GA 68th general debate/Question of Palestine – Statements by Algeria/Belgium/Benin/New Zealand – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly 

Sixty-eighth session 

14th plenary meeting 

Thursday, 26 September 2013, 6 p.m. 

New York 

 In the absence of the President,  Mr. Deng (South Sudan), Vice-President, took the Chair.

The meeting was called to order at 6.15 p.m.

 The Acting President: I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. Elio di Rupo, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium, and inviting him to address the Assembly.

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While I am speaking of continuing our efforts and making them lasting, I would like to mention the resumption of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. It is absolutely vital that we seize the opportunity afforded by our American friends. A solution must be arrived at now, based on the coexistence of two States, with the State of Israel and an independent State of Palestine living side by side in peace and security. We have also made it very clear that we are against colonization. In that context, Belgium is ready to host a conference in Brussels aimed at ensuring that private economic partners provide support for the peace process. We believe that there can be no economic plan, however, unless there is a political plan with a concrete timetable.

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The Acting President: I have great pleasure in welcoming His Excellency Mr. John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand, and inviting him to address the Assembly.

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While climate change is an important issue, it pales in comparison to the problems faced by many Member States. One of the most intractable is that of Israel and Palestine. As long as that problem is left unresolved, there can be no assured peace in the Middle East and no security for the wider region. There can be no resolution without the Israeli and Palestinian peoples both being assured of viable homelands within secure borders. New Zealand pays tribute to the tenacity of United States Secretary of State Kerry and to the courage of President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu in agreeing to resume the Middle East peace process.

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The Acting President (spoke in Spanish): I now call on His Excellency Mr. Ramtane Lamamra, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria.

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In a Middle East mired in dangers and crises, a just settlement of the question of Palestine remains at the heart of any serious effort to stabilize the region. While welcoming the efforts of the United States, which led to a resumption of negotiations, Algeria expresses the hope that the international community can redouble its efforts for the rapid establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian State within the borders of June 1967, with Al-Quds as its capital.

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The United Nations must be heeded when, from within the democratic framework of the General Assembly, it issues statements of strong positions that reflect the universal conscience, whether it is a question of strengthening the foundations of international humanitarian law and protecting civilians or specific situations, such as the long overdue lifting of the economic blockade that has been imposed on Cuba for decades now and the current one imposed on the Gaza Strip. The will of the international community that is so often reiterated here must prevail.

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Almost 40 years ago, in 1974, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who was at that time Minister for Foreign Affairs of Algeria and President of the General Assembly at its twenty-ninth session, made significant history here by putting an end to the usurpation of the people of South Africa’s representation by the apartheid regime and by welcoming to this Hall for the first time the Palestine Liberation Organization, thus opening up two significant paths towards peace. Since then, prodigious advances in science and technology, which have increased the power of humankind over nature, and changes in the very fabric of the international community have only increased the expectations of our peoples, for whom the United Nations remains the best refuge. May God inspire us to work in the best interests of our countries and our peoples.

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The Acting President (spoke in Spanish): I now call on His Excellency Mr. Nassirou Bako Arifari, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, la Francophonie and Beninese Abroad of Benin.

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The delays in the establishment of a Palestinian State with all the attributes of an independent and sovereign State, including full membership in the United Nations, living side by side with the State of Israel within secure borders and with full international guarantees is still a subject of concern. In that regard, Benin welcomes the efforts of the Obama Administration that have led to the renewal of dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis.

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The meeting rose at 9.10 p.m.

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.