Palestinians Need ‘Justice Plan’, Not More Peace Processes, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Tells Palestine Rights Committee on International Solidarity Day

25 November 2025

Solidarity Day Observance (AM)

The Palestinian people do not need a peace plan, “what we need is a justice plan”, Mosab Abu Toha, poet, founder of the Edward Said Library and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Speaking at a special meeting held to commemorate the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Mr. Toha stressed the need for a structure of self-determination led by Palestinians.  “It may be difficult to imagine such a future right now, but it is time to stop accepting the illusion of peace processes that only entrench injustices,” he said.

Mr. Toha was born in a refugee camp, he told the Committee, detailing how he survived the ongoing genocide, after being abducted, tortured and sexually abused by Israeli soldiers.  “None of the poems I am going to read are going to provide shelter for the children who are surviving winter in Gaza”, he acknowledged, before reading “My Dreams as a Child” and “Under the Rubble”, which was written after 7 October 2023.  However, he said, it is difficult to distinguish which poems were written before or after that date because “it has always been a genocide for us”.

Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine, read out a message from Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine, in which he thanked Member States for their solidarity, as demonstrated by the adoption of the New York Declaration and the 160 Member States, from Europe to the Caribbean, that recognize the State of Palestine.  He also expressed appreciation to the millions around the world who took to the streets to protest.  “The voices of these people in capital cities around the world are a testament that the conscience of the world is still alive,” he affirmed.

Only Path to Peace:  Complete End of Israeli Occupation, Creation of State of Palestine

Welcoming the efforts of the United States to mediate and secure peace, he welcomed Council resolution 2803 (2025), which stresses the need for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.  “Gaza is an inseparable part of the State of Palestine, and its unity with the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is a non-negotiable right,” he stressed.  All transitional arrangements must be consistent with the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.

Reaffirming commitment to implementing all the reforms the State of Palestine has pledged to undertake, he stressed that the only path to achieving a just peace is the complete end of the occupation, the realization of the independence of the State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.  Praising the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in the homeland, in the refugee camps, and in the diaspora, he told them:  “The path to freedom is closer than ever.”

Coly Seck (Senegal), Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, was among the many speakers who reiterated that the implementation of Council resolution 2803 (2025) must not violate the rights of the Palestinian people.  Annalena Baerbock (Germany), President of the General Assembly, noted that Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 1947, which is “almost as old as this institution”, called for a two-State solution and the establishment of an Arab State and a Jewish State in Palestine.  Seventy-eight years later, “while the Jewish State, the State of Israel, is a recognized Member State of the United Nations, the Arab State, the State of Palestine, is not”, she pointed out.

Addressing the Committee on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Earle Courtenay Rattray, Chef de Cabinet, noted that many of the recent attacks in the occupied West Bank were directed at Palestinians attempting to harvest their olive crops.  “It is hard to ignore the irony:  This symbol of peace — native to the Middle East, known throughout the world and featured on the UN flag itself — trampled,” he said.  He called on all Member States to meet the vital $4 billion target of the Flash Appeal for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Michael Imran Kanu (Sierra Leone), President of the Security Council, also attended the meeting, but was unable to make a statement due to lack of consensus in that organ.

Call to International Media:  Pressure Israel to Enter Gaza

Also speaking today, via a pre-recorded video, was Shrouq Al Aila, a Palestinian journalist who runs Ain Media.  Last year, she was awarded the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists.  She described the harrowing conditions under which Gaza’s journalists work, while being systematically targeted by Israel, while living in tents, while searching for food.  Her journalist husband Roshdi Sarraj was killed in the second week of the genocide, she told the Committee, adding that every time she leaves her daughter behind, she does so without knowing if she’ll return.  She called for international media to exert pressure on Israel and enter the Strip.  “We need them,” she said, because Gaza’s journalists are exhausted, and are working with “war hovering over the air that we are breathing”.

Jayantha Jayasuriya (Sri Lanka), Chair of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, highlighted the situation in the West Bank, where the Committee has documented unprecedented levels of settler violence, often in the presence of or with the acquiescence of security forces.  “Across the territories under occupation, we observe an overarching pattern,” he said, adding that territorial control is consolidated through settlement expansion.  “While a ceasefire is essential — and widely welcomed as a moment of relief — it cannot substitute the full implementation of legal obligations, including the need to bring an end to occupation,” she said.

Israel’s Genocidal War Reveals ‘True Face of the Occupation’

Majed Abdelaziz, speaking on behalf of Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, noted how the genocidal war waged by the Israeli occupation revealed the “true face of the occupation” and increased the international solidarity towards Palestine.  Israel’s isolation became glaring, “unprecedented in scope and depth, even among those who were until recently its close friend and allies”, he said.  There is widespread recognition of the State of Palestine, including among countries that played a negative role in the creation of Israel.

Highlighting the coalition for the establishment of the two-State solution, he welcomed the New York Declaration and the peace plan put forward by the United States.  “The course of history is moving towards a Palestinian State,” he stressed, and the Palestinian national project “is rooted in strong Arab backing” and supported internationally by all those who support the values of justice.

Several speakers today reaffirmed the rights of the Palestinian people to live with freedom and security within a sovereign State of Palestine, within 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Mohamed Fathi Edrees speaking on behalf of Mahmoud Ali Youssof, Chair of the African Union Commission, stressed the need for a “credible and irreversible political process leading to a just and sustainable peace”.  “Africa stands firmly with the global consensus,” he said, echoing the call for unrestricted humanitarian access.

Support for UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Donor Conference

In that regard, Godfrey Kwoba (Uganda), speaking for the Non-Aligned Movement, stressed the indispensability of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while Hameed A. Opeloyeru, speaking on behalf of Hissein Brahim Taha, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said it is imperative to convene a donors’ conference in Cairo to secure the necessary funding for an extensive recovery and reconstruction plan for Gaza.

“I was invited to read some poems” but cannot help but reflect on what was said today, Mosab Abu Toha said at the end of the meeting.  “Emphasizing things over and over again is not going to end the suffering of Palestinian people”, he said, expressing disappointment that there was little talk today about holding Israel accountable.  That country must be held accountable for 77 years of war crimes, he stressed.

Further, he said, it is dehumanizing that no one even talks of recovering the bodies of dead Palestinians under the rubble.  He recalled the loved ones he lost, including a 2-year-old child whose body remains under the rubble.  Yesterday was the second anniversary of the killing of his friend Ismail, who taught Arabic at an UNRWA school, he said, noting that he himself taught English in UNRWA schools.  “I swear to God, his body is under the rubble until today” along with that of his father and sisters, he said.

Time for Reparations, Creating Palestinian Army, Holding Israel Accountable

He also highlighted the importance of reparations, stressing that “the right of return is not only a national right but also a personal right”.  “Who is going to protect the Palestinian people from the settlers in the West Bank or even in the Gaza Strip?”, he asked, also calling for the establishment of a Palestinian army to ensure Palestinian security.

Noting the inadequacies of Council resolution 2803 (2025), he added that humanitarian aid should not require a UN resolution.  Ending the suffering of a besieged people should not be negotiable. “There is only one resolution that I think the UN Security Council should be considering” and that should be about ending the occupation and holding Israel accountable, he underscored.