Murray McCully’s Security Council speech – Palestine Human Rights Campaign Aotearoa/New Zealand

On 18 April 2016 in New York, our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, addressed the Security Council on behalf of the New Zealand Government concerning Israel and Palestine. McCully asked the assembly “. . . what does the international community expect of the Security Council in the difficult circumstances of today?” The short answer is that the Council should live up to its name and guarantee security for the Palestinian people in their homeland by requiring Israel to abide by and respect the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel has violated more Security Council Resolutions than any other country on Earth, by far.

Mr McCully, acknowledging the responsibility of the Council towards security, said in his speech that he found it “difficult to understand why the United Nations Security Council has not passed a single Resolution on this question in over seven years.” The problem is that Israel ignores, with impunity, most Security Council Resolutions. Our Minister of Foreign Affairs asserts that “in the eyes of the international community .. . . the two state solution is the only path forward for resolving this matter” yet the truth is, the Security Council is out of touch with the real majority of the international community. McCully told the meeting that “it is becoming increasingly apparent that the two state solution may be moving beyond reach and that if matters continue as they have for the last two years without action from this Council and others, the two state solution will be dead.” If Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the majority of Israeli opinion is to be believed, the two state ‘solution’ is not only dead, it is already buried.

So long as Israel is allowed to go on stealing Palestinian land and subjecting the people to appalling human rights abuses, what possible reason could there be to believe that so-called ‘negotiations’ could be anything other than a nod to Israel to continue its 50-year belligerent military Occupation of Palestinians. Any Palestinian ‘state’ that might one day be permitted to exist would, like the Gaza Strip, find itself entirely subject to Israeli control, with no means of defence and no sovereignty over its air space or territorial waters. Similarly the Palestinian economy would continue to be subservient to Israeli interests.

A single state with equal rights for all is the only way to end this nightmare. But first the international community will have to accept its responsibility, not only for having denied self-determination for the Palestinian people for so long but also for ending Israel’s untouchable status. Supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) is a far better measure of the international community’s view of the “path forward for resolving this matter” and the Security Council has the means. New Zealand’s representatives must stop covering for Israel and instead use the precious remaining months at the Security Council to demand action in defence of international law. There can be no peace with justice without bringing Israel to account.