{"id":251395,"date":"2021-05-11T17:32:49","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T21:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=251395"},"modified":"2021-05-14T16:31:52","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T20:31:52","slug":"escalation-of-situation-of-situation-in-opt-and-jerusalem-12-may-2021-daily-press-briefing-excerpts","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/escalation-of-situation-of-situation-in-opt-and-jerusalem-12-may-2021-daily-press-briefing-excerpts\/","title":{"rendered":"Escalation of Situation in OPT and Jerusalem \u2013 12 May 2021 Daily Press Briefing \u2013 (Excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"

11 MAY 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Secretary-General \u2014 Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel<\/u><\/p>\n

I have two statements to share with you.\u00a0 The\u00a0first one<\/a>\u00a0is on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General is gravely concerned by the serious escalations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, including the latest escalation in Gaza, which add to the heightened tensions and violence in occupied East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

He is deeply saddened to learn of the increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General\u2019s thoughts are with the families of the victims.<\/p>\n

Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force.\u00a0 The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

This spiralling escalation must cease immediately.<\/p>\n

The Â鶹APP is working with all relevant parties to de-escalate the situation urgently.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 And on, a follow\u2011up to the Secretary\u2026\u00a0 your statement on what\u2019s going on between Israel and the Palestinians, has the Secretary\u2011General himself been in contact with any of the key players?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Contacts are continuing to be held at all levels with all interested parties in an effort to help de\u2011escalate the situation.<\/p>\n

Ibtisam.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, Steph.\u00a0 On your statement of the Secretary\u2011General regarding the situation in Israel and Palestine, so, given the fact that more than 20 civilians, Palestinian civilians were killed, and among them are nine children, I would like to ask you again today, does the Secretary\u2011General condemn the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli occupation forces? \u00a0Thank you.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 The Secretary\u2011General stands against the killing of any, any and all civilians.\u00a0 What we want to see is a stop to this spiral of violence.\u00a0 We have said it clearly that the Israeli security forces must exercise restraint and calibrate their use of force and that the firing, indiscriminate firing and launching of rockets from Gaza must\u2026\u00a0 is also completely unacceptable.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 A follow\u2011up, I mean, yesterday, you condemned the rockets firing from Gaza toward Israel, but you refused to condemn\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look\u2026<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 \u2026the Israeli actions against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We want to see\u2026<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Today, we have\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We want to see an end to this cycle of violence and this spiralling, which is getting extremely concerning and extremely dangerous.\u00a0 There is also a broader political environment, which also needs to be addressed, and that is through negotiations to handle these, a lot of these issues which need to be settled.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But\u2026\u00a0 sorry.\u00a0 Just a follow\u2011up.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Sorry.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But that doesn\u2019t answer my question, why aren\u2019t you condemning the killing of Palestinian civilians?\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We, of course, stand against any use\u2026\u00a0 any killing of civilians, any targeting of civilians.<\/p>\n

Okay.\u00a0 Ms. Saloomey.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 To follow up on that, yesterday, the US State Department was asked if Palestinians have a right to self\u2011defence.\u00a0 And while the United States was very clear about Israel\u2019s right to self\u2011defence, the Spokesperson never really answered the question for Palestinians.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m wondering, can you tell us, under international law, can you clarify, do Palestinians in the occupied territory have a right to self\u2011defence?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look, I can\u2019t answer that question at this point, in terms of international law.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But under international law, States have a right to self\u2011defence.\u00a0 Palestine\u2019s recognised as a State by the Â鶹APP.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Look, what\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019m not intellectually qualified from this podium to get into the intricacies of international law.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be honest with you.\u00a0 What we want to see is an end to this spiral of violence.<\/p>\n

People, including Palestinians, have a right to demonstrate and to express themselves.\u00a0 When they do\u2026\u00a0 when people demonstrate and express themselves peacefully, they have a right not to be shot at.\u00a0 Civilians who are in their homes, whether it be in Israel, in Gaza or any other place, have a right not to have rockets fired down at them.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 And the Spokesperson for the High Commissioner of Human Rights, Rupert Colville, has also said that the eviction of families in occupied territories is against international law and in violation of the Geneva Convention.\u00a0 So, if a Palestinian family\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We have said that.\u00a0 If you look back at our statements, we have talked about the evictions and how they must stop and that Israel has responsibilities under international law to ensure that those evictions in occupied territories do not happen.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 If a Palestinian family is being evicted from their home at gunpoint in an occupied situation, then, do they have a right to defend themselves?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 People have a right to express themselves.\u00a0 People have a right to demonstrate.<\/p>\n

Ibtisam.\u00a0 Oh, sorry.\u00a0 Betul.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, \u201cSteph.\u201d Actually\u2026 a follow\u2011up on Ibtisam\u2019s question.\u00a0 Why does the Secretary\u2011General refrain from using the word \u201ccondemnation\u201d when it comes to the killing of Palestinians? \u00a0Are the Palestinians\u2019 lives worth\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 No\u2026<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 \u2026less than Israelis\u2019?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 \u2026and I think\u2026\u00a0 no, and I think\u2026\u00a0 not at all, and I think, as I said, we stand against the killings of civilians on all and any side.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Then why doesn\u2019t he use the word \u201ccondemnation\u201d?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I think, I think I\u2019ve stated my position.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not having\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019m having horrible back pains today, and my mind\u2019s not\u2026\u00a0 yes, Majeed, go ahead, and then Nabil.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 I\u2019ll follow up with the same question, then two questions about Iraq.<\/p>\n

In a statement, it says Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force.\u00a0 Is it accurate for me, as a reporter right now going on TV, say the Secretary\u2011General asked for the Israelis to stop their military campaign?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 If\u2026\u00a0 listen, you\u2019re the reporter.\u00a0 I\u2019m the Spokesman.\u00a0 So, we all have\u2026<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Is it accurate\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We have different\u2026\u00a0 if you want to be accurate, I would just read what he said, or what the statement said.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But\u2026\u00a0 so \u201crestrain\u201d doesn\u2019t mean stop.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We have seen\u2026\u00a0 yesterday, we talked about the indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian populations, as claimed by Hamas.\u00a0 We asked for all of these things to stop.\u00a0 I would just, if I were you, just stick\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019m not you.\u00a0 I will stick to what exactly has been said.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 About the Quartet on the Middle East, is the SG working on the Quartet track? \u00a0Is there any discussions happening, communication? \u00a0Do you expect anything from the Quartet?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Yeah, there is communication being done through\u2026\u00a0 at all levels, including and especially through our coordinator, Tor Wennesland.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important that the international community, and especially through the Quartet mechanism, do what it can to promote and create an environment that will push the parties back to a path of negotiations and create some sort of political horizon.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 Another question about Mr. Nickolay Mladenov.\u00a0 He\u2019s now back on Twitter, at least, and he\u2019s always commenting on the situation in the Middle East, Gaza, West Bank.\u00a0 Does he have any capacity in the UN anymore or not?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 No, he has no role within the Â鶹APP.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 And can you update us on any, I don\u2019t know, reason why he stepped down from\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I mean, I would refer you back to what was said, what he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Correspondent<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 Carla, and then we\u2019ll go to Abdelhamid.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 Can you comment on\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I\u2026\u00a0 that\u2019s not for me to comment on.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.<\/p>\n

Abdelhamid.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, St\u00e9phane.\u00a0 I have also\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Your mic is\u2026\u00a0 go ahead.\u00a0 Try again.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Can you hear me? \u00a0St\u00e9phane, can you hear me?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Yeah.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 My question, St\u00e9phane, yesterday, you issued a statement condemning the firing of rockets with the strongest term, as the statement said.\u00a0 It was issued at 12:00.\u00a0 I mean, Hamas fired the rockets at 11:00 a.m., New\u00a0York time, 6:00\u00a0p.m., Gaza time.\u00a0 So, it took the SG one hour to condemn, with the strongest term, the firing of the rockets.\u00a0 But it took him over ten days to say something about what was going on in Jerusalem until 300 people were wounded in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and he only issued a statement on Sunday evening.<\/p>\n

Can you explain the disparity between the speedy statement after the rockets and the slow motion for issuing a statement on what was going in Jerusalem?<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 I think we expressed our position on what was going on in Jerusalem through various means, through the Special Coordinator, through things that I\u2019ve said here.\u00a0 Our statements are all public.\u00a0 You, as you\u2019ve, as you have ably done, check the time that it has taken to things.\u00a0 Write what you wish.\u00a0 We\u2019ve expressed our position, and we\u2019ve expressed our opinion.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to get into a ticktock analysis of when we said what.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Follow\u2011up\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Sorry.\u00a0 Go ahead.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>: \u00a0Another question, please.<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Yes, of course.<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you.\u00a0 The number of people killed today and last night in Gaza is 28, including 9 children, 1 woman, and 2 Israelis, 2 civilian Israelis.\u00a0 So, we have 28 and 2 Israelis.\u00a0 Does the SG condemn, with the strongest term, killing all the civilians? \u00a0And I want to ask specifically about the word \u201ccondemn\u201d. Does\u2026\u00a0 can he use the word \u201ccondemn\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 We have\u2026\u00a0 I think I\u2019ve answered that question\u2026<\/p>\n

Question<\/u>:\u00a0 [inaudible]<\/p>\n

Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 \u2026we stand\u2026\u00a0 I\u2019m not\u2026\u00a0 we stand clearly against the killing of all and every civilian.<\/p>\n

\/…<\/p>\n

For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

11 MAY 2021 The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today\u2019s noon briefing by St\u00e9phane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General. \/… Secretary-General \u2014 Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel I have two statements to share with you.\u00a0 The\u00a0first one\u00a0is on the Middle East. The Secretary-General is gravely concerned by the serious escalations in the Occupied Palestinian […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897,5663,2553],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[1825,5352,6169,1877],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1829,2005,2029,1857,2613,1961,3589,2309,1638,2385,2137,2117,6245],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[],"class_list":["post-251395","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","country-palestine","country-united-states-of-america","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-office-of-the-united-nations-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-ohchr","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-global-communications","document-source-united-nations-special-coordinator-for-the-middle-east-peace-process-unsco","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-house-demolitions","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-internally-displaced-persons","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-population","document-subject-protection","document-subject-quartet","document-subject-security-issues","document-subject-settlements","document-subject-terrorism","document-subject-violence","entity-united-nations-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/251395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/251395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=251395"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=251395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}