UNITED NATIONS, Dec 05 (APP): Highlighting the ”apocalyptic’ humanitarian conditions in Gaza, Pakistan has underscored the urgent need to put an end to Israel’s genocidal war in besieged enclave and for steps to alleviate civilians’ suffering, as the UN General Assembly resumed its Special Session on the situation in Palestine.
Speaking in the 193-member Assembly, Ambassador Munir Akram voiced Pakistan’s “deep dismay” over the U.S. veto on UN Security Council resolution, sponsored by it’s 10 elected members, that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying, “There is no rationale that can justify blocking a decision designed to stop the slaughter of helpless Palestinians.”
“The General Assembly must now exercise its responsibility, in accordance with the Charter, to demand an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and the implementation of the several resolutions adopted on this conflict by the Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as the adjudication by the International Court of Justice,” the Pakistani envoy emphasized.
Other delegates also opposed the use of the veto in the situation in the Gaza Strip and urged a depoliticization of events in the region.
Regretting that for over a year people have endured ‘a relentless cycle of death, destruction and displacement’, the General Assembly President, Philemon Yang of Cameroon, who opened the debate, said: ‘The horror in Gaza must end’.
In his remarks, Ambassador Akram said, “For over 400 days, the world has witnessed the indiscriminate slaughter of the Palestinian population of Gaza,” pointing out that forty-four thousand, mostly women and children, have been killed, while over one hundred thousand injured.
Pakistan, he said, welcomes the ceasefire in Lebanon, “But the slaughter continues in Gaza – as do strikes in Syria,” warning that the danger of a wider war continues to loom large over the entire Middle East.
Backing UNWRA, the world body’s agency for Palestinian refugees, Ambassador Akram condemned Israel’s efforts to halt its operations, asserting that it is the only organization capable of assuring humanitarian assistance and relief to the people in Gaza, the West Bank and elsewhere.
Pointing out that Israel’s war has demonstrated that aggression and genocide can be committed against some peoples with impunity; indeed with the complicity of those who vocally uphold the ‘rule of law’ and human rights in almost every other geographical and political context, he said, “Such impunity has contributed to the on-going destruction of the foundations of the world order, which we created almost 80 years ago.
“Are the memories of those who fought fascism and racism, of those who suffered the holocaust, so short that they can justify and perpetrate this 21st Century slaughter against the helpless Palestinian people?”
“We have today an Israeli leadership which has proclaimed its dark vision of continued slaughter in Gaza, and its continued occupation; of the expulsion and extinction of its population through violence and starvation; of the annexation of the West Bank by aggressive Israeli settlers and soldiers unleashed against unarmed Palestinians; of the outright rejection of the two-State solution and the extinction of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian people,” Ambassador Akram said.
“This dark vision will have its repercussions in the Arab and Muslim world. The people of the Islamic world will not forget Israel’s crimes. Popular resistance to Israeli occupation will not end; it will intensify. A peaceful resolution of Middle East conflicts will become unfortunately more difficult.”
Stressing the need to consider the steps needed to prevent the realization of Israeli extremists’ dark vision, the Pakistani envoy said, “They must be made to realize that genocide does not enjoy impunity, that aggression and occupation have consequences.”
In this regard, he said, “The leaders of the Arab and Islamic countries have advocated a series of consequences – from stopping arms supplies, terminating trade, and reviewing Israel’s UN membership – which deserve serious consideration by the UN and the international community.
As part of the Arab-Islamic Summit group, he said Pakistan welcomes the launch of the ‘Global Alliance for Implementation of the Two-State solution’. “Through this process, and here at the United Nations, we must create political realities that would ensure the inevitability of the two-State outcome.”
To this end, Ambassador Akram said Pakistan urged the widest possible official recognition of the State of Palestine; the earliest possible admission of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations, and convening the international conference to initiate decisive steps for the establishment of a sovereign, independent and contiguous Palestinian State, within the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital.
Palestine Ambassador to the UN, Riyadh Mansour, pointing to the ethnic cleansing and burning of displaced families yesterday, said every hour and every day, Palestinians are victimized and brutalized ‘with no end in sight’.
The mass killings, mass displacements and this cruel war of atrocities against an entire village are ‘breaching every rule and crossing every red line’. “How can the world allow this to go on? The perpetrators are known … their crimes are livestreamed, he asked, lamenting that nowhere is safe in ‘what has become the most dangerous place in the world. This impunity must be brought to an end, the Palestinian envoy said, hoping that the warrants of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court prove to be a turning point in the situation.
Ambassador Mansour noted that the assault against the Palestinian people has been combined with an all-out assault against all those who are resolved to save human lives and ensure compliance with international law. Regretting that the United Nations has also been a target of these attacks — including on the Secretary-General, staff and agencies — he said the Israeli government has gone rogue and is, among other actions and beyond attacking UNRWA buildings, pressuring the international community to abandon the Agency.
“This aggression against a UN agency and the license to kill UN personnel by a Member State of these United Nations cannot be tolerated and must have consequences, he said, including Israel’s ability to enjoy its rights and privileges as a member of the UN.
Israel has breached every single order of the International Court of Justice aimed at addressing genocide. Calling on all States to use ‘any and all leverage they have to put an end to this genocide’ and to ‘stop this assault on our collective humanity’, the Palestinian envoy pointed to the only way to stop this genocide and to save lives: an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire. Gaza’s haemorrhage — the ‘bleeding heart of Palestine and open painful wound of the human family — must be stopped, he pleaded,, so our people can live, and our region can thrive.
He further implored Member States to stand up to their historic responsibilities to ‘extinguish the fire devouring our children’, adding that: ‘what we do today will determine what we will all suffer or enjoy tomorrow’.
APP/ift