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STATEMENT : FOURTH COMMITTEE OF THE 79TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON THE GENERAL DEBATE ON ITEM 50 – ISRAELI PRACTICES AND
STATEMENT BY
HIS EXCELLENCY AMBASSADOR AHMAD FAISAL MUHAMAD
PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF MALAYSIA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
AT THE FOURTH COMMITTEE OF THE 79TH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
ON THE GENERAL DEBATE ON
ITEM 50 – ISRAELI PRACTICES AND SETTLEMENT ACTIVITIES AFFECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE AND OTHER ARABS OF THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES
18 NOVEMBER 2024, NEW YORK
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Thank you Chair,
My delegation also thanks the Chair of the Special Committee, Ambassador Mohan Pieris and Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Ilze Kehris, for presenting their reports on the situation in the Occupied Territories.
2. Malaysia is a member of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories (SCIIP). We commend and thank the Chair and Ambassador Cheikh Niang of Senegal who is the other member of the Committee, as well as the Secretariat, for their excellent co-operation and dedication. We endorse the Special Committee’s report and its contents in full.
Chair,
3. The report of the Special Committee exposes the extent of the atrocities committed by Israel particularly in Gaza and also across the Occupied Territories. Based on the findings, the Special Committee concluded that the policies and practices of Israel, are consistent with the characteristics of genocide. The findings cannot cover the entire extent of the atrocities committed primarily because Israel continues to deny the Special Committee access to the Occupied Territories.
Chair
4. The findings of the report, which covers the period from October 2023 to July 2024, convincingly illustrate the following important facts;
- Statements by Israeli high-ranking officials calling and/or endorsing the policies of denying Palestinians of the basic necessities to sustain their lives.
- The deliberate and systematic acts by Israel to obstruct supplies of humanitarian aid and attacks on aid workers, weaponizing humanitarian aid and making starvation as a method of war.
- Deliberate attacks on hospitals, and targeting of healthcare providers, thereby depriving Palestinians of much-needed healthcare.
- The extensive and disproportionate bombing campaign by Israel. Since early this year, over 25,000 tons of explosives, equivalent to two nuclear bombs have been dropped on Gaza. This, coupled with the use of AI-enhanced targeting systems, has caused unprecedented number of civilian casualties, 70 percent of whom are women and children.
- The deliberate targeting of women, through among others, the commission of gender-based violence, attacks on health facilities including the destruction of Gaza’s only fertility clinic, as well as restrictions on essential supplies, resulting in the threefold increase in miscarriages and maternal deaths, and a surge in stillbirths, not to mention the devastating mental harm caused.
- Mass and arbitrary detentions, tortures and gender-based violence, while in detention.
- The intensified military operations, coupled with increasing incidents of settler violence and expansion of unlawful settlements, home demolitions and movement restrictions imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank.
- The clear policy of ‘collective punishment’ inflicted on the entire Palestinian population by Israel.
- Escalating media censorship, suppression of dissent, denying access and targeting of journalists and media personnel, as well as the campaign of misinformation, being practiced by the Israeli Government to deprive the world of critical information, particularly on the war in Gaza.
Chair,
10. The international community must assume its responsibility and protect the rights of the Palestinian people, as well as to hold Israel, the violator of international law, including international humanitarian law, and perpetrator of multiple war crimes and atrocity crimes, accountable. Decisive action must be taken to stop Israel from continuing its heinous and unlawful acts in the Occupied Territories. The impunity that Israel enjoys has emboldened it to further intensify its belligerence, as clearly reflected by its all-out aggression on Gaza and escalation of tensions in the wider Middle East region.
11. Malaysia thus reiterates its call for an immediate ceasefire of the war in Gaza and the Middle East. We also urge for an immediate halt in the supply of arms to Israel. We caution Member States not to be complicit in Israel’s illegal practices in the Occupied Territories, particularly in the genocidal war in Gaza. We recall the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on 19 July 2024, that underlines the duty of all States not to recognize and facilitate Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. In addition, UNRWA, the backbone for all essential services to Palestinian refugees, is irreplaceable and must be defended.
12. The international community must uphold international law. This is not only vital for our efforts to bring a just and sustainable political solution to the Palestinian question, it is also essential to the maintenance of the global rules-based order. The right of self-determination of the Palestinian people must be fully realized without any further delay. It is time to accord the State of Palestine with full membership in the United Nations. This is our collective responsibility, to end the brutalities and injustices that have long been perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinians. The Palestinian people deserve to live in freedom, peace and dignity, among us as an equal and rightful member of this community of nations.
I thank you.