In the name of God, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful Mr. President of the General Assembly, Dr. Khalil Al-Rahman, His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, members of the delegations, ladies and gentlemen heads, For the second consecutive year, the Palestinian delegation has been denied obtaining the entry visas necessary to reach New York and participate in person in the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly.
We reject these unlawful punitive measures, and we reject the accusations and justifications on which they were based. We affirm that we have fulfilled our commitments, completed a comprehensive national reform programme, and continued our commitment to international law, the renunciation of violence and terrorism, and the two-State solution and peace based on resolutions of international legitimacy.
We also affirm that it is not permissible to punish the Palestinian people and their leadership because they demand an end to the occupation, or because they resort to the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court. Our recourse to international law, and to its institutions, is a peaceful and civilized choice, not an act hostile to peace.
Preventing the Palestinian delegation from reaching United Nations Headquarters is inconsistent with the obligations incumbent upon the United States as the host country of the Headquarters. From here, we call on the United States administration to reverse these sanctions and restrictions, return to the language of dialogue and mutual respect, and work with us and with the international community in order to implement the two-State solution based on international legitimacy and to achieve peace, instead of punishing the side that chose international law and politics and diplomacy as a path to attaining its rights.
Mr. President, Member States, Today I address you while our Palestinian people are confronting one of the most dangerous stages in their history, after long decades of historical injustice, uprooting, asylum, occupation, and deprivation of their natural right to self-determination, freedom, and independence.
Our people have been subjected at the hands of the Israeli occupying forces, in the Gaza Strip, to killing, destruction, starvation, and attempts at forced displacement, and to a war of genocide unprecedented, which has left behind a collective inhuman tragedy, destroying neighbourhoods, cities, camps, institutions, mosques, churches, hospitals, schools, universities, and the future of entire generations. It has targeted every element necessary for life.
And in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, settlement expansion is accelerating, the judaization of Jerusalem is intensifying, the bonds of the West Bank are being severed and Jerusalem isolated, and settler terrorism is escalating under the protection of the occupation forces. The crimes of land theft, house demolitions, checkpoints, and incursions continue under a system of laws, measures, and practices based on racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing, and State terrorism.
Ladies and gentlemen, for a long time we have warned the international community, through the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, that these Israeli policies, which are outside international law, would destroy the two-State solution. And this is what is now happening.
Today we warn of an even greater danger that requires international measures to stop it: the danger is no longer confined to undermining the two-State solution and preventing the embodiment of the Palestinian State; rather, it has come to threaten the life and very existence of the Palestinian people on the land of their homeland.
What is taking place in Gaza, and what is taking place in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, are not separate events, but rather a malicious colonial plan aimed at making Palestinian life more difficult on their land and driving them to forced departure from it. We warn: do not allow another Nakba and massacres like those that happened in 1948. Do not allow the terrorist gangs protected by the Israeli occupation forces to burn Palestinian homes while their inhabitants are sleeping inside them. And do not allow our children to live in fear and under threat.
I ask you again: how long will some States continue to remain silent about Israel or to supply it with the weapons that it uses against our people!? The world has seen the exorbitant cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. What, then, is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people, end the Israeli occupation, and implement the two-State solution based on international legitimacy, instead of a threat from the coming extremism in Israel, which is aimed at expansion through what is called “Greater Israel” and at erasing the Palestinian presence?
Mr. President, Member States, We welcomed President Donald Trump’s plan with the same points, and we also welcomed Security Council resolution 2803 and the road map for implementing the second phase, in order to stop the aggression against our people, end its humanitarian tragedy, secure the withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, and reconstruct it. But with deep regret, we have not seen any of this materialize on the ground, and the Israeli aggression and killing continue to claim the lives of men, women, and children in Gaza.
Nearly a year has passed since the adoption of resolution 2803 and the formation of the Security Council bodies, and there remains only one year of the transitional period set until the end of 2027.
Therefore, we call for accelerating the implementation of the second phase and not wasting any more time. The transitional phase must not turn into a permanent or open-ended situation with no clear political or temporal horizon. Rather, it must lead to the reunification of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under the ولاية of the State of Palestine, its legitimacy and institutions, and in accordance with the principle of one State, one Government, one law, and one legitimate weapon.
Ladies and gentlemen, Member States, The dangers and assaults by extremists to which the Islamic and Christian holy sites, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, are being subjected constitute an immediate violation of the historical, legal status quo and of freedom of worship, and they must stop before they turn into a broad religious conflict in the region and beyond, something of which we are all in no need.
Israeli attacks on United Nations premises and institutions in Jerusalem and the West Bank also continue, undermining the ability of UNRWA to continue carrying out its duties in providing support and assistance to Palestine refugees, especially in the fields of education, health, and vocational training.
Here, we appeal to all States, international and regional organizations, to continue their support for UNRWA’s irreplaceable tasks, as long as the issue of the refugees remains without a political solution, which requires continued financial support and political backing for it and a halt to these attacks on it.
On the other hand, we warn in a particularly serious manner against the implementation of the settlement plan E1, which aims to separate the north of N which severs the West Bank from its south and isolates East Jerusalem from its Palestinian surroundings, and prevents the realization of the Palestinian State, a matter that requires urgent intervention, and the responsible implementation by the Security Council of its resolution 2334, which calls for the cessation of all settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.
9. We highly appreciate the measures taken by one State, the United Kingdom, concerning the protection of the two-State solution and the banning of settlement products, and we commend the call launched by the leaders of France and the United Kingdom and Canada to hold a summit in New York on this matter, and to fulfil the commitments made by President Trump to the leaders of the Arab and Islamic States last September. We call on Member States to prevent the annexation of Palestinian land and reject the displacement.
Mr. President, What Israel is doing in terms of seizing the land, dismantling Palestinian institutions, and drying up financial resources cannot be separated: all these are tools that lead to one result, namely weakening our people's ability to remain steadfast and stay on their land, undermining their national institutions, and preventing the realization of their State.
10. The Israeli Government is arbitrarily withholding more than six billion dollars of the Palestinian people's money, and we demand the immediate release of all our withheld funds, ensuring their transfer regularly and in full, and lifting the restrictions and the financial and economic blockade imposed on our people and our institutions, in accordance with the Paris Economic Protocol.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, One year after the convening of the International Peace Conference and the issuance of the New York Declaration, I say to you today with full confidence and responsibility: we have fulfilled what we committed ourselves to.
11. We have accomplished the national reform programme to which we committed ourselves before our people and the international community, and we have strengthened the governance of institutions, public finance, transparency, accountability, combating corruption, and the rule of law.
We have established a unified national system for social protection and care based on need, and we have finalized the laws and previous regulations related to that, and we have obtained an independent international audit that confirms the soundness of what we have done.
We have continued reforming the education system and developing curricula in accordance with international standards and in cooperation with UNESCO, in a manner that promotes the values of peace, tolerance and respect for others, and preserves our national identity and the rights of our people.
12. We have also proceeded on the path of democratic renewal and the empowerment of women and youth.
We have held elections for local councils and for the General Union of Palestinian Students, and we are heading to legislative elections on 28 November of this year, and to completing the renewal of the institutions of the Palestinian National Council, then to presidential elections.
And, in the name of the State of Palestine, I reaffirm the commitments in which we believe: we want security and peace for all, we reject attacks on civilians by any party whatsoever, we reject terrorism and extremism in all their forms, we combat anti-Semitism, racism and hatred, and we believe in a culture of peace, dialogue and coexistence.
13. We want a democratic Palestinian State that respects the rule of law and human rights, an unarmed State living in peace and security alongside the State of Israel.
Ladies and gentlemen, Our commitment to peace did not begin today. Our people and their leadership took a difficult and historic decision, and we accepted a historic settlement based on the two-State solution and founded on international legitimacy.
In 1988, and today we say to the world: saving this solution begins with preserving the land on which the Palestinian State is to be established, and protecting the people who live on it.
14. The Palestinian people will remain on their land, will not accept displacement, and will not disappear. Neither military occupation, nor settlement, annexation, and settler terrorism can produce a solution or make lasting security. And in return, we will not remain waiting, nor will we accept what the governments of the Israeli occupation State decide for us; there can be no lasting security built on the occupation of another people and depriving it of its legitimate rights.
We have our national project: protecting our people from displacement, preserving our land and its unity, renewing our institutions, committed to international law, leading to the realization of the State of Palestine, democratic, and building our sovereign, independent State with East Jerusalem as its capital, and exercising our right to self-determination, and the return of the refugees in accordance with United Nations resolution 194.
15. We do not want a new process for managing the conflict while the land changes every day; rather, we want a process that ends the occupation and guarantees freedom and self-determination for the Palestinians, and for the Israelis and the States of the region, security and peace.
Our vision for peace is clear: a Palestinian people remaining on their land and deciding their future for themselves; a Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel; a Palestinian-Israeli peace that opens the way to cooperation, prosperity, security, regional integration and peace for all.
16. Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, We thank all the States and peoples that stood by our people, provided them with political, humanitarian and economic support, and helped us preserve our institutions and provide relief to our people.
We thank the States that have recognized the State of Palestine, which have reached 160 States, and we call on the States that have not yet recognized it to do so.
We also call for granting the State of Palestine full membership in the United Nations, like the rest of the States and peoples of the world.
17. Finally, I address our Palestinian people at home and in the diaspora: You have written the greatest pages of pride and dignity through your adherence to your land, your unity, and your rights. We will not leave our homeland, and we will not accept displacement, and we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf. We extend our hands for a peace based on international legitimacy until our freedom and independence are achieved, and all in the region shall live in security, peace and good-neighbourliness.
And peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.