- Advertisement -
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 26 (APP):The Palestinian people do not need a peace plan, “what we need is a justice plan”, Mosab Abu Toha, poet, founder of the Edward Said Library and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, told the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
Speaking at a special meeting held to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Toha stressed the need for a structure of self-determination led by Palestinians. “It may be difficult to imagine such a future right now, but it is time to stop accepting the illusion of peace processes that only entrench injustices,” he said.
Toha, who was born in a refugee camp, told the Committee, detailing how he survived the ongoing genocide, after being abducted, tortured and sexually abused by Israeli soldiers.
“None of the poems I am going to read are going to provide shelter for the children who are surviving winter in Gaza”, he acknowledged, before reading “My Dreams as a Child” and “Under the Rubble”, which was written after 7 October 2023. However, he said, it is difficult to distinguish which poems were written before or after that date because “it has always been a genocide for us”.
Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour read out a message from Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, in which he thanked Member States for their solidarity, as demonstrated by the adoption of the New York Declaration and the 160 Member States, from Europe to the Caribbean, that recognize the State of Palestine.
He also expressed appreciation to the millions around the world who took to the streets to protest. “The voices of these people in capital cities around the world are a testament that the conscience of the world is still alive,” he affirmed.
Welcoming the efforts of the United States to mediate and secure peace, Ambassador Riyadh welcomed Council resolution 2803 (2025), which stresses the need for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. “Gaza is an inseparable part of the State of Palestine, and its unity with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is a non-negotiable right,” he stressed. All transitional arrangements must be consistent with the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
Reaffirming commitment to implementing all the reforms the State of Palestine has pledged to undertake, he stressed that the only path to achieving a just peace is the complete end of the occupation, the realization of the independence of the State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. Praising the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the homeland, in the refugee camps, and in the diaspora, he told them: “The path to freedom is closer than ever.”
Senegal’s UN Ambassador Coly Seck, who is the chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, was among the several speakers who reiterated that the implementation of Council resolution 2803 (2025) must not violate the rights of the Palestinian people.
Annalena Baerbock, President of the General Assembly, noted that Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 1947, which is “almost as old as this institution”, called for a two-State solution and the establishment of an Arab State and a Jewish State in Palestine. Seventy-eight years later, “while the Jewish State, the State of Israel, is a recognized member state of the United Nations, the Arab State, the State of Palestine, is not”, she pointed out.
Addressing the Committee on behalf of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, noted that many of the recent attacks in the occupied West Bank were directed at Palestinians attempting to harvest their olive crops. “It is hard to ignore the irony: This symbol of peace — native to the Middle East, known throughout the world and featured on the UN flag itself — trampled,” he said.
He called on all Member States to meet the vital $4 billion target of the Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Michael Imran Kanu of Sierra Leone, who is President of the UN Security Council for November, also attended the meeting, but was unable to make a statement due to lack of consensus in the 15-member body.