Israel

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the opening meeting of the 2022 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in New York today:

Intensified efforts are urgently needed to resolve the Israel-Palestine situation with a view to reaching the overall goal of two States living side by side in peace and security, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said today at the first formal meeting of the Palestinian Rights Committee in 2022.

Eight months after a fragile ceasefire ended full-scale fighting in the Gaza Strip, the senior United Nations official for the Middle East peace process told the Security Council that the situation is once again characterized by daily clashes and rising tensions, as he warned delegates against piecemeal approaches and diplomatic “half measures” that will only let the conflict fester further.

The Security Council today renewed the mandate of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan for six months, until 30 June 2022, requesting the Secretary-General to ensure that the mission has the required capacity and resources to fulfil its mandate in a safe and secure way.

Expressing concern over a fragile and deteriorating security situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the special coordinator for the region, in his briefing to the Security Council today, stressed that rising levels of violence should be a clear warning to the international community to take action in order to prevent further bloodshed.

The Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, has appealed for $510 million to support 1.6 million of the most vulnerable people in Gaza and the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem in 2022.  Forty per cent of Palestinians will require humanitarian assistance next year.

Expressing outrage over Israel’s continuing harassment of human rights activists in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the recent terrorist designation of six civil society groups, speakers urged the international community to take strong action in holding the country accountable for its conduct, as the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People met today.

To break the deadlock over the long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the international community must focus less on political paradigms and more on what is happening on the ground, the representative of a leading think tank told the Security Council today, as members expressed grave concerns over rising tensions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Israel’s continued illegal settlement activities were signalling its blatant rejection of the two-State solution, the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said today during a special meeting to observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestine People.

Media experts called for the broader application of solutions journalism — an approach focusing on problem-solving responses — in reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as the 2021 International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East concluded today.