巴勒斯坦总统促请安理会建立特别机制，以对巴勒斯坦人民提供国际保护（部分翻译）

人权理事会

2015年10月28日

巴勒斯坦总统和联合国人权事务高级专员在联合国人权理事会特别会议上发表讲话

人权理事会今天召开特别会议，听取巴勒斯坦总统马哈茂德·阿巴斯（Mahmoud Abbas）的发言，他促请安理会紧急建立特别机制，以对巴勒斯坦人民提供国际保护，还听取了联合国人权事务高级专员扎伊德·拉阿德·侯赛因的发言。

总统阿巴斯表示，巴勒斯坦警告过的事都发生了。由于以色列的持续占领及其所作所为，包括东耶路撒冷在内的被占巴勒斯坦领土的境况比1948年以来的任何时候都要糟糕。这需要联合国及其成员国，尤其是联合国安理会在为时过晚之前采取强有力和果断的干预，需要肩负起责任，让安理会建立一个特别机制以对巴勒斯坦人民提供国际保护的请求比以往任何时候都要紧迫，要立即且迫切地建立。只有根据合法的国际决议，而非通过使用肆意的武力、殖民定居、集体惩罚、房屋拆迁、法外杀戮以及在人民中宣传毒害仇恨的方式结束以色列的占领，让巴勒斯塔获得独立并以东耶路撒冷为首都，沿着1967年的边境建国，和平、安全和稳定才能实现。

当前状况继续存在不可接受，因为这将磨灭基于和平的两国方案的最后一丝希望，总统阿巴斯警告称，他对安理会建议发表一份载有实现基于和平、沿着1967年边境的两国方案的明确标准表示支持，该建议还规定了在国际监管之下结束占领的时间表，要在国际和平会议上予以启动。与此同时，以色列应释放第四部分的囚犯并停止定居点活动，这样巴勒斯坦就可以和以色列在和平和安全中共处。

高级专员扎伊德在发言中警告称，如果不立即停止，巴勒斯坦人和以色列人之间的暴力将使所有人都前所未有地靠近灾难。他表示局势十分紧张，并提醒称，如果宗教暴力不断激化，将越来越有可能出现更广泛的可怕对峙，这是处于危险之中的该地区所不需要的。高级专员扎伊德强调称，有必要禁止持刀行凶、煽动和汽车袭击；停止掠夺和殴打；终结对侵犯人权和国际人道主义法的有罪不罚；为受害者伸张正义；停止定居者在巴勒斯坦被占领土的行动，特别是在被占领的东耶路撒冷内和附近。

高级专员扎伊德强调，目前必须以前所未有的目的感再次启动中东和平进程，必须获得长久的和平。必须保证以色列永远安全，占领使得巴勒斯坦人民遭受了近50年的沉重苦难，催生了愤怒和憎恨，必须结束占领。巴勒斯坦人民应得的是在解放的巴勒斯坦国内自由且有尊严地生活，享有其所有的权利。

人权理事会副主席莫苏西·布鲁斯·罗芭莎·巴莱（Mothusi Bruce Rabasha Palai）在开幕发言中向阿巴斯总统和高级专员扎伊德表示欢迎。

这是人权理事会有史以来第二次召开特别会议，第一次是在2007年，当时智利总统米歇尔·巴切莱特（Michelle Bachelet）在理事会发言。

Statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

ZEID RA’AD AL HUSSEIN, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, welcomed President Abbas and said that he wished that the circumstances of his visit were different. The violence between the Palestinians and the Israelis would draw everyone ever closer to a catastrophe if not stopped immediately, warned High Commissioner Zeid. The latest wave of violence had resulted in 58 Palestinian deaths, with 2,100 wounded, and 11 Israeli deaths, with 127 wounded, he recalled, noting concerns about extra-judicial killings and the excessive use of force by Israeli security forces. He stressed that the stabbing and shooting and car attacks targeting Israelis were totally unjustifiable, and said that violence could not be the answer.

The crisis was dangerous in the extreme because it was a confrontation drawn in part from that most combustible of human emotional mechanisms: fear. It was a confrontation between peoples who feared each other, each other’s motives and the future, which, if left unchecked, would lose considerations of humanity and lead to hate and bloodshed. A catastrophe became more likely because of the supremely sensitive issue of the status quo with respect to occupied East Jerusalem, and specifically the site that was known to Muslims as the Al Aqsa compound or the Haram Al Sharif, and to Jews as the Temple Mount, said High Commissioner Zeid. For Palestinians, and the Arab and Muslim worlds generally, their fear was centred on the perceived increasing aggressiveness of Israeli attitudes toward this compound, strongly suggesting a desire to alter the status quo. The Israeli Government said this fear was misplaced, and believed that rumours inflamed passions; repeated assurances had been given by the Prime Minister that there was no threat to the al Aqsa compound. Instead, the Government feared the Palestinians were stoking resentment and anger to incite violence against Israel and Israelis – and that the Palestinians were ultimately responsible for this violence.

Tensions were very high. If the violence continued to sharpen along religious lines, there was a growing possibility of a broader and terrible confrontation, which this imperilled region did not need. The High Commissioner stressed the need to stop the knifings, incitement and car attacks; cease the shootings and beatings; end impunity for human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law; and provide justice for victims. The actions by the settler movement throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but particularly in and around occupied East Jerusalem, must be halted, and the excessive use of force by Israeli military and police , house demolitions and other collective punishments could not be permitted to continue. The blockade of Gaza must be ended.

The Middle East peace process must now be reactivated with an unprecedented sense of purpose and a lasting peace must now be obtained, said High Commissioner Zeid. Israel had to be assured its security for good, and not remain the object of any threat to it or its people. And the occupation, which had caused the Palestinian people such intense suffering for almost 50 years, generating rage and resentment – the occupation must end too. The people of Palestine deserved to live free, and in dignity, enjoying their full rights, in their own liberated state of Palestine.

Statement by the President of the State of Palestine

MAHMOUD ABBAS, President of the State of Palestine, said that what Palestine had warned of had happened. The situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, as a result of the continued Israeli occupation and its practices, was the worst and most critical since 1948. This called for a strong and decisive intervention and shouldering of responsibility, before it was too late, by the United Nations and its Member States, and most particularly by the United Nations Security Council, which was requested, more urgently than any time before, to set up a special regime for international protection of the Palestinian people, immediately and urgently. Peace, security and stability would not be achieved unless the Israeli occupation was ended and the independence of the State of Palestine was obtained, with East Jerusalem as its capital, along the 1967 borders, and in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions, not by using wanton force, colonial settlement, collective punishment, house demolitions, extra-judicial killings, and propagating poisonous hatred and enmity among the people.

President Abbas had repeatedly warned of the consequences of what was happening in Jerusalem and its surroundings, with measures undertaken by Israel, especially after the year 2000, to systematically change the identity of Jerusalem and historical and demographic character, including increased settlement construction, excavations under Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Old City, setting up walls to alienate Palestinian neighbourhoods, closing its national institutions and tightening the noose around the necks of the population in an attempt to drive them out of the holy city.

The pressure would generate an explosion and the violations committed by settlers and extremists, protected by the Israeli occupation forces, against Christian and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, namely the plans that endangered the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to alter the pre-1967 status quo and beyond, would turn the political conflict into a religious one, which would have grave consequences for all; this, Palestine would never accept or acknowledge. President Abbas reiterated the importance of implementing the 2014 declaration by the International Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention on the full and unconditional applicability of this Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem. Israel breached systematically the laws and principles of international law and international humanitarian law, and acted as a State above the law, with impunity. Israel was looting the natural resources of Palestine, and allowed the settlers under the protection of its armed forces, to attack and commit crimes against Palestinians, desecrate holy sites in Palestinian cities and villages, and to arm terrorist gangs which had committed killings and burning to death of Palestinians, including children and whole families.

Long-lasting hopelessness, suffocation and pressure, and the lack of safety and security under which the Palestinian people lived, had led to frustration and led the youth to despair and to rebellion against the reality, said President Abbas. It had led to revolt for the sake of dignity, homeland, nation, and the holy sites desecrated under the occupation which continued to kill, loot and imprison. The occupation forces had escalated criminal practices and performed extra-judicial executions against unarmed Palestinian civilians, detaining their corpses, including children, applying collective punishment, arbitrarily arresting and putting behind bars more than 6,000 Palestinian citizens. It was unacceptable for the current situation to persist, for it would kill the last shred of hope for the two-State solution based peace, warned President Abbas. It was high time for the international community to take practical measures which would serve justice to the Palestinian people and establish peace and security as a tangible reality.

President Abbas expressed appreciation for the efforts to enable the Palestinian people to achieve freedom and independence, and also expressed gratitude to the Human Rights Council for adopting resolutions which had revealed the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the suffering of the people as a result of the Israeli occupation. He stressed the importance of the work by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Special Rapporteurs, as well as the work of independent international fact-finding missions established by this Council to look into human rights violations, and advise of acts that qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity, with which Israel unfortunately refused to cooperate. President Abbas extended an invitation to all Special Procedures to visit Palestine and see the situation for themselves, and stressed the importance of retaining on the agenda of the Human Rights Council item seven, on the human rights situation in Occupied Palestinian Territories and other occupied Arab Territories. International law had been established to be implemented and not negotiated upon; the international community must therefore act to ensure that international law was respected far from any selectivity and double standards.

In spite of all obstacles laid by the occupation, Palestine would continue to build its State institutions, strengthen democracy, enforce the rule of law, protect the rights of women, promote equality among all members of society without racial or religious discrimination, and abide by the principles of peaceful popular resistance. Palestine would continue to join international treaties and harmonize its laws with international standards, and it would continue to protect its people against the occupation using all peaceful means, including through the International Criminal Court. President Abbas reaffirmed the unity of its land and people and the rejection of any interim or partial solutions; Palestine sought to form a national unity government that operated in line with the Palestine Liberation Organization programme, conducting elections and convening the Palestinian National Council. Israel must bear its responsibilities as an occupying power, because the status quo could not continue, stressed President Abbas.

Palestine extended sincere thanks to the 137 States which had recognized Palestine and welcomed international, European and Arab efforts that called for expanding international participation to achieve peace, including having the Security Council issue a resolution that included clear standards for achieving peace based on the two-State solution along the 1967 lines, and set a timeline to end the occupation with international supervision and launch that in an international peace conference. In the meanwhile, Israel should release the fourth tranche of prisoners and halt all of its settlement activities so that the State of Palestine could live side by side in peace and security with the State of Israel. It was no longer useful to waste time on negotiations just for the sake of negotiations, what was required was ending the occupation in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions. Until such time, Palestine reaffirmed that the United Nations Security Council was requested to establish a special regime of international protection for the Palestinian people.

The obstruction of the transitional phase by Israel had led Palestine to proclaim on the 30th of September in New York that Palestine could not continue to be bound, unilaterally, by agreements signed with Israel which had failed to show commitment thereto. Israel must bear all of its responsibilities as an occupying power because the status quo could not continue. Palestine would start the implementation of this declaration by all peaceful and legal means.

President Abbas extended an invitation to Israeli people for a right and justice-based peace that guaranteed security and stability for all, and reasserted that the hands of Palestinians remained outstretched for a just peace that would guarantee the rights, freedoms and dignity for Palestinians. He also called upon Israeli intellectuals, opinion-makers and politicians that peace was affordable and within reach, and the answer was simple: the State of Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian land, its oppressive war machine must stop its aggression of the Palestinian people, settlement activities must cease and criminal activities of settlers must be stopped. There was nothing worse than despair and hopelessness, and distrust in the present and the future. The Israeli occupation was the root cause of all tragedies that Palestinian people had long suffered from, and was the reason that kept the region and people spiralling in a cycle of violence. Palestinians did not want violence, said President Abbas, and yet, the continuation of occupation expanded the scope of violence, chaos, extremism and bloodshed.

In conclusion, President Abbas stressed that it was about time that leaders had the courage to make rightful and honest decisions before it was too late, to make the two-State solution a concrete reality, because this might be the last available chance for this solution, for peace. No one knew what the winds of change sweeping across the region were carrying along. Security could not be realized through occupation and military and discriminatory force. It was only achieved by recognition of the rights of the other.

__________

For use of the information media; not an official record

Follow UNIS Geneva on: Website | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube |Flickr