Statement

by

H.E. Dr. Amal Mudallali

Permanent Representative of Lebanon

to the United Nations

at the General Assembly

joint debate

"The situation in the Middle East,

and the question of Palestine”

New York, May 20, 2021

Check against delivery

Permanent Mission of Lebanon to the United Nations 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 531, New York, NY 10017 Mr. President,

We thank the President of the General Assembly for convening this joint debate, at the request of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab Group.

The Bible tells us “for everything there is a season and time, a time for war and a time for peace”. For the it has been one season: A time for war and a time of loss and mourn for decades. The latest Israeli assault on Gaza dubbed “Guardians of the gate” is upon the Palestinians, once again, with all its pain and destruction. The aim of this latest assault as Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Netanyahu put it, is to “restore deterrence” and prevent future “conflict”.

Mr. President,

What is happening is a recipe for future conflicts. To prove it, I want to recall the 7 Israeli military operations that undertook against Gaza since 2006 with the aim of creating deterrence.

All Israeli operations started the same, and ended with the same pain and suffering. They turned Gaza into a large prison of two million people and cost thousands of lives, with more thousands injured, homes destroyed, whole families perished, schools and hospitals targeted, buildings turned into rubble but they never succeeded in silencing the Palestinians.

From the first military operation in 2006, Summer Rains, to the second operation, Autumn Clouds, in 2006 also, to the start of the Blockade of Gaza in 2007, to Hot Winter operation in 2008, to Cast Lead in 2008 also, to returning Echo in 2012, to Protective Edge in 2014, to killing the protestors on the border of Gaza in 2018, and to now “the Guardians of the gate”. In this operation the situation in Gaza is grave where 230 Palestinians were killed, 65 of them are children, and 40 are women with thousands injured, and 38000 people reported displaced by UNICEF.

Mr. President,

Nothing can guard against a people who are determined to defend their homes, and no deterrence will work in the face of a people who want to break free. Like all the other operations before, the fight will end with a ceasefire, but it will not end the conflict because this is not about rockets, weapons, and ceasefires. It is about the occupation and self-determination. It was the occupation that brought the Palestinians to the boiling point. It is also about a holy city, , the key to peace in our time and in all time. Jerusalem the city of peace is what brought things to a head because the Palestinians feel that it is slipping from their hands one neighborhood at a time to the occupation.

That is why May 2021 saw the Palestinians, all the Palestinians everywhere, rise to defend what they consider the latest attack on their rights in the city and its holy places, when the Israeli army entered the Haram Al Sharif, the third most sacred place in , during the holy month of Ramadan and attacked the worshipers inside the mosque. The Palestinian anger did not come from thin air; it is a mere consequence of decades of occupation, humiliation, dispossession, imprisonment, annexation, settlement activities that led to liquidation of the Palestinians rights and lands. It is years of impunity of successive Israeli governments and their policies, years of indifference by the international community to their plight that brought the Palestinians to this explosive situation, to a state of despair that left them with no recourse but to defend themselves.

The attack on the Al Aqsa that was the “turning point”, as the of Jerusalem said. Evictions of the Palestinians from their ancestral homes in Jerusalem have been going on since the beginning of the occupation, in a policy that aims at emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian population. The case is only the latest example of that policy. Demolition of homes is another Israeli policy that the Palestinians see it, rightly, as uprooting them from their land whether in the Jerusalem, the holy city, or in the other occupied territories.

The postponement of the Palestinian elections had more to do with the fact that the Israeli government refused to let the Palestinians of Jerusalem vote in the elections than with any other political reason. For the first time in decades the continued oppression of the Israeli policies and government actions have united the Palestinians like never before. The general strike that is being observed is a wake up call to everybody that going back to the status quo ante will not pass this time.

The Palestinians and the world are demanding change. They are rejecting Israel’s continued policy of creating facts on the ground and undermining the agreed upon formula for peace. They are demanding that there be no return to the slogans of peace, while in reality working to undermine the very essence of peace. They want a commitment and adherence to the comprehensive settlement, a just one that ends occupation and preserves the foundations of a Palestinian state to make the Two-state solution viable. They want from the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility under the Charter and end this war.

They want from this United Nations and the international community to renew their support and commitment to a settlement that guarantees the political rights of the Palestinians and a solution on the basis of international law, United Nations resolutions 242, 338, 2334, and the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, and the principle of land for peace, that leads to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with as its capital. Time is of essence on reaching a solution to the Palestine question. Extremism and radicalization are on the rise inside Israel, and the senseless attacks that we saw the last two weeks raise alarm bells of what to come. The chants of “death to the Arabs” heard by these extremists culminated in lynching of a Palestinian last week. The Palestinians are afforded protection under the Geneva conventions and the Israeli government has the responsibility to do so. Israel has also the responsibility to adhere to international humanitarian law when dealing with the Palestinians and those around it.

A week ago, Israeli forces shot and killed an unarmed 21-year-old Lebanese protester who was expressing his solidarity with the Palestinians on the border. The tensions in the southern border of Lebanon are a stark reminder that the whole region will not find durable peace and stability unless the Palestinian question is solved. My country remains committed to resolution 1701 and does not want to see any escalation. It also destroyed the building that housed the international media in Gaza. The world will not be blind to all these Israeli actions if it destroys the building that journalists work and live in.

Mr. President,

We call for a ceasefire that will stop the suffering of the Palestinian people and the bloodshed. But a ceasefire is not a solution, it is a Band-Aid. What is needed now is a political solution that ends this conflict once and for all. What is needed is freedom for the Palestinians; end of occupation, and for Jerusalem to be once again the city of peace for the whole world.