We commend the decision of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions to boycott the occupying Power and consider it an apartheid state. We also welcome Norway’s decision to label products from Israeli settlements. We thank Norway for this historic and moral step, and we call upon other countries to follow the steps of Norway and boycott Israeli settlement products and to fulfill their international obligations, in line with international law.

We welcome the first report by the new United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territorya. While we salute the committee for its efforts, we are surprised by the positions of some countries that opposed the report and described it biased. Such positions are considered completely biased towards the occupying Power, in contradiction with human rights principles, and an encouragement for the occupying Power to persist in its violations against our people.

We are surprised and condemn the election of Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations to the position of Vice President of the United Nations General Assembly, and we consider it an attempt to promote and legitimize the colonial occupation regime on the land of the State of Palestine. It is not permissible and does not make sense to reward the occupying power for its violations of international and humanitarian laws, for its crimes, and whitewash its racist colonial face. It should not be encouraged to impunity, and it should not be complimented at the expense of Palestinian blood, Palestinian land and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.