IBRAHIM ASSAF (Lebanon):  Thank you, Mr. President.  I would first like to express my thanks and appreciation for the Secretary-General of the United Nations and to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the two reports that they have submitted to us under the Article entitled Question of Palestine and for the efforts that they have exerted to achieve the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Mr. President, the question of Palestine continues to be the most important and oldest of the issues placed on the agenda of the United Nations.  And the United Nations continues to be responsible permanently for the Question of Palestine until this question is settled in all its aspects.  
Our discussion of the Question of Palestine this year is a mixed feeling between hope and challenge.  Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip on 12 July of this year constitutes a step in the right direction.  It strengthens and enhances hope of the ability to create peace when the intention to do so exists.  
However, there are still many challenges to the achievement of all the rights, of all the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.  As stipulated by General Assembly Resolution 32/36 for the year 1974, namely the Right to Self-determination, the Right to Political Independence and the Refugee’s Right to Return.  The most important of these challenges can be outlined as follows:
#1.  Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip must be complete and comprehensive.  It should be the first step towards a complete withdrawal from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank whose area reaches 5800 square kilometers.  Keeping in mind that Israel has not yet completed its pledge that it took at the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit in 2005 because it only ceded control over two cities out of five cities in the West Bank that it pledged to hand over to the Palestinians.  
#2.  Israel still maintains 200 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  These settlements are inhabited by about 400,000 settlers which shows an increase of 12,800 settlers in the West Bank alone.  At the start of this year, Israel revealed a plan to construct 3500 settlement units, new settlement units in the West Bank which constitutes yet another violation of Security Council Resolution 465 which views settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to peace.
#3.  Israel continues its construction of the Separation Wall which extends by 720 kilometers, 90% of which is inside the West Bank at depth that sometimes reaches 22 kilometers.  This Wall imposes unilateral solutions and once completed will lead to swallowing up around 1,000 square kilometers of West Bank territories.  It is needless to say that Israel’s completion of the construction of the Separation Wall blatantly violates and ignores the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion issued on 9 July 2004 which viewed the Wall as illegal and called on Israel to demolish it and to compensate the Palestinians for any damages it has caused.  
#4.  The tragedy of Palestinian refugees has existed for the past 57 years, where approximately 4.3 million Palestinian refugees reside in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, and Jordan and in Syria.  With all the misery, suffering and homelessness this entails, Israel still rejects the return of these refugees to their homeland in violation of General Assembly Resolution 194 and Security Council Resolution 237.  
#5.  Israel continues its aggression against Palestinian civilians which has led to the death of approximately 4,000 Palestinians and has wounded approximately 40,000 Palestinians, and has led to the arrest of 35,000 Palestinians since the beginning of the Intifada in 2000.  
In this regard, we would like to reiterate our support for General Assembly Resolution 31/59, dated December 1st, 2004, on the need to view civilians throughout the Middle East as neutral and to condemn acts of violence committed against all civilians including extra judicial killings.  
Lastly, Mr. President, we would like to reaffirm our commitment to peace and to a solution that is based on the existence of two states:  Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in secure borders that are recognized according to the 1949 Armistice Line and according to the Land for Peace Principle and the relevant United Nations resolutions including General Assembly Resolution 194 and Security Council Resolutions 242, 338, 1397, 1515 and the Arab Peace Initiative.  Thank you, Mr. President.