Annalena Baerbock (General Assembly President…

Excellencies,

On the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People we commemorate the adoption of Resolution 181 (II) by the General Assembly on 29 November 1947.

That resolution – almost as old as this institution – laid the foundation for the Two-State Solution and called for the establishment of both an Arab State and a Jewish State in Palestine.

But while the Jewish State, the State of Israel, is a recognized Member State of the United Nations, the Arab State, the State of Palestine, is not.

Seventy-eight years later, Palestine has still not been admitted to the UN as a full member.

78 years long we have denied the Palestinian people their inalienable rights, in particular their right to self-determination.

Given the interlinkage between this institution and the two-state solution – and, as the Secretary-General has reminded us, self-determination, the right to live in one's own state, is not a privilege to be earned, it is a right to be upheld – there is simply no other option than to deliver on this right for the Palestinian people. 

As we have seen over and over again, especially after two years of war in Gaza with tens of thousands of people killed, millions displaced and over 80 per cent of buildings damaged or destroyed following the atrocities of Hamas on 7 October, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved through permanent war, illegal occupation, forced displacement, or terror.

Israelis and Palestinians will only live in lasting peace, security, and dignity when they live side by side in two sovereign and independent states with mutually recognized borders and full regional integration.

While a tenable solution has eluded us for decades, today there is a ray of hope and a genuine opportunity for a path to peace between the people of Palestine and the people of Israel.

As underlined by the vast majority of Member States in the New York Declaration in September, and following the endorsement by the Security Council of the "Comprehensive Plan to End the Conflict in Gaza", the next steps are clear:

The ceasefire agreement must be implemented in all its phases leading to a permanent end to hostilities, including a political plan; Hamas laying down its weapons; Israel's army withdrawing in full; and the end of settlement expansion and demolishment in the West Bank, unifying the West Bank and Gaza.

And most importantly and most urgently, humanitarian assistance must be immediate, safe and unconditional, delivered at scale through all crossings and throughout the Gaza Strip, in coordination with the UN and other humanitarian organizations and in line with international humanitarian law and humanitarian principles.

So today should be more than a day of solidarity.

It should be a day where we open a new chapter in this decades-long stalemate.

Yet, dear excellencies,

We cannot ignore the facts on the ground, that once again civilians are dying in Gaza right now.

At least 67 children have been killed since the ceasefire. Scores more are orphaned, once again searching for remains in rubble. All of this, in contradiction to the promises we made in the General Assembly and in the Security Council.

I met affected children while attending the World Social Summit in Doha at the al-Thumama Complex, where children evacuated from Gaza were being treated; children two years old, ten years old, teenagers; children who had lost their arms, their legs, their parents, their siblings, they lost everything…

Through it all, they were still trying to smile. Trying to make it somehow through.

Excellencies,

If these children are still trying, still pushing forward, then certainly we, here in this safe Chamber, have to try even harder, once again.

Once again to work together to ensure the ceasefire.

To walk the path toward sustainable peace.

To create a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood, as provided for in Security Council Resolution 2803.

And to realize the Two-State-Solution and deliver a just, peaceful, and lasting settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in line with the UN Charter, international law, the New York Declaration and previous UN resolutions.

I thank you.