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\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nVICE-CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF<\/span><\/b> \u00a0<\/span>THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n H.E. MR. PENDA NAANDA<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ****************<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n SECURITY COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL OPEN DEBATE<\/span><\/b> \u00a0<\/span>ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST,<\/span><\/b> \u00a0<\/span>INCLUDING THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n New York, 15 October 2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Madam President,<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Excellencies,\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ladies and gentlemen,<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The situation across the Occupied Palestinian Territory remains alarming.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In Gaza, one year after the ceasefire took effect, civilians continue to live amid devastation, displacement and profound uncertainty.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A mass collective punishment inflicted on an entire population.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli strikes continue to claim lives.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The health system remains under enormous strain.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Humanitarian access continues to face restrictions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And recovery and reconstruction remain far below what is urgently needed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For the people of Gaza, a ceasefire must mean more than the absence of full-scale hostilities.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It must bring safety, humanitarian relief, freedom from forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, and a credible path towards recovery.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The devastation in Gaza is not only humanitarian, but environmental. The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Environment Programme (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵEP) has warned that damage to water, soil and agricultural systems could threaten public health and food security for generations to come.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Madam President,<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n At the same time, developments in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, demand the Council\u2019s urgent attention.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Settler violence and terror have\u00a0 reached unprecedented levels.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This year alone, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ OCHA has documented more than 1,600 settler attacks<\/span>i<\/span> resulting in Palestinian casualties or damage to property, carried out with impunity\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Communities have been attacked, families displaced, homes damaged, livestock and crops destroyed, water infrastructure targeted, and Palestinians prevented from reaching their own agricultural land.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These are not isolated incidents.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They are occurring alongside accelerating settlement expansion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The proliferation of outposts, demolitions, evictions.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Land seizures and increasingly severe restrictions on Palestinian movement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Particularly alarming is the continued advancement of settlement plans in the E1 area.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General has warned, implementation of these plans would sever the territorial contiguity of the West Bank and deal a devastating blow to the prospects of a viable and contiguous Palestinian State.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is not merely settlement expansion.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It is part of Israel\u2019s deliberate and unlawful policy of terror to consolidate a system of discrimination and domination and to perpetuate the Nakba of the Palestinian people.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Madam President,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n International law is clear.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, have no legal validity and constitute a flagrant violation under international law.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Security Council resolution 2334 is equally clear in demanding an immediate and complete cessation of all settlement activities.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The occupying Power has an obligation to protect the civilian population under occupation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Palestinian families should not have to abandon their homes and land because they fear another attack, nor should violence and intimidation become instruments of displacement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Similarly alarming are the ongoing Israeli measures to prevent Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵRWA from implementing its General Assembly mandate.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Madam President,<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What is happening in Gaza cannot be separated from what is happening in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They form one Occupied Palestinian Territory and must remain politically, economically and territorially united.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The international community cannot continue to profess its commitment to the two-State solution while allowing the very foundations of that solution to be steadily dismantled on the ground.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Words must now be matched by action.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Settlement activity must stop.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Settler violence must end and perpetrators must be held accountable.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Civilians must be protected.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ and other humanitarian actors must be granted safe and unhindered access to the population in need.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Since 7 October 2023 alone, this conflict and its humanitarian consequences have resulted in immense loss of life, widespread suffering among civilians, and extensive destruction, underscoring the urgent need for the full implementation of agreed measures aimed at protecting civilians, facilitating humanitarian relief, and advancing recovery and reconstruction.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We have witnessed a systematic dehumanization and demonization of an entire people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Time is running out, and the cost of continued inaction is becoming increasingly difficult to reverse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thank you.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ***<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 VICE-CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE EXERCISE OF \u00a0THE INALIENABLE RIGHTS OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE\u00a0 H.E. MR. PENDA NAANDA\u00a0 ****************\u00a0\u00a0 SECURITY COÄ¢¹½ÊÓƵCIL OPEN DEBATE \u00a0ON THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST, \u00a0INCLUDING THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION\u00a0 New York, 15 October 2026\u00a0 \u00a0 Madam President,\u00a0 Excellencies,\u00a0\u00a0 Ladies and gentlemen,\u00a0 The situation across the Occupied Palestinian […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2197,4259,1338],"document-source":[1753,1362],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,2265,2005,1741,1961,6816,6880,6983,6866,6891,6251],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-320521","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-briefing","document-category-security-council-briefing","document-category-statement","document-source-ceirpp","document-source-security-council","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-ceasefire","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-human-rights-and-international-humanitarian-law","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-nakba","document-subject-occupying-power","document-subject-reconstruction","document-subject-settler-violence","document-subject-unrwa","document-subject-west-bank","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/320521","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\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/320521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":320526,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/320521\/revisions\/320526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=320521"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=320521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}