Palestinian issues

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed on 29 November:

GENEVA, 4 November (United Nations Office at Geneva) — Media experts discussed the opportunities presented, and challenges for young journalists reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the positive and negative sides of social media, as the 2022 International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East concluded today.

GENEVA, 3 November (United Nations Office at Geneva) — Journalists, media experts, policymakers and scholars gathered for the opening of the twenty‑ninth annual International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East today, held in Room XXVI at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today released its Adaptation Gap Report, which finds that global efforts in adaptation planning, financing and implementation are not keeping pace with the growing risks.

The 2022 United Nations International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East will be held on Thursday, 3 November, and Friday, 4 November, at the Palais des Nations (Room XXVI), Geneva, Switzerland.

Amid a situation in a downward spiral, marked by an increase in violence across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, determined actions by both parties are urgently needed to reverse negative trends on the ground, the senior United Nations official for the Middle East peace process told the Security Council today, cautioning delegates that a failure to address the root causes of the escalation will only worsen an already explosive situation.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today released a report which says plastics are accumulating in the world’s soil at a high rate. The report found that plastics used extensively in farming — from plastic coated fertilizers to mulch film — are contaminating the soil and potentially threatening food security.

The United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide welcomed the opening of the trial against Félicien Kabuga before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague.  Mr. Kabuga, among other offenses, is charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, committed in Rwanda in 1994.

​​​​​​​Welcoming statements by the leaders of Israel and the State of Palestine during the seventy-seventh General Assembly session as a positive sign toward resuming the peace process, speakers in the Security Council today called for those words to be turned into action and progress be delivered on a two-State solution, especially in light continuing settlement activity and violence against civilians.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where 1.3 million Palestinian children will be returning to school this week, the United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator there issued a statement today in which she said she is concerned that, since the beginning of the year, 20 children were killed in the West Bank.