Discurso do Representante Permanente, Embaixador Sérgio França Danese, na 50.ª Reunião Plenária da Assembleia Geral, 10.ª Sessão Especial Emergencial, sobre a Situação na Palestina - 10 de maio de 2024 (texto em inglês)

Mr. President,

The day of Palestine’s admission to the United Nations as equal among us is finally coming. The resolution adopted today is a meaningful achievement towards full UN membership for the State of Palestine.

The determination today by a large majority of the membership that Palestine meets the criteria set out in Article 4 of the Charter and is ready for membership, leaves no doubt that the process for Palestinian admission must not linger indefinitely at the Security Council. The General Assembly, the main UN body entrusted with the authority to take the final decision on such matters, must be allowed to exercise its powers under the Charter.

A majority of over two-thirds of the votes enabled today’s determination. That is the same qualified majority that will manifest itself, when the time comes, to admit Palestine as a UN member. We are confident that this will happen immediately after the Security Council, as we expect, accepts the recommendation issued by this Assembly today.

The recommendation for the Council to reconsider Palestine’s request enjoys more than just moral authority and political legitimacy. We recall the 1948 opinion of the International Court of Justice that no Member State should be entitled to withhold consent to membership based on political considerations not included among the criteria set out in Article 4, which the Assembly today has determined that Palestine unequivocally fulfills. A politically motivated veto contradicting this Assembly’s determination would be unjustifiable.

Colleagues,

The time has come to fulfill the United Nation’s promise of a Palestinian state. We can no longer abandon the Palestinians to a fate that is being unilaterally imposed by force by those denying Palestinians their right to self-determination. What we are witnessing in Gaza, now specifically in Rafah, is a shocking reminder of this undeniable reality.

Today’s resolution, if acted upon by all relevant actors, will pave the way to a future with a viable State of Palestine living side by side with Israel, in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders, consistent with the relevant United Nations resolutions.

As importantly, the admission of Palestine as a Member State, to be effected soon, I am sure, will help restore full trust in the United Nations and in multilateralism.

Mr. President,

The 10th Emergency Special Session resumed for the 20th time since it was first convened in 1997. Twenty-seven years of this Assembly’s attempting to fill a significant void left by the Security Council in performing its responsibility to address threats to international peace in connection with the situation in the Middle East.

For the past 27 years, every time this Assembly convened or reconvened for this emergency session, it has been in response to a blatant failure by the Council to address illegal actions in the occupied State of Palestine.

Have we not had enough? Have not the Palestinians suffered enough?

Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are clearly illegal. They alter the demographic composition and status of the Palestinian territory, and threaten the prospect of a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. Yet these settlements, which justified our first convening of the 10th Emergency Special Session back in 1997, have continued unabated. And this has only been met with Council inaction, apart from a 2016 resolution that recalls what we already know: the settlements violate international law.

Legal words without action have encouraged further contempt for the law. The occupation lingers on indefinitely, crystallizing a discriminatory system against Palestinians, and the annexation of the Palestinian territory. Unlawfulness of actions against Palestinians has become the pervasive reality in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The catastrophe in Gaza, whose latest chapter is unfolding in Rafah as we speak, cannot be dissociated from our failure to put an end to this prolonged occupation. It cannot be dissociated from our repeated failure to put an end to violations of international law and ensure compensation for the victims in Palestine. It cannot be dissociated from the United Nations’ failure to fulfill the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, the same self-determination, statehood and UN membership that Israelis have enjoyed since 1948.

It is clear that the General Assembly’s response, in the face of Council inaction, must go beyond just convening, adjourning, and reconvening the 10^th Emergency Special Session. The resolution adopted today should not add to the pile of documents that point to a solution but do little to get us there.

Brazil has recognized since 2010 the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders, which includes the Gaza strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Brazil is hopeful that, as a result of today’s resolution, which other bodies of the United Nations shall not ignore, the admission of Palestine as a full member of this organization, bound and protected by the UN Charter, will be achieved soon. That will be an important step, with other steps that must seriously follow, in the path towards the realization of the two-State solution.

Thank you.