UNITED NATIONS AND QUESTION OF PALESTINE DISCUSSED AT ASIAN MEETING
Press Release
GA/PAL/822*
UNITED NATIONS AND QUESTION OF PALESTINE DISCUSSED AT ASIAN MEETING
20000302HANOI, 2 March (Division for Palestinian Rights) -- On the second day of the Asian Meeting on the Question of Palestine, which is being held in Hanoi from 1 to 3 March, participants examined the theme The United Nations and the Question of Palestine in the political and economic and social areas.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, member of the Indian Parliament and Secretary, All-India Congress Committee, told the morning plenary session that Palestine had been perhaps the most persistent item on the agenda of the United Nations almost since the Organization's inception. He chronicled the history of United Nations involvement in the question of Palestine from the League of Nations through the Middle East war of October 1973. The Question of Palestine first appeared on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly in 1974. The inclusion of this item had led, in turn, to a final elaboration of the meaning of inalienable rights to include the right of self-determination without external interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty. The highlight of that historic United Nations General Assembly session was Chairman Yasser Arafat's participation.
The United Nations continued to address the question of Palestine through the decade of the eighties. However, it was the end of the cold war and the break up of the former Soviet Union that most profoundly changed the context of the Arab-Israel conflict and the Question of Palestine.
The 1990s had seen the forum of the peace process shifting from Madrid to Oslo to Washington with the United Nations acting as a watchdog over the Middle East peace process. This was reflected in the latest resolution of the General Assembly 54/42 dated 1 December 1999 on the Peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine, which reaffirmed the permanent responsibility of the United Nations with regard to the question of Palestine until the question is resolved in all its aspects. It also expressed full support for the ongoing peace process, and reiterated the principles of land for peace as the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily the right to self- determination.
Ron Macintyre, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, said the only existing legal framework in international law for a political settlement on Jerusalem was to be found in United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947. The provisions on Jerusalem were never implemented due to subsequent conflict and political impasse between the Arab States and Israel.
* Reissued to correct symbol of press release. It had been previously issued as PAL/1881. - 2 - Press Release GA/PAL/822 2 March 2000
For any political solution on Jerusalem to be viable, in his opinion, the following key principles would have to be addressed:
-- Defining agreed boundaries for the city;
-- Upholding the unity and freedom of the city, including access to the holy places for the major communities;
-- Ensuring equal rights of both parties to determine their own national interests within the framework of a unified city; and
-- Upholding mutual respect for religious, civil and human rights of all parties within and beyond the administrative framework of the city.
Four major pragmatic frameworks have been suggested to facilitate negotiations on the future status of Jerusalem. These included:
-- A unified city indivisible in law, under total Israeli sovereignty. This scenario reflected the status quo.
-- Shared or dual sovereignty for the parties within their respective sectors of the city. This framework would provide greater all-round protection for the indigenous rights of the Palestinian minority.
-- A borough system or functional autonomy. In this framework, the minority would still remain vulnerable to discrimination by the Jerusalem municipality and Israeli Government.
-- Limited Palestinian sovereignty. This plan would relegate the Palestinian Authority to the outskirts of the city whose boundaries are yet to be defined.
Any framework agreement ignoring or falling short of the right of the Palestinian people to determine its own national interests within Jerusalem and the Occupied Palestinian Territories would simply not work, he said, and would undermine the outcome of negotiations on other issues still to be finalized during the permanent status talks.
Speaking on the United Nations role in advancing the economic and social development of the Palestinian people, Chinmaya Gharekhan, former United Nations Special Coordinator in the Occupied Territories, said that up until 1967, Palestinians had flourishing agricultural and horticultural sectors and there were enough jobs for the Palestinians so that they did not have to travel to Israel to find work. The deliberate policies of the Likud government were responsible for making the Palestinian economy totally dependent on Israel. When Israel began the closures of the territories 1992, the situation of the Palestinian economy had become desperate.
Closures were a form of collective punishment that prevented the Palestinian people from going to work or university, and resulted in a fall of their living
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standards. This policy, which remained in force today was the source of much suffering and led to insecurity, frustration and hostility on the part of the Palestinians towards the Israelis. But for millions of dollars of foreign financial assistance, Palestinian living standards would be much lower today. But in spite of a huge amount of foreign aid, living standards continued to decline. He said that in 1992, the per capita income was $1,700 while in 1999, it had fallen to $1,550. This was due entirely to the policy of closures.
He was confident that given the right environment and the establishment of an independent State, the Palestinian people would make tremendous progress. He noted that among the Palestinian Diaspora, there were said to be 500,000 people holding doctorate level university degrees. When the Palestinian people had control over their own destinies, their own borders, and had an independent sovereign State, the world could look forward to freedom and prosperity in Palestine.
Dinh Thi Minh Huyen, Director of the Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam, told the meeting that thanks to persistent efforts made by the United Nations and the international community, the Middle East peace process, especially the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, had in recent years seen some encouraging outcomes despite numerous difficulties and obstacles. More than ever before, greater efforts were needed to create international solidarity with the just cause of the Palestinian people to achieve the right of national self-determination and an independent Palestinian State.
As a nation which had experienced numerous suffering and sacrifices to gain its own national independence and freedom, the Government and people of Viet Nam extended their support to the Palestinians. The exchange of high-level delegations between Viet Nam and the Palestinian Authority and the signing of agreements on economic, cultural, scientific and technical matters had helped to set up the level of cooperation between the two parties.
The Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People would continue to play an important role in supporting the Palestinian people until a solution to the question of Palestine was found. She believed this meeting, which was taking place in the spring of the year 2000, a transitional year between two centuries and two millennia, would help strengthen the political support of Asian countries in promoting the peace process and ensuring the legal, national rights of the Palestinian people.
Nasser Al-Kidwa, Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, told the meeting that the United Nations had permanent responsibility for the Question of Palestine until it was effectively resolved in all its aspects. The United Nations was the guardian of the ideals of the United Nations Charter, one of which was the right to self-determination. Unlike the Israeli side, the Palestinian people wanted the United Nations fully involved in the peace process. The reason for this was obvious. If the United Nations were directly engaged, it would insist on applying all its resolutions adopted over the years. This was not acceptable to the Israelis who were using the peace process to neutralize the Organization by
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claiming that peace had been achieved. Israel had continuously called for an end to United Nations involvement in the question of Palestine with the aim of leaving the Palestinian side at the mercy of the imbalance of power on the ground. The Security Council had adopted 25 resolutions affirming the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the Occupied Territories. United Nations resolutions remained the ultimate protection of Palestinian rights.
In looking ahead to the future, he called on the United Nations for assistance to reinstate the time limit on the existing peace process and ensure a cessation of all settlement activities. Regarding the time limit, he noted that the five-year transitional period should have ended on 4 May 1999. An international consensus had developed to postpone any action for a one-year period in order to achieve a final settlement between the two sides. Both parties had accepted this deadline.
The United Nations Millennium Summit would begin on 6 September 2000. In line with the international consensus and existing agreements in the international community, he called on the Organization to accord full membership for Palestine in the United Nations to enable it to participate fully in the Summit.
He considered the continued building of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as tantamount to political violence. He called on the United Nations and the High Contracting Parties to play an effective role to reconvene the Fourth Geneva Convention that was convened last July.
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