UN / PALESTINE

“Under the pressure of violence, settlement expansion, unilateral measures, intra-Palestinian divisions and deepening mutual mistrust, the prospects for a just and lasting peace remains ever more elusive,” Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs told the Security Council on Monday. UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:04:17
• Production Date: 29 April 2019
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: ROSEMARY A. DICARLO
• Corporate Name: SECURITY COUNCIL
• Subject Topical: PEACE PROCESS
• Geographic Subject: ISRAEL; MIDDLE EAST; PALESTINE
• MAMS Id: 2385405
• Parent Id: 2385405
• Alternate Title: unifeed190429d

Description

STORY: UN / PALESTINE
TRT: 4:17
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS

DATELINE: 29 APRIL 2019, NEW YORK CITY

Shotlist

FILE

1. Exterior shot, UN Headquarters

29 APRIL 2019, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Security Council begins a meeting
3. Med shot, President speaking
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“Under the pressure of violence, settlement expansion, unilateral measures, intra-Palestinian divisions and deepening mutual mistrust, the prospects for a just and lasting peace remains ever more elusive. Hopes for the realization of a two-state solution continue to be replaced by the rising fears of future
annexation. The possibility of establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state continues to be eroded by facts on the ground.”
5. Cutaway, briefers
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations:
“During the reporting period, Israeli authorities advanced at least 2,100 housing units in Area C settlements and issued tenders for some 950 additional units. One of the plans advanced would retroactively regularize, under Israeli law, the illegal outpost of Haresha by incorporating it into
the existing Talmon settlement. Settlements have no legal effect and constitute a violation of international law.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations:
“We thus reiterate our condemnation and complete rejection of recent decisions by the United States, taken in violation of the Charter and Security Council resolutions and with zero regard for the inalienable rights and fate of millions of Palestinians.”
9. Cutaway, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations:
“From the book of Genesis to the Jewish exodus from Egypt, to receiving the Torah on the Mount Sinai, and to the realization of God’s covenant in the holy land of Israel, the Bible paints a consistent picture: the entire history of our people and our connection to […] Israel begins right here.”
11. Cutaway, EcoPeace briefers
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Danny Danon, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations:
“We will never do or agree to anything that compromises our security. We want a peaceful future with our neighbors, but our security is non-negotiable, and we will decide where to draw the line.”
13. Med shot, Nada Majdalani: Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East:
“As we speak today, 97% of the Gaza’s groundwater is not suitable for human consumption and 30% of illnesses in Gaza are from waterborne pathogens. With a 4-hour average of power supply, wastewater facilities fail to operate, emptying the equivalent of 34 Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage daily in to the Mediterranean.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. Med shot, Nada Majdalani, Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East:
“We together face a common threat due to conflict and climate induced water scarcity. Climate change does not differentiate who is the stronger or weaker side of the conflict. Action is needed today. A reassessment of assumptions, a rejection of unilateralism, and an effort to advance cross border water cooperation is needed as a matter of national and regional stability and security.”
16. Med shot, delegates
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Gidon Bromberg, Israeli Director, EcoPeace Middle East:
“We call on the Security Council to urge our three governments Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together, to advance cooperation on water and environment; including the rehabilitation of the Jordan River and Dead Sea; meeting Palestinian water rights and needs; and implement a water / energy exchange for our shared future in the face of climate change; all in the context of a two state solution.”
18. Wide shot, Council in meeting

Storyline

Briefing the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East today (29 Apr), Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs said “hopes for the realization of a two-state solution continue to be replaced by the rising fears of future annexation,” and added that “the possibility of establishing a viable and contiguous Palestinian state continues to be eroded by facts on the ground.”

DiCarlo told the Council that “during the reporting period,” – which covers the last three months - “Israeli authorities advanced at least 2,100 housing units in Area C settlements and issued tenders for some 950 additional units. One of the plans advanced would retroactively regularize, under Israeli law, the illegal outpost of Haresha by incorporating it into the existing Talmon settlement.”

She noted that “settlements have no legal effect and constitute a violation of international law.”

For his part, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations Riyad Mansour reiterated Palestinian Authority’s “condemnation and complete rejection of recent decisions by the United States, taken in violation of the Charter and Security Council resolutions and with zero regard for the inalienable rights and fate of millions of Palestinians.”

On 25 March, the US President Donald Trump issued a presidential proclamation to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel took from Syria in 1967. An agreed disengagement of the Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan eventually led to the establishment of the UN Disengagement Observer Force in May 1974.

Presenting a “four pillars to prove the case for Jewish ownership of the land of Israel,” Danny Danon, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations read passages from the Torah and said “from the book of Genesis to the Jewish exodus from Egypt, to receiving the Torah on the Mount Sinai, and to the realization of God’s covenant in the holy land of Israel, the Bible paints a consistent picture: the entire history of our people and our connection to Eretz Israel begins right here.”

Apart from a pillar rooted in the Bible, Danon based the Israeli claim for the Jewish ownership of Israel in the world history, international law and the pursue of the international peace and security.

Danon also said, “we want a peaceful future with our neighbors, but our security is non-negotiable, and we will decide where to draw the line.”

He underlined “we will never do or agree to anything that compromises our security.”

The list of speakers also included the Palestinian and Israeli directors of EcoPeace Middle East, a tripartite organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists with objective to promote cooperative efforts to protect shared environmental heritage.

Nada Majdalani, Palestinian Director, EcoPeace Middle East said, “97 percent of the Gaza’s groundwater is not suitable for human consumption and 30 percent of illnesses in Gaza are from waterborne pathogens. With a 4-hour average of power supply, wastewater facilities fail to operate, emptying the equivalent of 34 Olympic swimming pools of raw sewage daily in to the Mediterranean.”

Majdalani also said, “We together face a common threat due to conflict and climate induced water scarcity. Climate change does not differentiate who is the stronger or weaker side of the conflict.”

She underlined that “a reassessment of assumptions, a rejection of unilateralism, and an effort to advance cross border water cooperation is needed as a matter of national and regional stability and security.”

Her Israeli counterpart, Director Gidon Bromberg called on the Security Council “to urge our three governments Israel, Palestine and Jordan, together, to advance cooperation on water and environment; including the rehabilitation of the Jordan River and Dead Sea; meeting Palestinian water rights and needs; and implement a water / energy exchange for our shared future in the face of climate change; all in the context of a two state solution.”