ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Monday Israel was undermining the prospects of an independent and viable Palestinian state by accelerating settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, saying its actions had become the principal obstacle to peace and required a comprehensive response from the United Nations Security Council.
Addressing a Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said recent developments in the occupied Palestinian territory, including continued settlement growth, settler violence and measures affecting Palestinian governance, reflected a systematic effort to entrench Israel’s occupation and erode the two-state solution.
“All these grave developments need to be seen in the context of continuing statements by Israel rejecting the idea of a Palestinian state and hence the two-state solution,” Ahmad told the Council.
“It is absolutely clear as to where lies the problem,” he added. “Piecemeal approach will not work. It is time for this Council to undertake a holistic assessment of the situation across all of occupied Palestinian territory and firmly tackle the obstacles to peace.”
Ahmad said the occupied West Bank was witnessing its largest and deadliest wave of settlement expansion alongside sustained settler violence, citing the UN secretary-general’s latest report, which said plans for 4,750 housing units had advanced during the reporting period, including approval of 34 settlements in a single Israeli cabinet decision.
He also criticized Israel’s land registration measures in the West Bank and said the controversial E-1 settlement project — a long-disputed Israeli plan to build settlements east of Jerusalem that would split the West Bank and sever East
Jerusalem from the rest of a future Palestinian state — would carve the territory into isolated enclaves and further undermine the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.
The Pakistani diplomat also noted Israel was deepening the fiscal crisis facing the Palestinian Authority by withholding tax revenues collected on its behalf, saying the move was weakening Palestinian governance.
Ahmad urged the Security Council to compel Israel to halt all settlement activity, reverse annexation and forced displacement measures, protect Palestinians from settler violence and release withheld Palestinian Authority revenues.
He also called for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803, which endorsed a phased plan to end the Gaza conflict through a ceasefire, the release of hostages and detainees, expanded humanitarian assistance and post-war reconstruction.
Pakistan has long backed the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and has repeatedly called for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.
