Question of Palestine, Middle East situation – GA general debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly 

Sixty-fifth session 

19th plenary meeting 

Monday, 27 September 2010, 9 a.m. 

New York 

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 The President (spoke in French): I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Waheed, Vice-President of the Republic of Maldives, and inviting him to address the General Assembly. 

 Mr. Waheed (Maldives): …

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 The continued suffering of the Palestinian people deeply saddens the Maldives. They have been denied their right to self-determination and their right to live in peace and freedom in their own independent State for far too long. While recognizing the rights of the Palestinians, we also appreciate and support the right of the people of Israel to live in peace and security alongside an independent and sovereign State of Palestine. We continue our call for all sides to use the ongoing peace talks as an opportunity to resolve their differences, and are therefore heartened by the new initiatives being pursued by the United States in its pursuit of a Middle East peace treaty. Furthermore, we call for continued support for the Governments of Jordan and Egypt in their work on the Arab Peace Initiative, which we believe may provide an enduring solution to the conflict for the people of the region. 

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 The President (spoke in French): I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Ali Osman Mohamed   Taha, Vice-President of the Republic of the Sudan, and inviting him to address the General Assembly. 

 Mr. Taha (Sudan) (spoke in Arabic): …

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 The question of Palestine has been inscribed on the United Nations agenda for many decades, while the Palestinian people have continued to suffer. They are deported, displaced, killed, and driven away from their homeland, despite the fact that the United Nations has adopted numerous resolutions that Israel has refused to implement, in clear defiance of the will of the international community. We call upon Israel to implement all international resolutions and return all occupied Arab lands in Palestine, the Golan Heights and Lebanon. An independent Palestine is a noble demand and is the legitimate right of the people of Palestine, supported by the calls of all peace-loving peoples and countries. 

 We call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. We underline the right of States to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful uses and to settle disputes through dialogue and negotiation. We also stress the need to renounce harmful propaganda and the sowing of fear, panic and tension in the region. 

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 The Acting President (spoke in Spanish): I have great pleasure in welcoming to the United Nations His Excellency The Honourable Orette Bruce Golding, Prime Minister of Jamaica, and inviting him to address the General Assembly. 

 Mr. Golding (Jamaica): …

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 We are also encouraged by the resumption of talks between Israel and Palestine. It offers renewed hope for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, one that guarantees the security of Israel and the unquestioned recognition of a Palestinian State. We urge both sides to ensure that this renewed hope does not turn into despair. 

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 The Acting President (spoke in Spanish): I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, and inviting him to address the General Assembly. 

 Mr. Razak (Malaysia): …

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On 7 June 2010, the Malaysian Parliament unanimously passed a resolution condemning the brutal Israeli attack on the humanitarian convoy in international waters. That resolution was based on humanitarian grounds and demanded that the Palestinians be given their basic rights, and that was why the members of the Parliament, regardless of their political alignment, stood together in full support of it. We reaffirm today our solidarity and sympathy with the people of Turkey and the families of the victims for their tragic loss. 

 Malaysia understood the necessity of letting the multilateral system work. We were happy to see the establishment of the United Nations panel of inquiry and the international fact-finding mission of the Human Rights Council. We are pleased with the findings of the fact-finding mission, whose report (A/HRC/15/21) has found that the conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate but also demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. That inhuman attack constituted a grave violation of human rights law and international humanitarian law. The Malaysian Parliament feels vindicated by those findings. 

 We are now waiting for the panel of inquiry to complete its work. We want to see the perpetrators of the attacks brought to justice and adequate compensation provided to the innocent victims of the attacks. We want the United Nations to act justly and decisively, without fear or favour, in a manner that would ensure that transgressions of blatant international laws are dealt with and that justice is done and seen to be done. 

 On the Middle East peace process, Malaysia is encouraged by the recent developments, especially the active role by the Obama Administration and the Quartet in seeking a comprehensive and lasting solution, a solution not only to the problem between Palestine and Israel, but also in the wider region. We welcome the recent initiative by the United States to host direct peace talks between Palestine and Israel. We also call on all parties to support, and not to be distracted from, these efforts to achieve the aspiration of creating two sovereign States, living side by side in peace, within secure and recognized borders. For this to happen, the following prerequisites should be addressed. 

 First, Israel must heed the high expectations of the international community to end this long-standing conflict. We call on the United States and other members of the Quartet to persuade Israel to end the construction of new settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem. 

 Secondly, reconciliation efforts must bear fruit. The achievement of political unity among the Palestinians is vital in moving the peace process forward and in the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. 

 Thirdly, both parties must eschew violence and ensure the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian and human rights law. 

 While harnessing our efforts to promote international peace and harmony, we are concerned about the growing trend in some parts of the world to perpetuate or even fuel Islamophobia. Attempts to demonize Islam offend the one and a half billion adherents of the religion. It widens the divide between the Muslim world and the West. 

 The real issue is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between the moderates and the extremists of all religions, be it Islam, Christianity or Judaism. In all religions, we have inadvertently allowed the ugly voices of the periphery to drown out the many voices of reason and common sense. I therefore urge us to embark on building a global movement of moderates from all faiths, moderates committed to working together to combat and marginalize the extremists who have held the world hostage with their bigotry and bias. We must — I repeat, must — urgently reclaim the centre and the moral high ground that has been usurped from us. We must choose moderation over extremism. We must choose negotiation over confrontation. We must choose to work together and not against each other, and we must give this effort top priority, for time is not on our side. 

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The President (spoke in French): I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Abbas El Fassi, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco, and inviting him to address the General Assembly. 

 Mr. El Fassi (Morocco) (spoke in Arabic): His Majesty Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco, has honoured me by asking me to deliver his statement to the General Assembly. 

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 The President (spoke in French): I now call on His Excellency Mr. Bernard Kouchner, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of the French Republic. 

 Mr. Kouchner (France) (spoke in French): …

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 It is now a universally recognized principle that development cannot occur without peace and security, which are the basic raison d’être of the United Nations. Here, the challenges remain considerable. Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sudan, the Middle East — so many conflicts continue to feed chaos throughout the world. 

 How many missed opportunities, how many dashed hopes, how many misunderstandings have for more than 60 years — I repeat, 60 years — marked this process, peaceful in name only, in the Middle East? The Arab-Israeli conflict concerns us all. I say Arab-Israeli because, besides the Palestinian track, France considers it just as important to work on the Lebanese and Syrian tracks. Today we have before us a historic opportunity. We cannot let it slip. 

 The process almost stopped yesterday evening. I am not sure that it will continue in an orderly way and with unanimous support. I hope it will. We have limited time remaining. Palestine, the new State Member of the United Nations which many of us have been calling for, will be, I hope, the best guarantee of security for Israel. 

 All States in the region have a critical role to play. All of that is important, but what is necessary is that the Israelis and Palestinians make a strategic decision to put an end to this conflict in their own interests. I would therefore call on the sense of responsibility of President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu; together they must make the painful compromises on the road to peace. 

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 The President (spoke in French): I now call on His Excellency Mr. Mourad Medelci, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Republic of Algeria. 

 Mr. Medelci (Algeria) (spoke in Arabic): …

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 The Palestinian people, who continue to aspire to build a viable State, are still held hostage by the indecision of certain parties. That is being aggravated by policies of aggression and unjust siege. We reiterate our call to the international community to show resolve and unity with regard to this conflict by bringing pressure to bear on the occupation forces. We believe that a definitive, comprehensive and just solution requires the implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative. In that context, on behalf of the Algerian people and Government, I should like to express our friendship and support to our Palestinian brothers. 

 Algeria would like to see an immediate halt to settlements, the return of Palestinian refugees, the return of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians as the capital of a Palestinian State and a return to the borders of 4 June 1967. The other occupied Arab territories in Lebanon and the Golan should also be returned. 

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This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-506. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.