On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, Dr. Salah Abd El Atie, President of the International Commission (Hashd), writes a message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and members of the General Assembly.
Number: /2023
Date: May 15 , 2023
Original language: Arabic
On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, Dr. Salah Abd El Atie, President of the International Commission (Hashd), writes a message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and members of the General Assembly.
The 75th Anniversary of the Palestinian People’s Nakba; Let us use the following phrase: “2023 is a year of forcing the Israeli occupation to comply with international law.”
In his letter, he stated that This day marks the 75th anniversary of “Israel’s” occupation, which means 75 years of Nakba, suffering, persecution, humiliation, murder, repression, starvation, degradation of human dignity, displacement in countries of asylum, And other practices and violations that have become an integral part of Palestinian life on a daily basis. No people or group in modern human history has been subjected to such scourges, crimes, and injustices as our Palestinian people. Perhaps the difference between Palestinian tragedies and others is the international community’s decisive intervention in the equity and protection of other peoples, such as Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ronda, the former Yugoslavia, Cosfo, Cambodia, and many other states.
(273) of May 11, 1949, when the United Nations explicitly accepted before the General Assembly the full commitment to respect and apply all United Nations decisions on the issue of Palestine, including the General Assembly’s recommendation to divide Palestine and globalize the City of Jerusalem, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and property, and other decisions,Rather, the Israeli position on international legitimacy, international law principles, and the provisions of the United Nations Charter reached a climax with Israel officially undertaking that Israeli governments are prohibited from adhering to the text of Article 2, paragraph 7 of the Charter and then invoke their internal authority to challenge any decisions issued by the various branches of the United Nations, if they are The subject matter of these resolutions was related to the situation in Palestine or issues approved by General Assembly Recommendations No. 181 and 194.
And he noted that the violation of all the declarations and commitments that Israel made before your General Assembly since the beginning of its existence, as a result of this state using its power to seize and join 23% of the lands allocated to Arab lands. A state for Israel, and not only that, but in order to prove the possession and annexation of half of the total lands allocated to the Arab state, it illegally used its authority and in violation of the United Nations Charter and its obligations to impose it. Occupation and control of the rest of the lands of the Arab state in 1967.
Israel’s breach of its commitments, the principles and rules of the United Nations Charter, and international legitimacy decisions did not end there; it displayed behavior. “Israel” has deliberately implemented this entity in recent years, planning and preparing in advance for dozens of crimes and gross violations of international humanitarian law and human rights standards, as well as hundreds of unlawful acts and actions initiated by the murder of United Nations mediator in Palestine “Count Bernadotte” and his assistant Colonel Sirut on September 17, 1948, as well as the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns. Furthermore, the rejection of the return of Palestine refugees has perpetuated and continues to perpetuate the refugees’ long suffering in the Palestinian territories and beyond, particularly in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, where most refugees live in extremely complex situations and lack enjoyment of all economic and social rights.
In defiance of this state’s international legitimacy resolutions, we have resorted to imposing a de facto policy through actions to annex the 1967-occupied city of Jerusalem to the State of Israel. It resorted to plundering and looting Palestinian and other occupied Arab areas’ resources and riches. It has also let its citizens reside and settle in other occupied Palestinian and Arab regions, despite several United Nations resolutions asking for an end to and correction of such actions. in flagrant defiance of the decisions of the Security Council and the General Assembly rejecting settlement. The latest was the decision to double the number of settlers, who are now one fifth of the West Bank’s population, according to Israeli data, estimated in 2022, by about 1 million settlers.
Aside from the settlement, the occupier continued to take over thousands of dunums of Palestinian land through the construction of the acquisition and annexation wall inside the occupied Palestinian territory. It also continued to deliberately strike its tight, aggravated, and illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip for the 17th consecutive year. In addition to unlawfully launching a military attack six times in the years 2008-2009, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022, and 2023, apart from rounds of military agressions that left thousands dead and injured, in addition to widespread destruction of citizens’ houses and other property, the Israeli occupation state is still obstructing the Palestinians’ right to self-determination. Reconstruction activities have exacerbated the sector’s humanitarian crisis, with 80% of the sector’s population relying on humanitarian assistance, unemployment rates approaching 56%, and extreme poverty rates approaching 65%.
The formation of an extreme Israeli government at the end of 2022 proceeded the decision to begin racist policies against Palestinians even before the start of its work; Through the implementation of settlement expansion projects and the taking over of West Bank land; the Judaization of Jerusalem, the erosion of Muslim and Christian religious sites, particularly the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the imposition of a time and spatial division, the expansion of the crimes of breaking into and blockading Palestinian cities and camps, as well as the excessive use of lethal force and the increase in field killings in the West Bank to 110 deaths, as well as the eviction of Palestinians from their homes as well as the expansion of arbitrary detention campaigns.
Abusing prisoners and detainees in occupation prisons, passing legislation allowing the execution of prisoners and prohibiting the provision of treatment and medical services, with the exception of torture, medical neglect, the arrest of children and women, administrative detention without charges or trials, and the detention of 13 prisoners’ bodies; the use of collective punishment and armed force against Palestinians; and the demolition and confiscation of Palestinian homes,Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as refugees displaced in other countries or even within Israel, are still treated as an inferior ethnic group and systematically denied their rights through policies of marginalization, murder, arrest, racial segregation, expropriation, and cruel exclusion in all territories under Israel’s control, colonial occupation, and apartheid.” Israel, which obviously conceals the Palestinian people’s rights as proclaimed in consecutive United Nations resolutions, whether from the Security Council, the General Assembly, or international organizations and United Nations agencies.
demanded need. To prevent and stop the abuse of prisoners and detainees in occupation prisons, and to issue legislation authorizing the execution of prisoners, and prohibiting the provision of medical treatment and services, with the exception of torture, medical neglect, detention of children and women, administrative detention without charge or trial, and the arrest of 13 prisoners’ bodies; The use of collective punishment and armed force against the Palestinians. demolitions and confiscation of Palestinian homes Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as refugees displaced in other countries or even within Israel, continue to be treated as an inferior ethnic group and systematically denied their rights through policies of marginalization, killing, arrest, apartheid, expropriation and exclusion Harsh in all the lands under the control of Israel, colonial occupation and apartheid. The General Assembly or international organizations and UN agencies, and their unwarranted failure to fulfill their legal obligations under the UN Charter and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, contributed to the occupier’s sense of impunity as “a state above the law and on the side of accountability for international crimes”, which led it to continue to commit various international crimes and violations.
The International Commission (Hashd) thanks the United Nations General Assembly for affirming the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights to self-determination, return, and realization of their legitimate rights to freedom and freedom from Israeli occupation and domination. I hoped that, on the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, the United Nations and the General Assembly would attempt to reflect and implement the concept of equity and protection of the Palestinian people in dealing with the subject of Palestinian rights and the threat presented by the apartheid system.For the international community, failure to restart a settlement process that would result in a diplomatic solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the occupation government, comprised of Benjamin Netanyahu and people such as Itamar Ben-Gafir and the Smotrich infiltration, explicitly launching racist calls for the collective expulsion of Palestinian citizens, “Israel,” which means that the Aberthaide, annexation and displacement scenario is no longer a mere threat, but a tangible reality explicitly embraced by the Israeli Government.
And now, the United Nations and the international community, which has turned a blind eye to ongoing Israeli settlement activity, unfair laws, and crimes against Palestinians for many years, must reconsider how it responds to the fight for Palestinian political and human rights through serious and effective intervention to raise the issue of the Israeli occupation and the need for serious international community intervention to remove it. And terminating its existence as racist settler colonialism, which may put an end to the massive abuses of human rights, injustice, persecution, subjugation, domination, suffering, and Palestinian sorrow that have occurred since Israel’s inception.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (Hashd) affirms the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupier through all available means as a right recognized in international law. We emphasize that the system of law, justice, and international action is facing a real test that will reveal the extent to which it is in accordance with human values and principles. The manifestation of Palestinians’ right to return, self-determination, equality, and dignity, as well as their right to live freely, demands the United Nations carry out its legal duties to challenge “Israel” through work on:
• The General Assembly, in the form of United for Peace, presumes the powers of the Security Council, which has failed to fulfill its responsibilities in addressing Israeli war crimes and the heavy damage they inflicted on the civilian population over the course of 75 years, within the framework of Chapters VI and VII of the United Nations Charter.
• Work to secure international protection for the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli occupation forces and settlers’ crimes and grave violations against the civilian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory through the formation of an international protection force within the tasks (peacekeeping forces) with broad powers to protect civilians in Palestine and by taking whatever measures, procedures, and penalties it deems appropriate.
• That the United Nations General Assembly adopt a resolution to boycott and sanction the occupying state until it complies with international law and United Nations resolutions related to the Palestinian cause, and to work seriously and effectively to end and remove settler colonialism on Palestinian land and to achieve the Palestinians’ right to return, self-determination, and the establishment of an independent state in accordance with international law.
• Calling the attention of the General Assembly to the international community’s obligations arising from the United Nations Charter and international legitimacy decisions regarding the right of peoples to self-determination, as well as the provisions of international humanitarian law, by urging states to fulfill their obligations to support and assist the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle for liberation and self-determination, including calling on all relevant bodies of the United Nations to consider each in its field the effective and immediate measures that must be taken to stop the gross violations of human rights and the Palestinian people.
• Place the topic of accountability and prosecution of the occupying state’s leaders and criminals on the General Assembly’s agenda and begin the procedures necessary under international law’s norms and regulations to accomplish and activate this accountability.
• Taking practical steps by the General Assembly to implement the recommendations of international fact-finding committees and to monitor the implementation of the Human Rights Council’s, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’, and the Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories’ recommendations and decisions.
• Emphasizing the right of Palestinian refugees to return and compensation, as well as ensuring the expansion of the work policy of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to include budget stabilization and protection for Palestinian refugees in accordance with General Assembly Resolution 194.
The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights (Hashd)
Dr. Salah Abd El Atei
Lawyer and Chairman of Board
