinians' legitimate rights from the discussion.

Israeli Prime Minister Sharon has claimed that ever since his rise to power he has been working on providing security for Israel. But he has failed. Three years later he has failed to make good on those promises. In truth, Sharon wanted to seize Palestinian land and annex it to Israel in order to satisfy his greedy desires. He thus began seizing and confiscating more land and building more Israeli settlements. He built the racist separation wall and found nobody to deter him. Instead, he found support and protection by the United States of America, whose president, George Bush, announced that Israel has the right to defend itself against Palestinian resistance.

Barak, before Sharon, had manoeuvred during the Camp David Summit in July, 2000, to impose a final status solution that did not even meet the bare minimum of legitimate Palestinian demands. When he failed, he waged an unjust campaign under the slogan of removing the mask from Arafat's face, whom he portrayed as the man who turned down the most generous Israeli offer for peace. In fact, Barak officially prevented members of the Israeli negotiating team from handing over any written document to the Palestinians to keep them and public opinion in the dark. That is how Barak rigged the failure of negotiations and delivered a blow to the peace camp in Israel. Barak's master stroke came when he announced that Arafat was no longer a partner in the peace process.

Last year, on 29 November, Israel's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Mr. Yehuda Lancry, from this very podium, 54 years after the vote on the partitioning of Palestine, announced that the Government of Israel supported the creation of a Palestinian State. He was quickly refuted by Sharon -- who issued a statement that Lancry was voicing a strictly personal opinion -- because Sharon only sees a military solution to the conflict. Continued settlement activity, for Sharon, is of the utmost importance to Israel's security. In order to reassure the international community, Sharon has declared his willingness to accept a Palestinian State -- but only on 42 per cent of the territory of the West Bank, or 9 per cent of the lands legitimately belonging to Arab Palestine. These are divided into separate demilitarized cantons connected by bridges and tunnels over which Israel would maintain security control by land, sea and air, and with the additional condition that the current Palestinian leadership be exiled.

The Palestinian intifada has refuted Sharon's belief that what cannot be solved by force will be solved by more force. All the violence that has characterized Israeli behaviour has not achieved Israel's security. We can thus draw lessons from the past three years: a solution cannot be imposed by force. Rather, it is diplomacy and politics that can guarantee security for everyone. Israeli officials, who are optimistic that the intifada will end soon, are ignorant of the fact that the Palestinian resistance is an affirmation of the political presence of a people under occupation. As long as the occupation persists, so will the intifada, regardless of its momentum or its forms -- whether through armed action, violence or demonstrations as a necessary means of self-defence, as well as a means of protecting our legitimate right to end Israeli occupation.

We expected the United States to help to deter Israel from its terrorist actions in the hope that by doing so it would contribute to creating an environment conducive to the success of the peace process and the efforts of the Quartet in pursuing the road map. Instead, the United States is encouraging terrorism and Israeli aggression in the Middle East. How can a super Power that is combating terrorism -- and requesting the cooperation of other countries to complete that mission -- simultaneously encourage a rogue State, Israel, which has usurped Palestinian land over two stages in 1948 and in 1967 and which continues to expand and invade other neighbouring Arab countries? Israel occupied the Egyptian Sinai, the Syrian Golan Heights and Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. How then, we wonder, or rather can the United States Administration wonder, about the lack of success in its campaign against terrorism and why the people of the world hate its biased policies?

The United States has provoked the countries of Western Europe by bypassing the United Nations, dispensing with their cooperation on Iraq. Why does it not punish Lieutenant General William Boykin, the racist, extremist General who said that the God of Islam is a false god? What was President Bush's objective in agreeing to remove President Arafat, who, in 1993, was the first Palestinian leader to reach political agreements with Israel under the sponsorship of President Clinton, who made great efforts that nearly led to a successful and mutually acceptable settlement, had it not been for the greed and deceptiveness of the Israeli leader Barak? Barak wanted to annex 9 per cent of the Palestinian territories to Israel and to lease 10 per cent of the territory of the Jordan Valley for many years while establishing early-warning stations in the heart of the Palestinian territories and imposing Israeli sovereignty over holy Muslim and Christian shrines in Jerusalem. He also refused to recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. Later, he claimed that he had made painful concessions and then conspired with Sharon to have Sharon visit the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque. On the second day of Sharon's visit, the Israeli army fired on Muslim worshippers, sparking the intifada in retaliation to that act of Israeli terrorism.

Despite three years of bloody fighting, the Palestinian resistance responded to the Quartet and to international public opinion by declaring a three-month truce and ceasefire. However, Israel failed to respond to that initiative; rather, it continued its acts of terrorism, assassinating 86 Palestinian citizens -- including several political leaders -- within a 51-day period after the truce had begun. That compelled the resistance factions to retaliate. Today, despite all that, the Palestinian resistance expresses its willingness to declare a second truce and ceasefire, provided that Israel reciprocates.

Sharon has continued his acts of terrorism by demolishing houses, arresting and assassinating Palestinian citizens, tightening the siege on the Palestinian people and continuing to build settlements and the racist separation wall. On the morning of 5 October 2003, Israel shelled Ain Sahib, a village near Damascus in Syria, claiming that it was a training camp for Palestinian resistance elements. What is odd is that United States President Bush said, "Israel must not feel constrained in defending itself", when he knows very well that, for more than 35 years, Israel has been occupying Syrian territory in the Golan, where it has built 37 Israeli settlements. What, then, justifies such an Israeli action in an Arab country that respects the truce? There is no resistance in the occupied Golan that can be used as a pretext by Israel, while Israel claims that the reason for its continued occupation of Palestinian territories is the presence of the Palestinian resistance, which it calls terrorism.

In mid-October, Israeli forces destroyed more than 200 houses of Palestinian refugees in the Rafah refugee camp. Later, the spokesman for the United States State Department said, "We understand Israel's need to defend itself". And, in one of his statements, President Bush said that when the Palestinian Authority chooses a leader that really wants to combat terrorist organizations, that will enable the peace process to resume where it left off.

There are now 26 Israeli settlements in Gaza, constituting 8 per cent of its area; 6,429 Israeli settlers live in these settlements. However, 1.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, which is only 365 square kilometres in area. We note that 5,800 Palestinians live in each square kilometre of Gaza, while the areas in which the Israeli settlements have been built have a population density of 55 Israeli settlers per square kilometre.

Moreover, Israel has built a concrete separation wall more than 7 kilometres long and 8 metres high in the city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. Israel has bulldozed all farmland on the border strip, which is 100 kilometres long, and has cut down tens of thousands of citrus and banana trees, thus destroying the economic livelihood of the residents. Furthermore, Israel has demolished 900 houses and displaced their owners, who have become refugees. Israel has bulldozed a total of 3,270 dunams of farmland in the governorate of Rafah alone, and it has also destroyed irrigation wells, agricultural machinery, livestock barns and aviaries. It has also set up roadblocks and closed border crossings and airports, raising the unemployment rate to 70 per cent. The number of poor families has reached 5,228.

The Israeli Information Centre, B'Tselem, reports that the lives of around 875,000 Palestinians will be affected directly by the racist separation wall and that 650,000 dunums of land in the West Bank -- 11.6 per cent of the West Bank -- will be left between the wall and the green line.

After the wall is built, the land confiscated and 200 settlements constructed, how can the Palestinian-Israeli conflict be resolved on a fair and equitable basis? Will it be possible in future to establish two neighbouring States?

The Sharm el-Sheikh Summit and the Aqaba Summit were held in June, and President Bush, Arab leaders and Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas all pledged to work to move the peace process forward and to implement its provisions in accordance with the road map. But we soon started to feel that Sharon was beginning to abandon his stand on the commitments he made. He assassinated a political leader of the resistance, thus creating tension once again.

It appears that the logic of the United States in dealing with Iraq is now influencing the Arab-Israeli conflict. Senator Lieberman supports Israel's position in opposing the removal of Israeli settlements, while it was backed by Howard Dean, another Democratic candidate. The New York Times said in an editorial that it strongly opposed what Senator Lieberman said in that respect and that ending settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories was a fundamental and key issue for the survival of the Israeli State.

Israel must prepare a plan to exit the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in order not only to enable the Palestinians to establish a viable, contiguous and independent State but also to safeguard the future of Israel itself.

It appears that these days President Bush is afraid to pressure Israel and risk losing the votes of millions of mid-western neoconservatives with Zionist tendencies. This group is considered his key electoral base and a represents a powerful ideological force with a strong influence on American political life. I need not even mention the crisis situation in which the United States Administration has become embroiled in Iraq. It is odd that Israel has even attacked its friends in Europe as well as neutral United Nations representatives such as John Ziegler, who blamed Israel for causing widespread hunger among Palestinians.

Israel has warned that it might not be willing to cooperate in future with United Nations investigations in the field of human rights. The international envoy had warned that the Palestinian territories were on the brink of a humanitarian disaster because of the extremely stringent military measures taken by the Israeli forces.

The continued United States occupation of Iraq will serve only to provoke all of those forces resisting United States policy in Iraq and in the Arab and Muslim worlds. More United States violence will only lead to greater resistance. If the United States of America were to adopt the traditional British policy of "divide and conquer" by attempting to ethnically and religiously pit Iraqi factions against each other, the United States occupation will never be able to create a secure territory. However, if the United States chooses to do what the Secretary-General has called for -- internationalizing the Iraqi issue politically and in terms of security; establishing, as soon as possible, a new Iraqi constitution; and holding general elections -- that would lay the foundation for a new national State. That option which the Secretary-General is proposing is the best means of building Iraqi national unity on a democratic basis.

Democracy is the watchword that the United States has used in the Arab world. This means that it is important for the United States to cooperate with the countries neighbouring Iraq instead of threatening them, imposing sanctions on them or trying them, as the United States Congress has done when it passed the Syrian Accountability Act.

When we speak of Iraq, we are speaking also of the situation in the Middle East and the question of Palestine, because the Palestinian cause lies at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. President Bush reassured Sharon by saying, "There is no one to threaten you any more." Is it not strange that the peoples of Europe have affirmed in a survey that Israel is the premier State that poses the most important threat to international peace and security?

Let us recall that European States were the ones that supported the Israeli State and that extended support and assistance to it for many years, to the extent of forming a military alliance with it to carry out a tripartite act of aggression against Egypt.

It appears that the Israeli actions that we have witnessed and all the material changes that Israel has made to the Palestinian territories will definitely lead to the establishment of a single State in which there is neither justice nor democracy, characterized by entrenched racism, which denies the Palestinian people their national rights.

In closing, we in the Arab world truly seek a friendship with the United States through the establishment of equitable ties that maintain a balance of interests that brooks no distinction between us and Israel. To that end, the United States must abandon the use of double standards and cease favouring Israel over the entire Arab world.

Implementation of Security Council resolution 1515 (2003) in support of the road map requires the Quartet's active role and pressure on Israel to abide by the will of the international community, so that security and stability can prevail in the Middle East. That can happen only if the United States ends its support for Israel or if the United Nations imposes economic sanctions on Israel. Here, we thank the Secretary-General for his report on the racist separation wall, and we affirm the need for the General Assembly to adopt additional measures, including a request for an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice.

The path to peace can be achieved only if the parties concerned comply with and implement the relevant United Nations resolutions calling for the withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces from Arab territories, the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State, the dismantlement of the settlements and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees, securing their return to their homes.

Mr. Mantovani (Italy)

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union. The acceding countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, the associated countries Bulgaria and Romania, and the European Free Trade Association countries members of the European Economic Area Iceland and Liechtenstein align themselves with this statement.

The Middle East has been through yet another year of violence and tragedy. Bloodshed, confrontations and provocations have been accompanied by violence, terrorism and military measures. And sadly, once again, it has been the ordinary Palestinians and Israelis who have been taken hostage to the conflict and who have paid the price in terms of human suffering, disillusion and mistrust.

The European Union is deeply concerned by the situation in the region and has noted that, despite the support given by the international community to the quest for a just and lasting solution, insufficient effort has been made by the concerned parties to seize the opportunity for peace set out in the Performance-based Road Map to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, presented by the Quartet to the parties on 30 April 2003. We therefore call once again on both parties, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, to live up to the commitments they undertook in this regard at the Aqaba summit on 4 June 2003.

The European Union is firmly committed to the clear objective of two States, Israel and a viable, independent and democratic Palestinian State, living side by side in peace and security, in the framework of comprehensive peace in the Middle East, as laid out in the road map and the relevant Security Council resolutions. We strongly reaffirm the principles stated in the road map. In that respect, the European Union welcomes and emphasizes the unanimous endorsement of the road map made by the Security Council in resolution 1515 (2003).

The European Union also urges all sides in the region to immediately implement policies conducive to dialogue and negotiations. The European Union's relationship with those who take steps to the contrary will be inevitably affected by such behaviour.

The European Union strongly condemns the suicide attacks and other acts of violence that have occurred over the last few months and calls upon all sides to refrain from any provocative action which can further escalate the tension.

Terrorist attacks against Israel have no justification whatsoever and damage the legitimate Palestinian national cause. The European Union reiterates that it is the duty of all countries, including those in the region, to actively cooperate in the fight against terrorism and to abstain from all support, direct or indirect, to terrorist organizations.

The European Union emphasizes once again that, in compliance with the road map, the Palestinian leadership must concretely demonstrate its determination in the fight against extremist violence and urges the Palestinian Government and the Palestinian President to take immediate steps to confront individuals and groups conducting and planning terrorist attacks. The European Union still believes that Palestinian security services should be consolidated under the control of the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior.

While recognizing Israel's right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks, the European Union urges the Government of Israel, in exercising that right, to fully respect international law, in particular human rights law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, to exert maximum effort to avoid civilian casualties and to take no action that aggravates the humanitarian and economic plight of the Palestinian people. It also calls on Israel to abstain from any punitive measures which are not in accordance with international law, including extra-judicial killings.

The European Union is particularly concerned by the route marked out for the so-called security fence in the occupied West Bank. The envisaged departure of the route from the Green Line could prejudge future negotiations and make the two-State solution physically impossible to implement. It would cause further humanitarian and economic hardship for the Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians west of the fence are being cut off from essential services in the West Bank, while Palestinians east of the fence will lose access to land and water resources.

The European Union calls on Israel to stop and reverse its settlement policy and to immediately dismantle settlements built after March 2001. We also call on Israel to lift the blockade on the occupied territories and withdraw its forces from Palestinian cities to the positions held prior to September 2000. Moreover, Israel must ensure the full, safe and unfettered access to the occupied territories by humanitarian personnel and assistance, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

More than ever, a clear political perspective is needed in order to ease tensions and rekindle the hopes and aspirations of the peoples in the region for a peaceful solution to the conflict. In that context, the European Union also welcomes initiatives from civil society on both sides and is ready to further assist in the effort to promote rapprochement, confidence-building and the search for lasting peace.

We are also encouraged by the relatively calm situation of the last few weeks, and we hope that a ceasefire will be agreed soon. We would like to commend the efforts currently made by the Government of Egypt in that regard, as well as the contribution of Jordan and other countries of the region in the efforts to restart the momentum for peace.

Finally, the European Union reiterates once again its determination to contribute to a just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine, based on Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), and resolution 1397 (2002) on the road map presented by the Quartet to the parties on 30 April 2003, accepted by them and endorsed by Security Council resolution 1515 (2003), and stresses the importance and the urgency of setting up a credible and effective third-party monitoring mechanism composed of all members of the Quartet.

Mr. Baali (Algeria)

A problem occurred in a Python script. Here is the sequence of function calls leading up to the error, in the order they occurred.

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>: 'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe0' in position 7241: ordinal not in range(128)
      args = ('ascii', u'\n\t<p id="pg010-bk01-pa01"><a href="/A-58-35" cla...ndependent State with Al Quds as its capital.</p>', 7241, 7242, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
      encoding = 'ascii'
      end = 7242
      message = ''
      object = u'\n\t<p id="pg010-bk01-pa01"><a href="/A-58-35" cla...ndependent State with Al Quds as its capital.</p>'
      reason = 'ordinal not in range(128)'
      start = 7241