United Nations Security Council Arria-formula meeting on the West Bank, including East Jerusalem

Good morning.
Can you hear me? Yeah.
Okay.
Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us today for our A formula meeting on the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, co hosted by the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Greece, and Latvia.
We're grateful to you all for making the time to join us today and to our three civil society briefers who will offer us their perspectives and analysis on the current significant challenges in the West Bank and how the international community can help to address these and promote long term peace in the region.
Just a few housekeeping notes before we begin.
In order to maximize time, to give us the opportunity to hear from as many delegates as possible.
There was a long list of people who've signed up.
We strongly encourage speakers to keep their remarks concise.
To help us keep the time, we will be cutting the microphones at 5 minutes, though we will make an exception for our briefers and to the observer state of Palestine.
We've received requests from 38 delegations to participate in today's meeting and we regret that we were unable to submit to accommodate all of them.
So delegations are welcome to submit written statements by the end of next week, which will be compiled and circulated.
Instructions on how to do this were shared with all UN member states via email yesterday.
We're also very grateful to Basil Adré for joining us virtually today to share his experiences.
Due to the time difference, Basil will just be joining us for the first half an hour of today's meeting.
Basil is an award winning activist and filmmaker with over a decade's experience documenting human rights abuses in the West Bank.
Before we hear from Basil, we'd like first to show a short clip from his Oscar winning film, No Other Land, which he co directed.
This clip depicts an example of the deeply concerning settler violence that is occurring in the West Bank.
Please note this clip does contain some graphic content.
Video clip, please.
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I will now turn to Basil Adré for his briefing.
Basil.
Hello, everyone.
Thank you very much for giving me the space to speak to you about the situation in the West Bank and our daily life here where I live in Masafria.
I will start to speak about another video, another scene that I filmed myself more than two years ago in my village where the incident happened nearby the mosque in the village was a Friday and the people were leaving at the prayer after the Friday prayer.
Then two settlers, one of them armed and one soldier walked down to the village.
And they start to harass the prayers were leaving the mosque.
I was filming from nearly 100 meters with my camera.
I saw the armed settlers take steps in front toward the prayers.
He got close to one man, hit him in the chest with a rifle, walked one step back and shot him in the stomach.
It was just minutes I realized that the one was shot was my cousin, and then the two settlers and soldier walk back to the outpost.
This was the most tragic incident I ever had filmed with my camera, but this is the reality of our life where I live in Mata.
My cousin was transferred to a hospital.
Most of the roads were blocked by Israeli soldiers.
Hardly after half an hour of driving on roads, we found dirt roads to drive him to the first health care center.
He was bleeding so much, he was risking his life.
Then they decided that he has to be transferred to a hospital in Hebron, bigger hospital where doctors can serve him better.
At the entrance of the city, again, the soldiers were there shot toward the ambulance, shot in the air, prevented my cousin to be transferred to a better hospital to receive the treatment that he needs.
The ambulance turned back to the same center and my cousin was forced to stay there for a few days risking his life until roads were opened and he was transferred again to a hospital in Hebron, where he spent 83 days, 60 out of them were in ICU and he's still suffering from his injury.
This is our daily life and clearly you saw in the video the rule of the occupation forest, the occupation power, what so called Israeli army, when the settlers ban pogroms to torture our homes, to destroy our properities, and to kill us, actually.
This soldiers rule there is just to give a hand to the settlers and to make sure that the settlers are doing what they can to do, which is to attack and to destroy and to burn cars, homes, farms, and to steal and to kill.
So there's no difference in our daily life between what are called soldiers, police, and settlers.
We as an innocent living in these communities facing violations from all these Israeli arms, settlers, soldiers and police.
The village you saw in the video, it's entirely has demolition orders by the Israeli occupation forces and it's under a serious threat of destruction at any moment by these Israeli soldiers and it's under serious threat of attacks by the settlers living in illegal outposts and settlements nearby this village.
Settlers harassment is happening every day in Msarea and across the West Bank.
In the last three years, dozens of Palestinian communities flee from their villages under the attacks and torture of Israeli soldiers and settlers and Some of the people lost their life like my friend, best friend and brother Abu Hadalen who was murdered in the hand of the settlers just last July, where a settler came with a bulldozer driving in the village, destroying olive trees and start to dig aiming to build illegal outpost just nearby Balestinian homes, which is now it is established, and it got all the infrastructure, water, electricity, paved road for this outposts and the settlers that living there.
Ada was standing with his 3-year-old son in front of the community center of Omar when the suttler pointed his pistol and start to shoot around, one of the bullets hit Auda's chest and killed him.
Auda was a father of three kids.
He was a teacher.
He was an amazing activist, was a person who loved life.
And we loved him so much.
We can't believe until the moment that we lost him.
This same settler that murdered him just about three years ago, he was accompanied by a group of soldiers with his bulldozer to destroy a school of spy in Mafara Primary School was destroyed in the hands of these settlers who was brought and paid I think by the state of Israel.
So hand by hand, they work together to make our life in Masareta impossible by targeting our homes, by targeting us, by killing Palestinians and destroying homes and establishing a new illegal outposts.
In Masareta by itself since October 7th until today, at least nine illegal outposts have been established by these soldiers and settlers.
More than that, a lot of these violent settlers that we filmed them with our cameras wearing masks and attacking us and throwing rocks coming to our villages, burning homes and cars smashing proprieties and stabbing water tanks and tires of our cars.
To are assembly the soldiers when settler invade our village and we tried to call Israeli police to come to take him out.
First they sent these soldiers who are settlers.
I would speak about another incident that happened just two months ago in Susa Village.
Where a group of miners were sent by the settlers were sent by older settlers with a flock of cows to the Basinian village, to the fields, which is now a daily life where settlers are sending these miners all around our villages and our homes and our crops or olive trees to destroy it with their crops.
The family tried to push these settlers and their cows out calling the police one, two, three times.
We usually would not come or if they come to the incident, it will take hours until they arrived to an incident and they would not be helpful if they will not arrest the Palestinian.
After Palestinian were trying to push out these flocks out of their fields, two elderly brother settlers arrived, one wearing a Israeli uniform and one not wearing a uniform came just as a settler.
The moment they went out of their ATV that was given to them by Betelis More who was a minister in this government, the settler start to shoot from his rifle at the family, killing Amir Sinarn, a 28-year-old Palestinian, a father of three kids, injuring his brother Khaled who's now half paralyzed and hard to move.
Simply, those killers are living around us in this outpost and these illegal settlements and no accountability for sure.
The system that funds them with money, with weapons, with ATV, with a flocks of sheep and cows, the system that created this illegal outposts and illegal settlements, we will not wait from them a justice because Israeli courts are built to legalize and legitimize the existence of the occupying power, the army and the settlers and to leg legitimize us to digital demise our villages and our existence on our land.
Ma Safa is really the clearest example of what's happening to millions of Palestinians across the West Bank.
Over than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last three years, more than 40 have been killed on the hands of the settlers and and soldiers since the beginning of this year, and there is no accountability.
No one is facing consequences for their killings and the threat is we're living it every day in our life.
The attacks simply are not stopping.
They not just attack us physically, but targeting the water system, which is cutting water pipes, destroying water wells, destroying schools, making our access to any infrastructure impossible, which is making our life nearly impossible.
The weight is on the international community that is watching this.
The UN resolutions are very clear in the illegality of the occupation of the apartheid, of these illegal settlements.
But this these orders and these rules by the UN will lose and it's losing it meaning when it's not translated to measure action against these criminals.
We live again, I will say it as a civilian innocent and our communities surrounded with all these armed settlers, soldiers that their goal is very clear to take our land, to take our life, and to ethnically cleanse us from our land.
If you're waiting anything from the Israeli side, they just send the messages and the answers are very clear.
Just nearly a year ago, they passed a law in the Israeli parliament from this government and the opposition.
The vast majority of the Israeli members voted for it.
That will never be a Palestinian state on this land.
What does that mean? It means that we are as Balestinian facing a serious threat of our existence on our land and today we see it in actions by killing Palestinians, destroying our communities, and creating a new illegal settlements and outposts and roads and infrastructure for these settlers that living here and bring more and more settlers from around the world to live on our land.
Dozens of Palestinian communities have been displaced since October 7th until today and dozens of illegal outposts and settlements have been created and roads for the settlers.
So we need your actions.
Valestinian people, Valestinian families wait from your actions, not just the concerns and statements of condemnations.
Because history will not just record what's happening on the ground, but will record how the world choose to respond to it.
We have no time to wait for Israeli election if there is people think that election will help the situation.
I tell you this will not help our situation.
What only can help it the actions of the international community.
I see a very huge gap between how the international community deal with this situation and what's happening on the ground.
Until today, the markets in Europe are opened for settlers goods, for settlers themselves to go travel and have vacations there, for Europe companies to come and invest and do a business in this illegal settlements.
These are simply small actions to do from Europe and other countries around the world to stop deal with the settlements, to stop receive the goods that are planted on our stolen land and made in factories that it's built on our stolen land.
You have a moral and historical obligation today to take action and to stop these crimes against us and which is against all humanity.
Just be human and stop these crimes very simply and you have the power.
Do not tell us it's the US.
We know the US today is very corrupted and sending weapons and money and everything that Israel ordered them to just here millions of dollars sending also settlers and American soldiers to fight here on the ground.
So the other free world that believe in the international community that believe in international law, international humanitarian law has an obligation not just political but moral and historical obligation today to stop these crimes.
Thank you for hearing me.
I thank Mr.
Adré for his powerful briefing and for sharing his personal testimony with us.
I will now give the floor to Max Rodenbeck, Director of International Crisis Group's Israel Palestine Program.
Max, you have the floor.
Thank you very much.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for coming and especial thanks to our hosts, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, and the United Kingdom for giving me the opportunity to be here.
My subject is the State of the West Bank.
As I have just 5 minutes to explain a very complicated picture, let me just start with one word terrible.
The state of the West Bank is terrible, and I think Vessel's testimony is very powerful.
To see why it's so terrible, Let me give some brief background.
The West Bank is a very small space, smaller than the US State of Delaware, smaller than the island of Bali in Indonesia, and holds 3 million Palestinians plus another 400,000 in East Jerusalem.
As well as over 500,000 Israeli setters.
Since 1967, this has been occupied territory under international law.
The 1995 Oslo Peace Accords divided into areas A, B, and C.
The gray area on this map, which shows areas A and B together, holds 85% of the Palestinian population, although it is only 40% of the lands of the West Bank.
Today, that area is effectively divided into islands.
It is a Palestinian archipelago in an Israeli sea.
These islands are both increasingly cut off from each other and shrinking in size.
The white part of this map is Area C, which is under full Israeli control.
This holds nearly all of the settlements, which are, of course, illegal under international law.
As you can see from the sprinkle of red dots on this map, which shows the growth of them over time, the settlements are not just multiplying, but they're strategically cutting Palestinians apart from each other.
The number of settlers has been growing for decades.
What's changed under the current Israeli government is not so much the pace of growth as the amount of land that is being taken away by settlements.
In the past four years, this government has launched 102 new settlements, that is almost as many as were built in the previous 50 years.
This chart here does not show the growth of actual settlements, but rather the creation of new settlement outposts.
As Basil was describing, these are often just a mobile home on a hilltop out in the middle of nowhere, but after a few years, these informal settlements get recognized and become permanent.
That has been the pattern for decades.
What's new is that the process of taking land this way has accelerated and grown far more violent.
The attacks are now daily and often deadly.
This chart shows only the number of Palestinians injured, not those killed, and it only shows the first three months of 2026.
But this government has done more than simply boost illegal settlements, it has moved towards de facto annexation of the West Bank.
Settlement is not just about building houses.
This government has spent about $6 billion on an elaborate grid of settler only infrastructure across the West Bank, as well as in providing equipment to settlers such as Besso described, these ATVs all terrain vehicles that are used to attack Palestinian civilians.
At the same time, under the international radar, there have been crucial bureaucratic and legal changes made in Israel over the past few years under this government.
These are very complex and I recommend reading our recent crisis group report on the issue.
I can't go into them deeply, but suffice it to say that these changes have shifted power away from the Israeli military and into civilian control.
It's as if there are no Geneva Conventions and this was not an occupied territory, but just another part of Israel.
One of these legal changes took away from the army its right to arrest to detain settlers in the West Bank.
As a result, settlers can now act with almost complete impunity.
They're literally lawless in the West Bank.
In the past, there was a distance between the settler movement and Israel's establishment, but now the settlers are the establishment.
Including in the army itself, hardliners have been appointed to positions of high command.
The most important example of this is Israel's finance minister, who has a second job as what is effectively the governor of the West Bank.
He has wielded both positions not just to speed up settlement and the process of annexation, but also to crush the Palestinian economy.
In the words of a seasoned diplomat that I met recently in Jerusalem, the finance minister has been waging economic war against West Bank Palestinians.
I recommend again we at crisis group have an upcoming report on the West Bank's collapsing economy.
Here are just six of the most disruptive measures that Israel has taken.
Roadblocks.
There are now more than 900 of these across the West Bank.
Literally millions of Palestinian man hours get lost every day simply waiting.
As a Palestinian friend describes it, imagine the humiliation of waiting along with 1,000 other people for some kid with a gun to finish playing a game on his cell phone before opening the gate.
That happens every day, every hour, every minute.
Another problem is labor.
Before October 7th, one in every five West Bankers worked in Israel.
They sent home close to $4 billion a year to the West Bank, but overnight, Israel locked the border.
Unemployment on the West Bank shot up to 28% and has stayed there for the last three years.
The third thing is strangling the Palestinian government.
Previously, 60% of the Palestinian authorities revenue came from customs duty that Israel collects.
But Israel took an increasingly bigger cut out of this over the years until last year, under the new Minister of Finance, it blocked the sum entirely.
The accumulated amount of money that Israel now owes to the Palestinian authority amounts to about $5 billion.
Imagine trying to run a government when you suddenly lose half of your tax revenue.
Teachers, policemen, nurses all struggling to get full wages, hospitals lack basic supplies, schools run just three days a week.
The same time, Israel is also crushing Palestinian banks.
This is a complicated issue.
It's hard to explain in the time that I have, but there are two main weapons that are being used, each of them just simple bureaucratic rules that effectively undermine investment and wreck the economy.
Lastly, there is the cost, which is very hard to put your finger on, but the cost of just direct repression, making 30,000 people homeless over the last three years, which is something that Israel has done.
Add to that the cost of treating people who are injured as Basil was describing and the cost to the Palestinian economy and to Palestinian families of the fact that 10,000 Palestinians at any time languish in Israeli prisons.
These are nearly all men of working age.
Next slide, please.
The result of all this is that the gap between incomes in Israel and the West Bank has grown wider and wider.
Per capita GDP in Israel, as you can see on this chart, is around $60,000 compared to perhaps three to $4,000 in the West Bank, where incomes have actually collapsed in the last few years.
This chart doesn't show it very clearly, but there's a significant drop in the last two, three years.
Remember that the West Bank is not Gaza.
It is not at war with Israel.
It's quite peaceful.
You might have thought that maybe with the cease fire in Gaza, some of these Israeli measures, settlement expansion, annexation, economic warfare might have been eased, but not a single one of these policies has been eased in the West Bank.
It is crushing.
This is where we are.
As I said, the situation is terrible.
What can be done? First, press Israel to do very simple things that it can do to bring immediate relief, such as these little bureaucratic rules that throttle banks in the West Bank.
Of course, Israel can easily lift all of its wartime restrictions.
There is no war.
Lift the restrictions, let in more Palestinian workers, release funds to the Palestinian authority, open up the roadblocks.
Second, support Palestinian institutions.
Third, hold Israel accountable for its illegal settlement enterprise.
Sanctions should not target just individuals, but also the institutions, organizations, the finances behind them.
Western countries have deployed a range of tools to sanction Russia for its occupation of Ukrainian territory.
There's no reason these same tools can't address Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories.
Lastly, countries can find ways to get a strong message to the Israeli public that this situation is not normal, that this situation is not business as usual.
There are many small but effective ways to signal this, leveraging everything from cultural and scientific ties to favorable financial system.
Overall, the point should be to introduce a level of accountability for Israel's practices on the West Bank.
At present, this is clearly inadequate to the scale of injustice that we are witnessing.
Thank you.
I thank Max Redenbek for his detailed and precise briefing on the y trends we're seeing across the West Bank.
I will now give the floor to Amy Cohen, who is Director of the International Relations and Advocacy at Ir Amin, which focuses on developments in Jerusalem.
Amy.
Excellencies and distinguished members of the Security Council, I wish to thank Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, and the United Kingdom for organizing this critical Aria formula briefing and meeting.
I'm likewise grateful for the invitation to brief the council today on East Jerusalem, which has largely been overshadowed by the aftermath of October 7th, the catastrophic conditions in Gaza, and the broader regional war.
I appear before you today as an Israeli who has lived in Jerusalem for much of the past two decades and as a representative of Iramin.
Iramim is a Jerusalem based NGO made up of Israelis and Palestinians working to advance a just political resolution to the conflict while confronting human rights violations that stem from 59 years or nearly 59 years of illegal occupation and annexation of East Jerusalem.
In the wake of the deadly October 7th attack and the devastating war in Gaza, the Israeli government has unfortunately exploited this period to create irreparable facts on the ground that undermine prospects for a political agreement and entrench a single regime of Jewish supremacy and unequal rights between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.
As mentioned by Basil and Max, forced displacement, settlement expansion, state and settler violence across the West Bank and East Jerusalem has reached record levels.
Annexation is on full throttle.
In East Jerusalem alone, plans for ten new settlements, which many of you have never heard of with over 20,000 housing units were advanced in the span of 2.5 years.
This is the highest figure in over three decades.
Many of these plans are designated for the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods or strategic areas along the city's perimeter designed to disconnect East Jerusalem from the West Bank.
If you'll see on the screen, the red circles mark the areas where these new settlements are advancing.
The recent approval and tendering of the E one settlement project threatened to bisect the West Bank and sever its connection to East Jerusalem, which as Israeli Minister Smtriz described, and I quote, will bury the idea of a Palestinian state.
If you mind just going back to the previous slide that has the four circles.
If you see the fourth circle is encircling the E one area that is just to the east of East Jerusalem.
Tenders in this area for all 3,400 housing units are slated to open on July 1st.
This is compounded by an unprecedented surge in forced evictions and home demolitions where entire communities in East Jerusalem are now undergoing large scale explosions.
Nowhere in East Jerusalem is this so severe in the area called Sirwan, a Palestinian neighborhood located in the heart of historic East Jerusalem, the Old City Basin, as can be seen in the displayed image.
This is one of the most religiously and politically sensitive areas of the region.
Excellencies, I address you today with an acute sense of urgency and the need for immediate intervention.
What was once a looming threat is now being systematically carried out as we speak.
In the Bat Al Hawa neighborhood of Siwan, Palestinian families are being forcibly evicted and their homes transferred to Jewish settlers.
In the displayed image, the blue marks the homes already seized by settlers, families that were already evicted, the red marks those facing imminent evictions, and the yellow marks ongoing court proceedings.
In the Albustan neighborhood of Siruan that is just adjacent to Bethan El Hawa, Palestinian homes are being demolished to make way for an Israeli biblical theme park on the ruins of the neighborhood.
If not halted, some 2,200 Palestinians stand to be displaced in the immediate vicinity of Alksa Temple Mount, amounting to one of the largest waves of expulsions in East Jerusalem since 1967.
Next slide, please.
The displayed image is an aerial view of Sirwan with two communities undergoing mass displacement marked in yellow and red.
As you can see, it is adjacent to Al Aksa Temple Mount and the old city in one of the most politically and religiously sensitive areas of Jerusalem and the region.
An estimated 450 Palestinians from these two communities have already been displaced in the past two years alone.
Half just since the start of 2026, with hundreds more under imminent threat of the same outcome.
Among them, as we speak, seven families are slated for forced eviction in less than two weeks to be supplanted with Jewish settlers.
Behind these numbers are people that have courageously demanded the right to remain in their homes through nonviolent means, utilizing the legal system that has been imposed upon them to try and demand their rights and yet in return, they are met with violence and injustice.
In the words of one community leader in Sidduan and I quote, I teach the young not to hate.
But when a child's house is destroyed, what can I say to him? How can I persuade them that we must live with the other side in peace? I'll continue speaking about coexistence and nonviolently demanding our rights, but it will be more difficult from now on.
These processes of displacement and dispossession are carried out in East Jerusalem, not by violent settlers like we heard from Basel, but directly by the state and Israeli authorities, underpinned by a discriminatory domestic legal system that deprives Palestinians of basic rights and any genuine path to justice.
Excellencies, as confirmed by the 2024 ICJ advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation, such actions are a grave violation of international law and tantamount to forcible transfer.
These measures not only convene relevant UN security resolutions like 478 2334, and most recently 2803, but also undermine the New York Declaration for a two state solution that was recently endorsed by the UN General Assembly.
For these instruments to carry meaning, they must be upheld and implemented as we heard both by Max and by Basil.
It requires more than statements of concern or condemnation.
It must be translated into tangible action.
In the immediate term, it means employing all measures possible to compel the Israeli government Two, one, cease all acts of forced displacement, including home demolitions, forced evictions, land confiscation in Jerusalem throughout the West Bank and most urgently in Suwan.
Two, end all settlement expansion and moves towards annexation.
Three, afford Palestinians with rights to housing and shelter through equitable urban planning and housing policies which are being denied to them.
Four, to uphold freedom of movement, speech, and cultural rights.
And to conclude, Excellencies, it must be underscored that the absence of accountability and consequences for repeated Israeli violations for international law and for a deliberate obstruction of a Palestinian state has fostered a state of impunity and ultimately brought us to this dark moment, depriving both Israelis like myself and Palestinians, like my colleagues, alike of life, security, dignity, and peace.
In order to chart a different path, a meaningful political process with Jerusalem at its center must be advanced.
Emem's new political vision offers a different future, one of an open city as the shared capital of two states grounded in the principles of self determination, equality, justice, interdependence, and inclusive security.
This is the political horizon that we need not as a distant aspiration, but as an urgent imperative.
Thank you.
I thank Amy Cohen for her powerful briefing.
I will now make statements in my national capacity.
I thank our briefers for their compelling presentations.
Colleagues, at the outset, I want to underline UK concern at rising conflict in the region and beyond.
I also want to stress that peaceful coexistence between communities is essential.
The United Kingdom was shocked by the despicable anti Semitic terror attack in London last week.
There is no place in our societies for racially motivated hatred and violence.
We will continue to work to end such attacks and to promote tolerance amongst all communities.
Return to the area, I'll make three points.
First, the United Kingdom is clear that a two state solution remains the only way to achieve lasting peace and security for the Israeli and Palestinian people.
However, as we've heard today, the viability of that future is being deliberately and rapidly eroded.
The current Israeli government has nearly doubled the number of illegal settlements, including the E one plan, which would cut the West Bank in as we've just seen.
Security Council Resolution 23 34 is clear.
These settlements are a flagrant violation of international law and must cease.
While settlements expand, so does the displacement of Palestinians from that same land.
This includes Basil's hometown of Massafa Yaah.
It also includes the homes of many more.
2,500 Palestinians have been displaced this year due to demolitions, evictions, and settler attacks.
In Swan and East Jerusalem, families have been forced out and watched as settlers take over the homes they have had for generations.
As we've heard today, Israeli restrictions on movement and the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues are worsening the humanitarian situation, weakening the Palestinian authority, and driving instability.
Second, these policies are accompanied by extreme violence.
Otra reports that 2025 saw the highest number of settler attacks on record.
Last year, Israeli security forces and settlers killed 240 Palestinians, with Palestinian militants killing 17 Israelis.
The United Kingdom strongly condemns all attacks on civilians.
As the occupying power, the Israeli government has clear responsibilities for the protection of civilians, which are not being met.
Acts of settler violence are not a series of isolated incidents.
They represent an accelerated campaign to prevent a future Palestinian state, driven by an extremist ideology which even includes acts of settler terrorism.
Finally, these actions are underpinned by a culture of impunity.
While attacks by Palestinians are rightly investigated and prosecuted, the same cannot be said for crimes by settlers.
Accountability remains weak, with few criminal investigations and many cases closed without justice.
The United Kingdom is also concerned by recent comments by a senior IDF figure noting that lethal force is used against Palestinian stone throwers, but not against settlers committing the same crime.
If accurate, this suggests a discriminatory application of force that raises serious concerns under international law.
Colleagues, these actions constitute a coordinated effort to permanently change the demographic makeup of the West Bank and to prevent the two state solution.
They undermine President Trump's 20 point plan and risk further violence in the region, depriving the Israeli and Palestinian people of the peace they deserve.
We desperately want to see a, a different future, one that delivers peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.
That different future is possible, and it is our duty to strive to achieve it.
I will now resume my function as chair of this area and I give the floor to the representative of Denmark.
Thank you, James, and good morning, everyone.
Denmark is pleased to co host this area formal meeting alongside with the UK, France, Greece, and Latvia.
We extend our gratitude to our briefers for giving us a rare and I'll also say deeply sobering insight into the often overlooked and painful reality of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
I think it's become clear from what we heard this morning that the situation in the West Bank is increasingly precarious, boarding the risk of a collapse, whether you talk economically, socially or politically, and that prospect should concern us all.
As we heard from our briefers, developments on the ground include record level of Israeli settlement expansion, settler violence, demolitions, land seizures, movement restrictions, and policies that weaken the Palestinian authority.
Individually, each of these developments are alarming.
Taken together, they have catastrophic consequences.
They're not only altering the physical and political reality, they're changing the very horizon of what remains possible.
Piece by piece, they're reshaping the map on which the two state solution was intended to be built.
These developments have two troubling indications.
First, the human cost.
As we heard from Mr.
Basil Adré, the reality of daily life that he called in the West Bank.
For example, demolitions mean that families are losing their homes, settlements cause loss of property, farmland, and livelihood.
Checkpoints constraints daily life as we heard also from Mark Rotenberg, about the roadblocks and settler violence creates victims and traumatized communities.
Second is the political cost.
The cumulative efforts of these developments obviously undermines the viability of contiguous Palestinian state.
As the geographic and institutional foundations of such a state are weakened, so is the prospect of a two state solution, and this reality should concern us all.
Denmark's position is clear.
Israel's legitimate security concerns must be ensured, but lasting security cannot be separated from the two state solution as charted in the New York Declaration, which remains the only credible pathway to achieving peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians.
We believe that the current trajectory must be reversed.
This requires a halt to the Israeli settlement expansions, the demolitions and the land seizures.
It requires accountability for settler violence.
It requires unvers ability to deliver essential services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, as well as steps to stabilize and strengthen the Palestinian authority.
In this regard, we welcome the reform efforts by the Palestinian authority and encourage further efforts in this regard.
We also welcome the organization of the Palestinian local elections on April 25th in these certainly very challenging circumstances.
These measures are necessary to preserve the two state solution and a future where Palestinians and Israelis live side by side in peace and dignity.
Because if these conditions for two state solution disappear, we're not solving the conflict.
We are accepting its permanence, and we will not accept that.
The Security Council should act with the urgency required to preserve a future where Palestinians and Israelis can live side by side in peace, security, and dignity.
I thank you.
I thank the Representative of Denmark for their statements, and I give the floor to the representative of France.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I wish, first and foremost, to thank the three briefers, Mr.
Basildra, Amy Cohen, and Max Rodenbeck.
I wish to thank them for their briefings which are both both accurate in terms of the diagnosis and accurate in terms of the demands are rightly addressed to us.
I thank you for their unstinting commitment to peace and their testimony reflects the urgent need to act.
We wanted to organize today's meeting because the conflict in the Middle East should not divert our attention away from the alarming deterioration of the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as Gaza.
The accelerated rate of settlement activity and forced displacements is liable to result in de facto annexation.
The E one project is extremely alarming in this regard.
France calls upon Israel to renounce this and we reiterate our firm condemnation of the settlement building policies.
At the European level, we have measures to distinguish between internationally recognized Israeli territory and the territory that has been occupied since 1967.
Settler led attacks against the Palestinian civilians have proliferated with complete impunity, as we have seen.
This is absolutely unacceptable.
We call upon Israel to protect Palestinian civilians and population to sanction the perpetrators of such attacks.
France supports the adoption of new sanctions measures of the European Union against violent settlers.
The financial blockade that has been imposed on the Palestinian authority is propelling it towards collapse.
Fiscal tax revenues need to be disbursed and restrictions on banking transactions need to be lifted.
It is illogical for there to be demands for reforms of the Palestinian authority, while at the same time stripping it of the necessary means for achievement thereof.
We continue to support reforms through the Joint Committee for building the state of Palestine and we encourage the conduct of presidential elections this year.
Mr.
Chairman, beyond the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is the very viability of the Palestinian state which is at stake.
France will remain mobilized seeking to safeguard the two state solution, as was reflected in the New York Declaration, which was supported by the overwhelming majority of member states.
We will continue to mobilize alongside partners specifically Saudi Arabia and the 17th co chairs of the working groups on the conference on the two state solution.
France will host on the 12th of June in Paris, a meeting of Israeli and Palestinian civil societies one year after the adoption of the 13 June 2025 Paris call and on the eve of the G seven summit.
Israel's right to provide for its security to which we are firmly committed has always been recognized by France.
This right needs to be exercised in a manner that is in accordance with international law, international humanitarian law, and the rights of states and peoples of the region.
It needs to be embedded in mutual recognition and peaceful coexistence.
A two state solution, a solution of two states living side by side is the only possible way towards a just and lasting peace for all.
Today is the 8th of May.
Let us move forward and consider that.
Thank you.
Rest of France for their statements, and I give the floor to the representative of Greece.
Thank you, Chair.
Let me start by thanking our briefers for their powerful briefings and testimonies.
Greece, alongside its fellow European members of the Security Council, co organized today's Area formula meeting as it provides an excellent opportunity to shed light on an issue that is both pertinent and concerning.
As our briefers highlighted, the situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is deteriorating at an alarming pace.
Rising and unprecedented settler violence targeting Palestinians, including Christian communities is condemnable and needs to stop.
While we are encouraged by Israeli pledges to ensure accountability for settler violence incidents, we stress the importance of consistent investigations, follow up, and implementation of relevant decisions.
Positive statements by Israeli officials should be translated into quicker action on the ground.
Repeated incidents of violence against civilians, health workers, and journalists remind us that the international humanitarian law must held without exception.
We are also gravely concerned by persistent trends of imposed restrictions on movement, illegal settlement expansion, and accentuated forced displacement, rendering life for Palestinians unbearable.
We equally reject unilateral actions such as the E one Settlement expansion project, which not only undermined the prospects for a two state solution, but also the prospects for sustainable peace in the region.
In addition, I wish to reiterate that the preservation and respect of the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem is of paramount importance to us.
Colleagues, as highlighted by our briefs, the humanitarian and economic situation in the West Bank continues to worsen rapidly.
We reiterate our call for the release of withheld Palestinian tax revenues as the Palestinian authority is on the brink of financial collapse, a prospect that should be averted as it also increases the risk of greater destabilization of the West Bank with serious ramifications on regional security.
We also reiterate our support to the Palestinian authority considering that it is a credible partner for peace.
We must acknowledge that the Palestinian authority is taking tangible steps toward the implementation of important reforms under adverse circumstances.
We want the Palestinian authority to succeed in its reform agenda and return to Gaza as soon as possible.
In addition, the health sector in the West Bank, including the Jerusalem Hospital network, is under tremendous strain at a time when it is most needed.
Responding to its acute needs, Greece is proud to financially contribute through the European Union PG Gas mechanism in support of the Jerusalem Hospital Network.
Calling also for an end to all restrictions imposed on its operations.
In conclusion, colleagues, for Greece, the path ahead can only be through a credible political process leading to a two state solution, allowing Palestinians and Israelis to live side by side in peace and security.
In this vein, abiding by the Palestine principle, we reiterate that the West Bank and Gaza constitute a single indivisible territorial unit for a future Palestinian state.
As reaffirmed by our meeting here today, By the recent convening of the Global Alliance for the implementation of the two state solution in Brussels and by the New York Declaration, the international community fully backs the promise of a two state solution.
We cannot turn away or cease to do our utmost for a reality of shared peace, security, and prosperity in the Middle East.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of Greece for the statement and I give the floor to the representative of Latvia.
Thank you, President.
Together with the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, and Greece, we convened the S formula meeting to underline that despite the ongoing turmoil in the wider Middle East, our political focus must not be diverted from the urgency of the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The personal testimonies and powerful messages delivered today by the briefers affirm this.
As we heard, the situation in the West Bank has deteriorated since 2023.
And has escalated rapidly in the recent months.
This year alone, 45 Palestinians, including 11 children and two women were killed by Israeli forces and settlers.
The movement restrictions severely affect daily lives of the Palestinian population.
Expanded checkpoints, roadblocks make it increasingly difficult for the Palestinians to access their workplaces and basic services, including schools and hospitals.
It is unacceptable that these obstacles hinder humanitarian aid workers and lifesaving services from reaching those in need.
An increasing number of Palestinian families are being evicted from their homes.
Properties are being demolished to make way for new settlements which are illegal under international law and for settlement outposts, which are illegal also under Israeli law.
Last year, increased settler violence and harassment, movement restrictions, property infrastructure demolition led to forced displacement of more than 36,000 Palestinians.
The overall oppressive environment fuels mutual hatred and in the long run undermines Israel's own efforts to achieve security.
The annexation narrative expressed by some Israeli politicians, irresponsibly creates a breeding ground for aggressive behavior of settlers.
We strongly condemn violent settler attacks and call on Israel to ensure accountability for the committed assaults.
We also condemn policies and threats of forcible displacement and annexation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and urge Israel to abide by its obligations under international law.
It is time to break the vicious cycle of violence and radicalization that increases security risks in the region, including terrorism and the continued fragmentation of the West Bank, coupled with deliberate erosion of prospects for the two state solution, hampers ongoing international efforts to achieve peace and stability, including the implementation of the comprehensive peace plan for Gaza.
A two state solution under the effective administration of the Palestinian authority, one that ensures dignified, non threatening living conditions and offers a meaningful future for the people in the West Bank and Gaza, represents a viable path towards a peaceful side by side coexistence.
To this end, we encourage the Palestinian authority with the international support to continue the substantial reform agenda, to improve governance and basic service provision, including education adhering to UNESCO standards, and to avoid the economic collapse, and for the Palestinian authority to be able to meet its budgetary obligations, including payment of public sector salaries and provision of basic services.
A functioning Palestinian banking system needs to be sustained and Israel must release the withheld tax revenues.
Political solution is the only way to address the security concerns and the legitimate aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians.
A just and lasting peace requires that Gaza and the West Bank are treated as one unified entity.
We're confident that meaningful investment in promoting the two state solution, as defined by the Security Council resolutions and the New York Declaration, paves the way for peaceful coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians and we reaffirm our commitment to work towards this end.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Latvia for the statement and I give the floor to the representative of Somalia.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
At the outset, we thank the organizers for convening this timely area formula on the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
We also thank the briefers, Basil, Max, and Amy for the important testimonies they shared today.
We share the concerns of the continued deterioration of the situation on the ground in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem shared by our briefers today.
The rise in set of terrorism, the expansion of illegal settlement, and the increasing displacement are not isolated development.
They are part of a broader trajectory that threatens to irreversibly undermine the viability of the two state solution.
The scale and the frequency of set attacks, coupled with the lack of accountability are particularly concerning, especially over the 580 attacks resulting in casualty or property damage have already occurred this year.
These actions contribute to a climate of fear and instability for the Palestinian civilians and must be addressed with urgency, particularly for the 685 children forced from their homes by the secular violence in the first quarter of 2026.
Somalia underscores the obligations of the occupying power to protect civilians and uphold international humanitarian and human rights law.
We are equally concerned by the continued demolition of Palestinian homes and forced evictions, which have led to the displacement of more than 2,502,500 Palestinians already in 2026, marking the highest monthly average of lack of permit demolitions in 17 years.
Such practices not only exacerbate humanitarian suffering, but also altered the demographic and geographic realities on the ground, further complicating efforts toward peace, particularly amid of the rapid expansion of E one settlement project.
Mr.
Chair, the economic and financial situation facing by Palestinian authority is reaching a critical point.
Restrictions on movement combined with fiscal measures that undermine its capacity to function, including the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues risk institutional collapse.
Furthermore, the humanitarian response is stifled by a massive funding shortfall with less than 10% of the required 22 and six humanitarian funding secured as of May 1st.
Malia reiterate the importance of fully implementing the United Nations Security Council Resolution 23 34, which clearly states that settlements have no legal validity, and constitute flagrant violation of international law.
The Council must remain united in upholding its own decisions and ensuring their implementations.
We also emphasized the need to build on recent diplomatic efforts, including the commitment outlined in the New York Declaration.
Somalia reaffirms its unwavering support for the inanable rights of the Palestinian people, including the rights of self determination and to establish an independent sovereign state of Palestine with Al Addus Al-Sharif as its capital in accordance with relevant UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
In conclusion, Mr.
Chair, we call for an immediate end to settlement expansion and settler violence, the protection of Palestinian civilians and accountability for violations.
The current trajectory is unsustainable and preserving the prospect for peace requires decisive action now.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of Somalia for the statement and I give the floor to the representative of the Russian Federation.
Distinguished colleagues, we believe that the conduct of today's meeting is indeed very timely.
The situation on the west bank of the Jordan River has been baselessly eclipsed by the regional escalation in the Persian Gulf, as well as by the adoption of President Trump's peace plan on the Gaza strip where the West Bank is not even mentioned.
Nine years after the adoption of the landmark Security Council Resolution 23 34, with a condemnation of Israeli settlement activity and an acknowledgment of the illegality of plans for the annexation of these occupied lands and the forcible displacement of Palestinians, the situation in the West Bank has only worsened.
According to the United Nations assessments, the current Israeli leadership has already surpassed its predecessors in terms of the quantity and the magnitude of approved plans for the fragmentation and settlement building.
According to OCHA, the number of settler attacks from January 2023 to December 2025 numbered 4,675 incidents.
These statistics fly in the face of Israeli assertions about the allegedly isolated nature of illegal acts by individual criminals.
We are gravely concerned by the systematic oppression of Christians, as well as by the constant provocations and violations of the status quo of Jerusalem's holy sites.
Israel lies at the very heart, the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions and thereby bears particular responsibility for the maintenance of inter religious peace and for reigning in fanatics who are intolerant of others and other religions.
It is hard to imagine what ordinary Palestinians living under Israeli occupation feel.
Israelis carry out frequent armed raids, clearing out settlement clearing out residential areas and refugee camps, conducting arbitrary arrest of Palestinians, as well as imposing large scale restrictions on restrictions on movement, as was mentioned by the deputy Special coordinator for Middle East Peace Permas Alkav today, virtually the entire Palestinian population of the West Bank is regularly encountering aggression, vandalism, and intimidation frequently in the presence and with even the participation of IDF soldiers.
We are particularly disheartened by the fact that the United States essentially has withdrawn and has removed the Security Council from addressing the Palestinian Israeli resolution through Security Council Resolution 20 803, which they pushed through and which approved the Trump plan, they are attempting to even expunge from the agenda the bedrock principle of two states for two peoples.
We are heartened by the fact that the overwhelming majority of member states of the United Nations, as was demonstrated in today's discussion, continue to firmly believe in the fact that there is an alternative to the achievement of peace exclusively through the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting in peace and security with Israel in accordance with the international legal frameworks.
To conclude, we wish to reaffirm our support in principle and fundamental principle support for United Nations Relief Works Agency, Unwa, which not only is an indispensable linchpin for the delivery of comprehensive assistance to Palestinians on the OPT and in neighboring Arab nations, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, but also as a guarantor for the protection of their fundamental right to return.
We call upon the international donor community to step up financing for call upon the Israeli leadership to revert back to compliance with its international legal obligations and to provide the agency with opportunities to fully carry out its efforts to help stabilize the entire Middle East region.
Thank you for your attention.
I thank the representative of the Russian Federation for their statements.
I give the floor to the representative of Panama.
Thank you.
Chair.
We're grateful for the briefings from the speakers.
Chair, for decades, the international community has produced frameworks, principles, and various roadmaps aimed at achieving a lasting solution to the question of Palestine.
Resolutions of this Council, including resolution 23 34 of 2016, together with the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly.
The agreements reached between the parties and other processes before relevant international legal bodies have established certain legal and political parameters that point toward a two state solution.
This normative framework should have been accompanied by sustained and gradual political will from its inception so that its effective implementation would already be a reality, one that might have greatly prevented what is currently taking place in this region.
Unfortunately, this was not the case, and regardless of divergent interests and the erosion that this framework has suffered over decades due to shifting geopolitical trends, Panama remains confident that peace is possible if the international community can once again align itself with the decisions adopted by this organization.
Unfortunately, the peoples of Palestine and Israel continued to pay the highest price for the lack of coherence between words and actions with violence and extremism that contribute nothing toward changing the current state of affairs.
This is reflected in violence against civilians, forced displacement, demolitions, and the accelerated expansion of settlements.
Dynamics that systematically erode the foundation of the two state solution, and what's worse, they threaten to make the conflict irreversible.
Added to this is the situation in Gaza, which cannot and must not be considered in isolation.
Gaza is an integral part of Palestinian territory and of any viable political solution.
The persistence of the humanitarian and security crisis highlights the fact that there can be no partial solution to a conflict that is by its very nature comprehensive.
Chair Panar believes that the immediate priority must be the protection of the civilian population, as well as the establishment and preservation of the conditions that would make a political solution possible.
This requires, first and foremost, strict respect by all parties for international humanitarian law and human rights law, as well as the adoption of concrete measures to prevent and stop violence, ensure credible investigations, and guarantee accountability for all incidents.
This includes guaranteeing the protection of medical and humanitarian personnel as well as rapid and unhindered access for ambulances and emergency teams to the civilian population, both in Gaza and in the West Bank.
Secondly, it's essential to advance the effective implementation of Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 23 34, which clearly establishes the need to cease all activities that undermine the two state solution.
The credibility of the international system depends to a great extent on its ability to ensure that its own decisions are respected and applied consistently.
Thirdly, it's fundamental to adopt concrete measures to preserve the territorial, political and economic viability of present and future Palestine.
This is essential and must be guaranteed and respected so that both peoples, Israel and Palestine may live side by side in peace, security, and dignity within borders recognize mutually and internationally.
Logically, this implies halting the expansion of settlements, preventing the displacement of Palestinian communities, and strengthening the Palestinian authority in the face of the growing financial crisis that limits its capacity for governance and the provision of basic services.
Strengthening this authority, together with the reforms required in its leadership, are essential for political dialogue to move forward in a concrete manner and for the reconstruction of Gaza and the preservation of the West Bank to serve as the guiding goal so that future generations of Palestinians may live with dignity, prosperity, and security that they deserve.
The path toward a just dignified and sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians does not need to be reinvented.
It needs to be implemented.
Thank you very much.
I thank the Representative of Panama for the statement and I give the floor to the representative of Pakistan.
Thank you for convening this meeting and we also thank the briefers for their insightful and forceful presentations.
While international attention is consumed by multiple crises across the region, the systematic annexation of the occupied West Bank, expansion of illegal settlements, demolitions and land seizures, and forced displacement of Palestinians continue unabated and this requires our attention.
Israeli policies and illegal actions, unprecedented in scale and impact are undermining the prospects of a viable Palestinian state.
In this regard, I wish to make the following three points.
First, Pakistan condemns Israel's ongoing legislative and administrative meas aimed at entrenching its illegal occupation and transforming de facto an accession into Dj control.
Recent decisions granting expanded administrative authority over occupied territory, including land registration, and confiscation mechanisms constitute a grave violation of international law, including the fourth Geneva Convention, as well as the comprehensive plan to end Gaza conflict, which the Council endorsed through Resolution 28 oh three.
These actions must be reversed immediately.
Second, as we heard, settlement expansion continues at an alarming pace.
In nearly four years, the occupying power has approved 102 new settlements.
Nearly doubling the 127 settlements that existed previously.
These mays are deliberately designed to permanently alter and establish facts on the ground.
The illegal E one settlement project that cuts through the heart of the West Bank and the tendering of over 3,400 housing units east of Jerusalem are attempts to render a contiguous and viable Palestinian state geographically impossible.
The same time, settler violence is escalating at an unprecedented rate.
In 2025, the UN recorded the highest number of settler related attacks against Palestinians since systematic documentation began in 2006.
All settler violence and settlement activities must cease in full compliance with international law and relevant council resolutions.
Including 23 34.
Third, the deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory is equally alarming.
Israel's continued withholding of Palestinian tax revenues has exacerbated the fiscal crisis and undermined the Palestinian authority's ability to provide essential public services.
These mays are further weakening Palestinian institutions at a time when preserving the institutional and territorial integrity of the occupied Palestinian territory remains critical for realization of the two state solution.
President, the international community, especially those with influence over Israel, must ensure accountability, compliance with international obligations, and implementation of relevant UN resolutions.
As we have heard, annexation is on full throttle.
And urgency for intervention is clear.
Pakistan reiterates that the only viable path to a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East lies in ending the illegal Israeli occupation of all Arab territories and realizing the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self determination through the establishment of an independent, sovereign, viable, and contiguous state of Palestine based on the pre 1967 borders with Al Kurdz Al-Sharif as its capital in accordance with international legitimacy.
I thank you.
I thank the Representative of Pakistan for the statement, and I give the floor to the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Mercy.
Thank you.
The Democratic Republic of Congo wishes to thank you for organizing this area formula meeting on the alarming situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
We also wish to thank the briefers for their statements and for their illuminating testimony.
The DRC reaffirms our unstinting commitment to the purposes and the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter and respect for customary international law, international humanitarian law, as well as international human rights law.
And yet we remain deeply concerned by the persistent deterioration of the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
My delegation recalls the fact that any unilateral measure which is geared towards altering the status of the concerned territories constitutes a violation of international law and the relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions, specifically Security Council Resolution 23 34.
In this context, it is important to underscore the fact that these grave violations of international law which have been observed significantly compromise the prospects for a just lasting comprehensive peace.
In the light of this grim situation, and rightly, we applaud the ongoing efforts undertaken by the international community, which are geared towards relaunching the peace process in the Middle East, specifically the adoption of Security Council Resolution 20 803, which supports the Comprehensive Peace Plan of President Trump, which is designed to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza and which has authorized an international stabilization force and created a peace board for transitional governance and for reconstruction.
Furthermore, my delegation also wishes to voice our grave concern in light of the deterioration of the humanitarian and economic situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The economic and movement related restrictions, destructions of infrastructure as well as tax related measures which have been affected Palestinian affecting Palestinian revenues are further eroding the Palestinian authority and significantly dwindling its ability to deliver basic services to the population there.
In that vein, we underscore the important need to guarantee continuity of delivery of humanitarian assistance, particularly the operations of Anwa, the United Nations Relief Works Agency, whose role remains of paramount importance when it comes to the lives of millions of Palestinians, we urge the parties to exercise restraint, to refrain from any unilateral action which is liable to exacerbate tensions, and to embrace the path of pragmatic dialogue, which is the only credible way towards a lasting peace.
Lastly, my delegation wishes to reiterate our staunch support for initiatives to enhance synergy of efforts in order to ensure the meaningful implementation of the relevant resolutions and to facilitate the establishment of the necessary conditions for just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the DRC for their statements, and I give the floor to the representative of the United States.
Colleagues.
I would ordinarily prefer to thank the briefers but will not because I am disappointed by the observable fact that they could not, indeed, they chose not to put aside their own political biases, to present a balanced presentation, nor a viable path forward.
The United States remains committed to working in close partnership with Israel and key Arab nations and the international community to bring peace, prosperity, security, and dignity to the region.
As President Trump has made clear, the United States opposes Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Stability in the West Bank is vital for Israel's security and aligns with our goal of achieving peace in the region.
We are in regular dialogue with partners about improving stability and security in the West Bank.
We condemn terrorism or criminal violence by any party against any resident in the West Bank.
Furthermore, the United States will continue to work toward a future in which the people in the West Bank and Gaza live in freedom and prosperity and at peace with Israel.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of the United States for their statement and I give the floor to the representative of Bahrain.
I appreciate, Mr.
President, I appreciate the initiative of the UK, France, Denmark, Greece, and Latvia to convene this important meeting that allows us to discuss the Palestinian issue with flexibility and openness.
I also welcome the briefers in this meeting.
At the outset, we reiterate our steadfast support to the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, notably the right to self determination and the establishment of their independent sovereign state along the borders of June 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital in line with the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international resolutions.
In this context, the Kingdom of Bahrain welcomes the international efforts to support the recognition of the state of Palestine.
We welcome the recent developments and positive stances from several countries demonstrating a strong conviction in the importance of establishing the two state solution and enabling the Palestinian people to attain their legitimate rights.
The Kingdom of Bahrain also commends the efforts made by the sisterly kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the context of the global alliance for the implementation of this two state solution.
This contributes to mobilizing international support and would lead to a process achieving a just comprehensive and lasting peace.
Mr.
President, the continued violations, illegal settlement practices, settlement expansions, settler violence increase, all are factors that have led to the deterioration of the situation in the West Bank.
They threaten regional stability and undermine peace chances.
They obstruct efforts aiming at reaching lasting solutions.
The Kingdom of Bahrain expresses its concern over the reports and international statements.
Reflecting the expansion of illegal settlements and other unilateral measures affecting the demographic composition of Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
The Kingdom of Bahrain stresses the need to protect civilians and guarantee the safe, unhindered humanitarian access in light of the concerning deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation.
We affirm the need to preserve the historical and legal status quo of Al Aqsa mosque.
We reject any practices that violate the sanctity of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem.
We also commend the positions and statements of the League of Arab States in which the League rejects any violations of the Aqsa mosque.
Mr.
President, we believe that the numerous international initiatives pertaining to the Palestinian question are a positive indicator and they show a consensus around this issue.
We We also commend what we have heard, especially during the open debate last month.
We affirm that the United Nations is an essential partner in international efforts aiming at solving the Palestinian question and the UN agencies are important to provide humanitarian assistance, protect civilians, and preserve diplomatic tracks.
The Board of Peace, welcomed by the Resolution 28 oh three is an opportunity to restore hope to the Palestinians through the work of the National Committee for the administration of Gaza and the International Stabilization Force.
We also welcome the President Trump Peace Plan and look forward to moving smoothly to stage two of the plan.
The meeting of the Adc Liaison Committee last month is also in line with the New York Declaration which charts an irreversible course towards a better future for the Palestinians and Israelis and for the peoples of the region.
In light of the above, the kingdom of Bahrain stresses the importance of working in complementarity between the different initiatives to enhance their effectiveness and to enable Palestinian government to discharge its responsibilities in a manner that contributes to protecting civilians, especially in light of the growing settler violence.
In conclusion, the kingdom of Bahrain calls for consolidating international efforts and intensifying coordination among tracts in order to address the root causes of the conflict and to move forward to a just comprehensive and lasting peace that would ensure security and stability to the peoples of the region.
Thank you, President.
I thank the representative of Bahrain for their statements, and I give the floor to the representative of China.
Chair, I thank Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, and the United Kingdom for convening today's area formula meeting.
I thank the briefers for their briefings.
Recently, the escalated tensions in the Middle East have diverted the world's attention away from the Palestinian question.
However, the situation in the West Bank is deteriorating at a faster pace with increasingly rampant violence and illicit activities.
The police in question has remained intractable for decades, despite multiple Security Council NG resolutions and the ICGs advisory opinions regarding the occupation.
Lack of progress is ultimately attributable to the failure to implement the aforementioned decisions.
The international community must move beyond mere political appeals and take concrete actions to restore stability in the West Bank as soon as possible with a view to facilitating a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the police in question at an early date.
I wish to make the following three points.
First, illegal settlement activities must be stopped.
The occupying power is ratcheting up policies in support of expanded settlement activities resulting in the destruction of numerous Palestinian homes and the displacement of Palestinians.
Settlement activities violate international law and the Council's resolution 23 34 exacerbate illegal occupation and erode the foundations of the two state solution.
I must heed the strong call of the international community, immediately cease all settlement activities and end its illegal occupation.
Second, Palestinian civilians must be protected.
In today's West Bank, innocent civilians are subject to sudden attacks or even gunfire, whether in their homes, schools, or on the streets.
It is reported that in April alone, more than 1,600 incidents of violence occurred perpetrated by both extremist settlers and members of the Israeli security forces.
We condemn all violence targeting civilians and call upon Israel to take concrete measures to immediately curb the violence in the West Bank and hold all perpetrators accountable.
Third, support for Palestine must be stepped up.
Faced with restrictions and repression on multiple fronts, the Palestinian authority is grappling with an increasingly dire fiscal crisis leading to curtailed public services and worsening living conditions.
Israel should lift its unreasonable restrictions on the West Bank economy, promptly hand over withheld tax revenues, and cease undermining the governance foundations of the PA.
The international community must step up its support in order to help Palestine build up its governance capacity and achieve sustainable development.
Sir, the two state solution remains the only viable path to resolving the Palestinian question.
The international community must mobilize broader political support to facilitate the early realization of an independent Palestinian state and its full UN membership.
Both Gaza and the West Bank constitute integral parts of the state of Palestine.
It is imperative to achieve a lasting cease fire in Gaza alleviate the humanitarian crisis and advance postwar reconstruction.
China stands ready to work alongside the international community to make unremitting efforts to end the suffering of the Palestinian people, implement the two state solution, and achieve the peaceful coexistence of Palestine and Israel.
Thank you Chair.
I thank the representative of China for their statements.
I give the floor to the representative of Colombia.
Proceed.
Thank you very much Chair.
I'd like to thank you and the organizers for convening this timely meeting and the briefers for their important presentations.
Sir, the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues to worsen.
The transfer of powers to civilian authorities, the expansion of settlements, and the legalization of occupied lands constitute a policy of de facto annexation aimed at irreversibly altering the composition of the occupied Palestinian territory.
This is compounded by a systematic pattern of violence and dispossession encouraged by hate rhetoric from the very highest levels of the Israeli government, which forces the displacement of entire communities.
More than 5,800 Palestinians have been displaced in the West Bank as a result of settler violence and access restrictions, reflecting a dynamic intended to make their continued presence in the territory unviable.
Restrictions on the exercise of freedom of worship, including limitations on access to the Al Aqsa mosque, as well as attacks against Muslim and Christian communities constitute serious violations of fundamental rights.
Okay.
Suffocation of the Palestinian economic and financial system through the deduction and withholding of tax revenues, among other measures, weakens the Palestinian authorities governance capacity.
At the same time, attacks against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East and repeated attacks against medical and humanitarian personnel undermine the population's access to essential services.
What's happening in the West Bank is not isolated.
It's the continuation of the genocide in Gaza and the policy of occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing that directly undermines the viability of the two state solution and any prospect for peace.
The International Court of Justice has been clear.
All states have the obligation to not recognize the illegal occupation, not to render aid or assistance in maintaining it and to act to prevent international crimes.
These obligations are not optional.
Colombia has undertaken concrete commitments such as those agreed upon at the meeting of the Hay Group in March 2026, including the following.
Firstly, ensure accountability and not serve as a refuge for those responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Secondly, not recognize illegal settlements or permit material support to the occupation.
Thirdly, prevent the transfer of arms, ammunition, and dual use goods to Israel.
Genocide does not occur in a vacuum.
It is facilitated by lack of action and by the complicity of third party actors.
Colombia calls on all states to end any form of material support and to comply with their international legal obligations.
History will judge our decisions.
Sure, the Palestinian people's right to self determination can only be realized in a viable contiguous, sovereign and independent state within the pre 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Before concluding, Colombia expresses its firm rejection of Israel's illegal attack against the Sumt flotilla in international waters and demands the immediate release of all its members.
These acts constitute serious violations of international law, including the law of the sea and must be unequivocally condemned.
Thank you very much.
I thank the representative of Colombia for the statement and I give the floor to the representative of Liberia.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Liberia thanks the conveners of this area meeting and acknowledges the valuable contributions of the briefs.
Liberia remains deeply concerned by the continued deterioration of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, in all of its manifestations, particularly in the West Bank, and by the widening cycle of violence across the region.
We understand both the width of injustice and the resilience required in the quest for survival.
The communities of the West Bank and generations living therein have endured a cycle of violence and insecurity that continues to claim innocent lives on all sides.
The ongoing hostilities, military operations, the imposition of discriminatory fiscal policies, and continuing tensions across Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank remind us that lasting peace cannot be achieved through force alone.
The continued expansion of settlements, the persistence of division, and the deepening mistrust between communities risk further enhancing and entrenching this conflict rather than resolving it.
Israelis and Palestinian families alike continue to live with fear and uncertainty, never knowing when the next escalation may occur.
This reality underscores a fundamental truth.
Sustainable peace emerge not from fear, retaliation, or imbalance, but from dialogue, mutual recognition, security, and justice for all people.
We must recognize a truth as urgent as it is clear.
Peace is not measured by military strength or political advantage, but by the ability of all people to live with dignity, safety, and hope.
Only when both Israelis and Palestinians can envision a secure feature for their children free from violence and despair will the region move closer to lasting stability.
Liberia therefore calls for a renewed commitment to diplomacy and international law and work collectively towards a just enduring peace for all.
Liberia reaffirms its commitment to the two state solution.
Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
I thank the representative of Liberia for their statements.
I will now give the floor to the representative of the Observer State of Palestine.
Thank you, Mr.
Chair.
Allow me at the outset to thank the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Greece, and Latvia for organizing this critical meeting.
Allow me also to thank Mr.
Vorenberg, miss Cohen, for their very important presentations, and of course, to have a few words for Basin, not only for the words he has spoken, but for his courage for embodying peaceful resistance against a very violent occupation.
Basil is filming the crimes against his family and his community at the peril of his life because he believes that if you see these images, that will trigger the appropriate international response.
Let's prove him right.
Let's prove that this risk is not made in vain and Basil is also a father of a beautiful child who has a right to live in freedom, and dignity and insecurity.
I want to start by asking the council to go on the ground to visit Palestine.
This should be the first point on your agendas.
I think that has a deterrence value and that's also important to inform your actions.
If you're denied that right, that's already a signal of who has something to hide.
We are not dealing with a fringe group of settlers or a couple of rogue ministers.
We are dealing with a systematic policy whose objective is clear to grab maximum Palestinian land with minimum Palestinians, whatever the means, including brutal force against civilians.
I want you to imagine with me if Netanyaju had asked his aides, what could we do? Give me a list of options to destabilize the West Bank.
What could their answer be? You will see the policies we are seeing now.
They would tell him, Build more settlements deep inside Palestinian communities, do it in the I area and say explicitly it is to kill the Palestinian state.
They would tell him, destroy refugee camps, leading to the largest scale displacement in the history of the West Bank since 1967, with 40,000 Palestinians displaced in two years.
Lead relentless military incursions, detain adults and children, use them as human shields, parade them in the streets, humiliate them, and make sure that the soldiers film these scenes and film themselves in the houses of these people, mocking them while they are kneeling before them blindfolded and let them even make some sexual comments about Palestinian women on camera.
These are things that exist.
The videos exist.
You can see them.
Unleash groups of settlers to terrorize communities all across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, killing, maiming, rampaging day and night under the watch and with the direct support of Israeli occupation forces, the most moral army, they say.
Make people either demolish their homes with their own hands or pay for that demolishing.
Make sure people cannot go out of their towns, cannot reach their schools, their hospitals, their work, their relatives, 1,000 restrictions on movement from walls to military infrastructure to gates that can be closed, fragmenting the land and the population.
Crack down on UN organizations, on humanitarian and human rights NGOs, make sure they cannot deliver aid to people and if they do, make sure to destroy that aid, like the school in Masafita.
Abuse Palestinian prisoners, storm their cells, show soldiers, having their knees over their necks, film all of this and release it to the public.
Let their people see images of emisciated prisoners who have been running hungry with diseases raging all over their bodies.
Let 100 of them die in custody over the last two years, 100 at least Palestinian prisoners dying under torture or due to medical neglect.
If that's not enough, pass a death penalty bill against them.
Make inflammatory speeches, speak of the ethnic cleansing you are conducting.
Say you will exterminate these people.
And we forgot the holy sites.
That has an inniary power.
Let's do that as well.
Storm these holy sites, beat Muslim and Christian pilgrims.
Have ministers openly call for a takeover of the holyest sites, obliterating the historic status quo.
Let's make sure to squeeze Palestinians economically and financially and make sure we impair the's ability not only to deliver basic services to its people, but even to pay salaries to its employees.
Imagine what the PA collapse could lead to, the chaos that may ensue and what an opportunity it would be for a mass level displacement finally dealing with the demographic threat that the world calls the Palestinian people.
The aides would conclude, frankly, there is no way that all these actions would not lead to a total breakdown, Mr.
Prime Minister, rest assured.
Then we can bring our plans to fruition.
This is utterly illegal, criminal, immoral.
It's also pure madness.
You cannot manufacture such a level of suffering and despair and try to control its outcomes.
I assure you they are frustrated that this collapse has not happened, that the explosion has not happened, but we should not wait till it occurs, and it's too late.
Israel has effectively ensured control over 60% of the West Bank and 60% of the Gaza strip, by the way.
The annexation we speak of condemned and rejected by all of you.
We heard that again today is already our reality.
Israel for all purposes, is destroying the two state solution, openly stating it is killing the Palestinian state.
It's also clear it has no intention to have one state where everybody enjoys equal rights from the river to the sea.
What is it striving for? Horrific options that you all know about and that cannot be accepted? Israel will stop at nothing to achieve its aims.
The question is, what is the international community willing to do? Are the actions that are already underway of nature to deter Israel? We have the response every day.
Israel is undeterred.
These actions are not sufficient.
They are not close to being a response to the horrors we are seeing.
This council condemned settlements for six decades now and Israel continued building them.
We have now 750,000 Israeli settlers in occupied Palestine.
This council spoke of disarming settlers of an international protection presence throughout the occupied Palestine territory 32 years ago after the massacre in Hamil Ib Brahimi.
Israel has since massively armed settlers and denied any form of international protection presence, even the most basic one.
What will we do about it? What are Palestinians supposed to do? Put yourself in their place for a second.
They watch as the countries speak of Israel's right to security when their own country is being erased, when they are not only deprived of the most basic forms of security but denied the very right to life.
Israel illegally enables hundreds of thousands of settlers to come and live on Palestinian land, and then explained that their security requires seizing Palestinian land, massive military presence, and arming these settlers.
It's about colonization, not security.
What about the right of Palestinians to defend themselves? What about the right to protection? What about their right to security? We are not asking to arm Palestinians in response.
We are not preaching violence as a response.
We are asking for international protection, the one they deserve.
Where is it? We are asking for accountability for crimes against our people because we know the cost of impunity.
Our people live it in the flesh.
Help us tell Palestinians protection is on the way.
They can't be asked to wait till their children are killed or orphaned.
Wait for the next attack and hope that when the settlers come and burn your house, your family will not be in it.
Unfortunately, the Napshewa family was not that lucky.
Or when a child is shot in the head at his school, it is not your child.
Unfortunately, a Nasan family was not that lucky.
What options do they have apart from living in this hell? Or as Israel hopes, leaving their country altogether.
None of these are acceptable options.
What does it mean to call on Israel to investigate or prosecute or punish? Who asks the perpetrators to investigate and prosecute and punish? Yes, these are Israeli obligations under international law as an occupying power, but decades of experience show us Israel not only has no intention to do so, but it is conducting these crimes and ensuring impunity for them.
You look at the actions of the Israeli occupation forces and it looks like they have gone wrong.
But they haven't.
They understand the assignment.
They understand their real instructions.
That's why they can post online images of their crimes because they know they will not be held accountable for them.
You know the best case for you to know that? A Palestinian prisoner was raped and the rape was filmed and the soldiers who raped them saw the charges against them dropped and the Prime Minister congratulated them on Twitter.
Rapists on video, not punished.
This is the country that will investigate.
This is the country that will prosecute and hold accountable.
Palestine rightly considers we need to break the cycle of violence and made the choice that you cannot break the cycle of violence by feeding it.
That's a courageous choice.
But it can only make sense if it's not only one side breaking the cycle of violence.
It cannot mean that Palestinians stay still while being shot at, while they're confronted with unhinged, unrelenting, brutal violence that the world has grown accustomed to.
It would not have grown accustomed to Israelis facing violence.
It shouldn't, but it also shouldn't in the case of Palestinians.
All civilian lives are worth saving.
Allow me to conclude by saying we are trying.
Desperately trying to find a peaceful way forward.
We are trying to convince our people that there is a peaceful path that leads to their freedom, that leads to a normal life in their land, that leads to dignity and liberty.
Help us show there is one.
Many of them can't see it and can we honestly blame them? We all have a responsibility to chart that path and the occupation and achieve peace before it is too late.
If it's not already too late, we need to act.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the Observer State of Palestine for the statement.
Colleagues, if you'll excuse me, I will leave briefly and hand over the chairing to my Danish colleague.
I have to make a statement upstairs.
I'll be back shortly, but in the meantime, I'm going to give the floor to the representative of Jordan to make a statement.
Thank you.
Karam Thank you.
I thank Denmark, France, the UK, Greece, and Latvia for convening this meeting.
I also thank the briefers for their valuable briefings.
I would like to underscore the following five points.
First, Jordan renews its condemnation of all illegal Israeli images that entrench the occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory and undermine the two state solution, which represents the only path to achieving a just peace and constitutes a strategic choice and a regional and international necessity.
Reaffirm the illegality of settlements and the annexation of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as any attempt to displace Palestinians from their land.
We stress the need for the Security Council and the international community to adopt clear positions against these practices and to condemn them as flagrant violations of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, including Resolution 2334 and the 2024 advisory opinion of the ICG.
Second, we condemn the ongoing Israeli violations of the historical and legal status quo of the Islamic and Christian holyides in occupied Jerusalem and the attempts to alter this status quo, particularly the continued incursion by settlers and extremist Israeli ministers into Al Aqsa Mosque Al Haram Aasrif under the protection of the Israeli police, accompanied by provocative and inciting practices.
We reaffirm that Al Aksa mosque in its entirety of 144 Dnims is an exclusive place for worship for Muslims.
That the Jerusalem Alka and Al Aqsa Mosque Affairs Department of the Jordanian Ministry of Alkaf, Islamic Affairs, and the Holy Places, is the sole legally competent authority responsible for administering the affairs of Al Haram Asharif and regulating access to it.
We also renew our condemnation of Israel, the occupying power for violating the right of Muslims and Christians to worship and preventing them from accessing their holy sites in flagrant breach of international law and international humanitarian law.
We further reaffirm Jordan's continued role in protecting the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, preserving the historical and legal status quo and safeguarding the city's identity within the framework of Jordan's custodianship.
Third, we stress the necessity of implementing the outcomes of the UN high level international conference on the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two state solution held in July 2025 and co chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.
We emphasize that the implementation of the two state solution and the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state on the lines for June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, living in peace and security alongside Israel must be a priority for your counsel and for all those who seek for our region to build a safe and stable future.
Fourth, we reaffirm the central and indispensable role of Unrwa in providing vital services to approximately 6 million Palestinian refugees in accordance with its mandate.
We call on the international community to provide political and financial support to the agency, and we condemn all Israeli measures aimed at undermining the role of Unwa and terminating its work.
Fifth, we stress the necessity of stabilizing and implementing all provisions of President Trump peace plan and Security Council Resolution 28 oh three and removing all obstacles to the Delivery of humanitarian assistance.
We renew our appreciation for the efforts undertaken by the US, Egypt, and Qatar, and Turkey to achieve cease fire.
Thank you.
I thank the permanent representative of Jordan and I give the floor to the permanent representative of Egypt or the representative of Egypt.
Sorry.
I thank the organizers of this important meeting at a time when the situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip, is witnessing an unprecedented deterioration.
Allow me to highlight the following three points.
First, Egypt condemns all Israeli violations of the historical and legal status quo of all Christians and Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem.
Egypt condemns all illegal settlement activities and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Egypt stresses that Israel has no sovereignty on the OPT.
We reject categorically violations targeting the Holy Al Aksa Mosque and Al Haram Al-Sharif.
As well as any attempts to annex the West Bank, disconnected from Gaza, or displace the Palestinian people.
Second, Egypt calls on the Security Council to shoulder fully its responsibilities to bring to an end the systematic Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people.
We call on Israel to end practices that undermine peace efforts.
And undermine the implementation of President Trump's peace plan as well as resolution 23 oh eight of the Security Council, knowing that Egypt, Jordan, and partners Qatar and Turkey make significant effort to implement its provisions on the ground, namely provisions that have to do with alleviating the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinian people.
Egypt also calls on Israel to fully abide by provisions of international law, international humanitarian law, and Security Council resolutions.
This includes ending all unilateral measures, seizing restrictions against the Palestinian authority, lifting restrictions at crossings, ensuring full humanitarian access, ending targeting United Nations bodies that are active in the occupied territories, namely Anwa and other humanitarian organizations.
Third, Achieving just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East starts with upholding the legitimate inalieuable rights of the Palestinian people, most notably the right to self determination, ending occupation, and establishing the Palestinian independent state on the lines of four of June 67 with East Jerusalem as its capital and implementing the two state solution in line with what was mentioned in the 2025 New York Declaration.
To conclude, we call for a wider recognition of the Palestinian state and full membership at the United Nations.
I thank you.
I thank the permanent representative of Egypt for his statement.
I put the floor to the permanent representative of Qatar.
San Cedar Asa, Madam Chair, I express appreciation to the organizers for this meeting as well as the briefers.
This meeting is timely to highlight the ongoing escalation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, despite efforts to achieve peace and end the war in Gaza through President Trump's comprehensive peace plan, a goal that the State of Qatar exerted tireless diplomatic efforts to achieve along with the Arab Republic of Egypt, the United States, and Turkey.
Madam Chair, settlement activities is illegal and a flagrant violation of international law, Security Council resolutions, and the 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice.
In this regard, the State of Qatar condemns the Israeli occupation's decision to convert land in the West Bank into so called state property and rejects all measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character, and status of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
O.
These measures are an assault to the viability of the Palestinian state and the implementation of the two state solution and undermines ongoing efforts to achieve peace and stability, including the 20 point plan for Gaza.
Madam Chair, the State of Qatar condemns the storming of the Al Aksa mosque by the Israeli officials and sectars and the raising of the Israeli occupation flag in the courtyards.
This is a flagrant violation of international law and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims worldwide.
The illegal and historic status quo in Jerusalem and the Islamic and Christian holy sites must be preserved.
State of Qatar condemns the escalating settler violence against Palestinians, including the recent attacks on Palestinian schools and children and calls for accountability.
Madam Chair, the international community must assume its responsibility to confront the repeated Israeli violations and implement the relevant Security Council resolutions, including resolution 23 34 and 20 803.
State of Qatar reaffirms its support for efforts to achieve a just and comprehensive peace and reiterates its firm and unwavering stance in support of the Palestinian cause and the steadfastness of the Fratal Palestinian people based on the international legitimacy resolutions and the two state solution, which guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and I thank you.
I thank the Permanent Representative Qatar for her statement and I give the floor to the permanent representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
At the outset, I extend my sincere thanks to Denmark, the UK, France, Latvia, and Greece for convening this important meeting in light of the ongoing situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
We thank all delegations who supported this meeting and we thank the briefers.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows with concern the continued escalation in the occupied Palestinian territory and the flagrant violations of international law and international human rights law which undermine the a opportunities for just and lasting peace in the region.
We condemn all measures that alter the status quo in the occupied land, including attempts to annex lands in the West Bank and turning them into the so called state property.
This is a flagnt violation to international law.
Saudi Arabia stresses that Israel has no control over the land of the occupied Palestinian territory, and we stress our support to the inanable right of the Palestinian people to establish its independent state along the 1976 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and we support the implementation of Security Council resolutions, including resolution 23 34.
Madam President, in light of the deteriorating situation in Gaza, we stress the need for the safe and sustainable unimpeded access of humanitarian aid into Gaza and to enable humanitarian agencies to perform their duties according to international humanitarian law.
Saudi Arabia condemns the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, medical and humanitarian facilities, and rejects the strongest words, any attempts to undermine the protection of civilians.
Madam President, peace starts with the recognition of Palestine and not as a token, but as a strategic necessity.
Recognition is the beginning of the end of this conflict, meaning that it's not a matter of words, it is a matter of actions and to translate our words into realities.
Last year, Saudi Arabia, along with France, cosponsored and co convened the international conference on the Palestine on the cause of Palestine and which aimed at the recognition and the establishment of the state of Palestine to live side by side with Israel.
The outcomes of the conference cover the legal, political, humanitarian and strategic path in this cause and it has a framework to implement the two state solution and to achieve peace and security for all.
Saudi Arabia provided more than $5 million in support of the Palestinian people and through King Salman Center for humanitarian aid, provided more than $185 million for Gaza and we cooperate with many international humanitarian organizations to provide humanitarian assistance and have them delivered into the Palestinian territory.
Madam President, Saudi Arabia is committed to uphold the international obligations, and we commend its positive contribution to the meeting of the Board of Peace to support efforts to end the war in Gaza and to move towards a credible path for peace.
We stress that achieving the comprehensive lasting peace requires addressing the root causes, not only to manage its implications.
In this connection, Saudi Arabia supports all efforts to implement international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative to end the occupation and to establish the independent state of Palestine.
In conclusion, Saudi Arabia reiterates its position that the lasting and comprehensive peace remains their strategic choice.
Its implementation and achievement requires genuine political will and the upholding of international law and resolutions of international legitimacy.
Thank you, Madam President.
I thank the permanent representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and I now give the floor to the representative of United Arab Emirates.
Madam Chair, last year witnessed significant developments on the Palestinian question, including the adoption of the New York Declaration with an overwhelming majority, the launch of President Donald Trump's Raza peace plan, and the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza.
Taken together, these developments alongside the growing recognition of the state of Palestine, have helped strengthen international efforts toward achieving a just and lasting peace and reinvigorating the political track for resolving the Palestinian Israeli conflict.
Yet in parallel to this momentum, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has continued to deteriorate.
This was evidenced by intensified settlement activity, including the advancement of plans for the E one corridor, as well as the escalating violence by extremist settlers, forced displacement and restrictions on access to holy sites.
The UAE strongly condemns these illegal measures which risk eroding the prospects for peace and undermining the viability of the two state solution.
I would also like to highlight the UA's rejection of any measures aimed at the annexation of any part of the occupied Palestinian territory.
This includes the systematic expansion of settlements, the imposition of Israeli law and jurisdiction, and the construction of infrastructure designed to permanently alter the demographic and geographic character of the US Bank.
The UAE's position on this is unequivocal.
Annexation in any form, whether de jure or de facto is a red line.
The situation in East Jerusalem demands particular attention.
The UAE reaffirms the importance of preserving the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem and commends the Hasmite kingdom of Jordan for its custodial role over the Islamic and Christian holy sites.
We condemn any restrictions on access to places of worship and call for the full respect of freedom of worship for all faiths.
The rising level of settler violence against Palestinian civilians are deeply alarming.
Concrete and immediate steps must be taken to prevent such attacks and to ensure accountability for the perpetrators.
The demolition of Palestinian homes, forced evictions, and the displacement of Palestinian communities with more than 2,500 Palestinians displaced in 2026 alone are unacceptable and must cease.
Would like to conclude by paying tribute to all those who continue to carry the heaviest burden, families whose lives as portrayed in Northern Ireland, are shaped each day by uncertainty, displacement, and the fear of losing the place they call home.
I thank you.
I thank the representative of the United Arab Emirates for their statements and I give the floor to the representative of Indonesia.
Mr.
Chairman, I would like first to thank the co hosts, Denmark, France, UK, Greece, and Latvia for convening this meeting.
I should also like to thank the briefers for their informative and compelling presentations.
We often refer to the deteriorating situation in Palestine as if it were unpredictable.
I think we shall see it as a deliberately engineered occurrence.
The surge in settler violence and illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem makes clear why peace remains elusive.
To make peace possible, I believe empowerment is crucial.
First, empowerment of the Palestinian authority to govern Gaza and the West Bank as a unified territory.
A viable peace process requires a single, legitimate and democratic Palestinian government.
We must establish a framework to transfer internal security responsibilities to the Palestinian security forces.
The occupying power must also end its fiscal measures and illegal confiscation of Palestinian tax funds as it severely weakens its capacity to deliver essential services.
Second, empowerment of civil society, journalists, medical personnel, and humanitarian workers.
These groups are frontline peace actors.
Their safety, access, and ability to operate freely are prerequisites for credible path towards stability.
Protection of civilians must be ensured, journalists must be able to report without intimidation, medical personnel must be guaranteed safe unhindered access, and humanitarian workers must be able to deliver assistance without interference.
And third, empowerment of UNRWA as an indispensable lifeline.
We must ensure that the mandate of UNRWA is protected and that UNRWA is able to carry out its mandate.
Mr.
Chairman, a credible peace process requires a genuine framework.
The New York Declaration on the two state solution provides this action oriented roadmap.
Together, we shall be steadfast in advancing this vision, and we call for a wider recognition and full UN membership of the state of Palestine.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Indonesia for the statement.
I will now off the floor to the representative of Turkey on behalf of the OIC.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
Due to time constraints, I will deliver a shorter version of the OIC group statement.
The full version will be available online.
On behalf of the member states, I express my sincere appreciation to the organizers and briefs of this meeting.
The need for practical measures to resolve the Palestinian question and the crisis in the Middle East have become more pressing in view of the broad implications for global peace and security.
Devastating war in Gaza and ongoing assault by Israel as the occupying power on the Palestinian people and their rights, land, security and dignity across occupied Palestine make it a matter of urgency to address the root causes.
The Israeli illegal occupation must end.
We recall resolutions 28 oh three and 23 34 and many other relevant resolutions addressing the core issues of this prolonged injustice.
We call for respect of the cease fire in Gaza, which is being violated every day by Israel and for the rigorous implementation of the comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict.
We commend the overwhelming adoption of the New York Declaration by the General Assembly.
New York Declaration remains the most credible pathway before the international community for upholding legal obligations and commitments to realize a just solution that guarantees the Palestinian people, people's rights, and independence and sovereignty of the Palestinian state.
Similarly, the ICJ advisory opinion of 19 July 24 provides a sound juridical basis for an immediate end to the unlawful Israeli occupation on Palestine.
We call for respect and of the court's provision measures orders in 2024.
We commend this meetings objective to give visibility to the critical situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
International efforts are needed to end the occupation and support the two state solution.
This includes the commitment to entrust the Palestinian authority with all matters relating to governance, law enforcement, and security.
Our efforts must also ensure that the transitional arrangements in Gaza do not substitute or replace the objective of an independent and a fully foreign sovereign Palestinian state as the Palestinian question is one and indivisible.
We strongly condemned the illegal Israeli actions in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including settlement expansion, annexation scenes, settler terrorism and violations against the Islamic and Christian holy sites, especially Al Aksa Mosque.
In addition, Israel persists with its illegal confiscation of Palestinian tax funds, preventing the Palestinian government from fulfilling its obligations toward its people.
We condemn Israeli violations of the historical and legal status of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied Jerusalem.
The occupying power has no sovereignty over any part of the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.
We condemned all colonization measures, including seizures and demolition of Palestinian homes and expulsion of Palestinian families.
Such illegal actions must stop.
Mr.
President, the YC group commends the outcome of the ninth meeting of the International Coalition for a two state solution held in Brussels, co chaired by Saudi Arabia, Norway, and the EU and urge rigorous follow up to advance Palestinian self determination and sovereignty in their land.
We also call for implementation of the second phase of the comprehensive peace plan in compliance with resolution 28 oh three.
We also demand an immediate cessation of such illegal acts as committed by Israel against the global resilience flotilla, peace activists from a dozen countries on a humanitarian relief mission to besieged Gaza.
Finally, we reiterate our appeal to the Council to respond to the global call admission of the state of Palestine as a full member of the UN based on the Palestinian people's ineligible right to self determination and recognition of the state of Palestine by an overwhelming majority of the states as a tangible contribution towards a just and peaceful resolution of this historic injustice.
I thank you again.
I thank the representative of Turkey for their statements.
I give the floor to the representative of Libya on behalf of the Arab group.
Say that Mr.
President, I would like to thank you and thank the sponsoring countries for organizing this important meeting at this critical moment.
This demonstrates your conviction of the struggle of the Palestinian people.
We also thank the briefers, Mr.
Bessel, Mr.
Maxon miss Emy.
The briefing of miss Amy about the violations are the best testament of the situation on the ground.
I delivered this statement on behalf of the Arab group in light of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, which requires the international community and the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities for the maintenance of international peace and security.
The Arab group condemns The unprecedented escalation of violence by the Israeli occupying forces in the West Bank, including attacks by settlers, which frequently are carried out under the protection of the occupation forces.
These are not isolated incidents, but rather systematic acts of terror.
Reports of OCHA show that during the first quarter of this year alone, more than 540 settler attacks were recorded, resulting in the killing of a In the killing of 33 Palestinian civilians and the injury of hundreds more.
The group warns of the dangerous acceleration of illegal settlement expansion, particularly the E one project.
This project is an existential threat and a deliberate attempt to fragment the West Bank and isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory.
In this connection, we strongly condemn the systematic Israeli policies that lead to the forcible displacement of Palestinians, including evictions and home demolitions, disposition of land confiscation, as well as the discriminatory law adopted in the Israeli Ket for the execution of Palestinian detainees.
These practices which entrenched the apartheid regime are further compounded by the repeated incursions into Aqsa mosque by the extremist Israeli officials under the protection of the occupation forces.
And the imposition of restrictions on the freedom of worship for Muslims and Christians in violation of the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem.
Such actions not only constitute flagrant violations of international law and international humanitarian law, they undermine the genuine prospects of achieving peace and peace in the region.
The group underscores the need for urgent actions to ensure protection of Palestinian civilians in accordance with international law and international Harian law.
The group expresses its concern over the systemic economic warfare through the restrictions of freedom of movement and access and the confiscation of the clearance revenues of Palestinian tax authorities and other financial measures that undermine the ability of the Palestinian authority to assume its duties, including the provision of basic necessities.
In this connection, we call for urgent steps to support the Palestinian economy and enhance its resilience and bring pressure to bear on the Palestinian occupation in this connection.
The group contends the continued measures by the occupation forces by imposing sanctions and targeting of humanitarian organizations, civil society actors and UN agencies, in particular, Unwa and we stress the vital indispensable role of Unwa as a lifeline for the Palestinian people.
The group stresses that the continuation of these policies and practices by the Israeli occupation undermines the prospects for peace and stability based on the resolutions of international legitimacy, and we stress that the aspired stability through the cease fire in Gaza adopted in Security Council resolution 28 oh three and the international consensus in New York Declaration requires serious and immediate actions by international community to end the systemic destruction of the foundations of a comprehensive and lasting peace.
Pressure should be brought to bear on Israel as the occupying power to ensure immediate end of these flagrant violations and systemic attacks against the Palestinian people throughout the Palestinian territory and to end the annexation of the Palestinian land and to open the crossings and to ensure the safe and full delivery of humanitarian assistance without obstructions.
And to start the early recovery efforts and ensure the recovery in Gaza and the withdrawal from Gaza.
In conclusion, the group reiterates that achieving peace and stability in the region will be achieved only through ending the occupation and enabling the Palestinian people to attain its enabled right, including its right to self determination and the return of refugees and the establishment of the Palestinian state.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
President and thank you.
Allow me to thank you and all the other European members on the Security Council for convening this area meeting.
I have the honor to speak on behalf of the European Union and its 27 member states, the candidate countries, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzeovina as well as Armenia, Andorra, and San Marino aligned themselves with this statement and the full version is available online.
Mr.
President, the European Union remains firmly committed to a just and lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East, based on the two state solution in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
We reiterate our call for the full implementation by all parties of the ceasefire and all other provisions of resolution 28 oh three, the permanent disarmament of Hamas and other non state armed groups, and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
As part of our contribution to the implementation of the comprehensive plan, the EU will continue to support the Palestinian authority.
We reiterate the importance of implementing the reform program of the Palestinian authority so that it can securely and effectively take back control of Gaza.
The EU is gravely concerned by the deteriorating situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, notably the sharp increase in settler violence and attacks against Palestinian civilians and critical infrastructure.
The EU strongly condemns Israel's unilateral actions aiming to expand its presence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and urges Israel to reverse these decisions, to abide by its obligations under international law and to protect the Palestinian population of the occupied territories.
We call on Israel to take immediate and effective measures to prevent and stop settlers violence and hold perpetrators accountable, and the EU will take work forward on further restrictive measures against extremist settlers and entities and organizations that support them.
Furthermore, consistent with our global efforts towards universal abolition of the death penalty, we urge Israel to abide by its previous principled position and with its obligation under international law, as well as its commitment to democratic principles.
We are deeply concerned about the de facto discriminatory character of the bill.
We reiterate our strong opposition to Israel's settlement policy, which is illegal under international law and undermines the viability of the two state solution.
We call for an immediate halt to settlement activities, including in East Jerusalem and for the dismantling of illegal outposts, as well as an end to demolitions and evictions.
We also reiterate our call for the preservation and respect for the status quo of the Jerusalem holy site.
We are deeply concerned by the worsening financial and economic situation of the Palestinian authority.
Urgent steps are required, including the full and regular transfer of Palestinian clearance revenues.
We recall the key role of the United Nations and reiterate the need for full respect for international law and human rights law.
When it comes to providing crucial support to the civilian population across the OPT, the role of the UN and its agencies including ANRA is essential.
The EU reiterates the need for all parties to cooperate with relevant UN mechanisms and fully respect their mandates.
The EU further calls on Israel to reverse its decision regarding the NGO registration law and to fully comply with its obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law.
We also underlined the importance of building on our commitments to preserve the viability of the two state solution and re energize a credible political process.
The New York Declaration provides a political framework to guide these efforts.
The Global Alliance and ad hoc Liaison Committee meetings demonstrated our commitment and underlined the necessary link between the implementation of the Gaza peace plan and the two state solution agenda.
Finally, it is also crucial to engage to the maximum extent possible with those most deeply affected by the conflict, Palestinians and Israelis alike.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of the European Union for their statements.
I will now give the floor to the representative of Canada on behalf of Cans.
Thank you, Mr.
President.
I make this statement on behalf of Australia, New Zealand, and my own country, Canada.
Cans countries, thank you for convening the United Nations Security Council AREA formula meeting to discuss the deeply concerning situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and we also thank the briefers.
Cans countries remain firmly committed to the goal of a two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.
Following the horrors of the Hamas attack on October 7th, which took the lives of nearly 1,200 people, including our citizens, and the subsequent conflict, which has claimed countless civilian lives in Gaza, it is clear that a two state solution is the only way of ensuring lasting peace, security, and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
As we collectively work to address the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, the international community must also maintain focus on the deeply concerning situation in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.
The increasing pace of settlement expansion and the sharp rise in extremist settler violence continue to undermine the human rights of Palestinians, further destabilize the region, and further entrench a trajectory that makes a two state solution more difficult to achieve.
KS countries reiterate that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem are illegal under international law.
Settlement expansion and Israel imposed restrictions on movement undermine the territorial continuity and validity of a Palestinian viability of a Palestinian state and significantly erode prospects for peace.
We also call on Israel to reverse its policy of evictions and demolitions that target Palestinians.
We reiterate our condemnation of the Israeli Security Council security cabinet's decisions to expand Israeli control over the West Bank.
Such measures, including the government of Israel's reported approval of 34 new settlements in the West Bank and $274 million of budget to build Israeli only roads connecting settlements and dividing the West Bank, are of deep concern to Ks countries.
We call on Israel to uphold international law and to reverse its policy of settlement expansion.
We further reiterate our opposition to any attempts to annex any part of the West Bank and to any forcible displacement of the Palestinian people.
We remain alarmed by acts of violence and terror committed by extremist settlers against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem.
We condemn acts of violence, intimidation, and destruction of property, and we call on the Israeli authorities to prevent such actions and hold the perpetrators accountable for their acts.
Can's countries will each continue to examine all appropriate measures to promote accountability for violence and extremist rhetoric.
In addition, Can's countries reiterate their condemnation of Israel's discriminatory death penalty law.
In this context, we also reiterate the need to maintain the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem and we strongly condemn the recent acts of violence and intimidation targeting worshiping religious communities in Jerusalem.
Can countries reaffirm their support for the Palestinian authority as an essential partner for peace? Each of our countries will continue to support the Palestinian authority in implementing essential reforms, including so that it can resume governance in Gaza.
Cans countries welcome the holding of the Palestinian local elections on the 25th of April, which represented an important moment for Palestinian voters and we look forward to future elections during which Palestinians will once again be able to exercise their democratic rights.
Cans countries will continue to work with international partners including through the United Nations in order to protect civilians, to support de escalation, to promote accountability, and preserve the prospects for a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace.
Thank you.
I thank the representative of Canada for the statement.
Colleagues, that brings us to the end of our speaker's list.
I'd like to thank everyone who participated and in particular, our three civil society briefers, Basil, Max, and Amy.
We hope that today's meeting has provided an insight into the current challenges in the West Bank and provided ideas for how member states can take concrete action to address these issues, preserve the viability of the two state solution and achieve a long term peace for the benefit of Palestinians, Israelis, and the wider region.
I wish you all a good afternoon and I close this meeting.