UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan called on the UN Security Council to effectively address the lingering Palestine dispute “as the first and most urgent priority” to usher in peace and stability in the Middle Eastern region.
“The festering wound of Israeli occupation and atrocities in occupied Palestine is the principal source of instability, tensions and conflict in the entire Middle East,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the 15-member body.
Speaking in the debate on the situation in the Middle East, the envoy said the Security Council had failed to re-assert the principles of the UN Charter and international law in occupied Palestine, nor condemned Israel’s violations of rights, international law and its own resolutions, and its inability to revive the process to promote the accepted two-state solution.
The perpetuation of Israeli occupation will not bring peace to the holy land, Ambassador Akram said, adding that if history is any guide, even if they are dispossessed and disempowered by Israel, every succeeding generation of Palestinians will persist in seeking their freedom and fundamental rights, including their right to self-determination.
The two-state formula, involving the establishment of a sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel within recognised and accepted pre-1967 boundaries with Jerusalem as its capital offers the only solution to the dispute, the envoy added.
At the outset of his remarks, Ambassador Akram said Pakistan was deeply concerned over the deteriorating situation in occupied Jerusalem and condemned the continued killing and wounding of Palestinian civilians, destruction of Palestinian homes, and murder of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.
In this regard, he briefed the Council on the key points of the “Islamabad Declaration” adopted in the March meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, which, inter-alia:
— re-emphasized the centrality of the question of Palestine and Jerusalem for the Ummah;
— reaffirmed its principled and continued all-level support to Palestine to regain their inalienable legitimate national rights, including their right to self-determination and the independence of the State of Palestine along the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital; and,
— reaffirmed that Jerusalem is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian Territory of the State of Palestine and called on the international community to compel Israel, the occupying power, to desist from its colonial practices and abide by all international resolutions on the City of Jerusalem, and to refrain from all measures, practices and decisions aimed at altering the character and legal status of the city.
Ambassador Akram emphasized that Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian lands — the seizure of land and properties for Israeli settlements; the violence against unarmed Palestinian children, women and men; and the blockade of Gaza; were grave violations of the Security Council resolutions and international law, including humanitarian law.
Also, the envoy said, there is no moral, legal or political equivalence between Israel, the occupying state, and the occupied and oppressed Palestinian people.
“The Palestinian struggle for self-determination and implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions is legitimate; the Israeli repression of the occupied Palestinian people is illegitimate.”
He added: “To bring peace and stability to the Middle East, the Palestine Question — the source of the region’s insecurity and its multiple conflicts — must be effectively addressed as the first and most urgent priority.”
