Stop practices hindering development in occupied arab territories: UAE

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It also called for the need to give the issue of occupation the serious attention it deserved in the work of the UN Sustainable Development Committee.

The statement was made by Ahmad Al-Jarman, UAE’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, on behalf of the Arab Group, at the high-level segment of the 17th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, which started in New York on Wednesday.

“The continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian lands and the Syrian Golan since 1967 has led to serious deterioration in the sectors of agriculture, rural development, water and land in those areas. The unlawful practices committed by Israel, the occupying power, such as the confiscation of land, the illegal construction of settlements and the wall on it, the systematic large-scale destruction of agricultural lands and farms, the uprooting of countless trees, and the restriction imposed on Palestinian and Syrian farmers such as preventing them from reaching their lands and selling their produce and depriving them from their water resources by forcibly changing their course, in addition to the contamination of the arable lands by burying the garbage and industrial wastes in it and dumping the sewage of the settlements on these lands, and other lengthy lists of practices, have had dire economic and social effects on the population. These practices undermine the chances for development and cause a large increase in the rates of poverty, unemployment and food insecurity,” he said in the statement. “In this context, the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza strip, which took place after 18 months of a strangulating siege, has caused wide destruction of all infrastructures in the strip including farm lands and water networks. It rendered the whole population in Gaza totally dependant on food assistance from the outside. This is an unacceptable situation that we must end and not allow to continue,” he added. He noted that, in view of the above, it is incumbent upon the Commission on Sustainable Development to pay special attention to the issue of foreign occupation and call for the halt of such illegal practices, which have negative effects on economic and social development and violate human dignity and values.

“In this regard, the Arab Group stresses that it is very important that the text of the final document of this session reflects the question of the economic, social and environmental obstacles facing the peoples living under foreign occupation while they endeavor to achieve sustainable development,” he stated.

The Arab Group emphasises the importance of the work of the commission on sustainable development and the persistence to ensure the balance between economic development, social development and environmental protection.

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