Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh’s Address to the AHLC Ministerial Meeting

2020-06-03

Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh’s Address to the AHLC Ministerial Meeting

Your Excellency, Minister Ine Eriksen, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Chair of the AHLC, Your Excellency, Mr. Josep Borrell, EU High Representative and Vice President,

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Before I begin, I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Norway for chairing and organizing this virtual meeting at a time when our humanity is struggling to fight the COVID-19. My sincere appreciation to the World Bank, the UN, and the Office of the Quartet for preparing their informative reports and to every member of this forum for your continued support to our state- building agenda and the two-state solution.

1. For the Palestinian people, the meeting today is overshadowed by two serious threats: COVID-19, like other nations, and by Annexation, which constitutes an existential threat to the Palestinian people.

2. The story began when we signed in good faith nine agreements with Israel. Sadly, Israel violated and continues to violate all of them.

3. The Israeli occupation practice on the ground speaks for itself. Continued settlement construction and expansion, home demolition, land confiscation, isolation of Jerusalem, the inhumane siege on Gaza, kidnapping and arresting of our children, the separation wall, and the list goes on and on.

4. Annexation, if implemented, will be a grave violation of international law, UN resolutions, and the bilateral agreements we signed with Israel…

5. Annexation will destroy the viability of the two-state solution and threaten regional security.

6. Annexation will remove the Jordan Valley from the State of Palestine, will isolate and suffocate East Jerusalem, deprive the Palestinian people of their right to permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, reversing decades of international investment for peace and simply hastening the demise of the two-state solution on the 1967 borders.

7. As a result of Israel’s declaration on annexation and its historical non-compliance with the signed bilateral agreements, the Palestinian leadership has decided that we are no longer bound by all agreements with Israel. Our decision is not unilateral. It came as a legitimate response to the Israeli declaration to annex parts of the West Bank. We will not sit idle and watch our land being stolen piece by piece, and we cannot be the only party abiding by those agreements.

8. We have reached this point because of Israeli impunity. Only accountability can change this dismal equation. Only when the cost of colonial occupation outweighs the benefits can there be a real chance for peace in the Middle East.

9. Therefore, we call on the international community to use all measures necessary to prevent annexation, including:

To recognize the State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, if you have not yet done so;
Not to recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations;
Not to render aid or assistance to illegal colonial activities, including not to provide Israel with any assistance to be used in connection with colonies in the occupied territories, in line with Security Council resolution 465 (1980);
To respect and ensure respect for international law, adopting measures of accountability, including sanctions; and
To exert all efforts to end the Israeli occupation of all territories occupied in 1967 and to achieve, without delay, a just, comprehensive and lasting peace on the basis of the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, including the principle of land for peace, and the Arab Peace Initiative.

10. Having said that, we remain focused on – and dedicated to – sustainable peace. Our doors remain open for credible and serious peace negotiations based on the long-standing terms of reference, within a binding timeframe and a multilateral sponsorship and mediation in accordance with international law.

11. As for our response to COVID-19, The GoP reacted swiftly and effectively to the outbreak of COVID-19. The State of Palestine has been recognized internationally as being one of the first countries to immediately put in place rigorous but balanced measures to prevent the outbreak of the pandemic. Those measures have been effective: to date, despite significant challenges, the GoP has largely contained the outbreak, with a total of 627 cases recorded in the State of Palestine. (These include 387 cases in the West Bank, 179 cases in East Jerusalem, and 61 cases in the Gaza Strip.) There are 94 active cases, 527 recovered cases, and five fatalities. The GoP has tested 57,015 people and placed 68,348 people in home quarantine as part of its public health measures.

12. As a government, we have increased spending on health and social protection. We have introduced an emergency budget to make savings wherever we can. However, tax revenues have fallen dramatically as needs have increased – and Palestine does not have the same access to borrowing/control of our borders, it does not have a reserve fund or national currency that other countries do. As a result, the overall GoP budget deficit has increased dramatically to $2.6 billion. While the GoP has in place plans to finance around $1.2 billion through domestic borrowing, donor aid, and robust expenditure reductions, we still have a financing gap of $1.4 billion.

13. Despite the challenges, and while Maintaining our robust public health response, the GoP has expanded its social support to 126,000 families, 40,000 workers who lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19, and added 30,000 new poor families to our social protection scheme. We also made commitments to pay full salaries during the pandemic to all civil servants, retirees, and families of prisoners and martyrs.

14. Additionally, we put in place measures aimed at Supporting SMEs with $300 million concessionary loans of 1.5% flat interest rate.

15. Despite our successes to date in responding to COVID-19, we discovered many flows that are not under our control:

Palestine has no airports to bring our children home from abroad
Palestine has no control over its borders
And no control over the access points to and from Israel

Madam Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The AHLC is an important forum and has become the only remnants of Oslo. After nearly 25 years from the first AHLC meeting, we have to ask the question of why we are here and what was the purpose of the AHLC. In my view, the AHLC could wear an additional hat and play even a larger role as an effective multilateral forum. Additionally, we are here not to maintain the status quo but

to break the status quo and establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 border.

Madam Chair, when we say we are no longer bound by the agreements with Israel, it means that we are no longer bound by the interim period and that the time has come to transition from the interim authority to a full member state of the community of nations.

Madam Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen, despite the vicious circle of occupation, denied rights and lost opportunities, our message to this AHLC suggests that there are still choices to be made, still, a path to be taken that could change the tone of conversation and reshape the political and financial environment away from the dangerous threat of annexation that risk fiscal collapse and political chaos. Therefore, it is time for the international community to take a moral stance to prevent annexation and end the 54 years of occupation. Financial support must be coupled with a strong political stand that will lead to a lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.

Before I close, I would like to thank you all again, on behalf of the Palestinian government, for your continued support to Palestine and the Palestinian people. And for your steadfastness and dedication to the two-state solution. Thank you, Madam Chair.