MS. NÚÑEZ DE ODREMÁN (Venezuela):  Thank you, Mr. President.  It was on the 10th of November 1975 that the General Assembly in its Resolution 3376 established the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.  The task of the Committee is to recommend a program aimed at allowing the Palestinian people to exercise its inalienable rights.  This is why we commend the noble work of this Committee which is of humanist significance based on the fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter.
For this reason, we feel honored to have been accepted on the 11th of November the year before last as an observer member of the Committee.  We also feel honored and proud to be this year the host country of the meeting of the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the Latin American and Caribbean region which will be held in Caracas from 13-15 December.
Mr. President, we are convinced that for the maintenance of international peace and security, it is necessary that relations among states, apart from their ideologies, be in strict compliance with the Charter of the United Nations and the general principles and norms of international relations, in particular the prohibition of the use of force against the territorial integrity or the political independence of any state, nonintervention and noninterference in the internal or external affairs of states and of peoples over their natural resources, as well as self-determination and the independence of peoples under colonial, neocolonial domination, foreign occupation or racist regimes.  
We are convinced that sovereignty resides exclusively within the peoples and that the destiny of the Palestinian people can only be determined by that people itself.  We’re convinced that for violence to cease both on the territory of Israel and on Palestinian territory, the Palestinians must be given total control over their territory.  There can be no peace while an occupation continues since occupation will always be repudiated by the people.  
We believe in a broad, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian question, the core of the Arab-Israel conflict.  And this must be based on the relevant resolutions of the United Nations, including the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, supported by the General Assembly, regarding the construction of the Israel Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and following fundamental principles – the withdrawal of Israel from Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 including Jerusalem and the other occupied Arab territories, respect for the right of all the states of the region to live in peace without intervention of any type and within internationally recognized borders, and lastly recognition of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, and in particular the right to self-determination.
Mr. President, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is in favor of a comprehensive and peaceful settlement to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  We hope that the negotiations towards this end will be conducted in conditions that insure the real self-determination of the Palestinian people.
I’d like to conclude this statement by sharing with you a quote that Noam Chomsky relates from St. Augustine who tells the story of a pirate captured by Alexander the Great, to whom Alexander asks:  “How do you dare to disturb the seas?”
“How do you dare to disturb the whole world?”, the pirate replies.  “I have a small boat.  That’s why they call me a thief.  You have an entire fleet.  That’s why they call you an emperor.”
Thank you, Mr. President.