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STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. PAUL BADJI CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE AT THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE
Monday,24 November2008

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of Your Excellency,Mr. Secretary-General the United Nations, Your Excellency,Mr. Presidentof the GeneralAssembly, Your Excellency,Mr. Presidentof the SecurityCouncil. Authority Your Excellency,Mr. ForeignMinister of the Palestinian and Ambassaderst Exeelleneies DistinguishedInvitees, HonourableDelegates, and Mesdames Messieurs.

People Rightsof the Palestinian of on Today,the Committee the Exercise the inalienable the is holding a specialmeetingto observethe IntemationalDay of Solidarityrryith Palestinian B with the provisionsof GeneralAssemblyresolutron32140 of 2 People,in accordance December1917. The tradition of organizingspecialmeetings,suchas the one we are holding today. goesback thirty years. Each year,membersof the internationalcommunity cometogether peoplefor its of on this day to voice their unrelentingsupportfor the aspirations the Palestinian inalienablerights.

people,as definedby the GeneralAssembly,are The inalienablerights of the Palestinian the without extemalinterference; right to nationalindependence the right to self-detennination to refugees returnto their homesand property,from and the return of Palestine and sovereignty; an which they had beendisplacedand uprooted. The realizationof theserights represents just of importantelementof a comprehensive, and lasting settlement the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

with the takeson particularmeaningin view of its convergence fhis year's observance later,Palestine refugees.Six decades of of sixtiethanniversary the dispossession the Palestine havenot beenableto reachtheir own homesin the samenumberof yearsalthoughthey refugees sincehundredsof thousands away. Sixty long yearshave elapsed may be only a s6ort distance generations have had beencompelledto leavetheir homes. Subsequent refugees of Palestine with and in to swelledthe numberof 1948reftigees today's over 4.6 million who are registered in Refugees the Near East the careof the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine

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currently living in the GazaStrip, is of million refugees, GTNRWA). The situationof someone particularconcelrl. innunerable Over the years,the principal organsof the United Nations have adopted most of which have Yetto be imPlemented'It is ..rol,rtions relating to the questionof Palestine, peoplehave lived and continueto live tinder now also forty-one yearssincethe Palestinian exiled and otherwisein stateless, internally displaced, occupationand have remaineddispersed, . of the President the limbo as regardstheir presentand future. As has beenaptly notedby caseof failure of the United Nations is the lack of a Palestinian GeneralAssembly,the greatest State. where eventhe humanitariandisaster In Gaza,we are on the brink of a major man-made humanitarianaid. The irnposedshortage United Natio's is preventedtiom deliveringemergency as well as cold with the of tuel, of which Israel is the sole supplier,has sunk Gazainto darkness a progressive onsetof winter. Clu'onicmalnutrition is on the rise and therehas been According to IINRWA, in deterioration the food securityfor up to 70 per cent of the population. ,.Theongoing closureof crossings and out of Gaza- u'hich has a populationof some l '4 in ..botha physicalas well as a rnentalpunishmentof the population'" Allow million people- is and work of the United Nations agencies the me, at this juncture,to acknowledge declicated peoplewith vital and tirelesslyworking on the groundto provide the Palestinian proramrnes by Theseproblemsare only likely to be compounded the currentworld assistance. much-needed danger' llnancial crisis. The situationin the GazaStrip placespeacein ever-greater wall impedethe tiee and the separation In the West Bank, some630 checkpoints in Authority institutions. Palestinians the and erodethe Palestinian movementof palestinians the By someaccounts, by to West Bank are also subjected daily raids and arrests Israeli troops. of i0'000' Palestinian in number of palestinians Israeliprison facilities is well in excess Also, despiteIsrael's of prisonersare hqld in Israeliterritory in contravention intemationallaw. underminingthe political continues, construction obligationsundel the Road Map, settlement level of violent acts process.particularly disquietingof late hasbeenthe unprecedented and againstPalestinians their propertyby settlers. perpetrated

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condemned actsof violence,in particularagainstcivilians. The Committeehasrepeatedly and Israeli. It calls for a cessation rocket attacksagainstIsrael,as well as of both Palestinian incursionsand air strikesand other disproportionate measures collectivepunishmentby Israel of is againstthe populationof Gazar,vhich explicitly prohibitedunderArticle 33 of the Fourth GenevaConvention. The Committeeurgesthe imrnediateopeningof the crossings betu'een the Gaza Strip and Israel,in particularfbr medicalpatientsrequiringurgenttreatmentunavailablein aid there. The Committeealso Gaza andfor humanitarian and other needsof the popr.rlation and Israeli sidesin their questfor urgesthe internationalcommunityto supportthe Palestinian peace.

The questionof Palestine shouldbe topmost on the peacemaking agenda the world of community. The Committeeand the intemationalcommunity placedgreathopesin the revival to of the peaceprocess which the Annapolisrneetingheld a year ago was expected give to the significantimpetus. However,insteadof approaching creationof a Palestinian State,we wall; recentlyauthorizedadditional have watchedthe completionof 57 per cent of the separation activity parlicularly in and aroundEastJerusalem; 25-per-cent increases settlement in a increase homes;excavationwork adjacent the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the destructionof Palestinian to in and other obstacles movementin the West compound;a l2-per-centincrease checkpoints to throughoutthe West Bank and an unprecedented increase Bank; routine arest campaigns in settlerviolence. '

Recently,both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have saidthat time for the two-State

out. The Committeeurgesthe international communityto maintainthe solution was fbst rr,rnning momentumbegunat the Annapolismeetingand to supportand facilitateregularcontacts which the beganin its contextbetween two sides. We have high hopesthat significantprogress with renewedimpetuscan be madein the permanent statusnegotiations.Any advances the Israeliin negotiatingprocess will be difficult without Palestinian Palestinian unity. The intemational community and the principal regionalplayersshoulddo all they can to bring the Palestinian peopletogether.

) changein the situation shouldbe appreciable in to A prerequisite progress negotiations Territory, including EastJerusalem.Only tangible on the groundin the OccupiedPalestinian of will bring about a climate conduciveto the advancement permanentstatus changes just, lastingand permanentagreement all on and the reachingof a comprehensive, negotiations

into At issues. a minimum,all crossings the Gazl t14p ti,gt!4I'e outstanding
homesshouldstop. The activity and demolition of Palestinian immediatelyand all settlement people, stepsto protectthe Palestinian intemationalcommunity shouldtake more determined respectfor internationallaw in the whole region and uphold the relevantUnited Nations ensul'e 242, 338, 1397and 1515. in resolutions. particular

just shouldalso take into The road to a comprehensive. and lastingpeacesettlement accountthe Arab PeaceInitiative of 2002 which shouldbe revived and built on. Months of are continuousnegotiations yet to bridge the gap betweenlofty rhetoric and starkreality in the Ten'itory.including East Jerusalem. OccupiedPalestinian

Thank you.

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