Explanation of Vote 
on 
Draft Resolution A/64/L.48 on the Goldstone Report 

February 26, 2010

SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC:  Thank you sir.  The General Assembly is convened again today for the second time in four months only in order to address the followup to the implementation of the Goldstone report on war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians during the aggression against Gaza.  
Our meeting is being held essentially because of Israel's failure to observe General Assembly resolution 64/10 and its refusal to submit a report as requested in the mission report.  This is a position which has been asserted by the representative of Israel when stating that the inquiries carried out by Israel are carried in the aftermath of any aggression.  
She claimed that Israel refers these inquires to the United Nations.  This means that Israel flouts Assembly General resolution 64/10.  It is as if Israel were bestowing a gift on the international community or the United Nations.  This is an Israeli position which accurately reflects that country s attitude, which has been adopted always considering itself as if it were above the law, and this in circumstances which are known to all, the Israeli position is scornful of international law.  The fact that Israeli is excluded from observing the rules of international law and the provisions of the Charter and its constant violations of international law have undermined the credibility of collective international action and led to a lack in the United Nations by the international community.  It has also enshrined double standards as a policy.
The Delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic has voted in favor of the resolution which we have just adopted, which holds Israel responsible for the crimes committed during the course of its aggression against Gaza, and this is on the basis of Syria s faith in the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for freedom and the right to self-determination.
The persistent refusal of Israel to honor hundreds of international resolutions, including 64/10, require that today we should take measures which will cause Israel to render an account of its actions regarding equity and justice to the victims of its barbarous actions and in order to preserve what remains of the credibility in international terms and the principles and purposes of the Charter.
My country s delegation here wishes to emphasize the fact that international law contains no provisions setting forth the possibility of asking an account of occupied peoples because of resistance.  Quite the opposite.  International law explicitly sets forth the rights of these peoples to struggle for their entitlements.
International agreements on international humanitarian law -- inter alia, the Geneva Convention -- have stated the responsibility falling on the occupying power to protect peoples subject to occupation.  No reference is made to the right of the occupying power to kill civilians and the occupied people.
This right has also been enshrined in the text of the Charter which led to the birth of our organization.  Dozens of countries present here today are proud of the fact that their status as members has come about as a result of their struggles for independence and freedom.  We therefore reject any insinuation which might give rise to the belief that the practices of the occupier can be treated as just, they re illegal on the one hand, and the acts of resistance on the other hand.  We believe that any insinuation of this order is without a legal basis.
It is Israel which is occupying the Palestinian Territories which has been there for decades.  It is Israel which has used internationally banned weapons to kill children, women, the elderly and innocent people in Palestine.  It is Israel which continues to establish settlements in the Occupied Territories and which continues to destroy houses in the occupied town of Jerusalem, driving out its inhabitants, depriving them of the right to dwell in their city and their homeland.  It is Israel which continues the Gaza Blockage and which continues to cut down the olive trees which are the symbol of peace.  It is Israel which continues the terrorist assassinations both inside and beyond the borders of Palestine.  This -- We ll remind you of what happened in Dubai, as you are well aware.
Hence, the fact of reversing facts or robbing them of their true nature and trying to put on the same footing the aggressor and the attacked party is tantamount to denying a people s right to resist occupation and distorting facts brought forward by the fact-finding mission.  Syria, together with many others sharing its beliefs, does not agree to law becoming non-law and that oppression and crime should triumph over justice and law.
No one can falsify history, distort geography and rob the terminology of law of its essence in the body in which we are gathered here today.  Thank you.