Calling on Security Council to prevent the regional war in Middle East – Letter from the State of Palestine – (A/ES-10/1005 – S/2024/588)

31 July 2024

Identical letters dated 31 July 2024 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

It has been nearly 300 days of Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people, a war that has gravely breached all tenets of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, and a war that has flagrantly violated the Charter of the United Nations, including of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of States in the region, constituting a threat to international peace and security and blight on our collective humanity.

Israel is waging this war in broad daylight, wilfully and wantonly, in spite of this Security Council’s resolutions, and still the Council has failed to act to impose a ceasefire and bring a halt to this depravity.

Every day brings more horrors, losses and suffering for our people as the Israeli occupying forces murder Palestinian children, women and men; assassinate officials; kill humanitarian workers, medical personnel and journalists; abduct civilians and torture and rape them in Israeli jails; bomb and destroy Palestinian homes and neighbourhoods; and incite against and attack United Nations premises, including schools of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East that are sheltering millions of forcibly displaced civilians, who are being deliberately starved and denied access to medical care and the most basic needs for human subsistence and dignity by the occupier that continues to chase and hunt them down, repeatedly displacing them as they desperately search for safety in a place where no one and nowhere is safe.

Today, yet another Palestinian official has been assassinated by Israel. As stated by the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leadership condemns in the strongest terms the assassination of the former Palestinian Prime Minister and head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in the early morning hours of 31 July 2024. A national day of mourning has been declared in the State of Palestine.

Moreover, we unequivocally condemn in the strongest terms the criminal breach of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as we firmly condemn the repeated breaches by Israel of the territorial integrity of Lebanon and of the Syrian Arab Republic, including yesterday’s brazen attack on Beirut.

We call once again with utmost urgency on the Security Council, the General Assembly and all law-abiding, peace-loving nations to act forthwith to bring a halt to the horrific, criminal Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people and on our region.

We demand accountability for this assassination, as we have continually demanded accountability for the wanton murder and injury of over 130,000 Palestinian children, women and men across these past 300 days of horror and hell in Gaza, and accountability for all of the criminal policies and practices of Israel in our territory. Likewise, we call for accountability for all of Israel’s breaches of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of States in the region, including the State of Palestine.

The Charter of the United Nations must be upheld, not solely in words, but also in deeds. The failure to hold Israel accountable has permitted and enabled these crimes and further emboldened Israeli government officials, military commanders and settler extremists to escalate their reign of terror against defenceless Palestinian civilians all across the territory of the State of Palestine, in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and across the region.

Violence and terror are clearly Israel’s main and only currency, not international law, not diplomacy and not mediation. There is no red line for Israel – no law it will not breach; no norm it will not trample; no act too depraved or barbaric for its occupying army and settler militias; and no child, woman or man off limits, with even babies considered legitimate targets.

The Israeli Prime Minister and his coalition of government extremists and military commanders believe there will never be a cost for their crimes; they believe they can literally get away with murder, get away with genocide against the Palestinian people. They believe it, because it has been possible until now. No ceasefire call has been respected, no demand for protection of civilians and humanitarian access has been heeded and no International Court of Justice provisional measures orders have been implemented, and there are still no consequences whatsoever for Israel.

This has gone on even as the Palestinian people have tragically and desperately livestreamed their genocide for all the world to see, believing that somehow the world would act to save the over 2 million human lives endangered in Gaza. Every plea for help has been made in the belief that the world would act in respect for the rule of law, our shared moral obligations and our collective humanity. Yet all have been battered and shamed by this gruesome aggression that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, and injured over 91,000 others, traumatized our entire population, forcibly uprooted and displaced nearly the entirety of the population and decimated the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Israeli occupying forces and settler terrorists continue their violent raids and rampages, killing at least 569 Palestinians, including children. Israel’s illegal colonial settlement campaign is not only ongoing, but also intensifying, with land confiscations, theft, demolition of homes and properties and forced displacement of thousands in these past 10 months alone.

Until when? Absent any form of accountability or any serious mobilization and sanctions to press for a halt to these crimes, Israel is proving every single day that it will continue to act as a rogue State. The assassination today and all the crimes preceding it and that have followed it in the ensuing hours prove this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Israel openly declares its intentions to carry on, mocking the Security Council, General Assembly and international community as a whole, openly and brazenly, carrying on with its scorched-earth killing and destruction spree in Gaza; vowing to further entrench its illegal, colonial, annexationist occupation and its racist, discriminatory, hateful policies against the Palestinian people; and recklessly escalating tensions. It is blatantly attempting to destabilize the entire region and provoke an all-out war in the Middle East, with profound and dangerous repercussions in the region and far beyond.

The international community must confront this reality and must act immediately to stop these crimes and aggressions. There is no right that Israel can claim to justify these actions. The right to peace and security is the right of all States in the region and in every region of the world; it is not an exclusive right for Israel.

Moreover, it is a fact that Israel is an illegal occupant in the State of Palestine and possesses no rights whatsoever in our territory. This was unequivocally determined by the International Court of Justice in the seminal advisory opinion rendered just days ago on 19 July, and this ruling must be respected and enforced. It has no sovereignty rights and no right to self-defence in a territory in which it is illegally present in breach of every rule of international law. This illegal occupation in all its manifestations must come to an end.

Israel has been the oppressor, tormentor and murderer of Palestinians for decades, and it is the long-standing destabilizer of the region. It must be stopped. The obligations of the Security Council and General Assembly and the obligations of all States, including the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, to act forthwith to bring an end to this unlawful, abhorrent situation are clear.

The lives of millions of civilians are at stake in Gaza and the rest of Occupied Palestine and throughout the region. We implore the international community, foremost the Security Council, to uphold its responsibilities and duties to bring a halt to Israel’s genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people, to prevent a regional war and to preserve the dream of peace and security in the Middle East in line with the solemn duty to maintain international peace and security, which are clearly endangered in these critical moments.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 843 letters on the ongoing crisis 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 12 July 2024 (A/ES-10/1002-S/2024/547), 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 against our people, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be 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