UNGA must demand cessation of Israeli hostilities, if Security Council fails to do so: Qureshi

• Shah Mahmood Qureshi addresses 67th plenary meeting of United Nations General Assembly to shed light on Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.
• "It is time to say enough. The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced," says Qureshi.
  
• One week of Israeli attacks have led to more than 250 Palestinians being killed and thousands injured, foreign minister adds.
  

Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday called upon the United Nations General Assembly to "assume its own responsibility" and push the Security Council to demand a cessation of Israeli hostilities if the Council fails to do so on its own.

Qureshi was addressing the 67th plenary meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York to highlight Israeli atrocities against Palestinians on Thursday.

"There are times in history when decisions of nations are remembered by posterity. This is one such moment," Qureshi said, as he began his address.

"What we do today or cannot do will be recorded in history. Driven by arrogance and emboldened by impunity, Israel has mounted a relentless onslaught on the occupied and beleaguered people of Palestine," he said.

He said that one week of Israeli attacks have led to more than 250 Palestinians being killed and thousands injured — one third of which are women and children.

"Death echoes in every home in Gaza," Qureshi said, to lay stress on the gravity of the situation. He also recalled one such tragedy, in which ten members of the Abu Hattab family had perished in Israeli strikes.

"Hundreds of such tragedies are being enacted every hour in Gaza and other parts of the Palestinian territories. So far over 50,000 Palestinians have fled their homes in Gaza," he said, adding that these people have very poor and limited access to water, food, hygiene and health services.

The foreign minister said hospitals and sanitation services rely on electricity but fuel for power plants "has almost run out".

"Gaza has plunged in darkness [...] the only light is that of Israeli explosions," he said.

Qureshi said such is the existence of Palestine, where "in full view of the world Israeli airstrikes bring down entire buildings to kill and terrorise innocent Palestinians and even silence the media".

"It is time to say enough. The voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced," he said.

The foreign minister said the representatives of the Islamic world are there to speak with and for Palestine.

He said it is "appalling" that the United Nations Security Council has been unable to do what it is tasked with — to maintain international peace and security. He added it has even failed to demand a cessation of hostilities, and warned that those preventing it from doing so "bear a heavy responsibility".

Qureshi said the United Nations General Assembly, must then, assume its own responsibility. "We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture."

"Our first priority must be to halt the Israeli aggression. I hope that even at this eleventh hour, the Security Council will call for a cessation of Israeli attacks. If it fails to do so, the General Assembly must make this demand on behalf of the entire international community," he said.

He said there is no moral or military equivalence between the two sides. Whereas Palestinians have no army, navy or air force, "the Israeli war machine is one of the most powerful in the world".

"This is a war between a military occupier and an occupied people. It is a conflict between illegal occupation and a legitimate struggle for self determination," he said.

Qureshi proceeded to draw attention to the following:

Right to self determination

Qureshi reminded the General Assembly resolution 2649 of November 1970, which speaks of the right to self determination "by any means at their disposal".

Humanitarian aid to Palestinians

He also urged for the need to mobilise all possible humanitarian help for the devastated Palestinian population in Gaza and other parts of the occupied territories, including medical teams, medicines and other supplied, food and other necessities.

The foreign minister said Pakistan welcomes Egypt opening access to Gaza and Israel should also open all access points to ensure the timely and urgent delivery of international assistance.

International protection force for Palestinians

Qureshi said the General Assembly should deploy an international protection force for Palestinians.

"If the Security Council cannot agree to send the protection force, a coalition of the willing can be formed to provide at least civilian observers to monitor a cessation of hostilities and supervise the provision of humanitarian help to the Palestinians," he said.

He also called for the protection of Arab citizens in Israel, who are being lynched and murdered by Israeli fascist groups.

Israel must be held accountable

A few hours prior to the joint debate, Qureshi told Geo News that the foremost aim of representatives of Muslim countries gathered for the session will be to demand an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza.

"As soon as I reached New York, I invited all the foreign ministers and their PRs for dinner at the Pakistan House.

"We had a very fruitful meeting and we decided on our action plan for the address tonight," Qureshi told Geo News.

He said the gathering "deliberated upon what it is that we seek to achieve with a session of the United Nations".

"Our first aim is to demand an immediate ceasefire. If we are able to achieve this, it will be a big success for us.

"But this matter is perplexing and for a lasting solution we will need to continue our struggle," the foreign minister noted.

He said Pakistan has "begun to fulfil its role" in the United Nations' Human Rights Council and a special session of the forum will now be held.

Qureshi said that with the human rights violations that are occurring in Palestinian territories, the way Israel is committing genocide and war crimes, "Pakistan will try from the platform of the OIC to awaken the conscience of all those Western countries who are champions of human rights and will ask them why it is they are turning a blind eye to the violations in Gaza".

He said all the OIC foreign ministers — there are 11 or 12 — will "meet the UN secretary general and record our protest with him".

"We have decided to present to him a joint resolution," he said.

He said a discussion also took place on a General Assembly resolution and a strategy has been adopted but that he does not wish to discuss the matter at this point in time.

'Pakistan at the forefront of diplomatic efforts'

Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri issued a statement ahead of Qureshi's address, following his weekly briefing to the media.

“We hope the special meeting of the UN General Assembly will help send a strong message on behalf of the OIC [Organisation of Islamic Cooperation] to the international community to help end the Israeli aggression and to take concrete steps to find a solution to the Palestinian issue,” Chaudhri said.

As part of Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic outreach efforts to mobilise international support, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is currently in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly meeting on the Palestine issue today, he said.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said in clear violation of all humanitarian norms and international human rights laws, Israel had staged series of heavy airstrikes in Gaza, attacked innocent civilians in and outside Al-Aqsa Mosque, forced evictions, and imposed restrictions on fundamental freedoms of the Palestinian people.

“The indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli forces has resulted in deaths and injuries to a large number of innocent Palestinians, including women and children,” he added.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said since the current escalation in Palestine, Pakistan was at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to highlight the worsening situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Our outreach efforts are aimed at formulating a unified and unequivocal response from the international community against the Israeli aggression,” he maintained.

The foreign minister had arrived a day earlier along with his counterparts from Turkey, Palestine, Sudan and Tunis.

UN rights council to hold session on Israel, Palestinians

The UN Human Rights Council has said it will hold a special session on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, amid deadly violence between Israel and armed Palestinian groups in Gaza.

The session, planned for next Thursday (May 27), will address "the grave human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem," the council said in a statement.

Pakistan, which is the coordinator of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the Palestinian authorities, has requested the session, the council said.

It will be the 30th extraordinary meeting of the UN's top rights body since its creation 15 years ago.

The United Nations did not immediately say how many of the Geneva-based council's 47 member states had backed the call, but at least a third must come out in support for a special session request to be granted.

Israeli strikes continue

Thursday's announcement came as Israeli air strikes continued to hammer Gaza and as diplomats stepped up efforts towards a ceasefire to stem the devastating violence that erupted 10 days ago.

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, according to the Gaza health ministry, leaving vast areas in rubble and displacing tens of thousands in the crowded territory.

Israel's army has meanwhile said Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza have fired 4,070 rockets towards Israel, the overwhelming majority of them intercepted by its Iron Dome air defences.

The rockets have claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child, with one Indian and two Thai nationals among those killed, the police said.