The urge was made by Kuwait’s Permanent Representative at the UN Mohammed Sultan al-Sharji while addressing the 26th session of the UN General Assembly Economic Committee, late on Monday.
The session discussed the standing sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories, including Eastern Jerusalem, and standing sovereignty of Arab residents in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights over natural resources there.
The Kuwaiti representative cited a recent report of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) on the economic and social impacts of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian living conditions as showing that Israel continued deliberate breaches of international law, involving the devastation of others’ natural resources.
Therefore, the international community is required to take a "clear-cut and definite" action against such Israeli practices in a way that should comply with all-out settlement efforts so as to achieve just and comprehensive peace in the region, he said.
"All practices by the Israeli military machine and its overall measures have prevented, by one way or another, the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territories and Arab residents in the Golan Heights from obtaining minimum life constituents and simplest rules of freedom and human dignity," al-Sharji said.
"This report – referred by the UN secretary-general to the UN General Assembly Economic Committee – undoubtedly shows that the aggravating economic and social sufferings and deteriorating health conditions have become the ‘main characteristic’ of Israeli-occupied territories," he added.
Arbitrary illegitimate practices and excessive use of military force have claimed serious losses of lives among Palestinian civilians, egregiously devastated Palestinian infrastructure and impeded the movement of Palestinians, al-Sharji criticized.
He also condemned Israel for illegally arresting large numbers of Palestinians, including 120 women, and going ahead with the construction of the separation wall in the occupied Palestinian territories, which is now 703 kilometers long, in defiance and breach of international law and in violation of human rights and relevant international legitimacy resolutions.
Israel is also still expanding the building of Jewish settlements and using up natural resources in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, al-Sharji concluded.
