Embassy of the State of Palestine

I congratulate New Zealand on its Presidency of the Security Council and thank you, Honorable Minister for Foreign Affairs Murray McCully, for presiding over this important debate, a reflection of your country's responsible, principled position vis-à-vis this issue and the commitment to uphold your Security Council mandate and contribute to international peace and security.

PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi said: “With its efforts to demolish and ethnically cleanse entire Palestinian villages and communities, its plans to construct more illegal settlement units on stolen Palestinian land, and its deliberate use of live ammunition and the extra-judicial killing of innocent Palestinians, including children, among other flagrant violations of international law, Israel has clearly demonstrated that it is determined to destroy the chances for peace and the two-state solution indefinitely.”

Israel has systematically pursued a policy of forcible transfer of civilian Palestinian populations, which is a crime against humanity under International law, and in the process has replaced the indigenous Palestinian population with foreign settlersthroughout Occupied Palestine. In particular, this policy has drastically affected Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the southern Hebron region. Some of the most dramatic examples of such policies can be seen in the villages of Abu Nawar and Susiya, in Jerusalem and Hebron respectively. Just today, Israeli forces uprooted 400 olive trees from the village of Beit Ula in the Hebron District.

in a few days, the ALP's national conference will debate whether to recognise the state of Palestine. As a member of the federal Labor caucus and co-convener of the Australian Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, I urge my ALP colleagues and conference delegates to support calls for Labor in government to recognise Palestinian statehood.

On the passage of one year since Israel’s war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, it is with the deepest sorrow that we remember the 2,251 Palestinians, among them at least 299 women and 556 children, who were killed during the Israeli occupying Power’s 51-day bombardment that inflicted terror, death and massive destruction on Gaza. We memorialize all whose lives were so brutally taken and underscore the continuing plight of the traumatized survivors of this devastating war, including more than 11,000 injured.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine welcomed the adoption today by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva of the resolution on “Ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem” by an overwhelming majority of Member States.

he United Nations human rights body called on Israel and the Palestinians to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in the 2014 Gaza war and to cooperate with the International Criminal Court's preliminary investigation.

On behalf of the PLO, I would like to welcome the historic agreement signed between the Holy See and the State of Palestine last Friday in the Vatican. This agreement stresses the Church’s integral role in Palestine and reaffirms the Vatican’s historic position of support towards the fulfillment of the national rights of the Palestinian people by recognizing the State of Palestine on the 1967 border.

Nearly 20 House Democrats have urged Secretary of State John Kerry to stress the rights of Palestinian children during Washington’s relations with Tel Aviv.
“Israel’s military detention system targeting children is an anomaly in the world,” according to the letter co-signed by 19 lawmakers, and released by Rep. Betty McCollum. “Secretary Kerry, we urge the Department of State to elevate the human rights of Palestinian children to a priority status in our bilateral relations with the government of Israel.”

The Vatican signed its first treaty with the "State of Palestine" on Friday, calling for "courageous decisions" to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and backing a two-state solution.

The treaty, which made official the Vatican's de facto recognition of Palestine since 2012, angered Israel, which called it "a hasty step (that) damages the prospects for advancing a peace agreement".

Israel also said it could have implications on its future diplomatic relations with the Vatican.