Saudi Arabia stressed that the Israeli practices and illegal measures against the Palestinian people do not only represent a breach of the Charter of the United Nations, the humanitarian values and UN resolutions, but also undermine any international effort for peace.
In a speech before the Security Council meeting last night to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, Permanent Representative of Saudi Arabia to the UN Ambassador Khaled Al-Nafisee called on the international community, the United Nations and especially the Quartet Committee, to follow a comprehensive strategic approach toward an immediate halt to all settlement projects in the Occupied Territories, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Friday.
Al-Nafisee said that the suffering of the Palestinian people began with the idea of giving their homeland to another people without a homeland. The issue soon spawned new issues of refugees, settlements, changing historical facts and demolition of religious sites. The Palestinian people have suffering under the brutal force of Israel with the international community not making any effective move to restrain the occupier, he pointed out.
“Had the UN Security Council carried out its role, the suffering of the Palestinian people would not have continued for more than a half a century of Israel’s worst forms of killings, displacement, imprisonment, blockade, annexation, confiscation of property and looting of goods in order to destroy that people and push them to surrender, despair and frustration through exposing them to more oppression and suffering, which is evidenced by the current Israeli practices,” the Saudi representative said.
He added that the Arabs opted for peace and not surrender and their demand has been, and still is, the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 and the principle of land for just and comprehensive peace, which requires a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories to the 1967 borders, as well as the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, regaining their rights, enabling the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and establishing their independent state on their national soil with Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital, as well as withdrawal from the Golan Heights in Syria and the Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
He said the Israeli occupation forces that have built a wall of racist separation and expanded settlements in Palestinian territories, in addition to arming, protecting and encouraging settlers to build more settlement outposts over the past few months with simultaneous rise in incidents of demolitions of Palestinian homes, property and farms including the demolition of the historic Shepherd Hotel.
Ambassador Al-Nafisee said such practices completely hinder all peace initiatives because they surround most cities in the West Bank and make it virtually impossible to establish a contiguous and viable Palestinian state in the future.
He added that for six decades, the Arab-Israeli conflict has been and still is overshadowing all the issues in the Middle East and was a reason for the growth of extremism and terrorism and a obstacle to efforts of development and reform in that region.
At the end of his speech, the Kingdom's permanent representative at the United Nations reiterated the commitment of all Arab countries to the just and comprehensive peace based on UN resolutions. He affirmed that the commitment is still waiting for a reciprocal and serious Israeli commitment by immediately accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, which provides the only way to a lasting and comprehensive peace between the two sides.
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