FAYSSAL MEKDAD (Syria):  Mr. President, since 1977, the General Assembly of the United Nations and all the advocates of freedom and justice the world over has been recalling on the 29th of November one of the greatest tragedies and challenges that face us all, namely the denial by Israel of the most basic human rights of the Palestinian people, in particular the right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state on their national soil.  
I’d like to express my special thanks to the Special Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and its Chairman, Mr. Paul Badji, as well as to the Division of the Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat and the DPI Special Program on the Question of Palestine.  It is the hope of Syria that the division of the Palestinian Rights and the information program will continue their work to sensitize the public opinion of the Question of Palestine.  
Sadly in the third millennium, in the 21st century, Palestine continues to languish under the Israeli occupation and continues to suffer from the policy of oppression, killing and destruction despite all the efforts made by the Arab side to arrive at a comprehensive and just solution.  The Question of Palestine has witnessed noteworthy developments recently, namely the implementation by Israel of a unilateral plan for the redeployment of its forces outside the Gaza Strip and the dismantling of its settlements therein, and the evacuation of the settlers.
Despite the fact that we welcome the withdrawal by Israel from any single inch of Arab or Palestinian soil, however, Israel has recently taken measures that aim at the establishment of a buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip with the depth of hundreds of meter within the Palestinian lands.  Its forces continue their bombardment of many parts of the Gaza Strip using jets, artillery and tanks, which has taken a toll of scores of Palestinian innocent lives.  
Israel’s persistence in its aggression against the Palestinian people and its resort to one of the most heinous forms of terror and oppression without regard to any political, legal or moral considerations confirm to us that it has not yet reached the necessary conviction for the establishment of comprehensive and just peace in the region, but proves this opinion of ours is Israel’s continued incursions into the towns and villages and the refugee camps in the occupied West Bank, as well as its continued perpetration of acts of killing and assassinations, the large scale campaigns of detention and the imposition of collective punishments against the Palestinian people.
Moreover, Israel continued its settlement activities, the construction of the separation wall, the building of bypass roads and military checkpoints that impede the freedom of movement for the citizens, Mr. President.
Despite the fact that Israel has evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank as a result of the heroic struggle and the legendary steadfastness of the Palestinian people, however, through doing so it has practiced grave misleading of the world public opinion.  It continued to expand the settlements in the West Bank.  The number of settlers has reached more than 260,000, more than 180,000 settlers live within eleven settlements in and around the City of East Jerusalem, occupied since 1967.  Israel continued its blockade of the city of occupied Jerusalem and has prevented Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from reaching it.  It has continued to isolate it from its Palestinian environment and to alter its demographic and geographical character.  
It has completed the construction of around 70% of the Separation Wall that surrounds the Holy City and it will contain within it nearly 20 settlements and isolate 250,000 Palestinian citizens from their natural geographic and demographic environment. 
As regards the racist separation wall and in contravention of the opinion of the ICJ, the resolutions of the General Assembly and the positions of many countries of the world, including those friendly to Israel, Israel has accelerated the construction of new parts of this infamous wall that has resulted in the confiscation of thousands of dunems of Palestinian lands.  This has turned a number of Palestinian villages and towns into isolated [inaudible] surrounded by walls from four sides.  In grave and flagrant defiance of the UN and its resolutions, the Prime Minister of Israel recently declared his government’s intention to continue to build settlements in the West Bank and in the Golan as well as the continuation of the separation wall.
The Israeli settlement expansion has been accompanied by acts of terrorism and violence carried out by Israeli settlers and their Army against the innocent Palestinian, in particular during the last five years.  The recent Israeli escalation has dealt a real blow to the peace efforts on all levels.  It has enfeebled our hopes in the achievement of a substantive progress in the peace process.
Mr. President, dealing with the Question of Palestine and the reasons for the lack of just and comprehensive solution to the situation in the Middle East, makes it necessary for the overwhelming majority of the members of the UN to pose questions about the causes for such a situation.  The Security Council adopted historic resolutions in this field, particularly Resolutions 242 of 1967 and Resolution 338 of 1973. 
However, Israel has since then refused to comply with the will of the international community.  When some states have sought to implement arbitrary decisions that have absolutely no basis in international law against states in Africa and the Middle East, and at the same time, when the Arab party accepts the implementation of these decisions, despite their inherent injustice, some state members of the Security Council do not bat an eyelid when it comes to compelling Israel to implement the resolutions of the Council.  What we are saying here is unfortunately and sadly a reality.  
When some ask questions about the reasons for the unstable situation in the Middle East, the continued tension and spiral of violence it has witnessed the real, frank answer lies in this scandalous double standards and the lack of sincerity but on the part of the protectors of Israel in the implementation of the UN resolution to the extent that some do not participate in the vote on the resolutions in the General Assembly.  This is a true deviation from the logic of international legality.
The continued Arab-Israeli conflict and the continued occupation of the Arab lands in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon and the absence of any real prospects for peace continues to impede the progress of the region towards political, economic and human development.
Syria’s position vis-à-vis peace and its frame of reference has always been consistent and credible.  We look to the member states of the United Nations to give real support for the implementation of the relevant resolutions of the UN in a manner that would lead to the complete Israeli withdrawal from the Syrian Golan and from the Palestinian territories to the borders of the 4th of June 1967, as well as its withdrawal from the Lebanese Shabaa Farms.  
President Bashar al-Assad of the Syrian Arab Republic in his recent historic statement made on the 10th of November 2005 has reiterated Syria’s support for the Palestinian President Mr. Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to Syria.  He reiterated that Syria’s position lies in the support of the struggle of the Palestinian people to restore their rights and to provide any necessary support or assistance in this field.  
Mr. President, the international community is unanimous that the just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East and the solution of the question of Palestinian under consideration today can only be achieved through the full implementation of the resolutions of international legality, in particular Resolutions of the Security Council 242 and 338, the Madrid Frame of Reference, the Principle of Land for Peace and the Arab Peace Initiative.  
The Arab party to the peace process has consistently respected the resolutions of international legality and the frame of reference on the basis of which the peace process was established in 1991.  At the same time, Israel continued to resort to all kinds of misleading ploys to distance itself from this frame of reference and to ignore the international will.  It has continued to resort to all sorts of devious ploys to win both land and peace.  This has prevented the establishment of the desire of comprehensive and just peace.  Israel is well aware that peace cannot be achieved except through the establishment of the independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian Territory with its capital Jerusalem, the complete withdrawal from the Occupied Syrian Golan and the remaining occupied Palestinian lands.  
Mr. President, it is high time for the international community and the Security Council to take a firm position on the Israeli policies so as to enable the Palestinian people to determine their future and to establish their independent state on their land with the capital Jerusalem.  I thank you, sir.