Jordan, at UN, urges int’l community to stop Israeli aggression on Gaza

AMMAN — Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Thursday in New York participated in the UN General Assembly meeting to discuss the dangerous developments in Jerusalem, Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories.

The session also went over UN efforts aimed to stop the escalation, the attacks and the illegal Israeli practices, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

During his speech, Safadi called on the UN to immediately work on protecting its covenant and resolutions, urging the international community to stop attacks on Gaza, achieve a ceasefire and make Israel, the occupying power, stop its breaches of international law, attacks in occupied Jerusalem and its holy sites and in other occupied areas. 

The minister also referred to the killing of 65 children and 39 “mothers, sisters, wives and daughters” since Israel started its attacks on Gaza on May 10, reminding the world that at one point during the aggression Israel carried out 120 raids by 52 warplanes on the besieged Gaza strip in 25 minutes, killing innocent people.

Over 11 days, the Israeli attacks left some 75,000 Palestinians in Gaza without shelter, most of them taking refuge in UNRWA schools, the UN agency still unable to secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to them, he added. 

The occupation forces changed Jerusalem, the city of peace, into an arena of despair, suppression and injustice, the minister said, adding that Israel keeps provoking the sentiments of some two billion Muslims through its recurrent attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif, whose total area of 144 dunums is a place of worship for Muslims only. 

The forced displacement of the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood is a war crime, Safadi stressed, highlighting that these Palestinian citizens have the right to their homes where they were born and their fathers and grandfathers have lived.  

According to international law, the minister stressed, Jerusalemites are protected residents and according to the UN Security Resolution No. 478, the occupation and its courts have no authority over them.  

He added that defending the rights of residents of Sheikh Jarrah to their homes is defending international law and “our common humanitarian values”, reiterating that the Kingdom will continue defending the residents and their rights through all available means in coordination with “Palestinian brothers”. 

Jordan will continue mobilising its potential to protect the Jerusalemites and Jerusalem, preserve the Islamic and Christian Arab identity of the holy sites in the city, he said. 

Maintaining the historical and legal status quo will continue to be a top priority for the custodian, His Majesty King Abdullah, who has repeatedly warned that Jerusalem is “a red line and tampering with Jerusalem is playing with fire”, the foreign minister said.

All efforts of the international community must be joined to end the historical injustice on the Palestinian people, otherwise it will develop into a more dangerous escalation and will keep the entire region prone to conflict, Safadi noted.

He added that the occupation is the source of “all evil” and ending it is the only means to realise peace. “Israel will never enjoy peace as long as it deprives Palestinians of it, and Israel and the entire region will never enjoy peace as long as Palestinians are deprived of it,” he said. 

There are currently more than 700,000 settlers in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied West Bank compared to some 500,000 in 2010 and 370,000 in 2000, Safadi pointed out.

The minister noted that the construction of illegal settlements is being made at an unprecedented pace, which represents a systematic undermining of the two-state solution that the world unanimously approved as the only means to realise a just and comprehensive peace. 

Ahead of the session, Safadi participated in a consultation meeting with Arab peers present at the General Assembly to go over efforts and positions aiming to end the Israeli aggression on Gaza and Israeli attacks and violations in Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Following this consultation meeting, Arab foreign ministers met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.