2nd Committee - Explanation of Vote - Agenda Item 60: "Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources"

Statement by
Shuli Davidovich
18 November 2010

Thank you Mr. Chairperson,

I address this Committee today as we engage in an unfortunate annual ritual that time and again occurs in this professional body. Rather than dealing with important global issues that stand before this distinguished Committee, we instead use our valuable time to discuss a yearly politicized resolution that deliberately omits key facts.

The reality is that Israel shares the vital interests of our neighbors to preserve and protect our natural environment –– and addresses our mutual concerns on these issues through a variety of existing mechanisms, as well as through joint working groups and joint capacity development programs on the environment, which focus on issues such as agriculture and food security, forestry, desalination, and water management. These efforts would be greatly enhanced if the Palestinian Authority proceeded with the numerous projects that have already been approved in past meetings of these working groups.

Unbelievably, the supporters of this resolution conveniently ignore the numerous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority that have already conferred jurisdiction of these issues to the Palestinian Authority. Yet they decline to take effective action, which begs the question: if not to better the environment and to sustainably utilize natural resources, what is the real motivation behind this resolution?

The sponsors of this resolution would prefer to ignore these basic facts to advance their political agenda of condemning Israel. It is clear that this annual exercise does not improve the lives of Palestinians in any way, nor does it help to create a better understanding or better partnerships between the parties in our region. It just promulgates hate speech.

These issues can only be effectively dealt with through joint ventures with an approach based on facts and reality. As long as we waste the time of this committee by perpetuating resolutions that are imbedded in falsehoods, we will undermine the real efforts towards peace and prosperity. Fallacious resolutions such as this one should be replaced by genuine partnerships to better our environment and our communities.

Let us hope that the time wasted on this discriminatory and biased resolution will be reallocated in the future to address important global issues that are justifiably worthy of the attention of this Committee.

For these reasons, my delegation has called for a vote on this resolution and will vote against it. We encourage other delegations that are devoted to advancing the vision and purpose of this Committee to do the same. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.