Middle East situation/Palestine question – GA general debate conclusion – Press release (excerpts)

UNITED NATIONS REFORM, VULNERABILITIES OF SMALLISLANDS, DARFUR, MIDDLE EAST

AMONG FOCUS OF GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S TWO-WEEK HIGH-LEVEL DEBATE

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Background

The General Assembly met this morning to conclude its general debate.

Statements

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LAMUEL A. STANISLAUS (Grenada) …

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Recalling an ancient law that “hatreds never cease by hatreds; it is by love alone that they cease”, he said that the geopolitical centre of gravity continued to swing, from the Israeli/Palestinian struggle to Iraq and Afghanistan.  The situation in those centres of conflict, he said, was further fanned by the heinous and atrocious crime of terrorism, which was fast becoming a way of life.

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STUART W. LESLIE (Belize) …

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His country supported the call of India, Japan, Brazil and Germany for permanent seats on the Security Council.  There was also a legitimate right of African and Arab nations to be represented.  Reforms, however, must go deeper.  Why should one country have the power of veto?  Why should millions of the wretched of the Earth be left alone without an effective voice — powerless to change the world to a more just one?  “And why do we, who so effectively acted to end apartheid in South Africa, tolerate the equally opprobrious apartheid practiced by Israel against Palestinians in their own land, murdering and oppressing them without mercy and with impunity?”

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