virtual
Excellencies,
Members of the Advisory Commission,
I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to Spain for the strong commitment it has shown as Chair of the Advisory Commission at a time of unprecedented challenges for UNRWA.
I am also grateful to the Vice Chairs, Brazil and Jordan, for their steadfast support; and to Lebanon and Australia for their important contributions as Chair and Vice Chair of the Sub-Commission.
The fact that this meeting must be held virtually reflects the dangerous escalation taking place in the Middle East.
Principled political engagement by Member States is urgently needed, including by the members of this Advisory Commission in relation to the future of Palestine Refugees.
Excellencies,
We are at a tipping point in the occupied Palestinian territory, which threatens to permanently shift the long-established parameters for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.
We are witnessing the implementation of a project, decades in the making, to separate Palestinians from Palestine.
In Gaza, two million people are being starved, while food and medical supplies sit across the border.
It is obscene.
A so-called "aid mechanism" has been created to replace the principled international aid operation led by the United Nations, of which UNRWA is a critical part.
The new mechanism is an abomination that costs lives.
It humiliates and degrades desperate people, concentrating them in ghetto-like hubs, from which they can be more easily displaced.
This is the grotesque culmination of 20 months of inaction and impunity, during which more than 55,000 people have been reported killed - mostly women and children.
