Amid escalating carnage, broad impunity and trampling of international law, Türk calls on UN General Assembly to invest in human rights – Third Committee GA – UN GA 79

(Excerpt from the statement related to the Question of Palestine)

16 October 2024

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Distinguished delegates, 

We know that profound and prolonged injustice leads to tensions that may erupt in violence.

We know that warfare, if its causes are not addressed, will metastasize into new battle zones; and that its effects will continue and even amplify in future generations.

The prolonged oppression of the Palestinian people and repeating cycles of hatred, death and destruction in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and elsewhere in the Middle East, are a tragic demonstration of this fact.

For decades, Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory has deprived generations of Palestinians of their rights – to self-determination, to equality; to life; to dignity; and more.

It is clear that there is absolutely no justification for the horrific atrocities committed on 7 October against Israelis by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups.

In the year that has followed, shockingly, more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza – mostly women and children – as the relentless, intensive Israeli military offensive continues.

We have witnessed recurring violations of fundamental precepts of international humanitarian law that may amount to war crimes and other atrocity crimes. I cannot underscore enough the desperate survival conditions of Palestinians in Gaza.

And the deep trauma inflicted on people in Israel and in Gaza.

Nearly 1.9 million people in Gaza have been displaced, many multiple times. Israeli military operations have resulted in homes, healthcare and infrastructure across Gaza destroyed. Adequate humanitarian aid and assistance have been systematically hindered and denied. An unknown number of people have died from the denial of food, water, sanitation, hygiene, shelter and healthcare. There is no place of safety, and people are terrified. Meanwhile, Palestinian armed groups operate among civilians, hold hostages, and fire indiscriminate rockets into Israel, in flagrant violation of international law.

And the year-long war in Gaza has been accompanied by deepening Israeli oppression, segregation and violence in the Occupied West Bank.

More recently, months of exchanges of missiles between Hezbollah and Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanon border have escalated into spiralling violence of much greater scale, and even greater danger, with Israeli troops now present in Lebanon. The toll on civilian lives and infrastructure is getting heavier by the day.

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