Petition - The UN Must Lead An Israel-Palestine Peace Resolution Now
To:
Mr. António Guterres - UN Secretary-General
Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés - President 73rd UN General Assembly
Mr. Nickolay Mladenov - UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process
Ms. Michelle Bachelet - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix - UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations
Mr. Pierre Krähenbühl - UNRWA Commissioner-General
Dear Mister Secretary-General, Madame President, and other Officials of the United Nations,
As a concerned citizen of this world, I beseech the United Nations to take the leadership role, and all actions necessary to resolve the peace process between Israel and Palestine.
If some of these words seem familiar, they come from the Offices of UN officials and agencies addressed in this petition. Thank you for your service.
The revitalization of this United Nations' responsibility to resolve a Peace Agreement between Israel and Palestine is essential, and in so doing it makes the United Nations much more relevant to all the people of the world who yearn for peace,
The United Nations attempted to end the1948 Arab-Israeli conflict in the Palestinian Protectorate of Great Britain through negotiating the creation of two new states, Israel and Palestine. Israel has been recognized as a Member Nation of the UN ever since, yet Palestine continues to struggle for and be blocked from taking its place as Member Nation as originally intended by the UN 70 years ago.
It is the official policy of the United Nations to work for the creation of an independent State of Palestine living side-by-side in peace with the State of Israel, and a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and international law.
No single nation nor group of nations has the legitimate authority and power to lead the Israel-Palestine peace negotiations other than the United Nations. Furthermore, if the two parties can not come to an agreement, this 70 year old stalemate must be arbitrated by the UN, just as its actions in 1948 were an act of arbitration as the world body which facilitated the creation Israel out of the Palestinian Protectorate of Great Britain.
In the end, it comes down to values enshrined in the UN Charter: peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance and solidarity. Many have lost confidence in the United Nations, fear is driving the decisions of many people in Israel, Palestine, and around the world. It is time for the United Nations to recognize its shortcomings and to reform the way it works in order to address their anxieties and meet their needs
As the Secretary-General has said, "This Organization is the cornerstone of multilateralism, and has contributed to decades of relative peace. But, the challenges are now surpassing our ability to respond. The United Nations must be ready to change. Today, we must be here for peace."
In response to the Secretary-General's statement, I beseech the Secretariat to establish a formal peace process in coordination with the General Assembly, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, and the UNRWA Commissioner-General. No other world body or government has such a team already in place with a depth of knowledge capable of accomplishing this responsibility in a timely effective way en masse.
The President of the General Assembly has stated, "The United Nations is in the midst of a reform process that is crucial to ensuring its effectiveness, credibility and relevance in an increasingly troubled world. The General Assembly has a central role in this complex process, including in the revitalization of its own work as the world’s most representative body."
In response to the President of the General Assembly, I beseech the General Assembly to find new ways to have the will of the world to recognize Palestine as a Member Nation, and the numerous resolutions of the General Assembly for peace and for compliance with international law, especially those passed by more than two thirds of its membership, to be effectively addressed and implemented through organizations of the General Assembly as well as through the Security Council.
As a citizen of the world, it makes sense to me to have the UN Special Coordinator's Office UNSCO and the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, leading the diplomats of the world in finalizing the long standing goals of the UN. Part of the mission of the Special Coordinator is to enhance the involvement of the United Nations in the peace transition process, and to strengthen UN inter-agency cooperation to respond to the needs of the Palestinian people, mobilizing financial, technical, economic and other assistance, while also protecting the rights of the Israeli people.
UNSCO represents the Secretary-General and leads the UN system in all political and diplomatic efforts related to the peace process, including in the Middle East Quartet. UNSCO also coordinates the humanitarian and development work of UN agencies and programmes in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process has recently made these statements about Palestine:
“The urgency of the situation that we face on the ground is really desperate."
"No steps have been taken to cease settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,” he said, reiterating that settlement activities are “a violation of international law and a major obstacle to peace.”
“We must restore that hope – the alternative is perpetual cycles of violence. We must overcome the current impasse and refocus our efforts on ultimately returning to meaningful negotiations to end the occupation and bring a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
It has been recognized by the UNSCO that the lack of progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impedes Palestinian development, both social and economic and that the consequences of the crisis in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade should not be underestimated. Current negative trends on the ground are imperiling the viability of a Two-State Solution, as intended by the UN in 1948.
Maintaining the status quo in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is not tenable. It is time for the United Nations to recognize its shortcomings and to reform the way it works in order to bring a peaceful resolution to Israeli and Palestine.
Making the United Nations relevant to all the people of the world means more effectively enforcing the human rights values in shrined in its Charter. Ending human rights violations is essential to the Israli-Peace peace process and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights OHCHR is the official UN voice on human rights and is the only internationally-mandated entity to monitor and report publicly on the human rights situation in Palestine. Its mandate is to promote and protect the full realization of all human rights of all people in Palestine and includes monitoring, reporting, technical assistance, and capacity building.
The OHCHR works with Israeli and Palestinian authorities that have legal obligations under international law, including executive, legislative and judicial bodies, with relevant non-State actors, in partnership with other United Nations agencies and international human rights mechanisms, and gives advice and assistance on the legislative and administrative steps necessary for Palestine to become a State Party to the core human rights treaties as soon as legally possible, and to implement their provisions.
However, there is an ever growing list of human rights issues and violations by Israel including threats against the right to life and security, freedom of expression, increased arbitrary detention, arrest and detention of children, human rights defenders, and lack of accountability for settler violence.
There have been Reports of the Secretary-General on Israeli practices affecting human rights of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem and Gaza.
The Special Rapporteur of the OHCHR on Palestine stated that Gaza is: "A tiny crowded enclave of land, holding two million people under occupation, cut off from the outside world by an imposing and comprehensive air, sea and land blockade, living in an utterly dire situation that the United Nations had called unsustainable and unliveable and a form of collective punishment, seeking the elemental human demands of freedom, justice and the right to enjoy the fruits of life, like anyone else."
The majority of Member Nations on the UN Human Rights Commission have condemned the disproportionate and unrestrained use of force by Israel against civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories. That Israel, as an occupying power under international law, is obligated to protect the population of Palestinians living in the occupied territory. Some delegations noted that everyone had known what the violent consequences of the relocation of the United States embassy to Jerusalem would be.
The Special Rapporteur has stated that Palestinians have exactly the same human rights as Israelis do. They have the same rights to live safely in their homes, in freedom, with adequate and essential services and opportunities. And of this essential core of entitlements due to every human being, they were systematically deprived by Israel. The Special Rapporteur reiterated his concern about Israel’s excessive use of force, and he pointed out that “willful killing” and the “willful causing of great suffering or serious injury to body and health” of civilians was both a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime under the Rome Statute.
The human rights situation in Occupied Palestine has continued to deteriorate. Illegal Israeli settlement building have again accelerated this year, together with rising settler violence.
Demolitions of private property continue, including punitive demolitions, which constituted a deplorable form of collective punishment. Israel also continues to detain large numbers of Palestinians, including children, although under international law the detention of a child must be a measure of last resort. The High Commissioner said he also deplored the widespread and unprincipled use of detention without trial – described as "administrative detention" – and violations of fundamental fair trial guarantees.
The Non-Aligned Movement, the African Group, The Arab Group, the European Union, and a long list of nations have expressed deep alarm about the sharp escalation of violence and loss of human lives in Occupied Palestine and expect Israel to refrain from the excessive use of force against unarmed civilians and end its settlement activities there.
The occupation must end, so the people of Palestine can be liberated, and the people of Israel liberated from it.
To that end, an essential peacekeeping policing role and the UN Peacekeeping Operations have a crucial responsibility in the process of ending the occupation of Palestine by Israel.
UN Peacekeeping helps countries navigate the difficult path from conflict to peace with its unique strengths, including legitimacy, burden sharing, and an ability to deploy troops and police from around the world, integrating them with civilian peacekeepers to address a range of mandates set by the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
Today's multidimensional peacekeeping operations are called upon not only to maintain peace and security, but also to facilitate the political process, protect civilians, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants; support the organization of elections, protect and promote human rights and assist in restoring the rule of law.
Building on ongoing reform and the Secretary-General’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative to improve peacekeeping, and realize the Secretary-General’s vision of “a transformed UN Police that is people-centred, mission-oriented, modern, agile, mobile and flexible, specialized and rights-based". The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping Operations hopes "we can develop a set of mutually-agreed principles and commitments to create peacekeeping operations fit for the future,”
The President of the Palestinian Authority has asked the UN for protection against all the international human rights violations inflicted on Palestinians by Israel and that request should be honored as the consent to intervene from a Party, an Occupied Territory, in whose lands a conflict continues through an illegal occupation by another nation despite the will of the world that the occupation ends.
UN Police and Peacekeepers are an essential key to the peace agreement in order to replace Israeli occupation forces with forces who will provide both security for Israel and Palestine by assisting with the rebuilding of and protection of the Palestinian nation.
UN Police and Peacekeepers would also assist and protect the the many relief workers of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency UNRWA, involved in rebuilding Gaza, and putting the infrastructure in place to make a sustainable Palestinian economy, government, and nation.
UNRWA is the main agency providing human development and humanitarian services, primary and vocational education, primary health care, relief and social services, infrastructure and camp improvement, micro-finance and emergency response, in Occupied Palestine. No other agency in the world has the capability to respond to the dire needs of Palestinians as quickly and efficiently as part of a peace agreement.
UNRWA was established by the General Assembly in 1949 to carry out direct relief and works programmes for Palestine refugees. Today, some 5 million Palestine refugees are eligible for UNRWA services. In the absence of a solution to the Palestine refugee problem, the General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, most recently extending it until 30 June 2020. It is time for resolution of this 70 year old problem.
The need for humanitarian action arises from the extreme violence, pain, suffering and injustice caused by war. In the case of Palestine refugees, this was caused by forced displacement, dispossession, loss of homes and livelihoods, as well as by statelessness and occupation. No matter how often attempts are made to minimize or delegitimize the individual and collective experiences of Palestine refugees, the undeniable fact remains that they have rights under international law and represent a community of 5.4 Million men, women and children who cannot simply be wished away.
2018 has been a year of anguish for Palestine refugees, who have faced even more extreme pressures and anxieties.
Thousands of young people either lost their lives or were severely injured in the course of demonstrations in Gaza, and the threat of war has hung again over all its two million people.
Hundreds saw their homes destroyed or their families face forced displacement in the West Bank, while the issue of Jerusalem has remained profoundly contentious.
Tens of thousands were in shock following the last phase of devastation wrought on Yarmouk, which led to renewed displacement of large numbers of people, many for the second or third time in their lives.
And UNRWA was confronted with its worst crisis ever. For Palestine refugees throughout the region there seemed to be no hope and no horizon.
Mr. Secretary-General, the Secretariat and the UN will face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to making this peace process work, but 139 out of 191 Member Nations of the UN already have diplomatic ties with and recognize Palestine. A vote for such UN recogniion if passed from the Security Council to the General Assembly would be done in short time. A recent survey of Israelis and Palestinians found that, with minor adjustments, many of the obstacles to peace were satisfied and a clear majority on both sides in support.
In addition to that both the General Assembly and Security Council have passed numerous resolutions calling for Israel to end its settlement construction in Occupied Palestine as well as its many other violations of international law and human rights. Israel continues to ignored the fair will of the world.
Almost every nation of the world has found that some of Israel's actions are in violation of international law, including its ally the US, though it continues to enable Israel with over $ 7billion per year in aid, while protecting Israel from UN Sanctions by using its unilateral veto power in the Security Council. The US has thus capable of blocking the will of the UN to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine and to recognize Palestine as a Member Nation, even though it was the UN helped give the modern nation of Israel its birth and home.
And there, Mr. Secretary-General, is "the rub", as Shakespeare wrote. In the short term, the UN must ask the US to abstain from using its veto of a UN finalized peace agreement, or a way found around the US veto. In the long term, this colonial era, archaic, unilateral veto should be subject to the checks and balances of modern democratic process through an over ride by a two thirds vote of the other Member Nations of the Security Council or similarly by the General Assembly.
Though some might say that the 5 Permanent Members of the UN Security Council, the US, Russia, China, Great Britain, and France, would refuse to relinquish this awesome power, doing so would allow them to be more effective in world crises where another Permanent Member's Veto has blocked them from their efforts to solve a problem. You give a little, you get a lot, and the problems of the world would be so much more quickly addressed and resolved without ongoing massive slaughters and migrations of refugees, who place the burden of a moral, legal, social, and financial responsibility on other nations, as we now experience, most of which are due to that unilateral veto power of just one nation.
Mr. Secretary- General In consideration of all this, I beseech the Secretariat and all the United Nations to take every action possible and necessary to lead the Israel-Palstine process to a timely resolution before time runs out for the people of Gaza in two years by UN estimates, for it is the United Nations is the only world body which can accomplish this, and it has the authority and the responsibility to do so.
Respectfully,