Palestine’s representative at the UN said on Tuesday that Israel’s “colonial policies on the ground” are aimed at making the two-state solution “impossible”, Wafa has reported.
“Israel insists on its illegal occupation. This is very clear through its colonial policies on the ground…” Riyad Mansour told a UN Security Council meeting held to discuss the situation in the Middle East and Israeli violations. “Israel is not guided except by its colonial desires and this has been made clear repeatedly through its policies and practices which violate international law, inflicting massive suffering on the Palestinian people.”
He added that the apartheid state believes that the final part of its plan will be the surrender of the Palestinians. “This is referred to by the Israeli occupation authorities as to the Palestinian acceptance of the illegal reality that Israel has made for them.”
The need, said the Palestinian diplomat, is for a collective approach based on previous resolutions adopted by the Security Council. He insisted that we must all work at the national and international levels to reach a peaceful solution. “Let’s start by deterring the unilateral and illegal measures [by Israel] and look for the possible ways to afford international protection for the Palestinians.”
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Mansour added another call for an international conference under the auspices of the International Quartet involving both sides in order to achieve peace. The Palestinian Authority has also been calling on the UN to put together an international force to protect the Palestinians from Israeli violence.
In 2014, peace talks between the Israeli occupation authorities and the Palestinians stopped because Israel backtracked on its promises, including a halt to illegal settlement expansion and the release of long-term prisoners. Moreover, the Israelis basically disowned the two-state solution, which many observers believe is dead in the water in any case.