Roundup: UN marks solidarity with Palestinian people, Israel voices dissent

The UN General Assembly on Monday marked the 38th annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people, again seeing Palestinian diplomat trading barbs with the Israeli representative.

Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the state of Palestine, denounced the failure to implement UN resolutions regarding Palestinian-Israeli conflict, saying it makes Israel "a state above the law."

"What is lacking has not been support or solidarity for Palestine, but rather the political courage and will to implement those resolutions in the face of Israel's total intransigence and disrespect for its legal obligations," he said.

"Resolution after resolution is ignored as Israel...arrogantly demeans the General Assembly and Security Council and tramples international law, perpetrating violations and crimes as if it were exempt from the law and as if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the exception to every norm and rule intended to ensure human rights and ensure peace and security," Mansour said.

Israeli actions in and around Jerusalem, including violations by settlers and extremists against Christian and Muslim holy places, risked turning the conflict from a political and legal one to a religious one with "disastrous consequences" for everyone, he said.

The Israeli "iron fist" was unsustainable as it kept the region in a constant spiral of violence, bloodshed and conflict, he added.

Israel differed.

"Over the years, this assembly has passed countless one-sided resolutions blaming Israel for any and all problems confronting the Palestinians," said Ambassador Danny Danon of Israel. "There have been numerous special sessions on the conflict whose only achievements were to discard the truth and to distort reality."

"The General Assembly has established an entire UN division dedicated to promoting the Palestinian narrative and denigrating Israel," he said.

Danon took the time to name 20 Israeli victims of stabbing and other violence, and even briefly held up their photos.

Israel and its traditional allies are far outnumbered by countries sympathetic to the Palestinians.

UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, speaking on behalf of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, lamented that "security and hope in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, remain at a very low point."

"We continue to witness illegal settlement activities and settler-related violence," he said. "Demolitions of Palestinian-owned structures have continued, including punitive demolitions. Such policies and actions are directly contrary to the Government of Israel's stated intention to pursue a two-State solution."

"In recent weeks, tensions and violence related to the Holy Sites in the Old City of Jerusalem have introduced a troubling and dangerous religious dimension to the conflict," Eliasson said.

He welcomed repeated assurances that Israel has no intention of changing the status quo.

"It is crucial that leaders on both sides in this sensitive moment play a constructive role towards solving the conflict," the deputy secretary-general said.

President Mogens Lykketoft of the UN General Assembly noted "the illegality of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem."

Ambassador Matthew Rycroft of Britain, this month's president of the UN Security Council, said council members have expressed concern over Israel's settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and many members view these acts as illegal or illegitimate. "The members of the Council call for full respect for international law," he said. Endi