General Assembly

Issues of borders, settlements, refugees, Jerusalem, and water dominated discussion this afternoon in the International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, as experts made compelling cases for why each was the pivotal permanent status issue around which renewed peace negotiations should coalesce.

Under the theme “The urgency of addressing the permanent status issues -- borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees, water”, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean will convene the International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace at the Dolmen Hotel in Qawra, Malta, on 12 and 13 February.

The creation of a Palestinian State coexisting in peace and security alongside Israel required more engagement by mediators of a “revitalized” Middle East Quartet –- the United States, Russian Federation, European Union and the United Nations –- as well as the active contribution of the Palestinian Rights Committee, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today.

The States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination met at United Nations Headquarters in New York today to elect nine members to the Convention’s monitoring body to serve for a two-year period, beginning on 19 January.

In 66 meetings of its sixty-fourth session, the United Nations General Assembly adopted 226 resolutions and 57 decisions, Ali Abdussalam Treki (Libya), President of the 192-member body, said during an end-of-year press conference at Headquarters today. Mr. Treki said the Assembly was now close to completing its programme of work for the first quarter, with five out of its six Main Committees having completed their work. The Fifth Committee was expected to conclude tomorrow.

Following is the statement by the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on Israel’s settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem:

As the United Nations observed the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern that talks between Israel’s Prime Minister and the Palestinian President on a two-State solution had been suspended for almost a year.

The Palestinian Rights Committee will hold a special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in the Trusteeship Council Chamber at 10 a.m. on Monday, 30 November 2009, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.

The upcoming conference in Copenhagen on climate change should not only be attended by the most interested and concerned Heads of State, but there should also be good results, the President of the General Assembly said this evening at a Headquarters press conference after an informal Assembly meeting on the matter.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today recommended adoption by the General Assembly of four draft resolutions concerning its work, the work of the Division for Palestinian Rights and of the Department of Public Information regarding the question of Palestine as well as the peaceful settlement of that question.