Mideast situation/Palestine question – GA general debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-first session
75th plenary meeting
Tuesday, 12 December 2006, 3 p.m. 
New York

In the absence of the President, Mr. Sow (Guinea), Vice-President, took the Chair.

    The meeting was called to order at 3.15 p.m.

 Agenda items 9 and 111 ( continued)

  Report of the Security Council (A/61/2)

  Question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters

/…

    Mr. Kumalo (South Africa): …

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  We remain concerned, however, that for more than 50 years, the Security Council has not succeeded in bringing about any positive change in the situation between Israel and Palestine. The failure of the Council to find a lasting solution to that crisis has denied hope to millions of Palestinian people. Even the Israelis cannot be satisfied or even feel safe surrounded by conflict. If the Council continues to fail to give hope to the people of the Middle East, that can only lead to some engaging in violence and counter-violence, which does not help anyone or any party. We urge the Security Council to act decisively and to assume its Charter responsibility by working urgently to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. My delegation is among those that have always reiterated that peace between the Palestinians and Israelis will come when there are two States existing side by side and with secure and well-defined borders — the State of Israel and the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

  My delegation is also among those that were particularly perturbed by the Council’s delay in addressing the military incursions into Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank in June and July of this year. While the Council was stalled in non-action, many innocent civilians lost their lives and critical infrastructure was destroyed. The Council must transcend the divisions and national interests among its members and speak with one voice on urgent situations, or face the erosion of its credibility as an organ mandated to maintain international peace and security on behalf of all of us.

/…

  Nana Effah-Apenteng (Ghana): …

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 Consideration of the report of the Security Council is taking place at a time in history when — because of the Iraqi problem, threats of nuclear proliferation and the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question — the eyes of the international community are focused on the role of the United Nations as the body with the collective responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Naturally, in the circumstances, the role of the Security Council, which has the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, comes to the fore.

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  Mr. Dabbashi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Everyone here knows full well that it has been impossible to transform the Security Council into a democratic, impartial and transparent mechanism that truly guarantees international peace and security. Everyone also knows that the Council has sometimes been used to interfere in States’ internal affairs or to provoke them. And it is no exaggeration to say that the Security Council was even one of the instruments of the recent Israeli aggression against Lebanon, because it stood by as a powerless spectator without taking any measures for 34 long days, while the Israeli destruction machine demolished Lebanese infrastructure and brought Lebanese homes down on the heads of their inhabitants. We have also seen how the Security Council has dealt with the massacres perpetrated against the Palestinian people by Israel, the occupying Power, and how the crimes of the occupation have been justified under the pretext of self-defence. All of those shameful Security Council positions result from the domination exercised by some States, permanent Council members, and from their excessive abuse of the right of veto.

  If that situation persists, the international community will no longer need the Security Council. And I do not believe that any of us needs a Council whose budget we all pay while it is used by a handful of States and peoples. Nor do I believe that we need a Security Council that abuses Chapter VII of the Charter and uses it to deal with certain ethnic or religious groups whenever the opportunity arises. We do not need a Security Council that practices selectivity and the policy of double standards and acts according to the diktat and interests of one Power or group of States.

/…

  The meeting rose at 6.30 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 C-154A. Corrections will be issued after the end of the session in a consolidated corrigendum.