WAM Geneva, 23 March 2011 (WAM) -- The United Arab Emirates condemns the procrastination of Israel and manipulation of the international community which was trying to create it accountable for crimes it committed,UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva Obaid Salim Al-Za'abi said.
''Despite the many resolutions by this Council, the United Nations Security Council along with other bodies, the situation in Palestine was deteriorating,'' Al Za'abi told the 16th session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva; on the general debate on the human rights scenario in Palestine along with other Occupied Arab Territories: ''The United Arab Emirates requested the international community to compel Israel to implement the recommendations of the fact-finding mission into the incident on the humanitarian flotilla. Concerning the report of the Committee of Independent Specialists, the United Arab Emirates known as on the Council to compel Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza, quit with the illegal settlements, and withdraw from East Jerusalem and from the occupied Syrian Golan,''he added.
The Human Rights Council held the general debate after the High Commissioner for Human Rights presented reports on the subject.
Navi Pillay, High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented reports to the Human Rights Council which concerned the human rights scenario in Palestine along with other occupied Arab territories.
Throughout the general debate speakers said that the Middle East and the world had been witnessing an essential transformation with potentially historic consequences. The question that everybody outside the Council was asking was whether or not the winds of change would also blow in Israel and also the Occupied Palestinian Territories, injecting the a lot required oxygen and energy to the efforts to achieve, at long last, a just and comprehensive peace, or would this conflict continue to defy the lessons of history, humanity and international law.
Within the last 43 years, Israel had pursued a policy of wanton repression in the Occupied Palestinian Territories through the disproportionate use of force, the deliberate destruction of infrastructure, the killing of civilians and illegal settlement activities that could only be described as a manifestation of state terrorism and crimes against humanity. Other speakers noted the significance of the right to self-determination and said that the international community should work to ensure the enjoyment of this right by the Palestinian people. Delegations also expressed concern about Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, the arrest and detention of Palestinian children by Israeli Defence Forces and also the demolition of Palestinian houses.
