Maldives urges UN to take measures to end Israel

The Maldives has urged the United Nations Security Council to take firm measures to end Israel’s illegal occupation, and its apartheid practices in Palestine.

In a statement delivered at the UN Security Council Open Debate on the Middle East including the Question of Palestine, Foreign Secretary Dr Ali Naseer Mohamed said that the UN has been a force for good for the entire humanity and helped in ending conflicts and in making peace.

He said that the UN has saved millions of people from oppression, colonialism, and military occupation, yet been helpless in ending Israel’s subjugation of Palestinians and Israel’s continued illegal occupation of Palestine.

He went on to reflect on the recent violence that has broken out in Palestine and said that it painted a bleak picture. “In the past weeks, we have seen violence and counter-reprisals escalate sharply, old City in Jerusalem has been shut down to Palestinians is clear illustration of the gravity of this moment.”

Dr Ali Naseer that the sanctity of Haram-al-Sharif must be restored, granting Palestinians their rightful access as a first step to further the peace process.

Maldives also raised concerns on the thousands of Israeli settlers who move into the occupied territories of Palestine illegally each year, and stated that the combination of increasingly belligerent political rhetoric, coupled with the enforced physical and demographic changes to the occupied Palestinian territories continually reduce the chances for peace.

Concluding his statement, Dr Ali Naseer said, “It is time that the Council demand the end of the illegal occupation and the oppression of Palestinian people. The United Nations must take the lead in steering the peace process from passive rhetoric to pragmatic action. The right to life in peace is as much a right for each and every Palestinian, as it is for each one of us here.”