The New Dark Age

Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the U.N., addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Mr. President, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela robustly condemns the Israeli aggression against the civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is an operation of mass expulsion of an entire people in order to annex their territory by the occupying power. It’s a new cycle of expansionist terror, of so much that has been suffered by the Palestinian people over 75 years of occupation.

Over
the last eight weeks we have seen an escalation of the crimes perpetrated by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people. Almost 15,000 innocent civilians have been murdered by the occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, mainly women and children in an operation of ethnic cleansing which has not even spared the staff of the United Nations who have also been massacred.

It is repugnant to see how, despite the cruelty of the facts that on view to the world, the government of the United States of America and its satellites aim to justify the unjustifiable:

That the occupying power is carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people as defined in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court. We ask ourselves where are those who in other cases rush to apply the responsibility to protect but now are ignoring the human rights of Palestinians submitted to the Israeli occupation?

Where are the activists on the code of conduct of the Security Council against genocide or those advocating for a reduction in the right of veto in the Security Council when mass atrocities are being committed? Their silence makes them an accomplice in these crimes.

We call for a condemnation in the firmest terms of the criminal policies of Israel against the civilian population. The United Nations must act with determination including the Secretariat that has a crucial role to play in preserving the right to life of millions of innocent people. We cannot allow now that our actions and our omissions make us jointly responsible for the annihilation of an entire people.

Mr. President, Israel has no intention of putting an end to the occupation. On the contrary it aims to wrest control of the entire occupied Palestinian territory while it alters the demographic situation, repressing Palestinians and privileging Israeli settlers. This is a case of the imposition of a system of apartheid on this reality.

We must add the destruction of tens of thousands of dwellings, the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as well as the deliberate attacks against vital infrastructure. Mr. President, today we must make progress as a matter of urgency in at least three critical areas.

Firstly we must put an end to the cycle of impunity. Israel must be held accountable by International Justice for the crimes against humanity and war crimes that it has been committing over years, as well as for the genocide underway today. The international impunity provided to it by a government of one of its main partners that is a permanent member of the Security Council, this encourages the crimes committed daily by Israel.

Secondly whilst the occupying power continues with its policies of shoot to kill, bombing schools, hospitals, housing, refugee centers or food storage facilities as well as the systemic violence on the part of Israeli settlers against the innocent civilian population. We must apply provisional measures under international humanitarian law that will guarantee the international protection of the Palestinian people.

And thirdly, an end must be put to the illegal settlement policy, the evictions and demolition of homes, the expropriation of Palestinian land, to the arbitrary detentions of innocent Palestinian civilians and the persecution of civil society Palestinian organizations. We must repudiate those who call for the use of weapons of mass destruction against the Palestinian people and that encourage fanatical groups to commit hate crimes or attack religious sites.

Mr. President, on the other hand we insist on our rejection of the lack of compliance with the provisions of resolution 497 of the Security Council, which for more than 40 years now has demanded the withdrawal of Israel from the Syrian Golan and we also reject any actions taken by the occupying power to change the demographic or legal situation of the occupied Syrian Golan. We reject any measures that use force to exercise jurisdiction and administration in this territory.

The time has come for this General Assembly to demand concrete action and that’s why we urge a vote in favor of all of the draft resolutions tabled today under items 39 and 40 of the program of work.

Finally we reaffirm our solidarity with the Palestinian people as well as our support for self-determination and a Palestinian state that is independent and sovereign within in the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and as a full member of the United Nations.

Thank you very much Mr. President.