{"id":179407,"date":"2016-06-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=179407"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:25:00","slug":"auto-insert-179407","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-179407\/","title":{"rendered":"Palestinians mark 49 years since the onset of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands – Letter from Palestine (A\/ES-10\/723|S\/2016\/516)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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7 June 2016<\/p>\n

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Identical letters dated 7 June 2016 from the Charg\u00e9 d\u2019affaires a.i. of the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Yesterday, Muslims worldwide, including Palestinian Muslims in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, marked the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. This year, Ramadan began one day after Palestinians, Muslim and Christian alike, tragically marked the passage of 49 years since the onset of the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian and Arab lands on 5 June 1967. This sombre anniversary, which comes just weeks after the observance of the sixty-eighth year since the <\/span>Al-Nakba<\/i>\u00a0of 1948, is yet another painful reminder of the injustice imposed on the Palestinian people and the continued inability of the international community to fulfil its obligations under the Charter of the United Nations, international law and relevant resolutions to bring an end to this illegitimate occupation, to justly resolve the question of Palestine in all its aspects and to ensure the realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and freedom in their own independent State of Palestine, including East Jerusalem, rights which they have for too long been denied.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Clearly, the failure to hold Israel, the occupying Power, accountable for its grave breaches of the law and ongoing brutal subjugation of the Palestinian people has protracted and exacerbated this conflict, with grave consequences to human lives and on the prospects for peace and stability. This is starkly reflected in the current situation on the ground in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, where Israel\u2019s illegal policies and practices continue to detrimentally affect every aspect of life for the Palestinian civilian population, which continues to endure, inter alia, death, injury, dispossession, displacement and countless other human rights abuses at the hands of a merciless occupying Power.<\/div>\n
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One manner in which Israel, the occupying Power, continues to exploit the international community\u2019s inaction is by continuing to systematically and deliberately colonize the Palestinian land it has belligerently, illegitimately occupied since June 1967, in grave breach of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law, as well as international criminal law as articulated in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. On a daily basis, Israel confiscates Palestinian land, expands and constructs both settlements and its annexation, apartheid wall, demolishes Palestinian homes and other civilian structures, forcibly displaces and transfers Palestinian civilians and exploits the natural resources of the Palestinian land. Despite the widespread condemnations and calls for cessation, and the international consensus that the major obstacle and biggest threat to achieving the two-State solution for peace are settlements, Israel seems determined to continue with its expansionist agenda in direct contempt of the law and of the will and calls of the international community.<\/div>\n
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On 6 June, an announcement regarding illegal settlement construction came from the so-called \u201cIsraeli Jerusalem municipality\u201d, which declared its intent to build an illegal settlement comprising 15,000 settlement units in the Qalandiya area in the occupied West Bank, which is to be renamed \u201cAtarot\u201d. In this regard, according to media outlets, the so-called \u201cIsraeli mayor of Jerusalem\u201d, who is also heading the illegal planning and construction committee, stated: \u201cI intend to build a neighbourhood to meet the demands of the Haredi community. \u2026 Such an intention has always been there. I am determined to make it come true.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Such preliminary announcements occur too often and are usually approved thereafter by the right-wing Israeli Government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, under which settlement-building and expansion have continued unabated. Here, it is important to recall the many Security Council resolutions directly addressing this crime, including resolutions <\/span>446<\/a>\u00a0(1979), <\/span>452<\/a>\u00a0(1979), <\/span>465<\/a>\u00a0(1980) and <\/span>478<\/a>\u00a0(1980). In the light of the current circumstances, we continue to call upon the Security Council to reaffirm this strong and well-established position on Israel\u2019s illegal settlement campaign. A firm message must be conveyed to Israel that its settlement activities and continued entrenchment of occupation and obstruction of a peaceful solution will not be tolerated and that it will be held accountable for such breaches. In the absence of such an unequivocal message, Israel will only continue its violations with absolute impunity, a fact starkly borne out by the evidence on the ground over the years.<\/span><\/div>\n
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At the same time, I must draw your attention to the continued killing and injury of Palestinian civilians by the occupying Power. Israeli occupying forces continue to commit extrajudicial executions against Palestinian civilians who they claim are carrying out a \u201cstabbing attack\u201d. As with other recent killings of Palestinian civilians, independent and international investigations must be carried out to provide substantial proof that these so-called \u201cstabbing attacks\u201d against occupying forces, which are armed to the teeth with the most lethal weaponry, ever occurred in the first place. This narrative cannot be accepted without question as it is used over and over again to justify and pardon the excessive force and acts of extrajudicial executions against the Palestinian people held captive by this cruel and violent occupation.<\/div>\n
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The latest Palestinian to be accused of a so-called \u201cstabbing attack\u201d was a young woman, Ansar Husam Harsha (age 25) from Qaffin town near the West Bank city of Tulkarm. On 2 June 2016, Israeli occupying forces opened fire on Ansar at the \u201cInnab\u201d checkpoint. Ansar was more than 10 feet away from the occupying forces when they shot her. After she was shot, Red Crescent medics rushed to the scene to provide her with emergency medical attention, but the occupying forces, as in so many other instances, prevented help from reaching her. Tragically, Ansar, a wife and a mother of two small children, Hadeel (age 2) and Yamen (age 4), died from her wounds.<\/div>\n
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In addition, on 6 June, a Palestinian young person, Jamal Mohammed Dweikat (age 20), died after succumbing to critical wounds sustained on Friday, 3 June. Jamal was shot with live fire in the head by occupying forces when clashes broke out in Nablus in the West Bank after a group of some 4,000 right-wing Israelis, including Knesset members from right-wing parties and illegal settlement leaders, raided the eastern side of the city escorted by occupying forces, reportedly arriving after midnight and leaving at dawn Saturday morning. In addition to the death of Jamal, at least 10 Palestinians were reportedly wounded in the clashes, in which occupying forces used live fire along with tear gas canisters and rubber-coated steel bullets against Palestinian civilians.<\/div>\n
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Furthermore, in this regard, I wish to draw attention to just some of the hundreds of other crimes perpetrated by Israel, the occupying Power, in the period since our last letter to you:<\/div>\n
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18 May 2016<\/strong><\/div>\n