ABU DHABI: President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan received a phone call today from His Excellency António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations. The call covered various aspects of cooperation between the UAE and the United Nations, particularly in supporting the UN’s humanitarian efforts across the world.
His Highness and Mr Guterres discussed a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest, with a focus on the situation in the Middle East and developments in the Gaza Strip. Both sides emphasised the need for joint international action to bring about an immediate ceasefire, protect civilian lives and ensure the safe and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid. The call also covered efforts to prevent an escalation of regional instability and pursue a path towards peace via a two-state solution, seen as key to fostering stability, progress and prosperity for the countries and people of the region.
During the call, His Highness reaffirmed the UAE’s commitment to
supporting the United Nations’ humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip, emphasising the goal of alleviating the suffering of its residents and addressing their pressing needs amidst challenging conditions. The UAE President noted the importance of determined international action to prevent further deterioration of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza.
Secretary-General Guterres expressed his appreciation for the UAE’s steadfast support for the UN’s humanitarian role in Gaza. The two sides also emphasised the importance of supporting the efforts of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the need to work together during this difficult period that the Palestinian people are going through.
Source: Emirates News Agency
CAIRO: The Permanent Delegation of the State of Palestine to the League of Arab States said today that the Committee of Permanent Delegates emanating from the league’s Council issued a report that Arab countries could implement to stop the crime of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people.
In a statement, the delegation explained that the procedures mentioned in the report included freezing, suspending, or canceling economic agreements, stopping all types of commercial dealings and investments with Israel, including imports and exports, and boycotting Israeli goods and products.
The report underscored the necessity of boycotting all companies and business enterprises, which were included in the updated database approved by the Human Rights Council for companies and business enterprises involved in activities within colonies located throughout the occupied Palestinian territory. In this context, the Committee attached to its report a list that includes 97 companies and business enterprises
.
The report also urged to stop inviting or receiving Israeli officials and businessmen and to consider closing the airspace of Arab countries to Israeli civil aviation, if any.
It urged for the necessity of stopping all cultural and sporting activities and events with the Israeli occupation, if any.
The report stressed the necessity of declaring the extremist Israeli organizations, groups and movements that storm the Blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, those linked to Israeli colonial settlements and others that carry out terrorist acts against Palestinian citizens, as terrorist organizations and placing them on the Arab national terrorist lists, and then adopting a list at the level of the League of Arab States, where those terrorist groups would be listed.
The committee has attached to its report a list that includes 60 Israeli organizations, groups and movements that are required to be placed on terrorist lists.
The report also stressed the need to announce the list of shame that includes Israeli fi
gures who broadcast genocidal rhetoric and incitement against the Palestinian people, in preparation for taking legal measures against them. The committee has attached to its report a list of 22 Israeli officials responsible for genocidal rhetoric.
The report called for monitoring all countries, individuals and entities that agree with the Israeli occupation on the issue of forced displacement in preparation for taking legal measures against them at the Arab and international levels.
It also called for a reduction in the level of diplomatic representation between Arab countries and Israel, if any, following the International Court of Justice’s acceptance of its primary jurisdiction, in the order issued by the court on 1/26/2024, related to the genocide lawsuit filed by South Africa against Israel.
The report affirmed support for the efforts of the Arab member of the UN Security Council, Algeria, in coordination with the Arab group in New York, and working to present a draft Arab resolution in the Security
Council, obligating Israel to implement the provisional measures ordered by the International Court of Justice on 1/26/2024.
It called on the Arab countries that are members of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, especially the countries that do not have reservations on Article 9, to join South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel.
The report stressed the need to submit Arab referrals and complaints to the International Criminal Court regarding Israeli crimes committed against the Palestinian people.
The report also called for the need to take measures to urge the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to take real and concrete steps to investigate and prosecute the criminal acts of Israel, the occupying power, which grossly violate the principles of international humanitarian law.
It called for directing the Council of Arab Ambassadors in The Hague to work with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to open an investigation into Israel’s use of chemical
weapons in the Palestinian and Lebanese territories.
The report also urged civil society organizations, Arab human rights federations and unions to initiate cases against Israeli officials in national and international courts.
The report called for the formation of Arab relief delegations to lead the flow of humanitarian, relief and medical aid to the entire Gaza Strip by land, sea and air in coordination and cooperation with international organizations, as ordered by the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice on 1/26/2024, and in implementation of the decision to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, which was adopted by the Arab Islamic Summit held in Riyadh on 11/11/2023.
The report also called for forming an Arab-international delegation headed by Jordan, which includes clerics and national, regional and international institutions specialized in religious and cultural affairs, to arrange an urgent visit to the city of Jerusalem and assess the conditions in the blessed Al-Aqsa M
osque, especially in light of the Israeli siege imposed on it and the incursions of Israeli colonists, which undermine the freedom of worship and the entry of Muslim worshipers as well as attempts to divide it temporally and spatially.
It affirmed its support for the State of Palestine’s decision to choose a specific day each year to commemorate the ongoing crime of genocide committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, and the adoption of a resolution by the League’s Council at the ministerial or summit level to observe this day under a name approved by the State of Palestine, calling for its adoption at the Arab, Islamic and international levels.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA