Briefings by Chairmen of SecCo subsidiary bodies – Security Council 6658th meeting – Verbatim record (excerpts)

Security Council 

Sixty-sixth year 

  

6658th meeting 

Monday, 14 November 2011, 4.20 p.m. 

New York  

  

  

  

  

Agenda 

  

  

Briefings by Chairmen of subsidiary bodies of the Security Council 

  

---

   The meeting was called to order at 4.20 p.m. 

    

Adoption of the agenda 

  

 The agenda was adopted. 

  

Briefings by Chairmen of subsidiary bodies of
the Security Council 

  

 The President: Under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representatives of Cuba, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Pakistan, Spain, Switzerland and the Syrian Arab Republic to participate in this meeting. 

 Under rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite Mr. Ioannis Vrailas, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, to participate in this meeting. 

 The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. 

/…

 The President: I now give the floor to the representative of Israel. 

 Mr. Prosor (Israel): …

/…

 The flow of advanced weapons to terrorists in our region is growing in scope and scale. Those weapons contribute to instability and fuel violent attacks on civilians. As we sit here today, rockets fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip continue to rain down on the people of southern Israel. Yet, the Security Council has not uttered a single word of condemnation against those continuous and brutal acts of terrorism. This silence speaks volumes. The victims of terror are part and parcel of any debate on counter-terrorism. Their voices must be heard. Elie Wiesel once wrote,

 “Even when faced with the murderous madness of criminals, and in the presence of the silent agony of their victims, it is incumbent upon us to choose between escape and solidarity, shame and honour.”

/…

The President: I now give the floor to the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic. 

 Mr. Ja’afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): …

/…

 Syria believes that the Security Council Committees on counter-terrorism can also contribute to the coordination of international efforts to fight terrorism by using transparent, fair and impartial mechanisms. The objectives of concerted international actions to address the phenomenon of terrorism will not be achieved as long as we remain silent on one of the most serious forms of terrorism — State terrorism. The clearest example of that is obviously seen in the crimes perpetrated daily by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since the occupation of the Arab territories.

 The most recent act of aggression against Gaza occurred in international waters and targeted the peace flotilla that was attempting to deliver humanitarian assistance to a people under siege and suffering from daily acts of violence and terrorism, not to mention the killing of key national Palestinian figures in third countries and nuclear terrorism in the countries of the region.

 Syrian citizens in the occupied Syrian Golan have also been victims of practices that have been classified and documented as war crimes, which provides a crystal-clear example of State terrorism that violates international law, resolutions of international legitimacy and human rights instruments. 

/…

 Speaking during an interview that was published in Jerusalem on Friday, Professor Martin van Creveld said that Israel could avenge the Holocaust by annihilating millions of Germans and other Europeans, and that it had the capability of hitting most European capitals with nuclear weapons. “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets, and could launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome”. He added, “Most European capitals are within range of our air force”. Van Creveld, a professor of military history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, has pointed out that collective deportation was Israel’s only meaningful strategy to get rid of the Palestinian people. Van Creveld said that he was sure that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wanted to deport the Palestinians. He said, “I think it is quite possible that he wants to do that. He knows that nothing else we do will succeed”.

 Asked if he was worried about Israel becoming a rogue State if it carried out a genocidal deportation against Palestinians, van Creveld quoted former Israeli Minister of Defence Moshe Dayan, who said that Israel must be like a mad dog — too dangerous to bother. Van Creveld argued that Israel would not care much about becoming a rogue State. Then he said, “our armed forces are not the thirtieth strongest in the world, but rather the second or third; we have the capability to take the world down with us”. It is a long article. I will not go through it all. 

/…

 The President: The representative of the Syrian Arab Republic has asked to make a further statement. I invite him to take a seat at the Council table and I now give him the floor. 

 Mr. Ja’afari (Syria) (spoke in Arabic): I apologize for asking for the floor once more.

 General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX) considers occupation as the worst form of the crime of aggression. The content of that resolution therefore provides the optimal response to what was just said by the representative of the Israeli occupation of the Arab-occupied territories.

 Israeli State terrorism is distinguished in this international Organization because it is documented. It began with the assassination of the representatives of the United Nations, starting with Count Bernardotte, in 1948, and continued with the terrorist political crimes committed against Palestinian leaders, the assassination of children at Qana, in southern Lebanon, on two occasions, and the assassination of Palestinian and Arab leaders outside Palestine — and we all know what they did in Dubai and whom they killed there. The documentation of Israeli State terrorism therefore really needs an encyclopedia, a specialized one that would focus attention on Israeli war crimes and Israeli crimes against humanity perpetrated by every Government of Israel since its establishment in Palestine, in 1948. The paradox here is that those who preach and talk about their pain as a result of the Nazi Holocaust, which is not of Arab making, as all members know, blatantly and openly say that they want the Palestinian people to taste the bitterness of a new holocaust, but this time it is one of Israeli making. 

 We are not the only ones who say that Israel is a State that commits war crimes and crimes of extermination. There are prominent western officials who agree with us, including some senior officials of the United Nations, many of whom have testified before the Council. President Jimmy Carter was not alone in saying that Israel was exercising apartheid against the Palestinians; Bishop Desmond Tutu and Special Rapporteurs Ian Sinclair, John Dugard and Richard Falk also have said it. Israel remains the only State in the world that adopts policies of targeted killing and allocates financial resources in its national budget for them — something that is condemned all over the world. That budget is approved publicly by the Israeli Knesset. I respect the fact that it is late, and I will stop there. 

  The President: There are no more names inscribed on the list of speakers. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda. 

   The meeting rose at 7.40 p.m. 

  

  

This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the interpretation of speeches delivered in the other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records of the Security Council. 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.