As we gather here for the 10th month in a row to advance a ceasefire to save human lives, Israel continues taking human lives and every action possible to spread a wildfire across the Middle East. As we sit here on the 75th anniversary of the Geneva conventions that were birthed in the ruins of entire cities, in the mass and indiscriminate killing of civilians in the death chambers, in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a pledge that the light will emerge out of the darkest night and protect the dignity and humanity of all persons in armed conflict. Israel is tearing the conventions apart in Gaza along with every rule humanity has ever elaborated.
As we meet here in New York there are Israeli government and military officials, pundits and analysts explaining seriously, that they are entitled to carry out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against the Palestinian civilian population - to wage war against civilians. They explain that starvation is a legitimate weapon of war. They justify gang rape and torture against defenceless prisoners as a required deterrent - and this is not a theoretical exercise, this is what Israel is imposing against millions of Palestinians. No man woman or child spared.
You demand Israel to stop killing civilians as a security Council, but it targets them in their shelters and tents. You demand Israel to allow food and medicine in, but it ensures that famine and diseases spread. You demand Israel to treat Palestinian prisoners humanely, but it tortures them and allows the Israeli jailers to rape and abuse their Palestinian hostages. You call on it to stop its settlements, but it rapidly accelerates its colonization of Palestinian land. You urge Israel to uphold the historic status quo at the holy sites, but its ministers and settlers desecrate Al Aqsa each time more openly and provocatively. So let me state the obvious: Israel does not care about your condemnations. Let me repeat. Israel does not care about your condemnations. It dismisses your resolutions. It does not even listen to your debates - their representative will be playing with his iPhone while you are talking. As countries, as a Security Council, you had a responsibility to act months ago to stop this impunity, as the genocide continues you have a responsibility to react to save human lives and preserve the foundations for peace and security for all, not just for some.
Israel is a rogue state with a rotten government, due to the unbridled impunity it has enjoyed so far. I have no doubt that the tides will turn and we will not be deterred in making sure no one can act as if Palestinians lives are worthless. But Palestinians in Gaza cannot wait for the tide to turn. Their agony must stop now, must stop right now! They wonder if you see them. Do you ever think; what if you were born in Gaza? What if the prisoner raped was your son? What if the children starving to death were your own? What if that woman killed was your daughter or your wife? What if the disease that was riddling the body of your mother/your grandmother? What if that family that was blown into pieces or burned to death was yours, killed in cold blood after running in desperation and hunger for months to survive? Just consider for one moment the sheer agony and despair that our people have suffered. All these long months of deprivation and devastation lashed upon them while the world watched and left them to suffer, starve, and die.
Mr President, while we acknowledge and welcome the international consensus that has long called for an immediate ceasefire, clearly Israel has rained a veto right over that prospect. This must be brought to an end. Israel cannot continue to defy the world and every rule of humankind. It is not a coincidence. Every time the world pushes for a ceasefire, Israel responds with a massacre like the one in the school. It sends a message each more gruesome than the one before that. It will not stop but there is no right to commit genocide. Obviously no. And we warn all those contributing directly or indirectly to the emergence of such a right - there is nothing that can justify Israeli actions! Nothing!
And don't anyone dare say this is about the hostages - it's not about the hostages! it became apparent long ago that this Israeli government could care less about them. The hostages know it. Their families know it. You know it in the Security Council. Israel is killing them, abandoning them, playing with their lives. Netanyahu has other priorities - self-serving ones, maniacal ones - he's a maniac!
Something terrible is happening in Israel, something that has made justifying genocide, famine, and gang rape mainstream ideology. Something horrific - horrific is happening. The memory of the Holocaust, instead of serving as an unbreachable barrier against the commission of atrocities, has been instrumentalized to justify their commission. How is this possible 10 months later, with the whole world opposed to it? Because that opposition has yet to lead to serious consequences for Israel.
This is a hard fact you have to face, there are no consequences! They're not going to listen to you; to those who continue to arm Israel, to those who still have the audacity to “call on Israel” to investigate its own crimes, as if the actions of its soldiers do not reflect the actual policies of its military and political leaders, to those who dare to try and deter International courts from ensuring accountability, instead of deterring the perpetrators of atrocities. Wake up! Wake up! How long do you have to remain in denial? Wake up! Stop finding excuses. Stop imagining that you can reason with the Israeli government so it stops killing civilians by the thousands, imposing famine, torturing prisoners, colonizing and annexing our land - all while you appeal to them, calling them. Demand them to stop. You have to tell them to stop! And you have the tools to make them stop as a Security Council and as nations in your national capacity.
You have to decide: what do you stand for, and what do you stand against. This is not a time for justifications and equivocations, this is a time for clarity and resolve. This is time to shore up principles and morals. Do not abandon your duties, do not abandon your duties as a Security Council. You have the tools to make what you decide a reality, and no one should be above the law. If you choose to do that, if you have the political will to implement what you decide, Mr President, when will the Israeli government be held accountable for its actions? When will the war criminals be sanctioned? And as my brother from Algeria it is time to sanction.
We reject a position whereby you would be against hostage taking except when the hostages are Palestinians, and whereby you would sanction war criminals except when they are Israelis. We cannot come back here over and over again and pretend that everyone does not all know that Israel will not listen until it has no choice but to listen. You have to make them have no choice but to listen to you. Until there are consequences for its crimes. You cannot commit a crime and get away with it, there has to be consequences for those committing crimes. For those who want to defend the Geneva conventions and all the conventions’ elements, when in article one it says that you have to ensure, in all times, compliance with the provisions of the conventions. And you see them getting away with murder and you keep repeating the same thing. When are you going to enforce your decisions and international law? You need to impose sanctions on those criminals - you do that, they will stop continuing to commit these crimes and atrocities and genocide against the Palestinian people. We reject a position whereby you would be against hostage taking as I said except when the hostages are Palestinians and whereby you would sanction war criminals except when they are Israelis. We cannot come back here over and over again and pretend that everyone does not know that Israel will not listen until it has no choice but to listen - until there are consequences for its crimes.
Palestinians are exhausted, surrounded by death and endless horrors and they know that your words are no match for the bombs and bullets taking away their lives and limbs. But words are not all this council has, words are not the only tool your countries have - some have gone beyond words. They are too rare, this is a time to act as a number of you have stated, and you will be judged not only for the eloquence of your speeches, but also and more importantly for the courage of your actions. Show some courage! Show some bravery! Take actions! Stop the criminals in getting away with murder!
Mr President, we don't want Israel to torture our prisoners a bit less as some say that, torture them a bit less. We want to see them free! We don't want Israel to make its occupation a bit less brutal, we want to see it end! Our people deserve freedom! The International Court of Justice has been unequivocal in its determination that “the sustained abuse by Israel of its positions as an occupying power through annexation and an assertion of permanent control over the occupied Palestinian territory and continued frustration of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination violates fundamental principles of international law and renders Israelis presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful.” Their presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, therefore the court said it has to end as quickly as possible. This illegal occupation and all the illegal, inhumane, racist and destructive policies that flow from it must end.
The Palestinian people will not disappear and they will not surrender. They will not relinquish their legitimate aspiration to live in freedom and dignity in their ancestral land. I urge the Security Council to act - I urge you to act. And in the coming days we will go to the General Assembly to make sure that it upholds its charter responsibilities - to make sure that the determinations of the highest court in the world, the ICJ, is translated into political will, and momentum into concrete actions to be pursued by the UN and its member states, to end this illegal action as soon as possible, to protect civilians life, to preserve and pursue peace and security.
Dag Hammarskjold once stated “The United Nations was not created in order to bring us to heaven, but in order to save us from Hell.” History will remember that the Palestinians were left to endure Hell, now the fire they have painfully endured for almost a year is spreading to devour everything around in our region there is only one way to stop a man-made fire. It is not enough to tend to the flames, you need to stop the arsonist. Let me repeat what our people in Gaza is saying and they have been saying that and they cannot take it any longer. Enough is enough. You have to act to put an end to this cruel criminality and genocide against our people in Palestine, particularly in the Gaza Strip. Will you do that? All of you, you gave beautiful statements, you showed unanimity in rejecting their criminal action, but that is good, not sufficient. Show the will and the resolve to act on that basis with the tools that you have, with the Mandate given to you by the charter, to come to the Palestinian people and serve them Justice, to stop the criminals from continuing in what they are doing. Can we count on you?
Thank you Mr President.
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