The Director of the UNRWA office reading a message for this special meeting from Madam Karen Abuzayd, Commissioner General of UNRWA. 
ANDREW WHITLEY:  Thank you Mr. Chairman.  I have the honor to read the following message from Karen Koning Abuzayd.  I regret that I cannot be with you on this important occasion.  After nine years of service to UNRWA and the Palestinian refugees, I shall be retiring from my office at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, the reason that I cannot join you today is that I currently on mission in Spain.
This moment, one when hopes of an early breakthrough in the peace process have once again dimmed and the national polity remains deeply split, one when the blockade of Gaza has persisted with cruel rigor for 28 months and the inhabitants of the Naral Barad [?] camp, along with many other refugees, remain homeless, is an appropriate juncture to reflect on the importance of maintaining solidarity with the Palestinian people.
For the most part scattered from their homeland in the refugee camps, villages and cities of the surrounding region, as well as further afield in all corners of the globe, over the past 62 years Palestinians have shown extraordinary resilience.  In the face of considerable adversity, they have educated their children and made them vital citizens of the world without ever losing touch of their collective identity and burning desire for their own national state.
Palestinian's understandable and fully justified search for justice has, however, been matched with pragmatism.  Contrary to an often repeated myth, the refugees have not been a passive, aid-dependent group.  Rather, given half an opportunity, they have seized it, in the process contributing amply to the societies in which they live.  
As the fateful story of the partition of Palestine and the subsequent flight or expulsion of much of the indigenous population began here in New York with the United Nations on this day in 1947.  Let us not forget how much the Palestinian people look to this august body to look up to its convictions and the many resolutions it has passed in their favor.
Hopes of a just and lasting solution may have been dashed many times, but the refugees have not given up hope that one day that time will come.  What keeps spirits alive in low moments such as those they have experienced lately, is the realization that the vast majority of member states in this global body share Palestinian's belief in the urgency of the need to bring an end to occupation and to exercise their right to self determination.
The concept of the two-state solution may be looking a little ragged these days, but the alternative, a unitary state in which Palestinians would struggle for equal civil and political rights, is anathema to Israelis, and a distant, second-best goal for the vast majority of Palestinians wherever they may live.  Thus, we must continue to press ahead with efforts to achieve a viable Palestinian state while remaining vigilant to those unilateral measures that might ultimately render the goal unachievable.
Attention has lately been focused on a series of steps taken by the occupying power in East Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank, which remains under full Israeli control, that have made daily life increasingly difficult for Palestinians.  Among them the most vulnerable, such as Bedouin nomads, and call into question the likelihood of being able to bring about a meaningful state including East Jerusalem.
The refugees who make up about 40% of the population of the occupied Palestinian territory have suffered in equal measure with their non-refugee counterparts from these negative developments.  Despite improved security coordination between the Palestinian Authority and the government of Israel, humanitarian access incidents in the West Bank are still running at an unacceptably high level of almost two a day.
In the words of the World Bank, the West Bank remains a 'shattered economic space, in which its integrity as a viable socioeconomic and political unit has been severely compromised.
In Gaza, meanwhile, we meet at a time when hopes are rising that Staff Sergeant Shalit will finally be released as part of a larger prisoner swap, which will remove yet another pretext for the maintenance of the blockade.  
Speaking as someone who has lived in Gaza throughout my term with UNRWA and has know firsthand the best of its people on so many occasions, the longer the blockade is maintained, the harsher will be the suffering of its people, the deeper will be their grievances and the more radicalized some become.  Surely that is not an outcome anyone would wish.
Mr. Chairman, solidarity with a suffering and a wronged people can take many forms.  It is expressed through lofty speeches on commemorative days such as this.  It is seen through the many idealistic volunteers who travel to the West Bank and Gaza to work alongside Palestinians to bear witness and offer moral and practical support, much as young westerners used to flock to the kibbutzim of Israel before and soon after the June 1967 war.  
Solidarity is also shown through the financial support that donor governments and private individuals give generously to voluntarily funded organizations such as UNRWA that serve the Palestinian people in many concrete ways to try to provide them with the services, opportunities and decent living conditions that are theirs by right.
On Wednesday this week, we shall have our annual pledging conference in the General Assembly.  It will be timely and extremely welcome if UNRWA was to receive new pledges of support from unexpected quarters or else the announcement in increase in funding from those who have historically underperformed in this respect.  The refugees and our 30,000-strong Palestinian staff who live in great anxiety these days about the prospect of further reductions in their modest living standards would be enormously relieved.
In closing Mr. Chairman, allow me to express my fervent conviction through collective efforts and shared recognition of the justice of the Palestinian case for their own homeland.  One day soon that noble goal will be achieved.  I thank you for your attention.  

General Assembly: 
320th Meeting
November 30, 2009 	1
Unofficial Transcript

General Assembly: 
320th Meeting
November 30, 2009 	1
Unofficial Transcript