UN General Assembly
29 Nov 2002

Fifty-seventh General Assembly
Plenary, 63rd Meeting (PM)

Debate Begins on 'Question of Palestine'; Israeli Delegate Says End of Terrorism Must be Price of Political Process, Not Its Reward

The international community must work harder to ensure Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories and the establishment of a Palestinian State, the General Assembly was told this afternoon, as it began its discussion of the question of Palestine.

MOHAMMED SALEH MOHAMMED SALEH (Bahrain) said that Israel, the occupying Power, continued its policy of aggression against the Palestinian people. It was still occupying Palestinian territories and other Arab territories seized in 1967. Successive Israeli Governments continued to practice settlement policies, in which they brought people from all over the world to replace expelled Palestinians. It continued its war crimes, crimes against humanity and State terrorism against the Palestinian people, who were suffering bitterly from Israeli practices. Israel was the only State in the world occupying territory through force, and the only colonial power in the world today.

Condemning all forms of terrorism, particularly State terrorism, he reiterated the need to distinguish between terrorism and the legitimate struggle against persecution. He condemned the massacres and extrajudicial killings of Palestinians and the confiscation and seizure of their property by Israel. The international community and the United Nations must, more than ever before, exert pressure on Israel to put an end to major violations of international law and return to the negotiating table. He reiterated his support for the Arab initiative for peace, given that it was an Arab invitation to peace and an Arab refusal of violence. Israel had refused to respond to that initiative, and insisted on a continued policy that could never lead to peace.