UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan told the UN Security Council Monday that Israeli assaults against Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, specially during the holy month of Ramadan, were “egregious” violations of humanitarian norms and human rights laws, stressing that such infringements must end.
“We believe that there is no question in anybody’s mind that Israel’s actions in the occupied Palestinian lands – the seizure of land and properties for Israeli settlements; the violence against unarmed Palestinian children, women and men; the blockade of Gaza; and the desecration of Holy Al-Aqsa – are all grave violations of Security Council resolutions,” Ambassador Munir Akram said.
Speaking in a debate on the situation in the Middle East, the Pakistani envoy expressed “grave concern” over the Israeli actions resulting in the killing of dozens and injuring hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied Jerusalem.
In addition, he said there is no moral, legal or political equivalence between Israel, the occupying State, and the occupied and oppressed Palestinian people.
“The Palestinian struggle for self-determination and implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions is legitimate; the Israeli repression of the occupied Palestinian people is illegitimate,” Ambassador Akram added.
He said that the perpetuation of Israeli occupation will not bring peace to the Holy Land.
“If history is a guide, even if they are dispossessed and disempowered by Israel, every succeeding generation of Palestinians will persist in seeking their freedom and fundamental rights, including their right to self-determination.”
Ambassador Akram called the the two-State formula, involving the establishment of a sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian State, living side by side with Israel within recognized and accepted pre-1967 boundaries with Al Quds al Sharif as it capital, offers the only solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“A peace process to achieve this objective must be revived,” he stressed.
