S/PV.2945 Security Council

I thank the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People for the kind words addressed to me. Mr. WON de QUESADA (Cuba) (interpretation from Spanish): Mr. President, allow me first of all to express my delegation's satisfaction at seeing you presiding over the work of this Council for this month. Already, in the few days during which you have been performing this noble task, you have demonstrated qualities which have inspired the admiration and respect of all the members and make us confident that under your guidance the Council will be able to deal successfully with the important problems before it. I should like also to congratulate Ambassador Vorontsov on the exemplery manner in which he guided the work of the Council last month. It was not the intention of my delegation to speak this afternoon - and in view of the lateness of the hour I shall be brief - but we felt it was an elementary duty to express our gratitude to the representative of Israel for the very revealing statement he made here this afternoon. On the one hand, he complained that every October or November representatives of Palestine feel obliged to draw the attention of the Security Council to the situation prevailing in that region. In point of fact he could have been a little more precise and mentioned also the months of February, March and June - in fact any of the 12 months of the year - since we all know that throughout virtually all the years in which the Qrganization has existed, at any time, in any month, the Council has had before it in one way or another the serious situation prevailing in that region. In particular, for 23 years now, since the time when the subject of the occupation of Arab territories by Israel came up, it has been constantly on our agenda. On the other hand, it would seem, as we listened to him, that the Palestinian conflict or the occupation of Arab territories began on 2 August 1990, because his whole statement was devoted apparently to giving us a lesson about the efforts that one might make to divert the Council's attention to other matters. I am very grateful he has made this statement, using modern didactical methods and giving us the practical experience of how one can make a major effort to divert the attention of the Council. His statement should be the object of study by future diplomats, who will see how, without anyone's having forced him - since I think I understood from what he said that he had asked to take part in this debate - he came here to give the Council lessons in how one may attempt to distract this body from an important subject before it for consideration. At the end of his statement he took a glance at that part of the world that he calls the "territories". He did not even use the time-honoured adjective that we have used in the Council, "occupied" territories. He tried to distract the Council’s attention with regard to the events that are occurring there, particularly the events that have occurred during the past three years, during which the Palestinian people has been involved in a heroic uprising to defend its national rights. Ambassador Diallo, in her brilliant statement on behalf of the Committee on the ExerciiJe of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, has most appropriately summed up the real situation that exists in that country. One does not need to use any further arguments to refute the pointless claims of the Tel Aviv representative. I just wanted to place on record my gratitude to him because is&ciii wti Giii 8itMd 0 GiiOnlircliiori or' why somtl or' us representative8 have been justified in expressing our concern about some decisions that this Council might adopt, will adopt or has adopted, which could indicate a lack of consistency regarding the need to implement at all times and everywhere elementary principles that are at the very basis of our Organisation. He was generous enough to come here this afternoon to show how right we were, we who expressed our concern - a concern that we reiterate now - that if this Council is not consistent in adopting a uniform attitude in defence of principles and in ensuring that its resolutions are really implemented, the effect can only be to encourage the aggressor. to encourage those who violate norms of international law and try to hide behind this lack of consistency in order to perpetuate their aggression. I am grateful to him for his enlightening statement, and I am also grateful to you, Mr. President, and my colleagues for listening to me now. The PRESIDE=: I thank the representative of Cuba for his kind words with regard to my occupation of the Chair. The representative of Palestine has asked to be allowed to speak, and I call on him. Mr. TERZI (Palestine): We have asked for the floor to set the record straight. It was claimed by the representative of Israel that the figures quoted in our letter to you and to the Secretary-General were enaggerated. Perhaps he is right - I do not know - but let me quote here from a statement issued by the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, who visited the El-Bureij camp in Gaza. In it he reports8 “A large number of families had been made homeless by the demolitions. Nineteen refugee homes and about as many shops had been demolished. Another house had been demolished and one house sealed on punitive grounds. DNRWA's had been notified by the authorities that their houses were to be demolished.*' (Mr.1 So there is a difference between 19 plus 19 - which makes almost 40 - and the 50 mentioned in our letter. We really regret that, but sometimes our counting may not be quite correct. However, the fact is that there was some demolition. This demolition did not just happen on the spur of the moment. According to the daily news bulletin of the JewishTeleuraohic AaenQ, Israel's High Court of Justice authorized the army to proceed with the demolition of houses in the Gaza Strip refugee camp cef El-Bureij. A three-judge panel accepted the argument of Major-General Mattan Vilnai, Israel's Defence Force commander in the southern region, that demolition was "an urgent and immediate military need rather than a punitive measure". I really cannot tell the difference, in the demolition of 19 plus 19 houses and shops, between what is really a military need and what is a punitive measure. Of course I am not a militarist, and I am not a judge or an officer in charge of the maintenance of law. So I do not know what a punitive measure is and what a military need is. This same general said that the army urgently needed to widen that section of road as a security measure, not as a punishment. He added that the immediacy of the action was vital to restoration of the entire Gaea Strip, and he added also that he must act as swiftly as possible - a traumatic act demands immediate action. But what was the traumatic act he was talking about? Again according to the daily news bulletin of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, "Sergeant Pomeranz had received telephone instructions to reach a military outpost in the Gaaa Strip, where he had not been before. He turned off the main road to follow" - and this demands particular attention - "a sign pointing to his destination, only to find himself in the crowded El Bureij marketplace." So, he followed a sign pointing to his destination and ended up in El Bureij marketplace. %is caf, made conspicuous by its yellow Israeli license plates" - in Israel, you see, they discriminate: the Israelis have a colour and non-Israeli Jews have another colour, which reminds us of the armbands people used to wear duting the Nazi period in Europe. But that is a totally different Subject. "Sergeant Pomeranz's car was made conspicuous by its yellow Israeli license-plates and was instantly pelted by stones. Pomeranz threw the car into reverse and tried to back out, when he struck a donkey cart, injuring two Arab children riding in it." The teport goes ant "Pnvestigators are troubled by several aspects of the case. They want to know why Pomerana was not stopped at the heavily guarded Eretz Checkpoint at the entrance to tLo Gaza Strip. Pomeranz, though driving a civilian car, was in uniform and alone." Again, we have heard that he was in civilian clothes, but the daily news bulletin of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency says that Pomeranz was in uniform and alone. Yet he was waved through the checkpoint. So, when we thought that all this dramatization was an act designed to provoke an incident, we were not mistaken. I just wanted to make this clarification of the crime planned by the Israelis themselves, because one still recalls what occurred in the village of Beita, where a 15-year.-old Israeli hiker was shot to death, again by another Israeli guard, and 15 homes in the area were demolished. That ia why we believe that the Council should immediately act to stop such criminal acts by the occupying Power, first on humanitarian grounds and, secondly, on legal grounds - and precisely on the grounds of the obligation to ensure respect for the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. mt There are no further speakers inscribed on my list for this meeting. The next meeting of the Security Council to continue consideration of the item on the agenda will take place on Monday, 8 October, at 3 p.m.