SC/12443
7736th Meeting (AM)
Security Council
Meetings Coverage
Speakers Say Quartet Report Tries to ‘Draw Equivalencies’ between Suffering on Each Side of Key Middle East Conflict
The failure of Israeli and Palestinian leaders to advance peace had created a vacuum that extremists were stepping in to fill, Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon told the Security Council today, urging both sides immediately to begin discussions with the Middle East Quartet and to coordinate with regional stakeholders in efforts to break the entrenched political impasse.
Opening the Council’s quarterly debate on the Middle East, Secretary-General Ban called attention to the “irrefutable” message contained in the Quartet’s recent report on the situation: the more persistent the current negative trends, the more distant would prospects for a two-State solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict grow. The report’s 10 recommendations offered a practical approach to ending the political stalemate, resuming the transition to greater Palestinian authority in the West Bank, and charting a course towards negotiations to resolve all final status issues.
In such efforts, both sides would need to make compromises, and the international community would need to exercise influence to encourage them, he continued. “We must take a hard look at where this conflict stands,” he said, asking how much longer the world could accept the current political paralysis. He urged the Council to support the Quartet in working with the parties, the region and other interested stakeholders to advance peace.
Remarking on the Quartet’s 1 July report, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine said it failed to deal appropriately with Israel’s criminal actions, illegal measures and constant provocations. It contained inappropriate attempts to draw symmetry between the occupying Power and the occupied people, seeking to manage the conflict rather than affirming the principles and parameters for a final and just solution and defining the means for reaching that objective. The failure to hold Israel accountable and to take bold measures for peace — as opposed to piecemeal confidence-building measures — was a futile approach that would only be met with further Israeli contempt, he said.
Israel’s representative, citing comments by Fatah officials, drew a direct line between incitement to hatred, spread by the Palestinian Authority, and terrorist attacks taking place in his country. The only way to achieve peace was by building a strong foundation to end terrorism and incitement, ending the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as the nation of the Jewish people, and the Palestinians being willing to negotiate directly with Israel. Describing as “fiction” the report’s assertion that construction in Judea and Samaria obstructed peace, he pressed the Council to demand that Lebanon remove Hizbullah terrorists from the southern part of its territory.
In the ensuing debate, speakers called on both sides immediately to halt the violence and incitement to hatred. New approaches were needed to revive the peace process, they said, with some welcoming the Quartet report as a consensus-based document that offered a basis for dialogue and concerted action by the Council. The European Union’s representative urged both sides and other relevant stakeholders to implement the Quartet’s recommendations in full.
Egypt’s representative pointed out that his country had enjoyed a lasting peace with Israel, saying it was possible for Israelis and Palestinians to achieve the same. Egypt wished to see an independent Palestine, and its Minister for Foreign Affairs had recently made two visits to Israel and Palestine. It was listening to both sides and hoped that efforts to resume negotiations would succeed.
Lebanon’s representative welcomed the joint communiqué from the 3 June meeting held in Paris, which reaffirmed the need to end the Israeli occupation as well as the importance of the Arab Peace Initiative. Lebanon was encouraged by its mention of prospects for an international conference before the end of 2016, he said, emphasizing that the participation of all directly concerned parties and their full engagement in the preparations would be critical to its success.
Other speakers said the report attempted to “draw equivalencies” between violent Palestinian actions and disproportionate responses by the Israeli authorities. Venezuela’s representative said it should have been more balanced in describing the suffering inflicted on Palestinians and in acknowledging Israeli violence as its root cause. He pressed the Council to establish an international protection system for Palestinians in the occupied territories, in line with the Geneva Conventions.
Regarding the illegality of Israel’s construction activities under international law, Brazil’s representative said the report should have highlighted that aspect of Israel’s actions. Malaysia’s representative also expressed regret that the report sidestepped that question, declaring: “We must not stay silent” on that crucial issue. In addition, the question of ending Israel’s occupation was conspicuously missing from its recommendations, he noted.
With some speakers warning that the two-State vision risked devolving into a “one-State reality”, Angola’s representative said the international community was losing faith in a two-State solution, noting that Israel’s decision to advance settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem disregarded the Council’s decisions. The Council should push for practical steps that both sides could take to de-escalate tensions and start rebuilding trust, he stressed, noting: “None of us can convince them to trust each other.”
Still, Senegal’s representative said the Quartet report could contribute to the peace process as long as its powerful recommendations on halting some of the negative trends were implemented. The Russian Federation’s representative said the report reflected the international desire to maintain prospects for a two-State solution, since it stressed the need for intra-Palestinian unity and underscored the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.
More broadly, speakers underlined the need to defeat extremist ideologies throughout the region, with several emphasizing that a Syria-led and Syria-owned political transition was needed to restore lasting peace in that country and defeat Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh). Pakistan’s representative said that in order to defeat ISIL, States bordering Syria and Iraq, as well as external Powers, must reconcile their divergent priorities.
Also speaking today were representatives of the United States, Uruguay, China, United Kingdom, Ukraine, France, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, Guatemala, Kuwait (for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation), Syria, Norway, Iran (on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement), India, Kazakhstan, Ecuador, South Africa, Morocco, Republic of Korea, Bangladesh, Iceland, Turkey, Tunisia, Jordan, Maldives, Cuba and Indonesia, as well as the Permanent Observer of the Holy See and a representative of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
The meeting began at 10:04 a.m. and ended at 3:55 p.m.