Mr. President,

Israel was born in 1948 as a result of the ethnic cleansing and massdispossession of the Palestinian people. Since then, it has continued relentlessly to violate international law and to view itself as a State above the law, an exceptional State, unbound by laws and unbound by principles. We call upon Israel to stop singling itself out in this way and to stop singling out the Council and the international community. We reject Israel’s cyncial discourse that tries to turn reality on its head -its discourse about being a victim rather than an aggressor, a target of the Human Rights Council rather than an attacker on the Council’s very core principles. It is a true shame to see that some States have been swayed by this flawed and misleading discourse. We urge all member states to participate actively in item 7.

 

Mr. President,

Every passing day reconfirms that Israel is more interested in colonialism and apartheid, rather than achieving a just peace and security. Israel’s widespread and systematic violations of international law includehouse demolitions, forced evictions of families and communities,discriminatory land confiscation, excessive use of force against Palestinian civilians, illegal colonial activity through settlement construction, the fragmentation of the territory and enclosure of Palestinians into Bantustan-like areas, and siege and collective punishment of the Gaza Stripamong other crimes. Moreover, Israel continues to buildthe illegal wall in the Occupied State of Palestine, a wall twice as high and four times as long as the Berlin Wall. Last March the Human Rights Council mandated the OHCHR to produce a public database of all businesses involved in Israeli settlement activities. We look forward to the online publication of this database next March. We deplore the involvement of Israeli and multinational corporations in illegal settlements, resulting in corporate complicity in war crimes, and call on companies to disengage from their involvement in Israeli abuses of human rights and international law. Moreover, we reiterate that trade with Israeli settlements is a form of assistance to a criminal enterprise, and must be ceased. The OIC condemns in the strongest terms the continuous incitement by Israeli officials and  terrorist settlers against the Palestinian people and their holy places particularly at Al-Haram Al-Sharif/the Holy Al- Aqsa Mosque.It is clear that such actions are aimed at illegally and forcibly further entrenching Israeli control over Al-Haram Al -Sharif in Occupied East Jerusalem.The continuation of these racist acts is bound to have serious repercussions on the security and stability of the entire region. We deplore the terrorist actions being carried out persistently and with impunity by settlers against Palestinian civilians. The Israeli government fuels the crimes of the settlers through hateful rhetoric and incitement against Palestinians, and are responsible for the ensuing terror, incitement and provocation. In this connection,we must also reiterate that we cannot separate Israeli settler violence from Israel’s illegal colonialsettlements vastly spread across the Occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in grave breach of international humanitarian law, as well as international criminal law. Mr. President,More than 7000 Palestinians are bring held arbitrarily in Israeli prisons in conditions that breach fundamental norms of international law, including torture and denial of the right to a fair trial. We call for their urgent release as they are being arbitrarily held. We are concerned over continued occupation of the Syrian Golan that has resulted in the violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Syrian population. The OIC condemns the Israeli measures in the Occupied Syrian Golan and demands an end to the illegal occupation of the Syrian land. For all of its crimes, acts of State terrorism and systematic human rights violations, Israel, the occupying Power, must be held accountable and the perpetrators must be brought to justice.