UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 (APP): With tensions rising high in Gaza, Pakistan, speaking on behalf of OIC countries, has urged the UN Security Council to push for a peace process that would end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and pave the way for an independent State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
“Peace and justice require accountability for the human rights violations and heinous crimes that we have been witnessing for too long in Occupied Palestine,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN Security Council on Friday.
“There cannot be peace without justice,” the Pakistani envoy said in the 15-member Council’s quarterly debate on the situation in the Middle East.
“This august body is, to this end, urged to engage to promote a multilaterally-sponsored peace process aimed at achieving a just and lasting peace that will end the Israeli occupation and ensure the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the Palestine refugees, and lead to the long-delayed independence and sovereignty of the State of Palestine on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, in line with international law, relevant UN resolutions, and the Arab Peace Initiative,” he added.
In his remarks, Ambassador said the constantly deteriorating and extremely volatile situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, is getting worse. That is due to the escalation of Israeli human rights violations, breaches of international humanitarian law, and recurrent brutal and criminal assaults that claim scores of innocent lives and hundreds of wounded Palestinian civilians, including children and women.
Ambassador Akram expressed deep concern over the situation in East Jerusalem, due to the repeated violations and daily incursions by Israeli extremist settler groups and occupation forces into Aqsa Mosque/Haram al-Sharif, along with their ongoing attempts to impose spatial and temporal division of the Islamic holy shrine, in contravention of international law and relevant resolutions of the Security Council and in violation of the historic and legal status quo at the holy sites.
“These violations hurt and provoke the feelings of all Muslims across the globe, and threaten to ignite a dangerous religious conflict, which will gravely jeopardize stability and fuel violence in the region and beyond,” the Pakistan envoy stressed. He went on to welcome the efforts of King Mohammed VI of Morocco, Chairman of Al-Quds Committee, in protecting the Islamic holy sites in Al-Quds Al-Sharif, and the signing of the Declaration of Algiers on 13 October.
Reaffirming that the historical and legal status quo at the holy sites in East Jerusalem must be maintained and respected, Ambassador Akram called upon international actors, including the Council, to take urgent steps to stop the assaults, ensure protection for Palestinian civilians in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and to ensure accountability and justice for the crimes being committed by Israeli forces.
Further, he expressed concern about the situation of 50 Palestinian political prisoners who began a mass hunger strike in September to protest abuses by Israel against those placed in detention and stressed the need for that country to be held accountable for such treatment.
