New Delhi: Addressing the 67th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on the situation in the Middle East, Pak FM Shah Mahmood Qureshi said, "It is appalling that the Security Council has been unable to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security".
"The Security Council has failed even to demand a cessation of hostilities. Those preventing the Council from doing so bear a heavy responsibility", he reiterated.
According to the statement issued by the office of the spokesperson, MoFA Pakistan, Qureshi said, "We should deploy an international protection force, as was called for in General Assembly Resolution ES-10/20 and as demanded by the Islamic Summit Conference on 18 May 2018".
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Qureshi strongly pointed out that driven by arrogance and emboldened by impunity, Israel has mounted a relentless onslaught on the occupied and beleaguered people of Palestine and that many children, women and men are being killed.
In one week of Israeli attacks, over 250 Palestinians have been killed and thousands injured. One-third are women and children.
Death echoes in every home in Gaza. The Israeli airstrikes are responsible for the taking of every single life of the Abu Hatab family. Two were women and eight children, he stated, asking the UN general assembly to assume its responsibility.
"We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture", he added.
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So far, over 50,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in Gaza. There is limited access to water, food, hygiene, and health services.
"The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced. We, the representatives of the Islamic world, are here to speak with them and for them", he highlighted at the UNGA.
Qureshi told the international community that the priority must be to halt the Israeli aggression. He further hoped that, even at this eleventh hour, the Security Council will call for a cessation of Israel’s attacks.
"If it fails to do so, the General Assembly must make this demand on behalf of the entire international community", said Qureshi.
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Expressing extreme disappointment, the Pakistan Foreign Minister said that there is no moral or military equivalence between the beleaguered and occupied Palestinian people – who have no army, no navy, no air force – and the Israeli war – machine – one of the most powerful in the world.
This is a war between a military occupier and an occupied people. It is a conflict between illegal occupation and a legitimate struggle for self-determination. In this context, it is worth recalling General Assembly resolution 2649 of November 1970 which affirms the "legitimacy of the struggle of peoples under colonial and alien domination recognized as being entitled to the right to self-determination to restore to themselves that right by any means at their disposal", the Ministry said quoting Pak Foreign Minister.
He urged the international community to send medical teams, medicines and other supplies, food and other necessities to Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.
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"We welcome the access being provided by Egypt to Gaza. Israel must open all the access points to Gaza to ensure the timely and urgent delivery of international assistance", he told the members present at the UNGA.
Further, Qureshi underlined that If the Security Council cannot agree to send the protection force, a "coalition of the willing" can be formed to provide at least civilian observers to monitor a cessation of the hostilities and supervise the provision of humanitarian help to the Palestinians.
Pakistan also called on the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to offer protection to Israel’s Arab citizens who are being lynched and murdered by fascist Israeli gangs at present.
The Pakistan Foreign Minister asked the General Assembly to condemn Israel’s forcible and illegal eviction of Palestinians, including in Al-Jarrah district of Jerusalem and continued construction of Jewish settlements; the onslaught against Palestinian worshippers in Haram Al-Sharif and Al-Aqsa mosque, the first Qibla of Islam, during the month of Ramadan; and Israel’s brutal and indiscriminate aerial and land bombardment of Gaza. Israel’s crimes against humanity should not escape accountability.
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Qureshi asserted that the Human Rights Council, the ICC, the ICJ and other avenues should be activated to ensure Israeli accountability for its war crimes. Moreover, he urged the UN general assembly to revive concrete efforts to end Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and to dismantle the illegal settlements and the apartheid-like regime Israel has imposed in the occupied territories.
The onus for restoring peace rests on Israel. It must end its occupation. It must implement the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, he pointed out.
He, therefore, urged the General Assembly session to send a clear message to the Palestinian people and Israel.
"It is only through determined and decisive action that this Assembly can restore the credibility of the United Nations and demonstrate its effective role in preserving world peace and global order based on equity and justice", the Pak minister said.
