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STORY: UN / MIDDLE EAST
TRT: 3.40
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 27 JULY 2009, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT 2009, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
27 JULY 2009, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, United Nations:
“I regret to report that illegal settlement activity is continuing across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and there has been no evacuation of settlement outposts during the reporting period. The situation in east Jerusalem is of particular concern due to developments on the ground, especially indications of new settlement construction and house demolitions.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Oscar Fernandez-Taranco, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, United Nations:
“The fiscal situation of the Palestinian Authority remains dire. The IMF estimates that 900 million dollars in external financing is still needed for the remainder of the year, including 300 million dollars to respond to needs in Gaza. It is essential that donor countries fulfill all pledges made at Paris in December 2007 and Sharm El Sheikh in March this year.”
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Permanent Representative of the United States, United Nations
“For decades US administrations have had a consistent position on this subject, while we recognize that these decisions are difficult we are asking Israel to uphold commitments it has made, including to stop settlements and to dismantle outposts.”
9. Cutaway, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Philip Parham, Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, United Nations:
“Firm commitments are also needed from the Palestinians. Rocket and mortar attack by Palestinian militants continue; the people of southern Israel have the right to live free from terror. We call for these attacks to stop, for the immediate release of Gilad Shalit, for ICRC access to Corporal Shalit and for an end to all acts of violence. Palestinian factions should unite behind President Abbas and we support the efforts of Egypt in this regard.”
11. Cutaway, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine, United Nations:
“In flagrant defiance of international law and the international community’s demands for cessation of all settlements activities, Israel continues its construction of settlements and the wall, transfer of Israeli settlers, land confiscations, home demolitions, excavations and imposition of hundreds of checkpoints in the West Bank. The current government’s zealous support for the illegal settlements enterprise has also further emboldened settlers, whose violence and depravity against Palestinian civilians and properties has sharply escalated.”
13. Cutaway, delegates
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel, United Nations:
“We now stand at a critical juncture. One is the way of terrorism and hatred; it is the way of Hamas, the way of Hizbollah, the way of terror. It is the way of Iran. It offers violence, not vision; confrontation, not coexistence. A second way lies ahead of us as well. It is the way of peace, prosperity and mutual respect. It is a way that represents a better future for all in our beleaguered region. It offers hope to our people. Israel, for its part, has made a clear choice to pursue the way of peace.”
15. Wide shot, Security Council
The illegal building of new homes and communities continues to occur across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, threatening fragile hopes of a two-state solution to the long-running conflict, top United Nations officials warned today (27 July), urging both Israel and the Palestinians to meet their obligations under the Road Map for peace in the Middle East.
Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told delegates at an open Security Council debate on the Middle East that “the situation in East Jerusalem is of particular concern, especially indications of new settlement construction and house demolitions”.
Fernandez-Taranco also said that the fiscal situation of the Palestinian Authority remained dire, and asked member states to fulfill their pledges.
And the senior UN official reminded the Council that the Secretary-General has described the blocking of reconstruction materials and supplies as “completely unacceptable”.
Over the past month, only 70 per cent of the fuel needed to operate Gaza’s only power plant at full capacity was shipped into the area and as a result power cuts continue throughout the Gaza Strip, affecting most householders’ ability to refrigerate foods, as well as the provision of essential services like water and sanitation, health care and medicine storage, and waste disposal. Some ten per cent of Gazans are without any electricity at all, according to Fernandez-Taranco.
United States Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told Council members that for decades the various United States administrations had had a consistent position on the subject of settlement expansion, “to uphold commitments it has made, including to stop settlements and to dismantle outposts.”
Ambassador Philip Parham from the United Kingdom stressed that firm commitments were also needed from the Palestinians. He called for all rocket attacks to stop, for the immediate release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, and for an end to all acts of violence.
Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer of Palestine told the Council that Israel continued with the construction of settlements and the wall, as well as other actions “in flagrant defiance” of international law and the international community’s demands for cessation of all settlements activities.
Israel’s Ambassador, Gabriela Shalev said that Israel and Palestine now stood at a “critical juncture” between the “way of terrorism and hatred”, which she characterized as the ways of Hamas, Hizbollah, and also Iran, and that of peace, prosperity and mutual respect, which she said Israel “has made a clear choice to pursue”.
Last week (22 July) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to freeze its settlement activity in the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority to intensify its efforts on the ground as he stressed the need for “an agenda of transformative change” in the Middle East peace process.
In a message to the opening of the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, held in Geneva, Ban said that intensive diplomatic efforts were under way to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations to secure a two-State solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace.
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