ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday condemned the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the occupied West Bank at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), calling it “ethnic cleansing in real time” and warning that such actions could jeopardize peace in the Middle East region.
Pakistan’s Alternate Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, made the remarks while attending a UNSC briefing on the Middle East, including the situation in Palestine.
The Pakistani diplomat said to move beyond the perpetual cycle of violence and destruction, the international community must prioritize pursuing a just and lasting peace across the Occupied Palestinian Territories, not just in Gaza.
“Peace cannot take root as long as Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank continue with impunity,” he told the Council. “Over 50,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, the largest mass expulsion since 1967. Military raids, settler violence and illegal land annexations intensify daily.”
“These are not isolated incidents but part of a deliberate strategy to erase Palestinian identity from their own land,” he continued. “It is ethnic cleansing in real time. If this Council is serious about peace, it should ensure that the ceasefire extends beyond Gaza to all occupied Palestinian territories.”
Ahmad also underscored the importance of allowing the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to assist Palestinians, saying Israel was legally obligated under Article 2 (5) of the UN Charter to facilitate its work.
“The deliberate targeting of aid agencies is a moral outrage and a violation of international law,” he said.
He further highlighted that over 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure — homes, businesses, hospitals and places of worship — had been reduced to rubble.
“This is not just destruction but an assault on an entire people’s existence,” he said, adding that the scale of suffering demanded more than just international sympathy and required decisive action.
“We must revive a credible, irreversible political process that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Ahmad said. “Full UN membership for Palestine is not a symbolic gesture: it is a legal and moral imperative.”
