Commemorating 76-years of Nakba: appeal for an immediate ceasefire to address the ongoing crisis – Letter from the State of Palestine (A/ES-10/994-S/2024/390)

16 May 2024

                     Identical letters dated 16 May 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

As Palestinians around the world somberly commemorate the 15th of May in remembrance of the Nakba of 1948, when the majority of our people were forcibly dispossessed and violently uprooted, expelled and displaced from their homes, villages, cities and towns in Palestine, and as the right to return of these refugees, now over 6 million Palestinians, remains obstructed to this day, in breach of international law and General Assembly resolution 194 (III), we must again draw the international community’s attention to the 76-year Nakba being inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel, the occupying Power.

Despite the global demands to end its occupation and halt its violations, Israel persists with its nefarious attempts, by all illegal means and measures – militarily, administratively, legislatively and even by acts of terror – to subjugate the Palestinian population under its occupation, deprive them of their human rights and forcibly displace them from their land, an open act of erasure and colonization threatening the existence of our people and nation. In full view of the world, this Nakba continues, a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide, causing untold human loss and agony and shaming the international community, exposing double standards and undermining and severely testing the international law-based order.

The painful reality of this ongoing, grave injustice is most striking in the besieged Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children, 70 per cent of whom are refugees from 1948, are again on the move, fleeing in fear from Israel’s attacks on Rafah in the south, as well as in the north. They are being forcibly displaced again, some for the fourth and fifth time in the seven months that they have somehow escaped death at the hands of Israeli occupying forces. It is estimated that 600,000 people have been displaced from Rafah alone, including 150,000 people in the past 48 hours, yet another massive displacement as Israel has forced at least 78 per cent of Gaza’s population to “evacuate” repeatedly.

Likewise, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forced displacement of Palestinian civilians also carries on unabated. There, occupying forces, including militias comprised of extremist Jewish settlers, continue raiding Palestinian villages, towns and cities, terrorizing and displacing Palestinian civilians, especially Bedouin communities, and implementing the Israeli government’s settler colonial agenda, seizing more Palestinian land and building more illegal settlements.

Those who have lived through the horrors of these 220 days of hell in Gaza are enduring sheer torture, struggling to survive, deprived of food, water and shelter, and desperately searching for safety as Israel carries on with its terror campaign, killing, maiming and destroying. No living being in Gaza is safe – not pregnant women, nor those in labor; not newborn infants, nor children; not disabled persons, nor the elderly; not men, not youth; and not humanitarian personnel, not doctors, nurses, medics or journalists – and more mass graves continue to be unearthed. The fact is that all lives in Gaza are at risk, left defenceless by an international community, including the Security Council, that has pledged the protection of civilians, yet done nothing to protect Palestinians from Israel’s killing machine.

Its air, land and sea attacks not sufficing, Israel also continues to deny the essentials for human survival in Gaza. The minimal supplies of food and water and fuel and medicines are quickly diminishing, threatening lives and the functioning of the few hospitals remaining, as entry and distribution of humanitarian aid has been halted by Israel’s violent seizure of the Rafah border crossing. This siege is accelerating the spread of famine and despair among the population, inflicted by design by the Israeli government and military and compounded by Israeli extremists who continue to block and attack aid convoys, wantonly destroying food parcels to prevent them from reaching hungry Palestinian civilians in Gaza, all in grave breach of international humanitarian law and even the lowest standards of human decency.

The casualty toll in Gaza now stands at more than 35,233 Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupying forces and more than 79,141 injured, and, in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, stands at 480 Palestinians killed and over 5,040 injured by Israeli soldiers and settlers. The majority of the victims have been, and continue to be, children and women, decimating the society from its roots.

Losses among humanitarian and United Nations personnel also continue to rise, with 189 United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Palestinian staff members killed in these past seven months of Israeli assault on Gaza, the highest number of United Nations staff killed in any conflict since the Organization’s establishment. Thus far, a total of 262 humanitarian aid workers have been killed by the Israeli occupying forces since October 2023, of whom 193 were United Nations staff. In this regard, we deeply regret also the recent killing of an international staff member from the Department of Safety and Security as he travelled in a United Nations vehicle carrying the United Nations flag on a road from Rafah to the European Hospital in Khan Younis.

In addition to attacks on United Nations personnel and United Nations premises, including UNRWA schools sheltering displaced families and other United Nations facilities, in Gaza, the UNRWA headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem also continues to come under attack. Violent, extremist Israeli settlers, chanting “Burn down the United Nations”, this week attacked the UNRWA compound for the third time, setting fire to the perimeter of the headquarters, causing extensive damage to the area and endangering the lives of United Nations staff there.

All of this has happened under the watch of the Israeli occupying forces and no doubt provoked and incited by Israel’s Prime Minister and other government officials who continue to malign and attack UNRWA and the United Nations as a whole, libelling it as “a terror organization”. This includes Israel’s United Nations representative in New York, who again, on 10 May 2024, openly disrespected the United Nations and diplomats and countries from every corner of the world in yet another vulgar, offensive tirade, which included the act of shredding the Charter of the United Nations at the General Assembly podium, breaching all diplomatic protocol and the Charter itself, which all States are obligated to respect and uphold, proving Israel’s disdain for the United Nations and constant attempts to undermine it.

The time for accountability for all such violations is long overdue. The time for independent, transparent, international investigations is long overdue. Israeli government and military officials must be held accountable for all violations of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law. The Security Council, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court must uphold their mandates and act forthwith to bring an end to all these grave breaches.

If multilateralism remains paralysed, as in the case of the Security Council, it remains the duty of all States to act in line with their international legal obligations and responsibilities under the Charter. There must be consequences for Israel’s continued lack of compliance and deliberate, systematic and massive violations of the law. Consequences must include, inter alia, halting diplomatic relations, halting all settlement trade, halting arms transfers and other sanctions.

We urge action now to ensure a ceasefire in Gaza without any further delay. Act now to end to this genocidal Israeli war, to end this ongoing Nakba, on the Palestinian people.

The present letter is in follow-up to our 834 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 8 May 2024 (A/ES-10/993-S/2024/372), 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