UN Economic and Finance Committee Demands Israel End Occupation of Arab Lands, Including Syrian Golan, and Cease Violations International Law
New York, The UN Economic and Finance Committee (ECOFIN) demanded that Israel end its occupation of Arab lands including the occupied Syrian Golan and cease its violations of human rights and international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
During a session on Saturday, ECOFIN voted with a greater majority in favor of the resolutions related to articles 51 and 52, including the one on the occupied Syrian Golan submitted by Cuba and Indonesia.
The aforementioned resolutions calls upon Israel to end its occupation of the Golan and occupied Palestinian territories, withdraw to the June 4th 1967 line, cease its exploitation and endangerment of natural resources, put an end to the infringements committed by settlers, applying relevant Security Council resolutions, and consider the apartheid wall and settlements a clear violation of international law.
In a speech before ECOFIN, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said that by their wide support for these resolutions, the member countries sent a clear message to Israel to end its occupation of Arab lands and immediately cease all violations of human rights and international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Al-Jaafari said that the greater majority vote on the occupied Syrian Golan reaffirms that the Israeli occupation’s attempts to annex the Golan are null and void and have no legal effect in the eyes of the international community, noting that Israel’s violation of international law isn’t limited to the occupation of the Golan, as it also issued arbitrary laws like the decision to annex it.
He said that the fact that only Israel voted against the resolution has important significance, as it sends a blatant message to the attending delegations that Israel and its rulers and politicians don’t care about international consensus, the UN or international law.
Al-Jaafari voiced considerable relief over the fact that very few delegations refrained from voting on the resolution on the occupied Syrian Golan, appealing to these delegations to vote in favor of the resolution later at the UN General Assembly.
Syria’s Representative said that any hesitation in condemning and rejecting the Israeli occupation and annexation encourages the perpetuation of wars and instability in the region, sending a message to outlaws telling them that the law of the jungle is a replacement for law and that Israel’s outlaw actions are a legitimate exception.
Al-Jaafari stressed that the Israeli occupation supports terrorists in Syria and that it doesn’t respect the principles and basis of international law and the UN Charter.
He noted that the Israeli occupation’s decision to annex the Syrian Golan brings to mind the actions of Hitler and Nazism who annexed Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland and Poland’s Danzig at the dawn of WWII, pointing out to the irony that Israel, whose rulers always claimed that their occupation of Palestine is a result of the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe, practices the same policies that Hitler and the Nazis used, including annexing lands by force, violating the Geneva Conventions of 1948, wholesale violations of international laws, and criminal settlement that doesn’t respect mosques, churches or graveyards nor people’s right to living in their land, cities and villages and enjoy their natural resources.
Al-Jaafari concluded by affirming that the Israeli occupation policies in the occupied Arab lands exceeded all colonialist practices in the history of humanity.
