Madam President,
We thank the Representative of Malta for the submission of the Report of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
We express to the Palestinian government and people our unwavering solidarity and support for the admission of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations.
Cuba reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people and its determination to continue supporting it in the legitimate struggle for justice, dignity and peace, as our Minister of Foreign Affairs recalled yesterday in his message of solidarity to the Palestinian people on behalf of the Cuban Government and people.
In like manner, Cuba reiterates its demand to put an immediate end to the prolonged and illegal Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and to the blockade of more than a decade to the Gaza Strip.
The two-State solution and a comprehensive, just, peaceful and lasting settlement to the Palestinian question will not be possible, as long as Israel continues to violate International Law and the Charter of the United Nations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem; as well as the United Nations relevant resolutions, among them the resolution 2334 (2016) of the Security Council.
Madam President,
Cuba states its deep concern over the situation in the Middle East region, which has been buffeted by violence, interference in internal affairs, external aggression and long-term conflicts, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It is time to settle the historical debt with the State of Palestine and to restore the inalienable rights of its people, violated by Israel for half a century of occupation, collective repression and punishment, destruction and confiscation of Palestinian lands and properties, forced displacements and settlements of settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Cuba reiterates its strong rejection of the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force by Israel against Palestinian civilians in the occupied territory, including East Jerusalem and particularly the Gaza Strip, in serious and flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of International Humanitarian Law.
We condemn, once again, the illegal construction and expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the demolition or seizure of Palestinian property structures. All these measures, together with the blockade of the Gaza Strip, violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and erode the viability of a two-State solution.
We reiterate our unrestricted support for a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the creation of two States, allowing the Palestinian people to exercise the right to self-determination and to have an independent and sovereign State in the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of refugees to return.
We reject the unilateral action of the United States to establish its diplomatic representation in the city of Jerusalem, which further exacerbates tensions in the region.
Madam President,
Cuba once again demands the total and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from the Syrian Golan and from all the occupied Arab territories.
We recall that any measure or action aimed at changing the legal, physical and demographic status, and the institutional structure of the occupied Syrian Golan, as well as Israel's measures to exercise its jurisdiction and administration in that territory, violate International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.
In conclusion, we demand respect for multilateralism and the Charter of the United Nations, the cessation of interference in internal affairs, foreign aggression and sponsorship of terrorist groups to promote instability and conflicts in the Middle East, as well as the fabrication of pretexts and concepts to try to legitimize the unilateral use of force and aggression against sovereign states.
Thank you very much.