Unofficial transcript 
Agenda item 37 “Question of Palestine”, November 29, 2012

SERBIA:  Thank you, Mr. President.  Mr. President, distinguished representatives, first of all I want to warmly congratulate Palestine on achieving the status of nonmember observer state in the United Nations.  This is an important step in the long -- and I would say far too long -- journey for the realization of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for their statehood.  
For the 132 members of the United Nations that have so far recognized the state of Palestine, it is a sign that their support for the Palestinian cause is bringing result and strengthening the Palestinian's rights to their self-determination and to their independent state.  
As Yugoslavia before, Serbia is among these 132 member states.  Our support for a Palestinian struggle and their self-determination and independence never wavered.  It was based on our own sense of justice and a very solid basis of a number of Security Council and General Assembly resolutions reaching all the way back to the beginnings of the United Nations, all of them reaffirming the right of Palestinians to an independent and sovereign state of their own based on the two-state solution.
Unlike Yugoslavia, since 1967 Serbia has diplomatic relations with Israel and maintains good and friendly cooperation with that state.  We are therefore fully conscious of Israel's legitimate security concerns and have an interest in promoting such a solution that would bring about statehood for Palestine for security and peace for both Israel and Palestine.  Neither a nation that was a victim of the holocaust nor a nation still in quest for its statehood deserve to live in the same precarious state lasting for more than 60 years.  
The people of both states are wary of conflict.  They should not be made to wait for the end of it any longer.  We must never accept a cynical view that the conflict cannot be resolved and that the world must simply live with it.  The Middle East peace process negotiations should be urgently resumed and accelerated so that a peace agreement based on the relevant Security Council resolutions, the Madrid principles, the roadmap and the Arab peace initiative can be reached.
In the meantime, let us hope and let us act in such a way that the present ceasefire holds.  People of both states have a vested interest in that, even if their hopes try to create a different impression.  Thank you, Mr. President.