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SvennoJ on 04 September 2024
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‘Palestine with no Palestinians’: Ambassador Mansour at UNSC

Ambassador Riyad Mansour of the State of Palestine spoke at today’s meeting of the UN Security Council.

Here are some of the key quotes from his address:

  • Israel is seeking to impose a military solution to the conflict by disappearing the nation.
  • Instead of ending the Nakba, Israeli fascist extremist leaders have decided to try to bring it to its ultimate conclusion, Palestine with no Palestinians.
  • In recent days, Israel has killed more than 30 Palestinians in the West Bank, among them six children and two elderly people. It has destroyed refugee camps and civilian infrastructure, besieged and attacked hospitals and carried out countless air strikes.
  • In parallel, Israel is advancing its settler colonial agenda with more and more settlers.
  • Israel wants you to believe its military aggression is about security, but it knows by experience that it is actually creating the conditions of insecurity. No one is naive enough to ignore what this is about. It is about the land.
  • All Palestinians are guilty of being Palestinians and for wanting to live on their land, the land of their ancestors. Their sentence: ethnic cleansing, apartheid, arbitrary detention or death.

Here are some additional quotes from Riyad Mansour’s speech to the UN Security Council:

  • Should we allow Israel to continue this genocide against the Palestinian people while pretending to negotiate a ceasefire? Don’t listen to me. Listen to the families of the Israeli hostages.
  • I’m sure that all of you have been watching … what the entire Israeli population are doing, including hundreds of thousands of people. They know Netanyahu does not care about the hostages.
  • We said months ago we wanted to see Palestinian and Israeli families reunited in life, not in death.
  • Colonial plans require death to prevail on both sides, to convince everyone there is no solution possible to ensure that there can be no two states, no two peoples coexisting side by side. We must not let them prevail.
  • As Israel carries on with this genocidal onslaught, those who have survived faced violence and death at every corner, starvation and disease, besieged by trauma and despair, displaced from one bomb shelter to destroyed hospital to mass grave to another.

‘Palestine remains the most important test for the international law based order’

  • While we are grateful for the international mobilisation through WHO and UNICEF and others to stop the spread of polio among our children in Gaza, the fact remains Israel’s war machine continues undeterred.
  • In a few days, all of you will have a chance to send a clear signal that the unlawful Israeli occupation must end, that this colonial supremacist rule will not be tolerated, that the rights of the Palestinian people must be respected in accordance with the determinations of the [International Court of Justice], the highest court of the land, in accordance with the universal rules of international law.
  • Palestine remains the most important test for the international law-based order, a test it cannot afford to fail.



Condemn ‘barbaric’, ‘terrorist’ Hamas: Israel’s ambassador at the UNSC

Danny Danon, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, also spoke today at today’s meeting of the UN Security Council.

Here are some highlights of his address:

  • We hear many voices demanding that we hold our efforts, lay down our weapons and question why we continue to fight Hamas in Gaza.
  • Let me be clear, Israel is committed to bringing every one of these hostages home. It is our top priority. But make no mistake, the roadblock to their release is not Israel. It is Hamas.
  • I call on this council to direct its energy where it is most needed … an unequivocal condemnation of the barbaric, terrorist organisation that continues to hold innocent lives.
  • You have a moral obligation to adopt a simple resolution, which would say the Security Council condemns Hamas, their atrocities, designates them as a terrorist organisation, and demands the immediate release of the hostages. I cannot understand why all of you cannot raise your hand and vote for this language.




US still stalling

US ambassador tells UN Security Council diplomacy ‘has not failed’

Linda Thomas-Greenfield has told the UN Security Council that diplomacy “takes effort and, unfortunately, it takes time”, as some council members questioned why a US-backed resolution adopted by the UN body almost three months ago was yet to lead to a ceasefire.

“We know that the best way to rescue the remaining hostages and alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians is through a negotiated ceasefire deal,” Thomas-Greenfield told the council at a meeting in New York.

She went on to address the Israeli people, saying that the Israeli government “can accept” the deal on the table, in apparent contrast to past US statements that Israeli leaders had already accepted the proposal endorsed by the Security Council in June.

“The Israeli people should understand that the deal on the table is one their leaders can accept because this is a deal that ensures Israel’s security,” she said.



UN Security Council members frustrated by lack of progress on ceasefire

This was the second emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in less than a week on the situation in Gaza.

Israel wanted to talk about the six captives who were discovered dead in Gaza over the weekend. Algeria wanted to talk about violations of international human rights law in the West Bank. But the overarching sentiment from members of the UN Security Council was frustration.

Frustration that the ceasefire they endorsed in resolution 2735 three months ago has yet to be accepted by Israel. A ceasefire that called for the release of the captives, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces from all of Gaza.

The United States said diplomacy takes time. Other council members, like Guyana and Slovenia, said more needs to be done to bring this conflict to an end and threatened to take further action if progress isn’t seen.