Mr. President, Member States

This past year has arguably been the worst in the history of the occupied Palestinian territory.  The illegal closure of the Gaza Strip has now been continuously imposed by Israeli forces for over two and a half years; over 1,000 days. This collective punishment fundamentally undermines the human rights situation in Gaza, rendering the protections of international human rights law an elusive dream. The closure has resulted in the emergence of a man-made, and wholly preventable, humanitarian crisis.

In the West Bank illegal settlements continue to flourish and new settlements to be developed in explicit violation of international law. The illegal annexation of East Jerusalem continues apace, changing the demographics of the city by the creation of illegal ‘facts on the ground’ as evidenced most recently in Ramat Shlomo, and by Mr. Netanyahu’s speech in America last night.

Civilians throughout the world have been shocked by images of house demolitions and expropriations. They have seen Palestinian families evicted from their homes in “Sheikh Jarrah”, only for them to be immediately occupied by Israeli settlers. 

This, Mr. President, Member States, is the result of a fundamentally flawed peace process. This is the resultant reality when human rights and fundamental principles of international law are sacrificed in the name of elusive ‘political progress’.   This approach has been tried, repeatedly, and it has clearly failed. Human rights are legitimate entitlements, they are fundamental rights owed to each and every individual, they are not open to negotiation or subject to political considerations.  

Human rights and international law are not inimical to peace, they are its central components: there can be no sustainable peace without justice. Without respect for – and enforcement of – international law, negotiations cannot be conducted on the basis of equality. 

Mr. President, Member States,

Please request that human rights and  international law be returned to the forefront of international relations, and that they be recognized as the essential, non-derogable components, of any future peace process.

It should be to the international community’s shame, that this request has to be made at all. I remind you that the League of Nations failed, precisely because it did not reinforce international law.