2023-10-26
Transcript
bit.ly/_gutUN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' recent speech 2023-10-24
They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence. Their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished.
[No other news channel presenting the whole speach was found, what follows is the transcript from The Indian Express]
Transcript:
”It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
Comment by The Indian Express anchor:
United Nations Chief Antonio Guterres' speech on Tuesday while addressing the United Security Council meet has irked Israel. In his speech, United Nations chief asserted that no party to an armed conflict is above international humanitarian law as he expressed deep alarm over the relentless bombardment of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip by Israeli forces and appealed to all to pull back from the brink before the violence escalates even further.
”It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence. Their economy stifled, their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.
But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas and those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
Excellencies, even war as rules.
We must demand that all parties uphold and respect their obligations under international humanitarian law. Take constant care in the conduct of military operations to spare civilians and respect and protect hospitals and respect the inviolability of UN facilities which today are sheltering more than 600,000 Palestinians.
The relentless bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, the level of civilian casualties and the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods continue to mount and are deeply alarming. The protection of civilians is paramount in any armed conflict. Protecting civilians can never mean using them as human shields. Protecting civilians does not mean ordering more than one million people to evacuate to the south where there is no shelter, no food, no water, no medicine and no fuel and then continue to bomb the south itself.
I am deeply concerned about the clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza.
Without fuel aid cannot be delivered, hospitals will not have power and drinking water cannot be purified or even pumped. The people of Gaza need continuous aid delivery at a level that corresponds to the enormous needs and that aid must be delivered without restrictions.”
Comment by The Indian Express anchor:
Following this, the Israel Ambassador to the United Nations posted an ex demanding United Nations Secretary General's resignation and said, I quote, the United Nations Secretary General who shows understanding for the campaign of mass murder of children, women and the elderly is not fit to lead the UN. I call him to resign immediately. Israel's Minister for Foreign Affairs Elie Kohim also cancelled a meeting with Guterres as a reports. The UN has been in a very difficult position since the first meeting of the UN.
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Guterres says he's shocked by misinterpretations of his statement to Security Council on Tuesday - YouTube (Al Jazeera English)
A couple of hours later, after being bullied (sv: mobbad) and maligned by the Israel press,
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez felt obliged to release the following statement:
”I am shocked by the misrepresentations of some of my statements yesterday, in the Security Council, as if, as if I was justifying acts of terror by Hamas. This is false, it was the opposite.
[The rest was not quoted on SVT Aktuellt, Swedish tv channel]
”I have condemned unequivocally the horrifying and unprecedented seven October [2023-10-07] acts of terror by Hamas in Israel. Nothing can justify the deliberate killing, enduring and kidnapping of civilians or the launching of rockets against civilian targets. End quote. Indeed, I spoke of the grievances of the Palestinian people and in doing so I also clearly stated and I quote, ’but the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas’. It was necessary to set the record straight, especially out of respect to the victims and to their families. Thank you.”
