UNITED NATIONS, Sep 29 (APP):Pakistan has called for immediate steps to halt Israeli settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to protect civilians from ongoing violence. "We cannot affirm Palestinian statehood while allowing its territorial foundations to be destroyed," Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council, which debated the situation in the Middle East on Monday. …
At UN, Pakistan urges urgent action against Israeli settlement expansion, civilians’ protection
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 29 (APP):Pakistan has called for immediate steps to halt Israeli settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to protect civilians from ongoing violence.
“We cannot affirm Palestinian statehood while allowing its territorial foundations to be destroyed,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council, which debated the situation in the Middle East on Monday.
Welcoming sanctions announced by the United Kingdom, France and Canada concerning goods from illegal settlements, the Pakistani envoy said. “Unlawful settlement activities and those who sustain them must face consequences.”
Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, constitute a single territorial unit, he stressed. “The Palestinian people should not have to wait. Peace might not be able to survive another cycle of promises without implementation.”
Monday’s meeting took place when prospects for peace in the Middle East are under strain on two fronts: In the West Bank, settler violence and settlement expansion are raising fears for a two-State solution. In Gaza, a year-old peace plan has stalled while civilian suffering continues.
The plan’s remaining phases, including Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal, remain unimplemented, and as the illegality of settlements under international law remains a key point of contention.
“Our collective efforts must converge on a credible, time-bound and irreversible political process ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” Ambassador Jadoon said.
Noting that the two-state solution remains the internationally agreed framework for the Palestinian Question, and the indispensable foundation for a just and lasting peace, Ambassador Jadoon voiced concern over the undermining of this shared commitment by deliberate Israeli actions to create irreversible facts on the ground.
Illegal settlement expansion was being pursued as a deliberate strategy to alter the demographic and geographic character of Palestinian territory, Ambassador Jadoon said. The rapid advancement of the E1 project, with tenders for 3,401 housing units, threatens to sever territorial contiguity and undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian State, it was pointed out.
“Settler violence has escalated to alarming levels, with over 1,600 attacks this year alone,” the Pakistani envoy said. These organized assaults on Palestinian communities, he said, were enabled by impunity and endorsed by the state apparatus.
“Together with demolitions, land seizures, forced displacement, and expanding Israeli administrative control, they are entrenching annexation and dismantling the foundations of peace.”
In Gaza, he said, the approaching winter threatens to deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis, with the population confined to roughly 30 per cent of Gaza’s territory in deplorable conditions. “Since the ceasefire, more than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli aggression, underscoring the urgent need to ensure effective protection for the population.”
The immediate requirements are clear: all settlement activities must cease; settler violence halted; accountability ensured; measures advancing annexation reversed.
Resolution 2803 on Gaza peace must be fully implemented, including full implementation of the ceasefire, unhindered humanitarian access, and reconstruction; any attempt to forcibly displace population in West Bank and Gaza or usurp its territory must be unequivocally rejected.
The Palestinian Authority must be empowered, including through the release of withheld revenues, Ambassador Jadoon said.
“The Palestinian people should not have to wait,” he said.
Briefing the Council, Ramiz Alakbarov, Acting Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, told the Security Council that settlement activity continued at high levels in the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite resolution 2334 (2016).
During the reporting period, he said, Israeli authorities advanced or approved nearly 4,570 housing units in Area C of the West Bank and 3,515 in East Jerusalem, while tenders were published for nearly 2,240 additional units. Demolitions and seizures of 536 Palestinian-owned structures displaced 736 people, including 347 children.
Violence also continued across Gaza and the West Bank, Alakbarov said. In Gaza, he said, 360 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,600 injured during the reporting period, according to the Ministry of Health, amid Israeli military operations and daily air strikes. No Israeli fatalities were reported in Gaza.
In the West Bank, he added, 32 Palestinians, including 9 children, were killed and 633 injured by Israeli forces or settlers. Two members of Israeli forces were killed by Palestinians, while 49 Israelis and 4 Israeli security personnel were injured.
More than 33,000 Palestinians remain displaced from the Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, described as the West Bank’s longest and largest displacement since 1967.
