Developments in Occupied Palestinian Territories
Jeddah
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will hold an emergency session on Thursday, May 20, 2021, to discuss the Israeli aggression in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including Al-Quds Ash-Sharif, following the failure of the UN Security Council (UNSC) over three emergency sessions to adopt a unified statement calling for an end to the Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people.
This meeting convenes at the request of the two groups of ambassadors of Arab and Islamic countries as part of the political efforts being made at the UN to pressure Israel, the occupying Power, to stop its aggression that has continued for ten days.
This diplomatic move at the UN is part of the Islamic group’s effort in following up on the implementation of the resolution issued by the extraordinary open-ended meeting of the Executive Committee at the level of foreign ministers of the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which was held on Sunday, May 16, 2021, at the request of Saudi Arabia, the current chair of the Islamic Summit.
The meeting affirmed that the UNSC’s failure to shoulder its responsibilities to address this crisis would make it necessary for the UNGA to assume its responsibilities, including the resumption of the tenth emergency session to stop the Israeli aggression in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Al-Quds, ensure international protection for the Palestinian people, and take measures to hold Israel, the occupying Power, accountable for its crimes and gross violations of the international law, human rights violations, and forced displacement.
It is scheduled that a speech will be delivered on behalf of the OIC during this emergency UNGA session to affirm its positions and demands regarding the need for the international community to assume its responsibilities to stop the Israeli military aggression against the Palestinian people, their land, and their holy sites, and highlight that a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace can only be through the Arab initiative based on the two-state solution, with East Al-Quds as its capital, and the relevant UN resolutions.—Agencies
