Attacks by settlers – Daily press briefing by the Spokesperson for SecGen (excerpts)

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

AND THE SPOKESPERSON FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Deputy Spokesperson for the Secretary-General, and Enrique Yeves, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

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**Questions and Answers

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Question:  A question about Palestine.  The settlers’ attacks on the Palestinians are growing every day.  Has the Secretary-General taken notice of that?  And has he talked to the Israeli Government about it?  The construction work keeps going on.  It’s not stopping no matter how many appeals that they make to the Israelis.  And the settlers keep on attacking the Palestinians.  The situation is becoming untenable.

Deputy Spokesperson:  I think the Secretary-General’s position on the issue of settlements has been clear and his position on the situation there was articulated by himself at his press conference earlier this week.  I have nothing further on this.  [She later reminded the correspondent that the UN Secretariat had previously expressed its concern at the rising level of settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.  In fact, Special Coordinator Robert Serry did that in his last briefing to the Security Council.  Also, she added, the Quartet, in its most recent meeting on 26 September, “condemned the recent rise in settler violence against Palestinian civilians, urging the enforcement of the rule of law without discrimination or exception.”]

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