Munir Akram: “Israel’s goal is to erase not only a people but also the entire idea of Palestine”

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages by the Palestinian resistance groups after more than two-thirds of the countries present had voted in favour of it.

The UNGA met on Tuesday (12 Dec) in an emergency session to discuss the Israeli war in Gaza amid the growing number of casualties suffered by the Palestinians.

This is after Egypt and Mauritania jointly invoked the rarely-used resolution 377A (V) on Monday (11 Dec).

The move follows the failure of the UN Security Council last week to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza due to a veto by the United States, a permanent member of the council.

The Uniting for Peace resolution was invoked by Egypt as the chair of the Arab group in the UN and Mauritania as the chair of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The 377A resolution was first adopted by the General Assembly in November 1950 during the Korean War, making itself an alternative platform to work for peace in case the permanent members of the Security Council fail to execute the fundamental task of the international body.

Countries in support of Israel, the United States and Austria had filed draft amendments to the draft resolution, seeking to include the naming of Hamas. However, the two submitted amendments did not obtain the two-third majority required to have them passed.

Mr Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations, in his address to the assembly on why it would be unfair to place the blame of the conflict in Gaza only on the militant group Hamas but not on Israel, given the history of oppression of the Palestine people over the course of the 75 years of occupation, said:

“I’m confident that this entire membership will not agree to place the blame only on Hamas, but not on Israel. That would be unjust, unfair and inequitable.”

“Mr President, when you deny people freedom and dignity, when you humiliate and trap them in an open air prison where you kill them as if they were beasts, they become very angry and they do to others what was done to them. And therefore, for Austria and my friend from the United States, to blame Hamas in their amendments is not equitable, it is not just.

“The blame, if it is to be placed, has to be placed on both parties and especially on Israel.”

“The skies over Gaza are filled with projectiles of death, attack helicopters, drones, artillery shells, tank shells, mortars, bombs, missiles. Israel has dropped 25,000 tons of explosives on Gaza, nearly the equivalent of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.”

“Israel’s goal is not only to erase Hamas. This is a war against the Palestinian people. Israel’s goal is to erase not only a people, but the entire idea of Palestine. Its campaign is a carbon copy of the massive campaigns of racial slaughter by other settler colonial regimes in history.”

Mr Munir noted, “If Hamas is named and not Israel, you will provide a justification to the Israeli war machine to continue its roulette roulette wheel of deaths. I believe that this is not the intention of the membership of the United Nations to justify, to give or justification for the genocide that is taking place. I would, therefore, on behalf of my delegation, on behalf of all the Arab countries on behalf of the OIC, appeal to all the membership to vote against the amendment proposed…”

“In case these amendments are adopted, Pakistan will submit some amendments to these in order to restore balance, in order to name Israel as the perpetrator of the mass crimes that are taking place in Gaza today.”

Thus far, over 18,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, another 42,000 wounded, and more than 1.8 million people —over 80% of the Gaza population—have been driven from their homes after the attacks from Israel in response to the attack on 7 October by Hamas.

Amid the attack on Gaza, violence against Palestinians by the illegal Israel settlers at the West Bank is also on the rise.