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WEDNESDAY, 5 APRIL 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n \/…<\/p>\n MIDDLE EAST<\/strong> And you may have seen that we also have a statement<\/a> by Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, which was issued earlier this morning. He said he too is appalled by the images of violence inside the al-Qibli mosque and disturbed by the apparent beating of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and the large number of arrests.<\/p>\n Mr. Wennesland also strongly rejects the stockpiling and use of fireworks and rocks by Palestinians inside the mosque.<\/p>\n He called on political, religious and community leaders on all sides to reject incitement, inflammatory rhetoric, and provocative actions and added that the UN remains in close contact with all concerned parties to de-escalate the situation.<\/p>\n And on a related note, we and our humanitarian partners stand ready to help ensure the restoration of medical services as soon as possible at the Haram Al Sharif\/Temple Mount compound. The health clinic at the compound was severely damaged which forced its closure after Israeli forces used it to enter the Al Qibli Mosque in East Jerusalem. That\u2019s based on an initial assessment carried out by our humanitarian colleagues, who spoke with multiple sources at the site, including health care providers and worshippers.<\/p>\n \/…<\/p>\n Questions and Answers<\/u><\/p>\n \/…<\/p>\n Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But\u2026 Okay.\u00a0 Well, let me give you a question then about Al-Aqsa.\u00a0 Clearly, the Secretary-General is very unhappy.\u00a0 You read the statement about what has happened.\u00a0 But this is a very sensitive time.\u00a0 There’s a danger that things are going to get much worse.\u00a0 Is it now time for the Secretary-General to take this on directly? \u00a0Is it time for him to pick up the phone to Prime Minister Netanyahu and to express his displeasure about what happened?<\/p>\n Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 It is indeed a very delicate time, especially given the calendar and the confluence of high holy days for the three religions represented in Jerusalem, and I will keep you up to date on any contacts the Secretary-General has.\u00a0 Ibtisam Azem, I know your name.\u00a0 I’m just so slow this morning.<\/p>\n Question<\/u>:\u00a0\u00a0Alhamdulillah<\/em>.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 So, on the same subject, there are relevant Security Council resolutions and the General Assembly.\u00a0 What does the Secretary-General want from countries to do to implement these resolutions? \u00a0Because it’s clear we have been here before.\u00a0 This is not the first time we see this and it’s constantly happening.\u00a0 So, what do you want countries to do specifically, and is the Secretary-General or his representative on the ground doing something in this regard too?<\/p>\n Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 In terms of the immediate situation in the holy sites, it’s very important that the status quo be respected in line with the special role that Jordan has.\u00a0 It’s important that all those who are directly involved, and all those who have an influence of those are directly involved, use that influence to calm this situation in the immediate.\u00a0 We’ve also seen the exchange of a fire around the Gaza Strip into Israel.\u00a0 There are a lot of Member States that have influence in the area.\u00a0 And it is important that they all use it in the same direction.<\/p>\n Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Is the Secretary-General talking with these countries, specifically the US which has the most funds.\u00a0 If I would follow up on James’ question, is he picking up the phone to talk to the Americans to put more pressures on the Israelis?<\/p>\n Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 He and his colleagues remain in touch with all relevant parties.\u00a0 I will brief you on any contacts that I may share with you.<\/p>\n \/…<\/p>\n Question<\/u>:\u00a0 Thank you, Stephane.\u00a0 I want to refer to the statement issued by Tor Wennesland in which he criticized that Palestinians are accumulating fireworks inside the mosque.\u00a0 Do you think that it’s fair when the worshippers were attacked at 11\u00a0p.m.\u00a0 and mosques in the area started calling for people to help? \u00a0Some people came with these fireworks from outside to help those who are trapped inside.\u00a0 Four hundred were arrested outside.<\/p>\n Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 Abdelhamid, I’m not here to analyse or answer statements that have been made by representatives of the Secretary-General.\u00a0 Those words are in black and white.\u00a0 They’re on paper.\u00a0 My job is to refer to them, amplify them.\u00a0 Your responsibility as a journalist is to write about them, comment them, analyse them and parse them, criticize them or support them, but we have different responsibilities.<\/p>\n Question<\/u>:\u00a0 But, my question: \u00a0is that a fair description of the situation?<\/p>\n Spokesman<\/u>:\u00a0 That’s exactly what I’m saying.\u00a0 You answer that question yourself.\u00a0 Mr.\u00a0Wennesland spoke on behalf of the Secretary-General.\u00a0 He\u2019s his representative on the ground.\u00a0 He says what he has to say.\u00a0 People can like it.\u00a0 People cannot like it.\u00a0 People can feel nothing.\u00a0 But, my job is not to be analyst of what I say, so to speak.<\/p>\n \/…<\/p>\n For information media. Not an official record.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" HIGHLIGHTS OF THE NOON BRIEFING BY ST\u00c9PHANE DUJARRIC\u200b, SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL ANT\u00d3NIO GUTERRES WEDNESDAY, 5 APRIL 2023 \/… MIDDLE EAST Turning to the Middle East, I can tell you that the Secretary-General is shocked and appalled by the images he saw this morning of the violence and beating by Israeli security forces inside the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"template-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[2573],"document-source":[5352,1897,1877],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2401,1857,1961,2385,6245],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-286268","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-highlights-of-the-noon-briefing","document-source-secretary-general","document-source-united-nations-department-of-public-information-dpi","document-source-united-nations-special-coordinator-for-the-middle-east-peace-process-unsco","document-subject-holy-places","document-subject-incidents","document-subject-jerusalem","document-subject-security-issues","document-subject-violence","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/286268","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\/286268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=286268"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=286268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTurning to the Middle East, I can tell you that the Secretary-General is shocked and appalled by the images he saw this morning of the violence and beating by Israeli security forces inside the al-Qibli mosque in Jerusalem. At a time of the calendar which is holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, this should be a time for peace and not violence. Places of worship should only be used for peaceful religious observances.<\/p>\n