Condemning the erasure of Palestinian identity, attacks on refugee camps, schools and properties – Letter from the State of Palestine – (A/ES-10/951 – S/2023/706)

26 September 2023

Identical letters dated 26 September 2023 from the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council

On 22 September, the Israeli Prime Minister stood at the General Assembly rostrum displaying a map that depicted all of historic Palestine as Israel, with no indication whatsoever of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and no reflection of the 1949 Armistice Line/1967 Green Line demarcating the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli Prime Minister brandished this map fully confident in the impunity Israel has become accustomed to, certain that there would be no outcry from the international community at this complete erasure of the Palestinian people and Palestinian State, an open demonstration of Israel’s illegal colonial designs and policies of ethnic cleansing and annexation in the Palestinian territory it has illegally occupied for over 56 years. He did so fully confident that the double standards regarding grave breaches of the Charter of the United Nations and international humanitarian, human rights and criminal law would continue to shield Israel from any accountability for its crimes.

The State of Palestine condemns the Israeli Prime Minister’s provocative and hateful speech, and calls upon the international community to equally reject it and to condemn Israel’s racist denigration of the Palestinian people and denial of their indigenous, centuries-old presence in the land. Such criminality must never be normalized. It is past time for all countries that are committed to the rule of law and human rights to take the necessary actions to ensure that Israel, the occupying Power, is held to account for all its grave breaches in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to enforce consequences for its war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.

In this regard, amid the inflammatory rhetoric and lies of Israeli officials on the international stage, the past weeks have also witnessed continuing attacks by Israeli occupying forces and settlers against the Palestinian people. In one week, eight Palestinians, among them children, were killed by Israeli occupying forces, with six Palestinians killed in the span of 24 hours in three military assaults in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestine refugee camps continue to be particularly targeted by the occupying Power, deepening the trauma and vulnerability of the refugee population.

Dozens of civilians have also been injured, including 30 Palestinians injured on 19 September in yet another Israeli attack on Jenin refugee camp. As reported by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, this was preceded by the injury of 173 Palestinians, including at least 58 children, by Israeli occupying forces in the West Bank in the period from 5 to 18 September. Among the Palestinians murdered by the occupying Power since our last letter are those indicated below.

On 10 September, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, Milad Monther Wajih Al-Raei, was shot in the back from a distance of about 20 metres and killed by Israeli occupying forces at the entrance to Al-Arroub refugee camp, opposite an Israeli military tower, near Al-Khalil (Hebron).

On 19 September, Israeli occupying forces shot and killed a 25-year old Palestinian youth during a demonstration near Israel’s perimeter fence around the Gaza Strip, near Khan Younis. At least 33 Palestinians have also been wounded in demonstrations held now for 11 days across Gaza against Israel’s illegal blockade. Moreover, Israeli warplanes and drones have been carrying out air strikes on targets in Gaza, terrorizing the population.

On 19 September, Israeli occupying forces shot and killed four Palestinians – three youths and one child – in a military raid, backed by drones, on the Jenin refugee camp. The victims were: Mahmoud Ali Naafi as-Saadi, aged 23, Mahmoud Khaled Ararawi, aged 24, Atta Yasser Atta Musa, aged 29, and Rafat Omar Ahmad Khamayseh, aged 15. The child was leaving his grandfather’s house when he was shot by an Israeli soldier and was left to bleed to death as Israeli occupying forces prevented ambulances from accessing the refugee camp.

On 20 September, Israeli occupying forces killed a Palestinian youth, Durgham al-Akhras, aged 19, in another raid on the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho.

On 23 September, Israeli occupying forces killed two Palestinians, Abdurrahman Suleiman Abu Daghash, aged 32, and Osaid Abu Ali, aged 21, during a large-scale, pre-dawn military assault on Nour al-Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem. Both victims were shot with live ammunition to the head.

Israel’s killing of Rafat raises the death toll of children in 2023 to 47 Palestinian children killed by Israeli occupying forces, with zero accountability. This includes Israel’s continued inexplicable evasion of listing as a serial violator of child rights in the annual report on children and armed conflict. We call on the international community to condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestinian children, to demand the cessation of attacks and ensure accountability, and to provide protection for the Palestinian civilian population from this illegal occupation.

At the same time, education in Palestine also continues to be under attack by the occupation. Israeli soldiers and settlers continue their campaign of intimidation and harassment of students from kindergarten age through university. As witnessed in the recent period, obstruction of students’ access to schools, attacks on educational facilities and demolition of schools persist, violating the right to education and other human rights.

This included a raid on 21 September on the Izzariyeh Elementary School for Girls in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israeli occupying forces broke through doors, searching classrooms, confiscating cameras and damaging property, and the storming on 24 September of the Birzeit University campus, where dozens of Israeli soldiers assaulted university guards, raided the student council building, breaking equipment and seizing materials, and arrested eight students. We call on the international community to denounce such attacks and to act to protect the right to education of Palestinian children and youth.

In this regard, I regret to report that settlers continue to attack Palestinian civilians and properties and holy sites. In recent days, a disabled Palestinian youth and a young woman were severely injured when an Israeli Jewish settler drove into a shop in the Tel Rumeida neighbourhood in the centre of Al-Khalil (Hebron) and, in Masafer Yatta, a four-year-old child was chased by Israeli settlers who stoned and pepper-sprayed him, causing burns to his face.

Settler terrorism has been among the leading causes of forced displacement of the Palestinian civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. United Nations agencies have documented that settler violence has displaced over 1,100 Palestinians since 2022. The rate of settler attacks has been found to be the highest since the United Nations began documenting such attacks in 2006. As indicated in prior letters, such terror has completely displaced five Palestinian communities, along with at least half of the inhabitants of six other communities forced to leave, in addition to a quarter of the population of seven other communities. This is ethnic cleansing, a war crime.

Extremist settlers also continue their raids on Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif. Today, on 26 September, dozens of extremist Jewish settlers broke into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound under the heavy protection of Israeli occupying forces and performed religious rituals, in grave violation of the historic and legal status quo of this holy site as a place solely for Muslim worship. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to such illegal and provocative actions that are stirring religious tensions and threaten the outbreak of a religious conflict with dire ramifications. Immediate efforts must be made to demand that Israel, the occupying Power, bring a halt to such dangerous provocations and fully respect the historic and legal status quo at the holy sites in occupied East Jerusalem, including as enshrined in countless United Nations resolutions, including resolution 2334 (2016).

As security, socioeconomic and humanitarian conditions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, continue to decline, and in the absence of a viable political horizon to bring an end to Israel’s colonial occupation and apartheid regime, we reiterate our calls for urgent action by the international community to seek accountability for all of these crimes.

Only when there are consequences for such grave violations of international law will there be any true incentive for its respect. Only then will we see an end to the impunity that Israel has for so long enjoyed, an end to this illegal, inhumane situation, and the long-delayed realization by the Palestinian people of the inalienable human rights. Only then will we witness the establishment of true justice and peace.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 801 letters regarding the ongoing historic injustice against the Palestinian people and the crimes being perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, which constitutes the territory of the State of Palestine. These letters, dated from 29 September 2000 (A/55/432-S/2000/921) to 7 September 2023 (A/ES-10/950-S/2023/655), constitute a basic record of the crimes being committed by Israel, the occupying Power, against the Palestinian people since September 2000. For all of these war crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations being committed against the Palestinian people, Israel must be held accountable and the perpetrators brought to justice.

I should be grateful if you would arrange to have the present letter distributed as a document of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, under agenda item 5, and of the Security Council.

(Signed) Riyad Mansour

Minister

Permanent Observer