General Assembly Session 61 meeting 60

The President

The situation in the Middle East region still represents a serious conflict that requires action to confront the present dangers and their grave regional and international repercussions. This calls for maximum efforts to reach an internationally agreed comprehensive and lasting settlement to put an end to all conflicts in the region, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

We should not ignore the gravity of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, since the elevation of poverty levels and unemployment, already high, and the deterioration of vital civil infrastructure, in addition to shortages of food, water, electricity and other basic necessities, as is the case in the Gaza Strip, aggravate the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people and can exacerbate tendencies towards violence and hatred and encourage extremism. The continuing deterioration of the situation is reason enough for the international community, including civil society, to make every possible effort to put an end to the killing machines on both sides. The lives of civilians should be preserved and protected at any price possible.

This situation also calls for a resumption and activation of dialogue and the political process. We are all aware that the solution to this conflict can only be achieved politically. Therefore, all resolutions adopted by the international community should be implemented forthwith, and the cycle of violence and counter-violence should come to an end, since it can only produce further losses in life and property for both sides. Positive steps as well must be taken immediately to reach a peaceful, comprehensive, lasting and just solution based on two States living side by side within secure and internationally recognized borders.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which has lasted for more than half a century, represents one of the main areas of grave concern for the international community. A solution to that conflict would open the door for a comprehensive political settlement that can encourage political and economic stability in the Middle East region.

I would now like to give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Paul Badji of Senegal, in his capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, who will introduce draft resolutions A/61/L.31 to A/61/L.34, in the course of his statement.

Mr. Badji (Senegal)

In an unequivocal show of support for the Palestinian people in its quest for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the question of Palestine, Member States, observers, representatives of intergovernmental organizations and civil society addressed the special meeting of our Committee this morning to observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I would like to thank them for that support and for their active interest and involvement in the search for a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Before I introduce for the Assembly's consideration the four resolutions prepared by our Committee under agenda item 14 of the General Assembly at its sixty-first session, allow me to make some brief remarks as regards the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and developments in the political process.

The Committee is very concerned about the rapidly deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem. Again, it is the Palestinian population in Gaza that bears the brunt of this situation, but the Palestinian people as a whole endure daily hardship and humiliation as a direct consequence of the policies and practices of Israel, the occupying Power.

The withdrawal of the Israeli army and settlers from the Gaza Strip last year did not create the anticipated and much-needed momentum for the resumption of the political dialogue between the parties. The Israeli Government did not engage the Palestinian Authority as a political partner, opting instead for a unilateral approach. The consequences of this are evident today.

There was no progress in the political area, either immediately after the pullout or in the course of the months that followed. The agreement on movement and access from and to Gaza existed largely on paper. The border crossings have remained closed for long periods of time, especially since last June. In the West Bank, the number of checkpoints has increased during this year by one third, effectively dividing the territory into three separated cantons. The results are painfully familiar: a stifled economy, rising unemployment and widespread poverty and despair among the Palestinian people. This additional aggravation of the situation of the Palestinian people is accompanied by the already notorious practices of the occupying Power: intensified expansion of settlements in the West Bank, including around East Jerusalem with the "E 1 plan" -- a premeditated land confiscation of previously unseen proportions; the acceleration in the construction of the illegal wall in the occupied Palestinian territory; continued Israeli incursions into Palestinian population centres throughout the year; extrajudicial killings; house demolitions; daily arrests, including arbitrary detention of Palestinian Authority officials and Palestinian Legislative Council members. That has been compounded over the past few months by intensified air strikes and artillery and tank shelling of the Gaza Strip, with all of their deadly consequences for the innocent civilian population.

Speaking in the Security Council on 9 November 2006 and to the General Assembly, which met in an emergency special session on 17 November 2006, I expressed the Committee's strong condemnation of the Israeli incursions into Gaza, the grossly disproportionate use of force and the enormous and widespread devastation caused by the heavy weaponry. The Committee has also called on Palestinian groups to stop the firing of Qassam rockets and other weapons from the northern Gaza Strip into Israel, which has recently claimed the lives of two Israeli civilians and critically injured others. The Committee strongly condemns any act leading to the killing of innocent civilians by either side. It calls for an end to the spiral of violence, which will not contribute to reducing tensions or to creating conditions conducive to a resumption of peace negotiations.

The recently agreed ceasefire in Gaza, confirmed by the President of the Palestinian Authority, His Excellency Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. Ehud Olmert, is a very welcome sign that both parties wish to step back from the violence and put an end to the warfare. The ceasefire must be adhered to scrupulously by both parties. A favourable situation has thus now been created, and that precious advance must be strengthened, without delay, by tangible political steps that would demonstrate the intention of all concerned -- including those in the field -- to give dialogue and negotiations a real chance.

At this critical time, on behalf of the Committee, I call upon the Government of Israel to refrain from all actions that may destabilize the situation further, in particular its disproportionate use of military force and the settlement activity on Palestinian lands, including the construction of the West Bank wall. Israel will need to take steps to significantly improve the humanitarian situation of the Palestinians, in particular by lifting the curfew, easing restrictions on the movement of persons and goods and resuming the return of Palestinian tax payments that have been unjustly retained. The past year has clearly demonstrated that neither the use of force, nor unilateral steps will bring the parties any closer to a solution of the conflict.

Events in the wider Middle East region have only reconfirmed the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for peace and security in the region. The Committee continues to support the efforts by the Quartet to unblock the stalemate in the political process and to resume meaningful negotiations between the parties. It is encouraged by steps undertaken by major regional stakeholders, such as the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference and some of its member States, to advance the Arab Peace Initiative.

The Non-Aligned Movement and other organizations have called for an international conference on peace in the Middle East. It would be desirable for that idea to gain momentum and be developed further in accordance with the concrete suggestions put forward by Spain and France.

Our Committee firmly believes that the United Nations, for its part, must continue to maintain its permanent responsibility towards the question of Palestine, until it is genuinely resolved in all its aspects. Here, it is particularly crucial for the Security Council to live up to its central role under the Charter for maintaining international peace and security. The request for monthly briefings on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine question, is an expression of the Council's preoccupation with the conflict. What is needed, though, is concerted action towards the realization of its decisions.

Ultimately, it is the implementation of the United Nations resolutions, in particular Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and 1515 (2003), that will lead to a permanent two-State solution -- Palestine and Israel -- based on the 1967 borders, and the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people as they have been defined by this Assembly.

In that context, I would like to introduce to the General Assembly the four draft resolutions approved by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and circulated under the agenda item, namely A/61/L.31, A/61/L.32, A/61/L.33 and A/61/L.34. Allow me first to inform you that the following countries have associated themselves with the sponsors of the four draft resolutions as follows: the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Sierra Leone with draft resolution A/61/L.31; Sierra Leone with draft resolution A/61/L.32; Sierra Leone and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) with draft resolution A/61/L.33 and finally Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) with draft resolution A/61/L.34.

The first three drafts deal with the work of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, the tasks of the Division for Palestinian Rights, and the special information programme on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information. The draft resolutions reaffirm the important mandates entrusted to those entities by the General Assembly. As in the past, the Committee intends to make sure that resources available to it are employed in a cost-effective manner for all mandated activities.

The fourth draft (A/61/L.34), entitled "Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine", reiterates the position of the General Assembly with regard to the essential elements of such a settlement and also includes references to the developments of the past year. In particular, this year's draft emphasizes the central role the Security Council should play in the efforts towards achieving a peaceful settlement of the question and encourages all actors of the international community, including the Quartet, to take immediate steps supporting the resumption of peace negotiations.

The four draft resolutions that I have just introduced outline positions, mandates and programmes that are of special importance, particularly at the present critical stage. I would therefore like to call on the General Assembly to vote in favour of the draft resolutions and to support the important goals contained therein.

The President

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Victor Camilleri of Malta, Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, who will introduce the Committee's report.

Mr. Camilleri (Malta)

In my capacity as Rapporteur of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I have the honour to present to the General Assembly the annual report of the Committee, contained in document A/61/35. Allow me to summarize each section of the report.

Chapter I contains the introduction, outlining 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 for 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 and the relevant political developments as monitored by the Committee during the year. This review includes the conduct of the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in January 2006 and the swearing-in of the new Palestinian Government in March 2006; the reaction by the international community to the electoral results and subsequent cessation of major direct donor assistance; the withholding of Palestinian tax revenue transfers by Israel; the efforts by the Palestinian leadership to resolve the internal difficulties; the escalation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, resulting in many casualties among Palestinians due to Israel's disproportionate use of force, but also among Israeli civilians following suicide bombings.

The chapter also deals with Israel's intensified military operations in the Gaza Strip and a further worsening of the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reviews other issues of concern to the Committee, including Israel's "convergence plan", the continued construction of the separation wall, the settlement expansion, the continued incarceration of Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities, the situation with respect to water resources available to the Palestinians, and the operational difficulties faced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. In this chapter, the Committee strongly condemns the policy and practice of extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, as well as all attacks against Israeli civilians in Israel.

Chapter V reviews the action taken by the Committee. It is divided into two main sections. Section A describes action in the Security Council, as well as statements issued by the Bureau of the Committee. It also contains information on the participation by the Chairman at international forums. Section B contains a detailed account of the implementation of the programme of work of the Committee and the Division. It also provides information on the continued dialogue between the Committee and members of the European Union and other intergovernmental organizations.

Subsection 1 gives an account of the various international meetings and conferences organized in the course of the year. Subsections 2 to 7 deal with the Committee's cooperation with intergovernmental organizations and civil society; research, monitoring and publications work of the Division; 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 60/38 of 1 December 2005.

The last chapter of the report, chapter VII, contains the conclusions and recommendations of the Committee. In this chapter, the Committee expresses particular concern at the Israeli incursions into Gaza during the recent months and its destructive effects on the Palestinian people and on their hopes for peace. It reminds Israel, the occupying Power, that it is bound by the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which obliges the parties to protect civilians during hostilities. It calls on Israel to end its incursions into Gaza, cease offensive military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory, withdraw its forces to their original positions outside Gaza, and release, immediately and unconditionally, all imprisoned cabinet members and parliamentarians, as well as other Palestinian prisoners.

The Committee strongly condemns the killing of innocent civilians by either side, denounces rocket attacks on Israel and calls for a cessation of these activities by the Palestinian armed groups. The Committee strongly opposes the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and efforts to complete the construction of the wall on Palestinian land, as well as the Israeli Government's intention to expand large settlement blocks in the West Bank.

The Committee welcomes the signing of the National Conciliation Document by the major Palestinian political organizations, the decision to form a national unity government, and the designation of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as the person in charge of negotiations with Israel. It calls on the international community to focus on practical and meaningful benchmarks to engage all parties to achieve a mutual ceasefire and support major international peace efforts, including the Arab Peace Initiative and the Road Map. The Committee reiterates that only a negotiated solution can bring about the goal of a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question of Palestine through the establishment of two States, Israel and Palestine, based on the 1967 borders.

The Committee emphasizes the essential contribution of the Division for Palestinian Rights in support of its mandate aimed at enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights.

The Committee stresses that its programme of international meetings and conferences contributes to focusing the attention of Governments, intergovernmental and civil society organizations and the general public on issues critical for advancing a peaceful settlement of the conflict. In this regard, the Committee intends to focus international events to be organized under its auspices in 2007 on a member of specific issues.

The Committee commends civil society organizations for the efforts at upholding international legitimacy with regard to the question of Palestine through advocacy and the mobilization of public opinion and for their initiatives aimed at alleviating the plight of the Palestinian people. The Committee expresses its intention to work to involve parliamentarians in its programme of international meetings and conferences.

The Committee requests the Division for Palestinian Rights to continue its substantive and secretariat support; the programme of research, monitoring and publications and other informational activities, such as the further expansion and development of UNISPAL, including the graphic enhancement of the "Question of Palestine" web site; the annual training programme for staff of the Palestinian Authority; and the annual observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

The Committee requests that the special information programme on the question of Palestine of the Department of Public Information be continued, with the necessary flexibility, as warranted by developments relevant to the question of Palestine.

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

In closing, I would like to express the hope that the report I have just presented will be of assistance to the Assembly in its deliberations on the question of Palestine.

The President

I now give the floor to His Excellency Mr. Farouk Kaddoumi, chairman of the observer delegation of Palestine.

Mr. Kadoumi (Palestine)

Allow me at the outset to express our profound gratitude to you, Madam President, for your outstanding leadership and stewardship in presiding over the General Assembly at its sixty-first session. At the same time, I have the pleasure to thank the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its Chairman, Ambassador Paul Badji, as well as the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights, for all their efforts and hard work of preservation, which make the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People an event of worldwide importance that is commemorated today in almost every country throughout the world.

On this important occasion, it is necessary to remember that it was due to the support of peace-loving nations that the Palestine Liberation Organization was recognized by the General Assembly, through its resolution 3236 (XXIX) of 22 November 1974, which reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people in Palestine, including the right to self-determination without external interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty.

Throughout the 1980s, the support of peace-loving friendly nations was monumental in influencing governmental decisions in the right direction with a view to achieving peace and justice in the Middle East, with the question of Palestine occupying a central role in efforts to achieve peace and security in the whole Arab, Islamic and Mediterranean region.

Following the first Palestinian intifada, the Palestine National Council was held in Algiers in November 1988. It adopted the Declaration of Independence, which was duly recognized by the General Assembly on 15 December 1988. General Assembly resolution 43/177 acknowledged the proclamation of the State of Palestine by the Palestinian National Council on 15 November 1988 and decided that, as of that date, the designation "Palestine" should be used in place of the designation "Palestine Liberation Organization" (PLO) in the United Nations system, in conformity with relevant United Nations resolutions and practice.

Throughout the 1990s, several peace initiatives were launched, starting with the Madrid Peace process, in 1991, which was followed by the Oslo Accords of 1993. That led to the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority in the occupied Palestinian territory and all the ensuing agreements, such as the Wye Plantation and Taba agreements.

It is also worth noting that the Palestine Liberation Organization has always been prompt in accepting most of the international peace initiatives that have been proposed, and therefore that the responsibility for the failure and lack of implementation of most of those peace initiatives does not lie with the PLO.

At the beginning of this new century, Arab kings and heads of State unanimously adopted the Arab Peace Initiative during the 2002 Arab Summit in Beirut. That was followed by the Road Map launched by the Quartet, namely, the United States, the Russian Federation, the European Union and the United Nations -- a plan that is supposed to be implemented under their auspices and that to this day remains the main internationally recognized framework for achieving a peace settlement.

The Road Map was a creation of the United States in 2003, but was stillborn as a result of Sharon's 14 reservations, followed by the five guarantees given by President Bush to Sharon in 2004. This has impeded the realization of that initiative and has enabled Israel to proceed with its unilateral policy in which the Palestinian leadership was considered a non-partner.

The negative approach to peace of the United States and Israel led to the late President Arafat's being placed under house arrest for more than two years before he passed away under suspicious circumstances that suggested poisoning. No international body was designated to launch an investigation into his passing, despite the fact that several Israeli statements and declarations had characterized him as the main obstacle to peace and called for his removal and demise. This disregarded the fact that in 1993, Arafat and Rabin, his main partner in the peace process, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Rabin was also assassinated by the Israelis. The guarantees offered by President Bush to Sharon on 14 April 2004 are one of the most recent examples of the ambiguous United States approach to peace.

By 2003, Israel, instead of starting to implement the steps required for a peaceful settlement in accordance with the Road Map, had intensified the building of the apartheid wall, which represents a grave violation of human rights, international law and international humanitarian law, specifically the Fourth Geneva Convention. On 21 October 2003, the General Assembly adopted resolution ES-10/13 following the Security Council's failure to adopt a binding resolution on that question. After the issuing of the Secretary-General's report (A/ES-10/248) concerning Israel's disregard of that resolution, the General Assembly, meeting in emergency special session -- based on resolution 377 A (V) of 1950, entitled "Uniting for Peace" -- convened on 8 December 2003. That meeting saw the adoption of resolution ES-10/14, requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the matter.

The hearings of the Court concerning the wall started on 23 February 2004 and ended with the issuing of the Court's advisory opinion on 9 July 2004, which called for the immediate cessation of the building of the separation wall. The wall stands 8 metres high and is designed to stretch over 800 kilometres, cutting Palestinian villages and cities off from one another and preventing farmers from reaching their lands and an entire population from gaining access to most of its water resources. If completed, it will have a serious and dangerous impact on the lives and livelihoods of approximately 1 million Palestinian civilians, while resulting in the annexation of 55 per cent of the occupied Palestinian territory.

The Advisory Opinion called on Israel's friends to consider it an outlaw State in case of non-compliance. Despite the Advisory Opinion's emanating from the highest international judicial body, Israel proceeded with its plan, and the wall, which was 185 kilometres long in 2004, has stretched to 388 kilometres two years later. This led a number of human rights organizations to send a letter to all the States Members of the United Nations requesting the Secretary-General to call for the resumption of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, which would call for the activation of the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion due to Israel's non-compliance with the will of the international community and its total disrespect and disregard for the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of July 2004.

In August 2005, however, the Israeli army decided to act unilaterally by evacuating its settlements and redeploying its military forces in Gaza. While pretending that it was withdrawing, it in fact kept its control over air and sea and over all land entrances to Gaza, besieging an already war-torn economy and a pauperized population.

In November 2005, a report on the difficult situation imposed by the Israeli occupation on the city of Jerusalem was issued by European diplomats living in Jerusalem and Ramallah, deducing that "Israel's activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its road map obligations and international law". While Israel continues to suffocate the holy city of Jerusalem, it is also implementing its plans to annex the Jordan Valley through the expulsion of the Palestinian population from the Valley.

All such actions have been taken in order to fit in with Olmert's plan, which he had named the "convergence" plan and which meant, in fact, convergence towards permanent borders in the near future. Olmert's convergence plan involved keeping a hold on settlement blocs while evacuating other West Bank settlements.

Throughout 2005, repression in the occupied Palestinian territory increased on all fronts. Arrests and targeted assassinations were daily practices, and over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners were still in Israeli jails, with Israel refusing to free them or to reconsider their cases through negotiations.

It is therefore imperative to emphasize that conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory had not improved, but rather deteriorated throughout a decade of painful and thorny negotiations since the launching of a lengthy and inconclusive process, starting with the Madrid initiative in 1991 and followed by the Oslo Accords of 1993 and all other related agreements.

Contrary to all agreements and peace initiatives, the building and expansion of settlements increased throughout the period of Ariel Sharon's Government, leading to the destruction of Palestinian livelihood through the bulldozing of a million olive trees, the destruction of orchards and 17,000 Palestinian homes, the restriction of movement for an already impoverished population and its deprival of any possible means of livelihood, leading to an unprecedented high rate of unemployment, which reached 87 per cent in the occupied Palestinian territory.

That stifling of the population increased while Israel, the occupying Power, invented all kinds of excuses to stall the peace process and, at the same time, never fulfilled the different mandates and time limits, using a policy of perpetual postponement of negotiations in order to avoid launching final status negotiations and making the realization of the two-State solution an impossible aim.

Such postponement and short-circuiting of the peace process, has been, unfortunately, approved and even reinforced by the dual policy of the United States, which, while encouraging different peace initiatives and offering to act as a sponsor or peace broker, has kept on approving and encouraging Israeli postponements, reservations and non-compliance with all such initiatives.

The year 2005 witnessed the United States experimentation with new formulas of democratic elections and the imposition of American-style elections on an exhausted population suffering from almost 40 years of occupation, instead of using its clout to impose the long-sought settlement, which, according to all United Nations resolutions, requires the withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces. In particular, Security Council resolution 242 (1967) emphasizes clearly the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and has called since 1967 for the withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the conflict, along with a series of other required measures to reach a peace settlement.

The results of the Palestinian legislative elections that were held in January 2006 upon United States persistence and insistence, disregarding the priority of ending the occupation, were apparently a severe blow to the United States dreams of finally dealing with a subservient new leadership that would follow a different policy than that followed by the late leader President Arafat.

Moreover, the results of the recent elections have in fact proved that the reading of the United States of the facts on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory was completely erroneous and that the impoverished Palestinian population had been frustrated by long years of inconclusive and futile negotiations that had led to a worsening of their human, social and economic situation. The wall was expanding; the checkpoints were increasing; assassinations, with all their collateral damage, including the murder of innocent children, were on the rise; the more than 10,000 prisoners languishing in Israeli jails were not being released; over a million olive trees had been uprooted and 17,000 homes destroyed; while the late President Arafat, the leader who had agreed to all the required concessions imposed on the Palestinian leadership through the Oslo Accords, had been removed.

Nothing in the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian population between November 2004 and January 2006 had improved; in fact, things were getting worse. On 5 April 2006, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development published a study entitled "The Palestinian war-torn economy", calling for an international strategy to aid the Palestinian economy after 40 years of occupation and to engage on the path of sustainable development and State formation.

In April 2006, a United Nations document entitled "Assessment of the future humanitarian risks in the occupied Palestinian territory" was issued, warning of an extremely bleak humanitarian situation for the Palestinian people in the following months.

On 9 May 2006, the Quartet issued a declaration that pointed to the material aspects on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory, such as the catastrophic and deteriorating humanitarian and social conditions. While taking into consideration all the positive elements, including those contained in the Quartet declarations, it did not specify that the main reason for the deterioration of these conditions was the perpetuation of Israel's miserable occupation.

Despite all the warnings issued in the first half of 2006 by responsible parties representing international legitimacy, concerning an impending worsening humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territory due to a policy of collective punishment imposed on an unarmed civilian population, Israel, the occupying Power, continued to impose a policy of deliberate starvation, punishing the Palestinian people for simply electing their chosen representatives, which happened, unfortunately, to be not to the liking of Israel and the United States. These two highly moralistic Powers are of course free to choose their own representatives, even when they happen to be neoconservatives, evangelical zealots or racists calling for ethnic purification, as the new Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, and others have done.

Despite the worsening humanitarian situation, a horrendous terrorist massacre was perpetrated by the Israeli military forces against innocent unarmed besieged Palestinian civilians on a Gaza beach on 9 June 2006, when a poor Palestinian family picnicking on the beach was completely destroyed, leaving only one little orphan girl as a survivor. This massacre was perpetrated for no obvious logical reason, except perhaps to rekindle the fires of war in the impoverished Gaza Strip while providing an excuse to reoccupy the territory from which Sharon had withdrawn his military months before.

The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory had therefore acquired catastrophic dimensions on the political, economic and humanitarian levels when, on 25 June 2006, a desperate group of Palestinian militants single-handedly attempted to alleviate the blockade on the Palestinian population by attacking Sofa and Karam Salem, one of the checkpoints used to strangle the Palestinian population. This led to the deaths of two soldiers and the abduction of a third. The militants had hoped that by holding a prisoner of war they might gain leverage in a legal exchange of prisoners between the two sides. We are talking here about only one Israeli soldier, while there are 10,000 Palestinian civilians in Israeli jails.

Instead of seeking to diffuse the crisis by accepting to relinquish some of the 10,000 prisoners, including women and children, held for years and even decades in their jails, in exchange for one Israeli prisoner -- a military man -- Israel again decided to proceed with additional war crimes, repeatedly raiding and pounding the civilian infrastructure in the already impoverished Gaza Strip, blowing up houses, bridges and electric power stations. According to article 54 of Additional Protocol I to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, such action constitutes a war crime, since it states clearly that it is prohibited to use starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare and to attack, occupy and destroy the vital means of livelihood necessary for the survival of civilians.

On 13 July 2006, a Security Council meeting was held to consider the adoption of a draft resolution that would free the abducted Israeli soldier through an exchange involving Palestinian prisoners of war and to call for a ceasefire and a cessation of Israeli hostilities and military incursions in the Gaza Strip. But the United States kindly vetoed the draft. That of course made matters worse and led to the increase of violence at an unprecedented rate in the Gaza Strip. Concurrently, Israel pursued a policy of systematic abductions of elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, which constituted another blatant violation of international legitimacy.

On 12 July 2006, Lebanese militants from the Lebanese resistance movement decided to abduct two Israeli soldiers from the Israeli army of occupation -- which still occupies stretches of Lebanese land and which constantly harasses the civilian population in the south of Lebanon -- hoping again to reach a fair deal in the exchange of the abducted soldiers for Lebanese prisoners of war.

Once again, Israel chose the course of war and destruction rather than entering into peaceful negotiations for an exchange of prisoners, and decided to indulge in a war of unprecedented destruction against the whole of the Lebanese civilian population.

Israel's failure to attain its aims in Lebanon after devastating it finally led the United States to accept Security Council resolution 1701 (2006) which called for a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon on 11 August 2006. In its paragraph 11, the resolution called upon and authorized the Government of Lebanon and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon to deploy their forces in the south of the country and called upon the Government of Israel, in parallel, to withdraw all its forces from southern Lebanon as that redeployment began.

Several interpretations of that resolution followed, a current one being that it was accepted by the United States in order to save face for the Israeli army rather than to protect the Lebanese civilian population. However, consensus remains among the international community concerning the need for a parallel resolution for the Palestinian territory, that is, a resolution calling for a ceasefire, the cessation of all hostilities and the withdrawal of the Israeli army to recognized international borders, or at least to agreed-upon borders.

However, what is happening as far as Palestine is concerned is the opposite. Israeli raids, incursions, targeted assassinations, arrests and abductions of elected officials are daily activities, with such violent measures reaching a climax during the Beit Hanoun massacre of 8 November 2006, when innocent women and children were murdered while sleeping in their homes, as a result of the incessant ravages of Israeli raids.

Once again, the United States vetoed, on 11 November 2006, another resolution calling for an end to the hostilities and also condemning the Israeli-perpetrated massacre in Beit Hanoun.

Nevertheless, the General Assembly -- meeting on 17 November 2006 at its tenth emergency special session -- adopted, by 156 votes in favour, a resolution condemning the massacre, thereby proving once again that all of the free and peace-loving nations of the world are on the side of justice and fairness and do not fall into the trap of bias, one-sidedness and double standards, as expressed by the United States veto in the Security Council.

Moreover, it is worth noting that the Human Rights Council has twice adopted resolutions calling for the dispatch of fact-finding missions to the occupied Palestinian territory, despite Israel's continued rejection of such missions. The last such resolution was adopted on 15 November 2006.

The inability of the United Nations to implement its own resolutions and its tendency to succumb to the various diversionary tactics used by the United States and Israel has given rise to a sense of disillusionment among all Palestinians concerning the role of the United Nations as peacemaker and peacekeeper with respect to the question of Palestine -- a role it has been playing since 1947.

We therefore find it necessary at this point to draw the attention of the members of the Quartet to certain logical flaws concerning the implied responsibility of the present democratically elected Palestinian National Authority Government -- a Government elected under their own supervision -- for the continuation of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory and for the failure of the peace process, overlooking the fact that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are still occupied territories and that Israel, the occupying Power, continues to take all kinds of violent and repressive actions against an unarmed civilian population.

Despite the Palestine Liberation Organization's acquiescence to all the conditions included in the various peace initiatives, consecutive Israeli Governments have continued to carry out repressive policies of all kinds and collective punishment against the unarmed Palestinian population, starting with the breaking of bones and followed by a policy of assassinations, arrests, preventive detentions and the imposition of military curfews, sieges and inhuman checkpoints, and, finally, by the building of the apartheid wall, whose stranglehold has transformed Palestinian cities and towns into huge, collective prison cells and ghettoes.

Unfortunately, the Quartet, which has the responsibility of applying the Road Map plan of 2003, has obviously not made the efforts required to put it into actual application. Its deeds remain at the level of rhetorical statements and inconclusive meetings and press statements.

Despite the positive and encouraging stand of the Russian Federation, one of the Quartet's main partners, which has always expressed a firm and principled stand in support of justice and peace in the Middle East, and in spite of the advanced positions expressed by various European countries, such as Spain, Italy and France, which have recently put forth a new initiative for the holding of an international conference, the actual implementation of practical measures to end the occupation has until now been stalled. No real pressure has been exerted on Israel, the occupying Power, to implement its side of the agreements, despite the fact that European nations have the moral and material power to do so.

The use by Western countries of moral standards that are unfair and of a terminology that often equates the victim with the aggressor, and an occupied, repressed and unarmed population with the Israeli army of occupation, the fourth most powerful army in the world -- not to mention the fact that Israel is a nuclear Power -- has been frustrating to the Palestinian people. Indeed, the Palestinians suffer not only from the consequences of occupation and poverty but also from the injustice of a new world order that not only confuses the aggressor with the aggressed but also blames the weaker side and accuses it of terrorist acts, not daring to describe as acts of terror the murderous, devastating warfare launched by powerful armies against civilian populations and infrastructures, and ignoring the legal distinction between resistance against occupation and terrorism.

Once again, it is necessary to point out that the responsibility for the failure to proceed with the implementation of the Road Map, which was supposed to have reached its final stages in 2005 -- President Bush postponed it to 2009 -- does not lie with the Palestinian side, since the whole initiative was stillborn owing to Sharon's 14 reservations, as I mentioned earlier, and the assurances that were later granted to him by President Bush himself in April 2004 in order to guarantee his re-election.

Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize, at this critical juncture, the fact that the Palestine Liberation Organization has recognized all relevant Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, as well as the main peace initiatives, especially the latest Road Map plan. It staunchly adheres to international legitimacy and legality while still firmly believing in the capacity of the Quartet -- which represents the main great military as well as moral Powers of today's world -- to implement it, through the acquiescence of the two main parties to the conflict, namely the Palestine Liberation Organization, as the main legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, and the State of Israel, which, in its capacity as the occupying Power and as the most powerful party to the conflict, retains primary control of the means of resolving the conflict.

On that basis, we think that it is unnecessary and perhaps even futile for the international community to concentrate so many efforts and exert so much energy in pressuring the Palestinian National Authority Government, which is a local Government and has only local and limited powers, by imposing all forms of collective punishment on the totality of the Palestinian people, instead of pooling all our energies to solve the crux of the problem by calling for the withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces and relieving the Palestinian population from all the pain they are enduring.

We have come to the United Nations today, still holding the olive branch, as did our late President in 1974. Past events, however, as well as the current configuration of forces, have proved that more than good will is required to achieve peace. A firm stand and actions are needed, so that international legitimacy and United Nations resolutions can finally be adequately implemented. We firmly believe that the United Nations is capable of protecting the ever-suffering Palestinian population by insisting on the deployment of its forces in the Palestinian territory. The Organization does so in other parts of the world, such as in the Sudan, where it is currently insisting on deployment, against the will of the Sudanese Government. It does so in spite of the short time span of the conflict there, compared to the lengthy ordeal imposed on and the war crimes committed against the Palestinian people over the last 40 years.

We, therefore, call on the international community to support the Palestinian cause for peace, so that the year 2007, which will mark the fortieth year of occupation, will see progress along the road to the achievement of a just and comprehensive settlement in the Middle East, allowing the Palestinians to exercise their inalienable rights and to establish their fully independent and sovereign Palestinian State. This would finally allow them and their neighbours to live in peace and harmony and would be in the best interest of world peace, stability and security.

I wish all delegates peace in the forthcoming year.

--> -->

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>

Python 2.6.6: /usr/bin/python Tue May 21 12:16:19 2013

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

/data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in ()

194 if __name__ == "__main__":

195     pathpart = os.getenv("PATH_INFO")

196     maintrunk(pathpart)

197

198

maintrunk = <function maintrunk>, pathpart = '/generalassembly_61/meeting_60'

/data/vhost/www.undemocracy.com/docs/trunk.py in maintrunk(pathpart='/generalassembly_61/meeting_60')

131     elif pagefunc == "gameeting":

132         LogIncomingDB(hmap["docid"], hmap["gadice"] or "0", referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl)

133         WriteHTML(hmap["htmlfile"], hmap["pdfinfo"], hmap["gadice"], hmap["highlightdoclink"])

134     elif pagefunc == "agendanumexpanded":

135         LogIncomingDB(pagefunc, hmap["agendanum"], referrer, ipaddress, useragent, remadeurl)

global WriteHTML = <function WriteHTML>, hmap = {'docid': 'A-61-PV.60', 'gadice': '', 'gameeting': 60, 'gasession': 61, 'highlightdoclink': None, 'htmlfile': '/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-61-PV.60.html', 'pagefunc': 'gameeting', 'pdfinfo': <pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>}

/home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteHTML(fhtml='/home/undemocracy/undata/html/A-61-PV.60.html', pdfinfo=<pdfinfo.PdfInfo instance>, gadice='', highlightth=None)

322         if dclass == "spoken":

323             if not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice:

324                 WriteSpoken(gid, dtextmu, councilpresidentnation)

325         elif dclass == "subheading":

326             if agendagidcurrent and (not gadice or agendagidcurrent == gadice):

global WriteSpoken = <function WriteSpoken>, gid = u'pg011-bk01', dtextmu = u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Ms. N\xfa\xf1e...alestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital.</p>', councilpresidentnation = None

/home/undemocracy/unparse-live/web2/unpvmeeting.py in WriteSpoken(gid=u'pg011-bk01', dtext=u'<h3 class="speaker"> <span class="name">Ms. N\xfa\xf1e...alestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital.</p>', councilpresidentnation=None)

62

63     if personlink:

64         print '<a class="name" href="%s">%s</a>' % (personlink, name),

65     else:

66         print '<span class="name">%s</span>' % name

personlink = u'/Cuba/mordoche', name = u'Ms. N\xfa\xf1ez Mordoche'

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>: 'ascii' codec can't encode characters in position 43-44: ordinal not in range(128)
      args = ('ascii', u'<a class="name" href="/Cuba/mordoche">Ms. N\xfa\xf1ez Mordoche</a>', 43, 45, 'ordinal not in range(128)')
      encoding = 'ascii'
      end = 45
      message = ''
      object = u'<a class="name" href="/Cuba/mordoche">Ms. N\xfa\xf1ez Mordoche</a>'
      reason = 'ordinal not in range(128)'
      start = 43