{"id":250818,"date":"2021-05-04T17:17:38","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T21:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=250818"},"modified":"2021-05-12T17:28:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T21:28:20","slug":"cancellation-of-palestinian-elections-evacuations-in-sheikh-jarrah-4-may-2021-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/cancellation-of-palestinian-elections-evacuations-in-sheikh-jarrah-4-may-2021-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancellation of Palestinian Elections, Evacuations in Sheikh Jarrah \u2013 4 May 2021 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
4 MAY 2021<\/strong><\/h6>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 So, you issued a statement last week on the postpone\u2026 the announcement of the Palestinian Authority President that\u2026 Mahmoud Abbas that he\u2019s going to postpone the elections.\u00a0 But as a matter of fact, he\u2019s actually cancelling the elections, and a lot of Palestinian human rights organizations and\u2026 said that that\u2026 and\u2026 oh, let\u2019s put it this way.\u00a0 One of the reasons that he named is the issue of Jerusalem and that Israel is not allowing Palestinians in Jerusalem to vote, which is true, but Palestinian human rights organizations also saying that his party in the polling is down and that one of the reasons he cancelled these elections is probably because left-wing parties and Hamas will win more seats.\u00a0 So, do you have more to say than just taking note on this issue?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Well, I mean, obviously, this is something that the Special Coordinator\u2019s office is following very closely.\u00a0 And it is, I\u2019m sure, no doubt, coming up in the discussions they\u2019re having with various interlocutors.\u00a0 What is important is that the Palestinians are able to express their will through the ballot box, and we hope that, whether it\u2019s issues related to intra-Palestinian issues or issues having to do with the rights of Palestinians in the occupied territories or especially in East Jerusalem having the ability to vote, we hope all those issues will be resolved so that Palestinians are able to vote.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But they don\u2019t\u2026 I mean, there is no new date.\u00a0 These elections are cancelled.\u00a0 Do you think that this is\u2026 \u00a0[cross talk]<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Well, we do\u2026 we hope that a date is fixed.\u00a0 It is not up to us to fix that date, but this is something that is being discussed with the various interlocutors.<\/p>\n

We think\u2026 as Mr.\u00a0[Tor] Wennesland said, we think it\u2019s very important that a date is fixed.\u00a0 We welcome the holding of the elections when it was announced, and we do think that these elections need to be held.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 And do you say that this is unacceptable step to cancel such elections, although all factions are actually against such step, except for\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look, to say that it\u2019s a complex political environment, I think, would be underplaying it.\u00a0 Our position and one that we are expressing privately and publicly, is that elections\u2026 it is very important that a date for the elections be set.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 On\u2026 if I may, on Israel and Palestine but a different subject, on the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in Jerusalem, I know that this is a very compli\u2026 I mean, there is about 3,000\u00a0Palestinians who live in this neighbourhood, and they face evictions since years.\u00a0 And the story of Sheikh Jarrah has another story in Jerusalem, but the situation of the people who are facing eviction has to do actually with \u201948 and the fact that, in 1948, they were displaced from west Jerusalem, and you couldn\u2019t go back.\u00a0 And the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) back then built some of these houses that they were being now evicted from, where settlers could go and take these houses.<\/p>\n

What are you doing to help them?\u00a0 Did Mr.\u00a0Wennesland visit these families?\u00a0 Because I saw that several European diplomats went there and visit families.\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if Mr.\u00a0Wennesland went in person.\u00a0 I can tell you that we\u2019re very much aware of the situation that is ongoing in Sheikh Jarrah.\u00a0 We\u2019re following it closely.<\/p>\n

Our position, which remains unchanged, is that all settlement activities, including the evictions and demolitions, are illegal under international law.\u00a0 Security Council resolution, I think, 2334, and the international community will not recognize any change to the 1967 June lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed to by the parties themselves through negotiations.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Is there anything that is being done to help these families?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I will check with our colleagues on the ground, especially with Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA, if they\u2019re doing any\u2026 if there are any practical steps being taken.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

4 MAY 2021 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… Questions and Answers \/… Question:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 So, you issued a statement last week on the postpone\u2026 the announcement of the Palestinian Authority President that\u2026 Mahmoud Abbas that he\u2019s going to postpone the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,6169,1817,1877],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2065,4317,2029,1741,2613,1961,2137],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-250818","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-for-palestine-refugees-in-the-near-east-unrwa","document-source-united-nations-special-coordinator-for-the-middle-east-peace-process-unsco","document-subject-electoral-issues","document-subject-governance","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-settlements","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/250818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/250818\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=250818"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=250818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}