Agencies-Gaza post
UN Envoy: “Palestinians face future of fear, harassment, intimidation”
The Palestinian people face a future of “fear, harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, injury and death” if the status quo is preserved and options for a two-state solution are not revived, Ramallah’s UN envoy warned Tuesday.
Peace talks sought to broker a negotiated settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have been stalled for years, and Riyad Mansour told the Security Council that in the acting there has been a “persistent lack of accountability” for Israeli actions, which, he said, the Council has forgotten to address.
He asserted in certain to Israel’s 2021 war on the blockaded Gaza Strip, the killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the forced removal of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“We have every right to be a member of these United Nations. Nothing justifies delaying this prospect. We have every right to freedom and independence. Our right to self-determination, sovereignty, and territorial integrity is enshrined in the UN Charter,” said Mansour, adding that it is the Council’s responsibility “to ensure we embark on that path.”
“The fate of an entire nation cannot be held hostage by Israeli politics or the settlers’ agenda. The stakes are too high. The issue too serious, the implications too grim,” he said.
Lynn Hastings, the UN’s deputy coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the Council earlier that there is a “growing sense of desperation among many Palestinians who see their chances for statehood, sovereignty, and a peaceful future slipping away.”
“Internally, they also see a crumbling and constrained Palestinian economy, lack of progress in advancing intra-Palestinian unity and governance reform, and the urgent need for renewed legitimacy to national institutions, including through a democratically-elected parliament and government in Palestine,” she stated.
From June 27 through July 21 there were a total of 399 destructions and seizures of Palestinian effects, which displaced 400 Palestinians, according to UN data. There were also 27 aggressions committed by Israeli settlers and civilians, according to the UN. Those attacks wounded 12 victims and damaged Palestinian property, including 1,000 olive trees.
Moreover, Israeli occupation forces killed three Palestinians and wounded 287 others, including 28 kids, according to Hastings.
