UAE: Israel should be held accountable for crimes against Palestinian people

The Human Rights Council must deal with the repeated violations of human rights committed by Israel against the Palestinian people so as to put an end to the days of double standards, Ambassador Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations in Geneva, said. ''Peace in the Middle East is an indivisible package, it is a whole and the issue of the Palestinian people had to be addressed with their right to statehood with East Jerusalem as their capital,'' he told the 18th session of the UN Human Rights Council which held a general debate on human rights situation in Palestine and other Occupied Arab Territories. He noted that the Israeli occupation power were reluctant to cooperate with the Council and its mechanisms and ''is now refusing to implement recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict which revealed grave violations of the international law and international humanitarian law. The Mission's report said these violations which committed in 2008 and early 2009 could amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The UAE envoy regretted that Israel had not been held accountable by any international organisation whatsoever. ''The Palestinian Cause is currently witnessing historic developments at the UN General Assembly and Security Council where the UAE believes that it's important for the UN Human Rights Council to join these efforts and contribute - within the preview of its mandate - to the process of building peace and restoration of legitimacy to the Palestinian people and their right to establish their free, independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, he added. The UN report to the session had reviewed every recommendation of the Fact-Finding Mission and it provided up-to-date information regarding the status of implementation of these recommendations. It shed light on the serious human rights violations of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip since 2009. Palestine, speaking as a concerned country, said the occupying power remained unabated in its violations of international law, including the Geneva Conventions, determined to preserve its identity as a colonial apartheid power. Syria, speaking as a concerned country, said Israel was continuing its Judisation programme in the Syrian Golan and was conducting the theft of water and territory. If the Human Rights Council wished to remain credible, it should not remain silent before a country that carried out massacres that United Nations observers had defined as war crimes. In the general debate, speakers observed, among other issues, that dozens of countries supported the right of Palestinian people to self- determination. It was time for the majority of the international community to recognize the right to self-determination of the Palestinians and to allow Palestine to become a full fledged member of the United Nations. Speakers said the siege imposed on Gaza was a collective punishment which amounted to a war crime and States called upon the Council and the relevant United Nations bodies to take necessary action to compel Israel to immediately lift this illegal blockade. The credibility of the Council and of the international human rights system was on the line. States remained concerned about the construction and expansion of settlements which represented a blatant violation of humanitarian law and an obstruction to the peace process. It was important to reiterate the importance of implementing the recommendations contained in the reports, in particular the Fact-Finding Mission led by Judge Goldstone.