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8375th Security Council Meeting: Situation in Middle East Part 1
Gravely concerned over escalation of violence on the Gaza border and settlement activity in the West Bank, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council today that the international community could no longer allow prospects for a two‑State solution to slip away.
“It is our shared responsibility to restore that prospect, to facilitate negotiations, to help the weaker party, to insulate the process from radicals and extremists and to show results,” Nickolay Mladenov said ahead of the quarterly open debate on the issue. He was joined as briefer by Hagai El‑Ad, the Executive Director of the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.
“Gaza is imploding”, Mr. Mladenov stated. “This is not alarmism. It is reality.” He said that the economy is in free‑fall, massive demonstrations on the border continue to draw deadly Israeli responses as incendiary devices are launched into Israel and a rocket from Gaza hit a house in Be’er Sheva, drawing Israeli air strikes. He warned of another imminent conflict.
“The gravity of the situation compels us to take decisive action”, he stressed, appealing to all Council Members and other influential actors to join the United Nations in calling on all sides to step back from the brink. For lasting peace, however, in addition to the unification of all Palestinians under a single, democratic national authority, the occupation must be ended through the two‑State solution, he reiterated.
In his briefing, Mr. El‑Ad spoke of outrage, indignity and pain of Palestinians who he said have been denied their human rights for more than half a century, condemning current Israeli policies as being calculated to slowly split up an entire people, fragmenting their land and disrupting their lives. He accused Israel’s High Court of Justice with complicity in crimes that included displacement of communities such as the Bedouin village of Khan al‑Ahmar and turning Gaza into an open‑air prison. He urged Member States to let Israel know that they will no longer stand idly by. “The rules‑based international order will not defend itself,” he stated.
Speaking next, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine said that his people continue in the main to choose non‑violent and peaceful forms of protest, as Israel, the occupying Power, chooses violence and brutalizes Palestinian civilians. He maintained that those practices are now made worse by recent United States decisions to withdraw humanitarian aid including for more than 5.4 million Palestine refugees. Warning that this will not bring a peace deal closer but in fact only deepen mistrust and prolong the conflict, he said that Palestinians are being punished for continuing to insist on realizing their right to self‑determination.
Israel’s representative said that Mr. El‑Ad’s presentation gave a circus‑like quality to today’s meeting, as he is an Israeli funded by foreign countries, but it also showed the strength of Israel’s democracy. He dared them to find a Bolivian or Palestinian who would be able to criticize his country on the international stage.
Describing destruction caused by Hamas incitement in Gaza, the Israeli representative maintained that the suffering and violence there was in great part due to President Mahmoud Abbas’ withholding of funds purposely to worsen tensions and remain in power. Similarly, he reported that 7 per cent of the budget of the Palestinian Authority is devoted to rewarding those who killed Jews. Donors to the Palestinian Authority are complicit in those deaths, he warned. Given President Abbas’ priority over promoting hate over the well‑being of his people, he added, only his removal will improve prospects for peace.
Following those statements, most speakers in the open debate seconded Mr. Mladenov’s concern over rising tensions in Gaza, calling on all to avoid any actions that will escalate them. Most also echoed his call for an end to Israeli settlement activity and displacement of Palestinians, particularly a halt to the demolition of Khan al‑Ahmar, which they said would further threaten the possibility of contiguity in a future Palestinian State.
Most speakers also urged the Council to intensify efforts to get the parties back to the negotiating table in order to bring about the two‑State solution and a just and lasting peace. Many speakers regretted the loss of funding by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority from its main donors.
The representative of the United States, calling Mr. El‑Ad’s briefing an example of the many distorted and one‑sided statements that are too often provided at the United Nations, did not address the issue but instead spoke of the recruitment of child soldiers by Iran.
Surveying all the conflicts in the Middle East region, the representative of Equatorial Guinea pleaded for Council unity in helping bring about political solutions to all of them, including the Israeli‑Palestinian issue. She also urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to perform a moral and political accounting that would lead them to the realization that they must act with determination to bring about the two‑State solution and a lasting peace.
Also speaking today were the representatives of Kazakhstan, China, Ethiopia, Peru, Kuwait, Russian Federation, Sweden, France, United Kingdom, Poland, Côte d’Ivoire, Netherlands, Bolivia, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Namibia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, Jordan, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Bangladesh (on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation), Venezuela (on behalf of the Non‑Aligned Movement), Morocco, Cuba, Qatar, Norway, Iran, Maldives, Uruguay, Ecuador, Iraq, Viet Nam, Malaysia, Oman and Costa Rica.
The representatives of Israel and Iran took the floor again in response to statements by other delegations.
The representative of the European Union also made a statement, as did the Observers of the Holy See and the League of Arab States and the Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
The meeting began at 10:05 a.m., suspended at 1:18 p.m., resumed at 3:08 p.m. and ended at 6:23 p.m.