Agencies-Gaza post
China calls for urgent, strong moves on the Palestinian cause
China on Monday called for urgent and strong steps to stop the Palestinian question from being totally derailed.
“It has been proven time and again that the question of Palestine is the crux of the peace in the Middle East. Piecemeal crisis management cannot substitute for a comprehensive and just settlement. Limited economic and humanitarian measures cannot erase the political and security deficit. And individual national policies cannot replace long-established international consensus and multilateral process, including resolutions adopted by this Council and the General Assembly one after another. What is needed for the time being is urgent and decisive actions, so as to prevent the train of Palestinian-Israeli situation from totally falling off the track,” China’s permanent ambassador Zhang Jun told a UN Security Council briefing on the Status in the Middle East, including the Palestinian cause.
Zhang voiced his country’s deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
He went on to denounce the expansion of Israeli colonial settlements, the pillage of natural resources, and the encroachment upon Area C, which constitutes 60 percent of the occupied West Bank and falls under full Israeli military rule.
“Under the Israeli occupation, Palestine’s viability has been squeezed to the limit. We have noted with great concern that approximately 18% of Area C in the West Bank has been designated by Israel as a closed military zone for training, and some 50% has been designated for other purposes, effectively closing it off for Palestinian construction, and economic activity, and development.”
“What is more concerning is that the continued expansion of settlements has encroached upon Palestinian land and natural resources, undermines the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, and made a geographically contiguous, independent, and the sovereign State of Palestine ever more elusive to achieve. Every brutal inch of expansion of settlement is making the prospect of a two-state solution much harder to achieve,” he said.
He called on Israel to ban its contempt for Resolution 2334, stop all colonial settlement actions, and halt further damaging the basis for the two-state solution.
Mentioning that recently the security status in the occupied territory has persisted to be volatile, Zhang said that his country strongly denounces the resumed violence by Israeli forces and the settlers, which has resulted in heavy Palestinian casualties, including children.
He calls Israel for launching as soon as possible a criminal investigation into the killing of iconic Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, and release its results in order to ensure accountability.
“The question of Palestine is a litmus test of the international justice and fairness,” Zhang said while pointing out that “the question of Palestine has been without a solution for over 70 years, and that international justice has been denied for over 70 years.”
He highlighted the fact that adopting a crisis management technique to the Palestinian question is not a substitute for a just resolution.
“It has been proven time and again that the question of Palestine is the crux of the peace in the Middle East. Piecemeal crisis management cannot substitute for a comprehensive and just settlement. Limited economic and humanitarian measures cannot erase the political and security deficit. And individual national policies cannot replace long-established international consensus and multilateral process, including resolutions adopted by this Council and the General Assembly one after another. What is needed for the time being is urgent and decisive actions, so as to prevent the train of Palestinian-Israeli situation from totally falling off the track,” he said.
Zhang reported that China calls upon the international community, particularly those having a key influence on the parties concerned, to make genuine efforts for the peace strategy in the Middle East.
“This would mean promoting the two-state solution with the utmost urgency, rather than waiting for so-called conditions for dialogue to mature. This would mean adhering to the concept of indivisibility of security, giving equal importance to the security concerns of both Palestine and Israel, rather than allowing tacitly that the security of one side is built on the insecurity of the other.”
“This also means persevering in a responsible attitude, rather than allowing policy flip-flop to further complicate the peace process. In the end, it also means to ditch the double standard and uphold an objective and impartial position, rather than being engaged in the long-term practice of setting roadblocks for the Council’s handling of the Palestinian-Israeli question.”
He determined that in their declaration removed following the 14th BRICS Summit, called on June 23 to 24, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful and prosperous Middle East and North Africa, called upon the international community to support efforts aimed at the stability and peace in the region.
