Qatar will continue to mediate for peace in Gaza, Amir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani tells world leaders – UNGA 79 Remarks

Speaking at the Assembly’s high-level debate, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani described the “blatant aggression” against Palestinians in Gaza as the “most barbaric, heinous, and extensive” breach of human values, international charters, and norms.

“This is not a war as commonly understood in international relations, but a crime of genocide, by means sophisticated weapons against a people trapped in a detention camp, where there is no escape from a barrage of aerial bombing.”

Expressing opposition to violence and the targeting of civilians by any party, he stressed that “with all that has taken place and continues to be take place, it is no longer tenable to speak of Israel’s right to defend itself in this context without being complicit in justifying the crime.”

The Amir said it was unfortunate that the Security Council failed to enforce its ceasefire resolution in Gaza and that it did not grant full UN membership to the State of Palestine, despite a General Assembly resolution.

“The State of Palestine’s full UN membership neither establishes its sovereignty nor ends the occupation, but at least it sends a clear message to the far-right government involved in challenging international legitimacy that force does not eliminate rights.”

In addition to its humanitarian efforts, Qatar has engaged in mediation alongside Egypt and the United States to end the conflict in Gaza and secure the release of prisoners and detainees. Despite challenges and attempts to obstruct these efforts, “we will continue our mediation to resolve disputes through peaceful means,” he affirmed.

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Unofficial Translation – Speech of His Highness Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar

Your Excellency, President of the General Assembly,

Your Excellency, Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Honorable Audience,

May the peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you,

At the outset, I would like to congratulate His Excellency Mr. Philemon Yang on assuming the presidency of the seventy-ninth session of the General Assembly,
wishing him every success in his tasks.

And I express appreciation to His Excellency Mr. Dennis Francis for his efforts during his presidency of the previous session. And we commend the prominent role played by His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, in strengthening its role and achieving its lofty goals.

Mr. President,

The blatant aggression that befalls the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip today is the most barbaric and heinous and extensive in breaching human values, international charters and norms.

This is not a war within the international relations’ well-known and common concept of war, but rather a crime of genocide by means of using the most sophisticated weapons against a people besieged in a detention camp where there is no escape from the barrage of aerial bombing.

Verily, the resolutions, condemnations and reports have been exhausted, and nothing is left behind except the undeterred, ongoing and premeditated stark crime, that victimizes children, women and the elderly.

We oppose violence and the targeting of innocent civilians by any party, but after a year of the war, and with all that has been and is still being perpetrated in it, it is no longer tenable to talk about Israel’s right to defend itself in this context without being complicit in justifying the crime.

It is no longer plausible for any official to claim that he does not know, thanks to the well-known facts and reports issued by international organizations about the bombing of schools and hospitals and weaponizing access to food and medicine, in addition to the published and publicly uttered intentions of Israeli leaders. Therefore, the failure to intervene to stop the aggression is a major scandal.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Every year I stand on this podium and begin my speech by talking about the Palestinian cause, the absence of justice, the perils of believing that it can be neglected, and the illusions of making peace without a just solution.

I have done so every year at a time when the Palestinian cause has become absent from the speeches of major powers’ representatives in our world. There are those who are tempted by the possibility of either marginalizing this issue to get rid of its burden, or seeing it vanished without resolving it, but the Palestinian cause is resistant to marginalization, because it is an issue of indigenous people on their own land and who are subjected to a settler-colonial occupation.

This occupation has taken the form of an apartheid system in the twenty-first century. Can this be overlooked? The Palestinian cause will remain lingering in place, except in two cases, either the end of the occupation, or the disappearance of the Palestinian people. However, it seems that there are those in Israel who entertain wishful thinking to eliminate this people.

The ongoing Israeli aggression for nearly a year is nothing but a result of the absence of a sincere political will, deliberate international failure to resolve the Palestinian issue with a just solution, and insistence of the occupying Israeli authorities to impose a fait accompli on the Palestinians and the world with all types of force.

The ongoing brutal war has fired the coup de grace at international legitimacy and inflicted serious damage on the credibility of the post-World War II concepts on which the international community was founded.

As if the dire consequences of this approach, which are visible before our eyes, are not enough to prove that ignoring a just solution is conducive to disaster, we discover, to our disbelief, that some are still trying to find innovative measures to run Gaza after the war, with or without an authority, only on the basis of security considerations (and what is meant in this respect, of course, is the security of the occupation, not the security of those who are languishing under the occupation itself).

It is the same mindset that led from one disaster to another. It is the approach that wants to tailor the entire region to fit Israel’s size, while looking for circumventions to avoid ending the occupation and work on imposing the rule of one people over another by force.

Is it reasonable that even after this disaster, the major countries with the ability to influence the course of events are unable to reach a conclusion of the necessity to stop the war and pivot towards a just solution immediately instead of innovatively working on formulations to evade it?

The end of the occupation and the Palestinian people exercising their right to self-determination is neither a favor nor a gift from anyone.

Unfortunately, the Security Council has failed to implement its ceasefire resolution in the Gaza Strip and to refrain from granting the state of Palestine full membership status in the United Nations despite the General Assembly’s adoption of a resolution supporting Palestine’s request for UN membership last May.

The state of Palestine’s full UN membership neither establishes its sovereignty nor ends the occupation, but at least sends a message to the far-right government involved in challenging international legitimacy, that force does not eliminate rights.

Talking about such a step harming the peace process is simply eyewash, because there is no Israeli partner for peace during the current government’s tenure, and no peace process taking place, but rather a genocide. In this regard, we highly value the position of the countries that recognized the State of Palestine based on 1967 borders.

The continuation of the humanitarian tragedy of the brotherly Palestinian people for more than seven and a half decades is a shameful stain on the conscience of the international community and its institutions. There is no point in talking about security, peace, and stability in the Middle East region and across the world if not backed by concrete steps leading to an immediate ceasefire and an end to the Israeli occupation of all Arab territories.

Mr. President,

Honorable Audience,

It is no secret that we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and other Palestinian territories, which are subjected to coordinated attacks by the occupation army and settlers in an attempt to enforce plans to expand settlements, annex the West Bank, and Judaize Jerusalem.

The international community bears responsibility for the consequences of what is happening to the brotherly Palestinian people who are subjected to unfolding genocidal war that has resulted, so far, in the death of more than 41 thousand martyrs, let alone the missing under the rubble, including seventeen thousand children, eleven thousand women and one hundred thousand wounded including thousands of disabled and millions of people who were forcibly displaced several times, in addition to the complete destruction of the infrastructure of hospitals schools and buildings including mosques and churches.

A whole society is being destroyed in the course of the genocide against segments of the Palestinian people. It is the Gazan Palestinian community that has retained its composure and achieved remarkable development levels amid more than 17-year old stifling siege.

Mr. President,

The State of Qatar has opted for undertaking mediation efforts in an endeavor to stop the aggression on Gaza and secure the release of prisoners and detainees. It is a mediation amidst fierce war and complex circumstances, during which one party would not hesitate to assassinate counterpart political leaders with whom it negotiates, such as the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, who many people feign forgetfulness that he was not only the political leader of Hamas but also the first elected Palestinian prime minister.

For us mediation and humanitarian work are both a strategic political choice at the regional and international levels, and a humanitarian duty before being a political one. And we are not boastful of that vis-a-vis others.

Our mediation efforts, in partnership with the Arab Republic of Egypt and the United States of America, culminated in a humanitarian agreement last November.

It resulted in a brief ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the release of 240 Palestinian prisoners and 109 of the detainees in Gaza, and increased the flow of relief shipments.

We also provided humanitarian support to the civilian population in the Gaza Strip, contributed to evacuating the wounded and sick, supporting humanitarian initiatives to deliver aid through all accessible routes, and increasing our support to UNRWA, an irreplaceable international agency whose services are indispensable and which has been subjected to a defamation for political purposes related to the Israeli government’s desire to eliminate the refugee crisis without resolving Palestine cause.

The State of Qatar will spare no effort to provide various forms of humanitarian assistance to the brotherly Palestinian people until this crisis is resolved.

Despite the daunting challenges, obstruction attempts, and the aspersions we are subjected to, we will continue our efforts of mediation to resolve the disputes through peaceful means, as we are cognizant that any dispute will never lack a force interested in its continuation while being skeptical of any mediation regardless of the intentions.

We will continue to exert efforts with our partners until reaching a permanent ceasefire, securing the release of prisoners and detainees, taking the path of a just solution in accordance with the resolutions of the international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative, and enabling the Palestinian people to obtain all their legitimate rights, foremost of which is their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders.

The establishment of an independent Palestinian state within a just and permanent solution is in the interest of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples. We will not achieve this goal except with a serious partner who is aware of the importance of renouncing discord and ending the occupation and all forms of aggression, so that we can reach together the desired peace in the Middle East.

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