Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to fully and forcefully implement its resolutions on the Middle East conflict that give the right of self-determination to the Palestinian people. While addressing the 15-member most effective arm of the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram strongly condemned the recent large-scale Israeli military operations in Jenin in the occupied West Bank and called for holding Israel accountable for its grave human rights violations and war crimes in the illegally occupied zones. According to Pakistan’s Permanent Envoy to the UN, the rule of law can be upheld only if it is applied universally and consistently, without exceptions or double standards, which prolong the period of suppression and provides salient support to the unlawful acts of the aggressor.
Historically, the role of the United Nations and the 15-member UN Security Council (UNSC) had never been encouraging for the achievement of peace and the resolution of the Palestine dispute over the past seven and a half decades. The UN has not only failed to alleviate the genuine grievances of the Palestinian people but displayed miserable impotence in ending unimaginable Israeli atrocities against innocent Palestinians. Realistically, the 193 members’ global forum had been used by the Israeli apartheid regime and its proponents including the United States and its Western allies for consolidation of the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and furtherance of Tel Aviv’s political agenda in the Middle East and North African regions. The impunity that Israel has enjoyed for its acts of violence over decades only fuels and intensifies the recurring cycle of violence. Currently, over 5.5 million Palestinians are living in an open prison and under continuous blockade in the West Bank and Gaza, and they are not safe for a single moment, even their homes, worship places, schools, and hospitals are prime targets of their worst enemy. The ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied territories and the expulsion and eviction of Palestinians from their properties has exceeded all limits but no civilized nation and relevant UN agencies take note of those illegal actions and grave violations of UN Security Council resolutions and international law, including global humanitarian law.
In fact, the Palestinian dispute has humanitarian, social, religious, and political dimensions alongside the ongoing illegal and immoral occupation of the Arab land. The rights of Palestinians living under occupation including those under blockade and restrictions need to be protected by the global community, particularly by the UNSC and human rights defenders including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) who have the right to intervene in the dire situation and gross human rights violations which are no less than grave war crimes against innocent civilians, the apartheid rule that prevails in the occupied Palestinian land over the past several decades. The continuous suppression and inhumane restrictions imposed by the Israeli government have caused a humanitarian situation and nearly half of Palestine’s population currently faces food insecurity, lack of education, health, and other essential needs in the occupied territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Meanwhile, ceaseless conflict and Israel’s brutal military operations left a significant number of the population homeless, who need shelters and economic support to rebuild their household.
Historically, the Palestine issue is the foremost longstanding dispute on the agenda of the UN Security Council (UNSC), while the global forum had categorically recognized the Palestinian’s right to self-determination and called for the implementation of the two-state formula to constitute a separate and autonomous Palestinian state alongside the Jewish nation, but Israeli government with the support from the powerful Jewish community and western allies had been successful in holding back this issue at the global level so far. On the other hand, the Jewish state ramped up its genocide operation against Palestinians in Jenin and the greater west bank area blatantly killing children, women, and elderly persons with complete impunity and shamelessness.
The government and the people of Pakistan always support disadvantaged communities and marginalized nations across the globe, while Pakistanis have a special religious bond and association with Palestinian people and Masjid Al-Aqsa (Bayt-Al-Maqdis), and they had always been at the forefront of the efforts for the liberation of the Holy land. The government of Pakistan must raise its voice against Israeli suppression of innocent Palestinians by stressing the global forum to chart out an immediate action plan, with the necessary resources and the will to implement it by all means. So, this decades-long clash comes to an end, the dream of free and independent Palestine comes true, millions of homeless Palestinians return to their country, and durable peace triumphs in the Holy Land forever.
