Unofficial Transcript 
65th General Assembly
Statement by Syria
Agenda item 37 “Question of Palestine”, November 29, 2010


SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC:  Mr. President, my delegation wishes to express its appreciation for the Committee on the exercise of the Palestinian people, its inalienable rights, and its Chairman, and for the Division on the Rights of the Palestinian People and the Special Program on Palestine of DPI of the Secretariat for their efforts made in order to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy concerning the Palestinian issue, which calls for putting an end to the plight of the Palestinian people that has been going on for more than six decades.
The international community this morning reaffirmed its solidarity with the Palestinian people and its commitment to support the question of the Palestinian people’s struggle against the Israeli occupation, for self-determination and the establishment of its independent state and the return and restoration of its total rights. In the light of the continuation of the suffering of the Palestinian people, resulting from the Israeli occupation, that settler, racist occupation and aggressive acts, the killing of children and women, the ravaging of holy places and collective punishment, the inhuman blockade, building the separation wall and the detention of thousands of innocent people, and the act of cancerous settlement as declared in all the Palestinian territories, especially in Occupied Jerusalem, it aims at erasing the cultural identity of the Palestinian.
Despite the adoption by the United Nations of hundreds of resolutions calling on Israel to end its occupation of the Occupied Arab Territories and the cessation of its aggressive policies, Israel still persists in defying the international legality and rejects complying with these resolutions.
In the light of these tragedies, reflected in the defiance of Israel and rejection of the will of the international community on the one hand and the continuation of the plight of the Palestinian people on the other hand, it is necessary more than ever before that the United Nations would face its responsibilities concerning the question of Palestine through the application of the relevant resolutions, because this international organization was the very organization that supported the adoption of Resolution 181 of ’48.
Consequently, all the member states in it bear the consequences of the lack of its implementation so far.  Here, we wish to recall that Resolution 273, adopted on May the 18th, ’49, defined the conditions of the acceptance of the membership of Israel in the United Nations complying with the principles of the Charter as well as respecting the relevant resolutions, especially Resolution 181 and 194, that both stress the right of the Palestinian people to establish its independent state on their national territory and the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, from which they were expelled by coercion.
The GA noted when accepting the membership of Israel in the United Nations the statements of Israel before the Special Political Committee and its commitment to implement the above two resolutions.  However, this commitment has wavered in the international queries addressed by the international community of Israel, hence sending the wrong message on the part of the member state of Israel to the effect that Israel is above the law.  Consequently, it is encouraged to persist in its practices that violate all laws and norms in the world.
Mr. President, in Israel they speak of peace with hypocrisy [inaudible].  Their very acts reveal such hypocrisy.  They commit all acts that are in contravention with the simplest principles of this peace, and they continue in their settlement policy, the last of which is the declaration to build 1,300 settlements units in East Jerusalem. In Israel they say that they seek negotiations for peace and on the basis of the two-state solution.  This is mere words that have actually no meaning in view of the wanton settlement in this land that they claim is going to be the land of peace.
In this respect, we wish to refer in particular to the acts of Israel and Jerusalem.  It works in an intensified manner to Judaize the city and expel the Palestinians and support the practices that are taking place at the hands of the settlers, thus jeopardizing the security and the safety of this historical legacy.
We move now to the tragic situation in Gaza.  As everybody knows, it’s a result of an Israeli act of aggression against Gaza which resulted in the murder of many innocent persons.  This is reported in many international reports, including the Goldstone, which stated that frankly that Israel targets the innocent civilians and describes these acts of aggression as war crimes and serious violations against international law.  They are crimes against humanity.
In this series, Israel imposes siege against the people of Gaza and prohibited the necessary goods.  This affected the life in the Gaza Territory and caused a lot of human suffering.  This was condemned by the international community in order to lift the siege and to allow the construction of what Israel itself destroyed.  But it persisted in its policy by its act of aggression against the flotilla that was on its way to Gaza in a purely humanitarian mission in an initiative by the international community to provide the necessary food, medicine and the construction material and education items for the inhabitants of Gaza.  So Israel intercepted the ships of the flotilla in the international  [inaudible] and killed nine people in the flotilla in addition to the injury and the detention of many there.
The fact-finding mission report indicates that -- and we are awaiting the investigation committee’s result formed the Secretary-General.  Especially this provided a legal framework for that, taking into consideration that Turkey presented its report while Israel, as usual, has not presented so far any information to the international investigation committee.  At a time where the Arab states seek peace, Israel is still -- answers by many inimical practices that have recently reached serious dimension.  Thus it shows and rears its ugly face.
Thus, to the international community, it still rejects peace and challenges those who call for peace.  It believes in racism, settlement and occupation.  It leads the peace and security of the area to the unknown.  In this respect, my delegation calls on the international community to bring pressure to bear on Israel by all possible means in order to cease its acts of aggression and blockade and settler activity and bring pressure to bear on it to withdraw from all the Occupied Arab Territories in Palestine and Lebanon and the Golan to the lines of June -- the 4th of June 1967.
In conclusion, Syria seeks just and comprehensive peace and a return of all the Arab rights, including the total withdrawal by Israel from all the Occupied Arab Territories until the borders of the 4th of June ’67 and the establishment of the Palestinian people with Jerusalem as its capital, the settlement of the refugee question of the Palestinian in the international with legal resolutions, especially those of 194 of the GA and the Security Council Resolution 242 and 338, as well as the Arab peace initiative.
We reconfirm the necessity of restoring the national unity in Palestine through a dialogue in order that the necessary negotiation in Palestine would take place and in order to achieve the will of the Palestinian people and its legal rights and justifies [inaudible].  Thank you, Mr. President.