Security Council meeting 4204-Resu.1

The President

I should like to inform the Council that I have received letters from the representatives of Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, the Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Viet Nam in which they request to be invited to participate in the discussion of the item on the Council's agenda. In accordance with the usual practice, I propose, with the consent of the Council, to invite those representatives to participate in the discussion without the right to vote, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Charter and rule 37 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

The President

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter dated 2 October 2000 from the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which reads as follows:

"In my capacity as Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, I have the honour to request that I be invited to participate in the debate on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, under rule 39 of the provisional rules of procedure of the Security Council."

On previous occasions, the Security Council has extended invitations to representatives of other United Nations bodies in connection with the consideration of matters on its agenda. In accordance with past practice in this matter, I propose that the Council extend an invitation under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure to the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter dated 3 October 2000 from the Permanent Representative of Tunisia to the United Nations, which reads as follows:

"I have the honour to request that the Security Council extend an invitation, under rule 39 of its provisional rules of procedure, to Hussein Hassouna, Ambassador, Permanent Observer for the League of Arab States to the United Nations, to participate in the Council's forthcoming discussions on the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories."

That letter has been published as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/2000/939.

If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council agrees to extend an invitation under rule 39 to Mr. Hussein Hassouna.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

I should like to inform the Council that I have received a letter dated 3 October 2000 from the Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations, which reads as follows:

"I have the honour in my capacity as Chairman of the Islamic Group of the United Nations to request that the Security Council extend an invitation to participate in the discussion under rule 39 of the Council's provisional rules of procedure to His Excellency Mr. Mokhtar Lamani, Permanent Observer of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the United Nations, during the Council's discussion on the item entitled `The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question', scheduled for Wednesday, 4 October 2000."

That letter will be published as a document of the Security Council under the symbol S/2000/951.

If I hear no objection, I shall take it that the Council agrees to extend an invitation under rule 39 to Mr. Lamani.

There being no objection, it is so decided.

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Algeria. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Baali (Algeria)

Despite the tragic circumstances in which this first meeting of the Security Council under your presidency, Sir, is being held, I should like to express my joy and pride at seeing you, a worthy son of Africa, following another worthy son of Africa at the helm of the Council.

I am convinced that the great professional and human qualities that all of your colleagues recognize in you will enable you to conduct the work of the Council as brilliantly as did your predecessor, my brother Ambassador Moctar Ouane of Mali -- who has earned our gratitude and admiration -- during a particularly busy month, when heads of State and Government honoured us with their presence, including in this very Chamber.

I thank you for the opportunity to participate in these deliberations. I should like to make a few comments concerning the way the Security Council functions and its attitude towards deciding the timeliness of convening or not convening a formal meeting.

Increasingly, the consultations of the Council have indeed been delayed and dragged out beyond measure over the question of whether or not to meet in public, even when a request for such a meeting has been submitted by one or several regional groups; over the principle of whether or not to involve non-members of the Council; over the issue of whether or not to limit, out of considerations that are not always well founded, the right of certain countries to speak; and even over the merit of calling on speakers to adopt a particular tone in debates.

As if it were not enough that the Council's way of doing business already causes sufficient problems and that its methods already need revision and improvement, attempts are now being made to restrict access to it.

I wish to remind the Council that it is my understanding and that of the States Members of this Organization that it is the absolute right of any Member State to call for a public meeting and that it is also the absolute right of any State to speak in a debate and to adopt the tone it deems appropriate.

For a number of States Members of this Organization, and certainly for its weakest and smallest, the United Nations remains the ultimate forum in which they can, in all freedom and without fear, express their opinions, their expectations and even their frustrations and anger when the international community is incapable of protecting women and children from the deadly madness of men in the Middle East, in Africa, Europe or elsewhere.

To restrict the right to speak and to prefer the secrecy of consultations -- which may occasionally prove to be useful and necessary -- to frank, transparent and open debate is undemocratic and contrary to the very principles of our Organization. If this regrettable trend continues, we may one day find ourselves reduced to contemplating the famous statement of a French revolutionary: "All we have left is the right to keep quiet and there has been talk of stripping us of that". This situation only makes the reform of the Security Council even more urgent. Perhaps it is time for us seriously to tackle this question.

For several days now the populations of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the occupied Palestinian territories have been the objects of a repression the likes of which has rarely been seen since the intifada. Children and adolescents, armed only with their faith in the justice of their cause, and having nothing to protect themselves besides the pathetic means of defence that nature offers them, are, in effect, facing an incredible deployment of force involving tanks, missiles and helicopter gunships.

The result of this obviously unfair confrontation -- can we really talk about a confrontation? -- is that scores of innocent people, including very young children, including even today a 10-year-old child in the Gaza Strip -- have been killed in cold blood by bullets. Meanwhile, to fight their murderers these young people have had only their fists and their stones, and even the ambulances bearing the flag of the Red Cross have been fired at.

Over these past days we have all witnessed this barbaric behaviour of another age. We all saw live on our television screens the unbearable sight of that 12-year-old child who was cruelly killed despite the supplications of his father and his father's vain attempts to protect his son from the bullets of the Israeli soldiers. What is still worse is that even the ambulance worker who tried to help found himself caught in the crossfire of the Israeli army and was killed.

If these painful images that the cameras have brought into each of our living rooms and that still haunt us and will haunt us for ever, even in this Chamber of the Security Council -- if these images can serve some purpose, it is to convince us that, on the one hand, it is not acceptable that children are targeted, and, on the other hand, that as a matter of urgency we must do all we can to see to it that this shameful butchery stops as soon as possible and that the civilian population that has been the victim of the brutality of the Israeli occupying forces is protected.

The acts that triggered the tragic developments that have been occurring in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the occupied territories since last Friday are well known, as are those who are responsible for it. We all know that the originator of this terrible tragedy was the commander who ordered the massacre of Sabra and Shatila and the invasion and occupation of Lebanon. We all also know that what he wished to achieve from these acts of provocation -- which led to the tragedy that the people in the occupied Palestinian territories are now undergoing -- was to scuttle the peace process and wreck for ever the chance of achieving a just and final settlement of the Palestinian question. And we all know that a just, lasting and comprehensive peace cannot be achieved without the total, definitive withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the territories that have been occupied since 1967 and without the restoration of the Palestinian people's national, legitimate rights, including its right to create its own independent State with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

In this difficult time when Palestinian civilians are victims of the brutality of the occupying forces, it is important that the Security Council rise to its responsibilities and fulfil its role and its mandate with regard to the Palestinian people and international law. In this connection, the Council must see to it that, as soon as possible, a stop is put to the illegal actions that the Israeli occupying Power is engaging in. In particular, an end must be put to the use of real bullets against a defenceless civilian population.

The Israeli security forces must also immediately withdraw from the plaza of Al-Haram Al-Sharif and allow the third holy place of Islam to regain its serenity and tranquillity, and they must also must withdraw from the Palestinian towns where they are deployed. Finally, Israel, as the administering Power, must be put on notice to respect the Fourth Geneva Convention and to guarantee the security and protection of Palestinian civilians.

These are our expectations -- the expectations of my country, Algeria, which has stood, continues to stand and in the future will stand united with the fraternal Palestinian people, and which believes firmly that peace is the right strategy for the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These are also, I am sure, the expectations of the international community as a whole, and the Security Council has no right to disappoint it.

The President

I thank the representative of Algeria for his kind words addressed to me.

The next speaker is the representative of Pakistan. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Ahmad (Pakistan)

Let me also begin by thanking you, Mr. President, for convening this important meeting to consider a serious development that comes to all of us as a shock.

We all saw the pain-ridden face of that small child lying at his father's side as the last breath of life slipped out of him. This was only one glimpse of the fate that is suffered by thousands of children in different parts of the world that are under foreign occupation or in conflict situations. This tragedy is a grim reminder that a part of humanity dies each time an innocent life is snuffed out by violence.

The Security Council meets today in the wake of the tragic events in Palestine, resulting in the deaths of scores of innocent civilians, including children, and injuries to many others. With these events, the hope that peace was finally taking root in the Middle East has fast evaporated.

We share the international outrage and concern at the high-handedness of the Israeli forces' actions against defenceless Palestinian civilians in the very vicinity of Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the third most holy place of Islam. The immediate reason is the misplaced determination of certain elements in Israel to undermine the Middle East peace process. The Security Council must send an unequivocal message that such provocative actions and the bloodshed of innocent Palestinians are unacceptable to the international community.

The excessive force used by the Israeli security forces is simply unjustifiable. Grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949 have been committed. The first article of that Convention emphasizes that

"The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances."

Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973) continue to provide a viable and just framework for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East. The status of Al-Quds Al-Sharif, Holy Jerusalem, remains central to any comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict. No lasting peace in the region will be possible without the realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. These include their right to establish their independent State with Holy Jerusalem as its capital and the exercise of their full sovereignty over Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Pakistan extends its unequivocal support to the just struggle of the people of Palestine for their inalienable rights. This has been our policy in respect of all peoples struggling against foreign occupation and repression.

The peace process had recently been making steady, if agonizingly slow, progress due to realistic approaches of the leaders of the two sides. It has now been dealt a severe blow and has been pushed to the verge of collapse. Continuation of the violence threatens to wreck the peace process. Immediate steps are therefore needed to prevent any further deterioration of the situation. The peace process must be urgently put back on track on the basis of agreements reached and full compliance with the relevant Security Council resolutions. At stake are the authority and credibility of the United Nations.

Prompt action is therefore required by the international community, in particular the Security Council, to put an end to the present round of violence against the Palestinians, secure Israel's compliance with United Nations resolutions, ensure the safety and sanctity of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and facilitate the realization of the national rights of the Palestinian people. The prospects for peace in that region, and indeed the future prosperity of the Middle East, now rest with this body.

The President

The next speaker inscribed on my list is the representative of Jordan. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and to make his statement.

Mr. Al-Hussein (Jordan)

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