Statement by Juan Antonio Fernández Palacios, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Cuba, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, on agenda item 7 “follow-up of the special session on Beit Hanoun”
Geneva, 18 September 2008
Mr. President,
I have the honor to address the Human Rights Council on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
Mr. President,
First of all, we would like to thank to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize and extraordinary man always defending the fairest causes in the world, for the extraordinary work done, in very special and hard conditions.
Today, we have in front of us the Report of the High-Level Fact-Finding Mission to Beit Hanoun draw up as mandated by the Council resolution S-3/1, of November 2006. Regrettably, two years after the massacre, it is clear that there has been no recognition or redress of this tragedy by the authors and not much has improved for the Palestinian people.
As reflected in the final report of the Mission, the attack of 8 of November 2006 took lives, inflicted horrendous physical and mental injuries, tore families apart, destroyed homes, took away livelihoods and traumatized a population.
In spite of that, the Government of Israel, the Occupying Power, refused to cooperate with the Mission of the Council thus flouting the decision adopted by this august body.
Mr. President,
There has been no accountability for the murder of 19 innocent people and for injuring many more. The Israeli response, taking the form of a largely secret internal military investigation, is totally unacceptable from both the legal and the moral points of view.
In this regard, NAM demands from the State of Israel a public investigation to determine those responsible for this murderous act and the provision of reparation to the victims of the shelling, which constitutes a war crime, according to the relevant international instruments in this field.
Mr. President,
The Non-Aligned Movement regrets the loss of all innocent lives. At the same time, the Movement calls upon the parties to urgently resume peace process negotiations on all tracks on the basis of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, in order to comprehensively resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole.
In this connection, NAM takes note of the timely international conferences convened at Annapolis in November 2007 and at Paris in December 2007, and called for serious and continuous follow-up efforts. At the same time, the Movement reiterates its support to convening the follow-up Conference before the end of 2008 in Moscow to take stock of progress achieved in the peace process.
As adopted by the Heads of States or Government in the Declaration on Palestine during the XIV Summit in Havana and the XV Ministerial Conference held in Tehran last July, the Non-Aligned Movement strongly believes that the only real solution in this case is to put an end to the Israel’s occupation trough a peaceful settlement of the conflict and to allow the Palestinian people to enjoy of its right to self-determination and sovereignty in their independent state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
I thank you.
(Cubaminrex – Embacuba Ginebra)