Assistance to the Palestinian People – GA debate – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Official Records

General Assembly
Sixty-third session

60th plenary meeting
Monday, 7 December 2009, 3 p.m. 
New York

  In the absence of the President, Mr. Christian (Ghana), Vice-President, took the Chair.

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

Agenda items 70 and 71 (continued )

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 (b)   Assistance to the Palestinian people

    Report of the Secretary-General (A/64/78)

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 Mr. Al Mansour (Kuwait) ( spoke in Arabic ): …

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  Assisting the Palestinian people and alleviating their suffering is an obligation incumbent upon the entire international community. In this context, I commend the United Nations, its specialized agencies and non-governmental organizations for all their efforts in providing assistance in emergency situations and in supporting humanitarian, development and economic needs.

    I should like to highlight the State of Kuwait’s continued provision of assistance in various forms to the Palestinian people, either directly to the Palestinian Authority or through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Last year, the State of Kuwait contributed $35.5 million to support the Agency, which provides relief and humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. Kuwait’s contribution to UNRWA is the fifth largest of any country.

  The State of Kuwait calls on Israel to put an end to its inhumane practices aimed against the Palestinian people, to expedite the removal of all restrictions on movement and border crossing in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Al-Quds Al-Sharif, to stop all settlement activities and to halt the construction of the apartheid wall. These practices have caused the Palestinian economy to deteriorate and have impeded the delivery of the international humanitarian and medical assistance and foodstuffs that are vital to the survival and development of the Palestinian people.

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  Mr. Al-Musawi (Iraq) (spoke in Arabic ): …

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  We would like to thank the facilitator of the resolution, the representative of Sweden, for his strenuous efforts to meet the concerns of the Arab Group. We also welcome the new positive trends reflected in the resolution.

  However, a very important topic highlighted by the Arab Group — namely, allowing the delivery of humanitarian assistance to peoples chafing under the yoke of foreign occupation — has not been agreed to. The objective of the Arab Group in presenting this demand is to address the humanitarian disaster and the g   However, a very important topic highlighted by the Arab Group — namely, allowing the delivery of humanitarian assistance to peoples chafing under the yoke of foreign occupation — has not been agreed to. The objective of the Arab Group in presenting this demand is to address the humanitarian disaster and the grave deterioration in the living conditions of peoples of all walks of life that have resulted from the inhuman blockade imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people as well as the policy of collective punishment pursued by Israeli occupation authorities against the defenceless Palestinian people after its aggression at the end of 2008.

  We will continue to pursue this request in all United Nations forums. We hope to cooperate with all Member States, particularly those of the European Union, which have always defended the importance of respecting human rights. Our delegations are only asking that the Charter’s principles and purposes be fulfilled. This Organization must shoulder its responsibilities in terms of immediately halting these Israeli practices, which constitute blatant violations of international law and the principles of the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention. Their deliberate obstruction of the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the occupied Palestinian territories confirms our fears, which we have voiced over and over, regarding the application by some of double standards when it comes to human rights issues in various parts of the world.

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The meeting rose at 6.05 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.