UAE voices concern over Israeli expansion into Palestinian territories

New York: The United Arab Emirates voiced concern over Israel's illegal settlement expansion policy into the Palestinian territories aimed at changing the political, legal and demographic realities.

It also called on the international community to pressure Israel to end its occupation of the territories and aggressions against Palestinians and Arabs in the Syrian Golan Heights.

This came in a statement delivered by Ali Rashid Al Mazrouei, Member of the United Arab Emirates Delegation to the United Nations, at the sixty-third General Assembly's Second Committee (Economic and Financial), which took up its agenda item on the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.

The statement said recent international reports, including the Secretary-General's report, mentioned that the Palestinian people were suffering humanitarian, social and economic crises because of the Israeli occupation and war crimes committed by Israel, which pushed poverty rates in the occupied Palestinian Territories up to 36.9 per cent and unemployment to 28.8 per cent.

"The Israeli army persisted in occupying the Palestinian territories, destroying homes and infrastructure," it said, adding that the Israeli authorities separated the Palestinian territories, imposed blockades on Palestinian cities and checkpoints on roads, constraining the movement of goods and people.

The world, the statement said, was also witnessing the suffering of Palestinian children, half of whom were suffering from malnutrition and lacked access to basic education.

He said the United Arab Emirates was concerned over Israel's expansionist policy by which it confiscated Palestinian natural resources.

"Israel was also destroying the land and agricultural goods, imposing closure policies and embargoes, and polluting Palestinian water resources, all in blatant violation of international law and resolutions."

Israel, it added, was also confiscating lands and building illegitimate settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights where it had adopted oppressive and discriminatory policies against Arab citizens.

The statement voiced the United Arab Emirates's total support to the Palestinian people and government, and called upon the international community - especially the Security Council and the Quartet - to adopt all measures for Israel to end its aggression and retreat from the occupied territories.

It urged donor countries should increase their humanitarian and economic assistance to Palestine in order to meet the basic needs of its people.
Al Mazroue expressed hopes for a successful outcome of the current Palestinian-Israeli talks, in the framework of Annapolis conference, the Arab Peace Initiative, the Roadmap to Peace as well as the relevant United Nations resolutions.