July 27 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The UN humanitarian coordinator in the Middle East, Lynn Hastings, told the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday that it is essential to reverse the “negative trends” between Israelis and Palestinians, and has urged the organization to support the people of Palestine.
“Immediate measures to reverse negative trends and support the Palestinian people are essential,” Hastings said, stressing the importance of ending violence in the region, according to a statement shared by the United Nations.
Likewise, the UN humanitarian coordinator has emphasized before the Security Council that addressing tensions between Israel and Palestine “as they arise” cannot replace efforts to resolve the core problems driving the conflict, which has persisted for more than 70 years.
Several members of the Council, for their part, have stressed the need to implement “a two-state solution”, while other delegates have criticized the “inability” of the UN to resolve “this crisis in a meaningful way”.
Hastings has also denounced the high levels of violence against civilians, the “illegal expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank” and the continued demolitions and takeovers of Palestinian-owned structures that have resulted in a “growing sense of hopelessness among many Palestinians who see their prospects for statehood, sovereignty and a peaceful future vanish”.
“Three hundred and ninety-nine demolitions and confiscations of Palestinian-owned structures and evictions this year have left more than 400 Palestinians displaced,” the UN official said, noting that “many Israelis also understand the dangers of continuing down the current path. “.
“For years, illegal settlement expansions in the occupied West Bank have steadily reduced Palestinian land and eroded prospects for a viable Palestinian state, as violence against civilians exacerbates mistrust and triggers a growing sense of hopelessness that the condition of state, sovereignty and a peaceful future are fading,” he told the Hastings Council.
In this sense, the humanitarian coordinator has stressed that, “if nothing is done differently” from the UN, “we already know what the future will be like”: “When a problem occurs, the Palestinian will be considered guilty and the Israeli innocent in court Israelis, and the world, too used to this pattern of tragedy and injustice, will express dismay and then look the other way.
“At a time when the international community legitimately proclaims that the Palestinians are entitled to the same freedom, security and prosperity, Israel persists in denying all three,” Hastings said, asking what the Security Council and the international community will do about it. .
During the Coordinator’s intervention, several Council members have condemned settler-related and other violence, stressing the need to ensure accountability and end unilateral measures that undermine the viability of a future Palestinian State.
Members have also highlighted the need to establish a
“direct political dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians. Others have expressed their support for the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while the rest have called for “predictable funding” for humanitarian aid.
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