Statement by Morocco before the General Assembly 64th Session

Agenda Item 64: “Report of the Human Rights Council”

New York

4 November 2009

[ET: 0:09:31-00:22:45 - Morocco]
MOROCCAN REPRESENTATIVE:  Mr. President, allow me at the outset to thank you for having favorably replied to the request of the Arab group supported by the NAM to hold this important meeting of the General Assembly to study the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council regarding the situation in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
My delegation endorses the report presented by Egypt and at the same time, I also would like to reiterate several important point as follows.  Mr. President, international reports which highlight in a totally unequivocal manner the situation have underscored the seriousness of the acts perpetrated by the occupying Israeli forces in Gaza.
The Goldstone report was merely one among these reports which all dealt with the persecutions imposed on the Palestinian people during the war imposed on them in the Gaza Strip between December 2008 and January 2009.  During this period, the Israeli forces did not respect the most elementary rights under international humanitarian law and human rights.  This led to more than 1,400 dead and more than 5,000 casualties which spared neither the elderly nor women nor children nor mosques nor schools nor hospitals nor even the offices of our organization. 
The last report, the Goldstone report, contains an objective assessment of the practices that took place during the attack on Gaza.  These were described by the committee as enormous violations of international humanitarian law and other international norms.  It is therefore important to have an independent assessment and investigation.  That responsibility devolves on the parties involved.  
The report deals with the qualitative difference between these military operations and other military acts conducted by Israel previously, which led to collective punishment inflicted on all the inhabitants of Gaza in a way which was totally disproportionate.  In addition, civilian targets were destroyed.  The means of subsistence of Palestinians destroyed and as a result their daily life became -- and a decent daily life became impossible.
The international community would have hoped after the adoption of resolution 1860 that the Israeli war machine would put an end to these practices and that there would be an alleviation of restrictions on movement against individuals and property and that a minimum of subsistence would have been allowed the Palestinians to enable them to resume their daily lives and to inspire a new spirit into the peace process.
However, Israel continued to adopt the same policy by resorting to closing check points, blocking humanitarian assistance from being delivered, and so too the international community had decided to assist in reconstruction, but this was impeded at the same time.
Israel continued its illegal policy in Al-Quds, which was reflected in the fact that it took over even more property and Arab buildings in the Arab sections to force the Arab inhabitants to leave and to dismantle Arabic life by continuing to maintain the existence of the wall and to limit the existence of Arabs here to change the demographic nature of the city.
In addition, Israel continued to target Islamic and Christian holy sites, making use of searches and excavations around the Al Aksa [?] Mosque and its neighborhood and finally attempting to hide the sacrilege committed against the holy places of the faithful in that city.
All of this is utterly incompatible with international legality, international law and resolutions and the need to show respect for the faithful of other religions regarding that city.  
King Mohammed the Sixth and the Chairman of the Al Quds Committee have already heard and we reiterate our most sincere condolences to them regarding all those who have been targeted in Al Aksa and Al Quds.  Since this is a question that affects the settlements and thereby this is changing the equitable geographical balance of that city.  
Based on the responsibility which is ours and on the crucial role of Al-Quds and its place, his majesty has continuously underscored the need to have the UN's attention focused and those of spiritual leaders, including the pope focused on the dangers of Israeli acts and of unilateral actions which endanger regional peace and security as well as the need to respect the special nature of Al-Quds in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, the Security Council and the other commitments undertaken by the parties.
The most recent meeting regarding Al-Quds which was organized by Morocco and by the treasury of the Al-Quds committee and by the Yasser Arafat Institute in October launched an appeal for an immediate halt to all illegal Israeli practices and all immoral practices against Al-Quds and to insist on the need for the respect for freedom of religion.  This is a question which is indivisible, that of the occupied Palestinian territories and violates the international law, the fourth Geneva Convention and calls for a need to respect places of worship and demonstrates further tolerance and the desire for coexistence based on the firm conviction of the Kingdom of Morocco, that resorting to the logic of force and the policy a fait accompli can only serve to aggravate the deterioration of a situation in the region.
We once again repeat the need to resume the peace process as the sole option within the framework of reference adopted by the international community, namely the road map, the Al-Qud peace process and other agreements among the parties involved while demonstrating an understanding that negotiation does not consist of isolated episodes, must be an entire whole resumed where it stopped.  Otherwise, this will be an absurd process which can never reach its conclusion.  
Morocco therefore supports the vision of the quartet, that is the existence of two states and the need to establish the Palestinian state in accordance with the American vision of this.  On the other hand, we also request that this process conducted by the American administration under the presidency of President Obama be continued while making further use of international efforts, including European efforts.
However, such international efforts will remain limited in the effects they achieve unless they are accompanied by a change in the attitude of the parties toward each other and towards others.  An Israeli professor and a Palestinian psychiatrist reflected that truth which requires that all the parties give thought to this.  Thus, Professor Afir Chanel [?] stated to the investigation commission that there is a need to understand that the feeling of being victimized is one shared by both parties.
The notion and the concept of understanding that the other party is not only the party violating our international humanitarian law, but this party itself is also suffering from the violation of its humanitarian rights and this was reflected as well by the Palestinian psychiatrist, Eyad El-Sarraj, who was equally eloquent in saying, as his diagnosis of the situation, We see here not only a state of war, but rather a cultural and psychological state.  I nurture the hope that the Israelis will begin to cope with their feeling of victimization and will start to deal with the Palestinians as human beings, as full and entire human beings who have the same rights as Israelis.  In other words, the Palestinians will have to consider themselves and consider those differences with other Palestinians in order to cope with Israelis as full-fledged human beings with the same rights and duties.  This is the only way to achieve peace and justice.  I reiterate, this is the only way to achieve peace and justice.
Mutual awareness of that truth, that obvious true, only marks a beginning to a just and lasting solution to which we all aspire in order to achieve coexistence and cooperation among peoples of the region and I thank you Mr. President.