TAWFEEQ AHMED ALMANSOOR (BAHRAIN):  Thank you sir.  Addressing this item on the agenda, the question of Palestinian, this is being held in parallel with the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.  No one has any doubt that the General Assembly adopted in 1977 3240B, stipulating the commemoration of this international day, and no one doubted that the General Assembly was aware of its responsibilities vis-à-vis the Palestinian people and its tribulations.  The Assembly was also aware of the need to work tirelessly to promote a comprehensive and just solution to the question of Palestine.  
The commemoration of this day is of special importance, since it is an opportunity for the international community to renew this commitment.  
My delegation is happy to express thanks to the Committee on the Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and thank them for their tireless efforts on the question of Palestine and for its very important annual report.
We thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for the efforts they've made, and we're aware of the difficulties they've been facing when studying the facts related to this important issue in order to enable the Palestinian people to exercise their inalienable rights.
Mr. President, the report before us contained in document A/60/35 has illustrated several points that were ambiguous in the light of efforts to distort the facts and to try to obliterate certain facts.  
The continuation of illegal activities -- that is the cause of the worsening situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, but we must say that the underlying concern caused by the building of settlements and the illegal separation wall in occupied Palestinian territories, that situation is getting worse because of the stepped up expansion of settlements and the building of new settlements as well as accelerated construction of the separation wall.
According to what is stated by the Special Rapporteur responsible for the inalienable rights -- the human rights of the Palestinian people contained in document 271, according to what he says, the wall and the settlements are two factors that undermine this fundamental right of the Palestinian people to self-determination.  Now all other rights relate to this right because this violates human rights.
These are all examples of violations that are carried out in the face of the international community that violate international law, international instruments that are a total contradiction with international decisions and resolutions including resolution of the Security Council 242, for example, which concerns -- and the building of settlements has shown that the building of these settlements is based on no legal foundation.  1980s resolution 465 insists that the existing settlements be dismantled.   
Israel's practices with regard to these settlements and welcoming new immigrants to these settlements, that policy is a flagrant violation of the fourth Geneva Convention.  The continuation of these practices seriously impedes the implementation of a comprehensive, lasting, just peace in the Middle East.
This is evaluation of the advisory opinion of ICJ of July 2004 -- of 9 July 2004, which stipulates that the building of the separation wall is illegal and it calls for the dismantling of this wall.
Instead of complying with international instruments, instead of implementing United Nations resolutions and implementing the advisory opinion of the ICJ in the West Bank settlements are still being built.  They're being expanded still, which is a violation of article 1409, subparagraph 6 of the fourth Geneva Convention.
This is going on all the time, notwithstanding these new plans, which is going to be the start of a grander plan for new settlements and will end up with other territories being confiscated in the Gaza Strip.
Not only have these construction activities gone on, and they are a flagrant violation of international instruments and the road map, but these activities will lead -- and the committee makes this point in its report -- it will lead to a situation where the road map will be devoid of its main point.  It will have -- it will be futile.
No one doubts that the situation is getting worse because of the continuation by the occupying forces of the building of the separation wall in the West Bank and that wall has been condemned by the international community, as well as the separation wall around Jerusalem, which is contradiction to the Security Council resolution 476 of the Security Council, which was adopted in 1980 to protest against the laws adopted by the Israeli parliament in order to turn Jerusalem into the internal capital of Israel, as well as resolution 478 of 1980 which was adopted on the 20th of August 1980, which reiterated the determination of the Security Council regarding all measures and legislative and administrative procedures which [inaudible] to change the nature and status of Jerusalem which is considered to by the by council to be null and void, in particular the basic law concerning Jerusalem and other decisions of this type.
It seems that Israel, through the building of the separation wall in the West Bank and around Jerusalem -- it would seem that it is trying to achieve its expansionist aims in occupied Palestinian territory for the commitment expressed on the 15th of September by the Prime Minister of Israel, which was adopted at the high level meeting to continue to build the separation wall until construction is completed, which prompted the international community to reiterate its concern that the Israeli decision was an attempt to define the borders of a future Israeli state on a unilateral basis.
Furthermore, in addition to the consequences of the building of the wall, there are other negative effects to the economy, to the economic and social situation.  These will be forthcoming, and these effects will be irreversible because of the destruction of Palestinian land and goods and it will undermine the Palestinian's capacity to rebuild their economy, which is since September 2000 has been becoming more fragile.
Palestinians have spared no efforts to put an end to their tragedy.  They signed the peace agreements.  Arabs too have explored every avenue to try to establish comprehensive, just peace in the region by supporting peaceful initiatives, proposed and embodied in this approach which rallied consensus within the context of the Arab Initiative, which was adopted at the Beirut 2002 meeting -- summit meeting.
The withdraw of Israeli troops from Gaza Strip, that was a step which was welcome as a sign of further steps and the Committee on the Exercise of Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People confirmed that pact.  It was a step that could revive negotiations within the context of the road map to try to create an independent united Palestinian state living side-by-side in security and in peace with Israel.
The road map remains the logical, rational context for achieving a just, lasting solution to the Palestinian question on the basis of the 4 June '67 borders through the limitations of the Security Council resolutions, 242, 338, 1397 and 1515.  Thank you Mr. President.