ShareNEW YORK: Kuwait has questioned the international community for "allowing the (Zionist) occupation carry out systematic criminal violations without being held accountable or punished, as if it is above the law". "For how long UN member countries will continue to deal with the just Palestinian cause with double standards? And for how long this silence will continue to deprive the Palestinian people of their legitimate rights, as if the rights of the Palestinian people are exempted from international laws?" Tareq Al-Bannai, Kuwait's Permanent Representative to the UN, told a General Assembly session on the Palestinian issue.
Decades have passed, he added, and these questions have not been answered, "and the inability of the international community to address the Palestinian cause and its inability to hold (the Zionist entity), the occupying force, accountable, is the biggest failure in the UN's history in general and Security Council in particular - this is a disgrace". Kuwait, said Bannai, pays special attention to the Palestinian cause. The Palestinian people are regrettably suffering from all kinds of aggression by the Zionist occupying force "without any clearcut international reactions to lift this suppression and injustice".
The Zionist occupation continues violating the UN Charter, international law, international humanitarian law and international law of human rights, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and other global treaties, he said. "The occupation is a disease which ... fought, killed, displaced, destroyed families and houses and environment ... of our Palestinian people, and refused to heed international resolutions and end the occupation," he asserted.
"There shall be neither peace nor security alongside occupation. What we witnessed in the past years were systematic measures that distanced us from peace. These measures aimed to solidify this illegitimate occupation" through expansion of illegal settlements in breach of UNSC resolution 2334, thus aborting the two-state solution, Bannai said. He cited a report about the Palestinian people, which mentioned that expansion of Zionist settlements, namely in East Jerusalem, was threatening the creation of the Palestinian state.
Bannai quoted the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland as saying, "After decades of continuous violence, illegal settlement expansion, stalled negotiations, the conflict has once again reached a boiling point." He touched on what was stated in a report by Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, describing it as "a deliberately obsessive, racist and repressive regime aimed at preventing the realization of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination".
"Since 1967, (the Zionist entity) deliberately violated Palestinians' right to self-determination in the occupied Palestinian territory by preventing them from exercising their territorial sovereignty over natural resources, obliterating their cultural identity, and suppressing Palestine's political resistance," Bannai said. He added that by demolishing symbols that express Palestinian identity, the occupation jeopardizes Palestinian cultural existence, and by suppressing Palestinian political activity, the occupation violates the ability of Palestinians to free themselves from foreign domination and control.
These words of UN references and sources described the reality of the occupation, explained Bannai. "We have noticed during the past months a serious escalation in the Palestinian territories as a result of the systematic crimes and attacks committed by (the Zionist) occupying power against the Palestinian people." Al-Aqsa Mosque is still subject to repeated violations, whether by the Zionist occupation forces or settlers, he added.
Bannai reiterated Kuwait's strong condemnation of these aggressive practices that represent a provocation of the feelings of Muslims around the world and an explicit threat to freedom of worship in Al-Aqsa Mosque. "In light of the injustice practiced on the Palestinian people, Kuwait renews its call to the international community to take immediate action to provide protection for the Palestinian people," he said.
Bannai affirmed that Kuwait strongly supports Palestine to obtain full membership in the UN, and calls on all countries that do not recognize Palestine as a state to review themselves and align their positions with international law. He stressed that the occupation does not change from one country to another, and the legitimate right to self-defense does not change from one country to another, and the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions, especially the Security Council, does not change from one issue to another.
Bannai renewed Kuwait's full support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), believing in the importance of its role in easing the suffering of Palestinian refugees. He stated that Kuwait renews its adherence to the Arab, Islamic and international position, which affirms that peace is the strategic option and that the comprehensive solution is based on the two-state solution in accordance with agreed terms. He added that this is represented in Security Council resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, which leads to the Palestinian people obtaining their full legitimate political rights and establishing their independent state on their land with East Jerusalem as its capital. - KUNA
