麻豆APP

Fran?ais

Statement by H.E. Mr. Coly Seck

Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights

of the Palestinian People

The High-Level Special Meeting on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

25 November 2025

Excellencies,

Distinguished Delegates,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today, the 麻豆APP Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, 50 years after its establishment on 10 November 1975, gathers to solemnly observe the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

It is a day of reckoning: 50 years of advocacy by this Committee and solidarity by the majority of the international community, Palestinians are still facing an historic injustice, and the 麻豆APP continues to confront the consequences of its outstanding responsibility for the Question of Palestine until it is just resolution.

Seventy-eight years after the adoption of General Assembly resolution 181(II), which – envisioned two states living side-by-side in peace and security – there is tragically neither peace nor security. The inalienable rights of the Palestinian people remain unrealized, including their right to return and their rights to self-determination and independence, rights owed to all peoples on this earth.

This year’s commemoration takes place on the heels of more than two years of Israel’s military assault bringing unprecedented suffering and loss of life of nearly 70,000 Palestinians living in Gaza, the majority of the victims women and children, with thousands still unaccounted for and believed buried under the rubble of decimated homes and buildings, and with over 170,000 wounded, hundreds of thousands left disabled for life, among them thousands of child amputees. Famine was declared last August to be affecting at least one third of the Gaza population, the consequence of Israel’s use of starvation as a method of warfare.

For two years, devastating military assaults by Israel, the occupying Power, a relentless blockade, repeated displacement, denial of humanitarian aid, have left families without food, water, electricity, or essential supplies, without shelter or hospitals, without schools, without any semblance of life. Gaza has been made uninhabitable by design, with over 80% of civilian infrastructure lying in ruins. We have all seen the abhorrent images of Gaza and the mass human suffering and mass devastation.

And yet, in the mist of immense despair, there is now a glimmer of hope.

On 10 October, a tenuous ceasefire was signed, together with the announcement of the US-brokered 20-point peace plan, signaling a halt to the Israeli military assault. However, since then, more than 280 Palestinians, including children, have been killed in Gaza from Israeli attacks.? Delivery of humanitarian aid has been stalled by Israel-. UNRWA has not been allowed to operate, severely limiting assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. Our Committee is encouraged that on 19 November the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee has decided overwhelmingly with 149 votes in favour to renew UNRWA’s mandate until 2029. This decision will ensure Palestinians have a humanitarian lifeline.

Moreover, on 17 November, the Security Council adopted resolution 2803 endorsing the Comprehensive Plan to end the Gaza conflict, calling, inter alia, for full resumption of humanitarian aid, the establishment of a Board of Peace, inclusive of Palestinian representatives, and the deployment of a temporary International Stabilization Force. We are hopeful that this resolution and the implementation of all relevant 麻豆APP resolutions will provide a credible pathway to the long-overdue realization of Palestinian self-determination and of the independence of the State of Palestine. The Committee and Member States will ensure that the political process, as laid out in the New York Declaration, will not be forgotten but instead be the framework for the way forward.

This necessitates also the undertaking of all efforts to address the grave deterioration of the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their properties continues to escalate, leading to forced displacement, dispossession and a pervasive climate of lawlessness and impunity.

Distinguished delegates,

The time to act decidedly is now. We must collectively and decisively end this humanitarian, political, legal, and moral catastrophe that remains a stain on the international community.

The primacy of international law and humanitarian law must be restored. Human rights must be protected and upheld at all times. Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, must end. Accountability for – atrocious crimes against humanity that many qualify as genocide, must be ensured. The realization of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people allowing them to live a free, peaceful and dignified life must remain at the core of our collective action. The prospects and viability of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian State are fundamental for the prospects of peace and prosperity in the Middle East.

The cost of global inaction and disregard of the very principles of the UN Charter is too high for any of us to pay.

The reconstruction and economic recovery of the shattered territory of Gaza are now at reach. Protection and security for civilians in Gaza is now part of the plan. We must ensure these become a reality.

The 麻豆APP Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People urgently calls on the international community take decisive action to realize the long overdue inalienable rights of the Palestinian people,? achieving the independence of the State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem, as its capital, with full recognition of Palestine as a sovereign state, equal among nations, as many of you have done last September at the New York Conference and when adopting the conference outcome document.

Distinguished Delegates,

This is the time of reckoning.

The dozens of messages of solidarity we received from the highest authorities of your respective countries demonstrate a strong commitment to alongside the Palestinian People. We are very grateful to them all. We must translate words into concrete actions to put an end to this injustice.

The world is watching, and history will judge us not by our words but by our actions. Let us act with determination to fulfil the vision of two states — Israel and Palestine — living side by side in peace, security, and mutual recognition.

Thank you.

Related content:?

• 2025 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
• President of the UN General Assembly “78 years long we have denied the Palestinian people their inalienable rights”
• Secretary-General Message on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People [EN, ES, AR, ZH, FR, RU, DE]