UN committee warns Palestine faces fragmentation under occupation

The vice chair of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People delivered a grave assessment during the Council's open debate on the Middle East held in Hamilton. Umar Hadi declared that conditions across the occupied Palestinian territory are deteriorating at an alarming pace, moving away from any prospect of peace toward entrenched dispossession. He characterized the current trajectory as one where unlawful occupation deepens daily through escalating violent practices targeting the civilian population.

Rejection of Territorial Fragmentation

Hadi strongly rejected approaches treating Gaza and the West Bank as distinct administrative entities. He insisted that these regions, including East Jerusalem, form one indivisible political and legal unit currently subjected to brutal military control. The official cautioned against viewing Gaza merely as a humanitarian emergency while ignoring simultaneous annexation measures and settlement construction elsewhere, noting that sustainable peace cannot emerge from such compartmentalization.

Jerusalem's cultural and religious heritage

Regarding the historic city of Jerusalem, the UN representative demanded an immediate end to unilateral transformations altering the city's character. He accused Israeli authorities of systematically stripping Palestinians of their historical, cultural and religious patrimony through unlawful municipal changes. These actions, he noted, constitute demographic engineering that violates international humanitarian law and undermines prospects for coexistence.

Call for implementation of international frameworks

The committee vice chair pressed the Security Council to take concrete measures protecting civilian populations and explicitly rejecting annexation tactics alongside collective punishment strategies. He specifically referenced the New York Declaration adopted by the UN General Assembly in September 2024, which established a comprehensive framework for ending the occupation and realizing a two-state solution. Full implementation of this declaration, he argued, remains essential for reversing the current trajectory toward permanent fragmentation.