Statement by Chargé d’Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy at the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza
Mr. President,
We thank Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and Peacebuilding, and Lisa Doughten, OCHA’s Director of Financing and Partnerships Division, for their comprehensive briefings and assessments of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
We are grateful to the delegation of Algeria for its initiative to convene today's meeting regarding the latest developments in Gaza. The last time we discussed the situation there was two weeks ago, it is clear that we need do it more often. After all, the thesis that the situation in Gaza and in the region as a whole continues to deteriorate rapidly has unfortunately become routine, and does not reflect the horror and the suffering that civilians in Gaza, including the elderly, women and children, have to face every day. We cannot expect any compassion for the Palestinians from our Western colleagues, specifically from our American colleagues, who are in cahoots with Israel. Therefore, it is important to regularly bring the truth about what is happening in the Gaza Strip to the international community through the UN Security Council.
We are deeply shocked by the Israeli strike on the Al-Tabin school in Gaza. At that time, more than 2,000 refugees were sheltering there. More than 100 people died and dozens were injured. Many of the victims were women and children. We express our sincere condolences to the families of those who died and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. We recall our consistent position on the need for strict compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law. We call on Western Jerusalem to refrain from any attacks on civilian objects. There can be no justification for such actions.
Unfortunately, what happened at Tabiin cannot be seen as an isolated episode or a disgusting gaffe. As mentioned today, in the past ten days alone, 13 centers in Gaza where IDP were sheltering have been bombed. According to the OHCHR data, since July 4, the Israelis have struck 21 schools, where displaced people were located, killing at least 274 people. An obvious conclusion offers itself. What is happening there is nothing less than a deliberate choice by the Israeli leadership. Condemning the actions of West Jerusalem and calling for restraint will not work. The problem runs much deeper.
The problem is that, unfortunately, due to the pandering to Israel from our American colleagues, the Council has still not been able to develop an adequate response to the escalation of the crisis in the Middle East. In fact, the UN Security Council is increasingly turning into a passive and powerless bystander, capable only of repoting the further degradation of the situation and ritually expressing concern about it.
Moreover, 14 members of the Security Council have essentially been held hostage by the US, which is blocking any action towards to an immediate ceasefire.
On June 10, more than two months ago, the Council adopted its latest "product" on Gaza. Its American sponsors pressed then the members of the Security Council to give it the green light as soon as possible, claiming that the fate of the ceasefire "deal" between Hamas and Israel was allegedly at stake. Russia, I recall, abstained, as we had the most serious doubts regarding the feasibility of this resolution. As time has shown, all these doubts have been confirmed.
Now our Western colleagues prefer not to mention it, but Resolution 2735 contained three phases with extremely ambitious plans – from a comprehensive ceasefire to the beginning of a large-scale reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. None of these phases has materialized. Right now, they all seem absolutely surrealistic. And, unfortunately, the UNSC signed up for this surrealism. But what is the worst of all is that it signed up to a blatant lie: the first operative paragraph stated that Israel agreed to the proposed conditions of the "deal". Israel’s representatives have repeatedly and explicitly stated, including in this Chamber, that they did not agree to anything. Moreover, the entire rhetoric of Israeli officials shows that Israel has no intentions at all to stop its military operation whatever the position of the UN Security Council may be. In particular, Israeli Finance Minister Mr. Smotrich called the deal a "capitulation to Yahya Sinwar," and Israel’s Minister for National Security Mr. Ben-Gvir explicitly stated that "there will be no end to the war."
What was the result of, to quote our American colleagues, their “assertive” diplomacy on the ground aimed at bringing the parties to agreements, which the UN Security Council was asked not to interfere with? Even the expression "the mountain has brought forth a mouse" would be an understatement. We are not aware of any progress at all. The only "anti-result" after the adoption of Resolution 2735 was the blatant, provocative assassination of Hamas's main negotiator Ismail Haniyeh – the former Palestinian prime minister – during his visit to Tehran. Now the whole world is in anxious anticipation of a new round of escalation in the region, while the U.S., which so far has refused to even mildly reprimand Israel, is hypocritically urging everyone to press Hamas to participate in the August 15 talks. As if everything depended only on Hamas.
Mr President,
Even a by-stander clearly understands that attempts to substitute a full-fledged solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with various kinds of “deals of the century” co-sponsored solely by the United States have proved not only unsuccessful but also counterproductive. The entire Middle East region is ablaze and on the brink of falling into a large-scale war. The priority, of course, should be an immediate cessation of the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.
From the very beginning of the escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict zone, Russia has called on the Council to take the most decisive measures to ensure an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. I recall that we proposed the first draft resolution with such a demand as early as 16 October last year. How many lives could have been saved if the Council had not been so coward then? That is not a rhetorical question. There is a precise figure - 40,000 have been killed, including more than two hundred UNRWA staff, and more than 90,000 have been injured. As we have already said today, more than two and a half thousand have died just since Resolution 2735 was adopted. That is the price we pay for inaction of multilateral diplomacy and short-sided interests of some members of the Security Council. For six months on, they have used their “Damocles veto” to hinder even slightest moves towards ceasefire by the Security Council. But without a cessation of hostilities, it would not be possible to put an end to the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians, to ensure the release of hostages and detainees, and to secure full and unimpeded humanitarian access to the enclave.
We call on the Council not to be under the thumb of Washington, who is concerned only with protecting Israel's interests and profits from supplying weapons to hotspots. We should think together about what measures the Council could take to de-escalate Gaza and the region as a whole. If this requires a visit by the Security Council “to the field”, then it should happen. Otherwise, there is a very strange situation when we all expect the specialized departments of the Secretariat to be actively present in the conflict zone and to fulfil their mandates in conditions involving risks to their lives, while we ourselves, sitting in New York, are content with information from their reports and open sources. Or we would receive invitations to visit Geneva rather than to the regions where we all are really needed. The Middle East should be a priority for the Council's visits, which should not become political tourism to comfortable locations.
What also requires our second look is the question of how the presence of specialized missions on the ground could be reformatted, primarily I am talking about the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). We need to think about the possibilities of strengthening its mandate, if necessary without tying it to the consent of both parties as it’s obvious that such consent will never be received. General Patrick Gosha has already briefed the Council twice, outlining some specific, practical issues that need to be addressed in order to breathe new life into the mandate of its mission, which is essential in the current escalation. We urge our colleagues on the Security Council not to sit idly by but to actively engage in this discussion.
The Council cannot and should not turn a blind eye to what is happening in the Middle East and neglect its direct mandate for the maintenance of international peace and security for the benefit of one delegation. Nor should it forget about its own decisions on the need to establish an independent sovereign Palestinian State within 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel. And no other schemes and concepts should replace those pillars of a Middle East settlement. We are willing to cooperate with all those who share these approaches.
I thank you for your attention.
