Ahead of the High-Level Conference on Palestine that opens in New York on Monday, I urge immediate steps by Israel to end its unlawful continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, and for all parties to work for tangible progress towards a two-State solution.
I urge Governments to use the opportunity of this Conference for concrete action that puts all possible pressure on the Israeli Government to end the carnage in Gaza – permanently. Countries that fail to use their leverage may be complicit in international crimes.
Every day, we are watching the unspeakable tragedy in Gaza and the West Bank with horror and frustration. Every day, we see more destruction, more killings, and the further dehumanization of Palestinians.
Every day, we see actions and hear about plans to consolidate the annexation of the West Bank, to force Palestinians to relocate outside Gaza, and to crowd extremely exhausted and hungry people into ever-smaller areas of the territory, after repeated displacement orders by the Israeli military. These steps put the two-state solution even further out of reach.
When we think it can’t get worse, it gets worse. Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction.
Chaotic, militarized distribution centres run by the US- and Israeli-supported Gaza Humanitarian Foundation are failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed. More than one thousand people have been killed since the end of May as they tried to get food. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured since 7 October – some ten percent of the entire population. And we can never forget that more than 300 of our own colleagues have been killed by Israel’s military action.
All countries have an obligation to take concrete steps to ensure that Israel, the occupying power in Gaza, complies with its obligations to ensure that sufficient food and lifesaving necessities are provided to the population.