The following is the statement by the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the 67th Plenary UN General Assembly Session on Palestine held in New York on May 20, 2021:
“Mr. President,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen
There are times in history when the decisions of nations are remembered by posterity.
This is one such moment.
What we do today, or cannot do, will be recorded in history.
Driven by arrogance and emboldened by impunity, Israel has mounted a relentless onslaught on the occupied and beleaguered people of Palestine.
As we speak, children, women and men in Palestine are being killed with impunity.
In one week of Israeli attacks, over 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured. One-third are women and children.
Death echoes in every home in Gaza. The Israeli air strikes are responsible for the taking of every single life of the Abu Hatab family. Two were women and eight children.
Let that sink in for just a moment.
Hundreds of such tragedies are being enacted every hour in Gaza and other parts of the Palestinian territories.
So far, over 50,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in Gaza. There is limited access to water, food, hygiene, and health services. Hospitals and access to water and sanitation services depend on electricity. Fuel for the power plants has almost run out.
Gaza is plunged in darkness: literally and metaphorically. The only light is that of Israeli explosions.
This is Palestine, where – in full view of the world – the Israeli air strikes bring down entire buildings to kill and terrorize innocent Palestinians and even silence the media.
It is time to say “Enough”!
The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced. We, the representatives of the Islamic world, are here to speak with them and for them.
Ae Arz E Falastin!
Main Bhi Hazir Hun!O Land of Palestine! I too, am there for you.
🇵🇰 🇵🇸 #UnitedForPalestine pic.twitter.com/J8ZbTer5JL
— Shah Mahmood Qureshi (@SMQureshiPTI) May 20, 2021
Mr. President,
It is appalling that the Security Council has been unable to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Security Council has failed even to demand a cessation of hostilities. Those preventing the Council from doing so bear a heavy responsibility.
In these circumstances, the General Assembly must assume its own responsibility. We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture.
Mr. President,
Our first priority must be to halt the Israeli aggression. I hope that, even at this eleventh hour, the Security Council will call for a cessation of Israel’s attacks. If it fails to do so, the General Assembly must make this demand on behalf of the entire international community.
Let us be clear. There is no moral or military equivalence between the beleaguered and occupied Palestinian people – who have no army, no navy, no air force – and the Israeli war – machine – one of the most powerful in the world. This is a war between a military occupier and an occupied people. It is a conflict between illegal occupation and a legitimate struggle for self-determination.
In this context, it is worth recalling General Assembly resolution 2649 of November 1970 which affirms the “legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination recognized as being entitled to the right to self-determination to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal.”
Second, we should mobilize all possible humanitarian help for the devastated Palestinian population in Gaza and other parts of the occupied territories. In addition to the UNRWA emergency appeal, the Secretary-General should launch a comprehensive humanitarian assistance plan to provide succor and sustenance to the Palestinians. We need to send medical teams, medicines and other supplies, food and other necessities to Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories. We welcome the access being provided by Egypt to Gaza. Israel must open all the access points to Gaza to ensure the timely and urgent delivery of international assistance.
Third, the General Assembly should call for concrete steps to protect the Palestinians. We should deploy an international protection force, as was called for in General Assembly Resolution ES-10/20 and as demanded by the Islamic Summit Conference on 18 May 2018.
If the Security Council cannot agree to send the protection force, a “coalition of the willing” can be formed to provide at least civilian observers to monitor a cessation of the hostilities and supervise the provision of humanitarian help to the Palestinians.
We also call on the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to offer protection to the Israel’s Arab citizens who are being lynched and murdered by fascist Israeli gangs at the present time.
Fourth, the General Assembly should condemn: Israel’s forcible and illegal eviction of Palestinians, including in Al-Jarrah district of Jerusalem and continued construction of Jewish settlements; the onslaught against Palestinians worshipers in Haram Al Sharif and Al-Aqsa mosque, the first Qibla of Islam, during the month of Ramadan; and Israel’s brutal and indiscriminate aerial and land bombardment of Gaza.
Israel’s crimes against humanity should not escape accountability. There should be no impunity for violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention and other human rights Conventions. The Human Rights Council, the ICC, the ICJ and other avenues should be activated to ensure Israeli accountability for its war crimes.
Fifth, we must revive concrete efforts to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to dismantle the illegal settlements and the apartheid-like regime Israel has imposed in the occupied territories. The General Assembly should secure unconditional implementation of resolution 242 of November 1967 in which the Security Council declared the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and demanded that Israel withdraw its armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 war. It is, therefore, imperative to initiate bold steps to secure the implementation of the Security Council and General Assembly resolutions calling for the establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State with Al-Quds Al Sharif as its capital. Pakistan endorses President Abbas call for an International Conference to secure a peaceful settlement.
Mr. President,
The Palestine tragedy is at the heart of the turmoil and conflicts in the Middle East. It is also the principal root cause of the humiliation and anger in the Muslim and Arab world – anger which breeds extremism and often spawns acts of violence. A just solution for Palestine is imperative for the maintenance of regional and global peace and security.
Clearly, the onus for restoring peace rests on Israel. It must end its occupation. It must implement the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly.
This General Assembly session must send a clear message to the Palestinian people and to Israel.
It is only through determined and decisive action that this Assembly can restore the credibility of the United Nations and demonstrate its effective role in preserving world peace and global order based on equity and justice.
I end with a verse from a great resistance poet of Pakistan:
Ae Arz e Falstin!
Main Bhi Hazir Hun!
O Land of Palestine! I too, am there for you.
I thank you.”
