Statement by the Chair of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

H.E. Mr. Jayantha Jayasuriya, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations

UN General Assembly Fourth Committee (80th Session)
17 November 2025

Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories

 

Honourable Chair, Excellencies, distinguished delegates,

 

I have the honour of presenting the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories. It covers the period from August 2024 to July 2025 and documents the catastrophic human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the developments in the occupied Syrian Golan.

 

Before I proceed to present the Report covering the abovementioned period, it is pertinent to acknowledge and place on record that the initial phase of ceasefire in Gaza has come into operation from 10 October following the significant efforts led by the United States of America assisted and mediated by the Arab Republic of Egypt, The State of Qatar, The Republic of Turkiye along with several other countries.

 

The current ceasefire brings in a renewed sense of hope following the two years of profound human suffering. It is the responsibility of all relevant stakeholders to build on this foundation and work on achieving lasting peace and security ending an era of destruction and suffering.

 

Our committee’s findings point to two overriding concerns during the reporting period, which I would like to address today, namely the acts of genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and the territorial expansion of occupied areas, consistent with the “Greater Israel” project. These developments demand the urgent attention of the international community and all Member States.

 

Despite being denied access to the occupied territories since its establishment, the Committee continues to discharge its mandate. In May 2025, we conducted a field mission to Amman, Jordan, meeting Government officials, refugees, UN agencies, including UNRWA, human rights bodies, and civil society organizations. These testimonies and other documentation form the basis of our report, and once again the Committee would like to thank the Government of Jordan for accepting the official visit.

 

Excellencies,

 

Allow me to begin with the situation in Gaza. The humanitarian catastrophe there remains unprecedented, people are exhausted, and the hope and relief brought about by the ceasefire has turned their attention towards the despair and grief from the losses and the destruction. Our previous report warned that Israel’s military actions were creating the conditions for genocide. It is with deep sorrow that I must report that these atrocities have continued, and over the reporting period continued without let-up.

 

The bombardment of civilian areas in Gaza has killed tens of thousands, and maimed many more, with most of those killed being women and children, with thousands estimated to remain buried beneath the rubble. Over 80 per cent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, and entire neighbourhoods lie in ruins. This has left the majority of Gaza’s population displaced, with nowhere to return.

 

Even locations designated by Israeli forces as “safe zones” have been bombed, and by July 2025, over 86 per cent of Gaza had been declared a “no-go zone” or placed under evacuation orders, rendering the area effectively uninhabitable. The Committee stresses that these conditions are not accidental, but the result of deliberate policies implemented by Israel government.

 

Throughout the reporting period, Israel has ignored the binding provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice and continued its operations with total impunity. Israel continued to engage in such conduct and to enjoy impunity, including by being shielded from sanctions and by continuing to receive arms supplies.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

Let me now turn to the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where we have seen unprecedented settler violence and annexation of land. Settlers, often acting alongside Israeli security forces, have attacked Palestinian civilians, leading to widespread deaths, injuries, home demolitions, and land confiscations.

 

Since October 2023, over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and/or settlers in the West Bank, including more than 200 children. Meanwhile, the Israeli Government has continued to approve new settlements and new housing units, and to let new outposts be established, in the hundreds. These acts constitute de facto annexation and a flagrant breach of international law, the rights of the Palestinians, and UN resolutions.

 

Of particular concern is Israel’s decision to resume land registration in Area C, which had been halted since 1968. This process will undoubtedly lead to thousands of Palestinians being dispossessed of their property and will lead to their land being registered as “State land,” paving the way for further colonization. Senior Israeli officials have openly described this as part of a plan to bring “another million settlers” to the West Bank.

 

Turning briefly to the occupied Syrian Golan, the Committee notes there are plans to significantly increase settlement expansion, discrimination against the Syrian population, and efforts to pressure the Druze community into accepting Israeli citizenship, all of which violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and Syrian sovereignty.

 

Distinguished delegates,

 

The key focus of this year’s report is the “Greater Israel” project, which is a Zionist vision of territorial expansion in an undelimited “Land of Israel”, which depending on interpretation would encompass, beyond the current State of Israel, all of the occupied Palestinian territory, parts of Syria and Lebanon, if not of parts of Egypt and Iraq.  

 

Throughout the reporting period, Israeli officials repeatedly endorsed this ideology, constantly referring to so-called “historical rights” to the “Land of Israel” rather than to the State of Israel. In July 2025, the Knesset adopted a motion calling for the annexation of the entire West Bank, declaring it an “inseparable part of the Land of Israel.” The Defence Minister also announced that Israeli forces would remain indefinitely in parts of Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria under the false justification of creating so-called “security zones.”

 

In practice, this has meant new Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon and Syria, the establishment of ‘buffer zones’, and the continued occupation of Lebanese territory despite ceasefire agreements. Israeli settlers have even attempted to sell Lebanese land and, to establish illegal outposts in southern Lebanon, further demonstrating their willingness to indulge the “Greater Israel” ideology.

 

Honourable Chair,

 

The Committee notes that Israel is pursuing a systematic policy of territorial expansion through settlement, military occupation, and eventual annexation. These actions should and must be called out for what they are; violations of international law, policies that undermine peace and security, deny human rights, and inflict unspeakable suffering upon civilian populations.

 

In closing, the Committee urges Member States to act decisively, and to implement the recommendations in this year’s report. The Committee reminds the international community that it has a moral and legal obligation to prevent and punish genocide, and to protect the Palestinian people and other occupied populations from human rights abuses.

 

Whilst the Committee welcomes the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, it also reminds the international community that Israel retains a presence in multiple locations in Southern Lebanon despite the ceasefire agreement there and has expanded its presence in Syria despite the Disengagement Agreement.

 

Currently, Israel has troops on the ground in 53% of the territory in Gaza, as per the yellow line, where the Palestinian population is barred from entering. The international community must ensure that the ceasefire agreement proceeds to full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and that, as clarified by the International Court of Justice in July 2024 and voted by the General Assembly a year ago, Israel ends its unlawful occupation also from the West Bank.

 

Member States should consider imposing political and economic sanctions, and a full arms embargo until Israel ceases violating the Palestinian and other peoples’ human rights and withdraw fully from all occupied territories in the region as per the report. Member States should also consider fully cooperating with the International Criminal Court, exercise universal jurisdiction, and investigate and prosecute as relevant corporate entities, dual citizens, and other actors complicit in violations of international law.

 

Distinguished delegates,

 

The Committee presents this report with a view that it will spur meaningful action to end the unspeakable suffering the Palestinians have endured, and even greater atrocity crimes.

 

The idea of a “Greater Israel”, the claims to a borderless “Land of Israel” are fundamentally incompatible with a just and lasting peace and will bring nothing but more suffering and dispossession to the Middle East region and its peoples. It is our collective duty, as the international community, to ensure that justice, human dignity, and the rule of law prevail over racism and discrimination,  de-humanization, and aggression.

 

Thank you.