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Sem betur fer þá gat einhver innan SÞ skaffað þessa frétta og okkur er hrein ánægja að birt hana hér að neðan.


Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon
General Assembly

11 May 2009

Address to the 63rd Session of the General
Assembly on the 60th Anniversary of Israel’s
Admission

Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen:


With each passing year, we come closer to our past. Every year brings with it
momentous anniversaries of events that shaped our world. For example, we have
recently marked the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and of the United
Nations itself. These two events, inextricably linked, form the basis of what we
have come to know as the modern era, the post-war era.


For me, as Secretary–General, looking back on where the UN started and where it
is now has a special importance, for I am now charged with guiding the world body
through unknown and uncertain territory. “Terrorism” has long since replaced
“arms control” and “détente” as the focus of international security, yet the term
defies definition. One country’s terrorist is another country’s revolutionary hero.
Some insist that terrorists are opposed to democracy, but we have all seen
democracies behave like terrorists.


In many ways, the world today does not seem to be very removed from the
barbarity of world war. The invasion of Iraq has lasted longer than World War II,
and more tons of bombs have been dropped on that poor country than all the
bombs dropped in that great war. The International Declaration of Human Rights,
so prized and venerated by men and women of honour everywhere, stands as an
impotent relic of a forgotten time because conquest, cruelty, and arrogance are
still with us and growing stronger.


For all of the good the UN has accomplished since its founding, and there have
been successes, the sheer magnitude of human suffering and violations of
international law that have occurred and are still occurring must also be taken into
account.


Few people know that Israel is the only state to be given a conditional admission.
Under General Assembly Resolution 273, Israel was admitted on the condition that
it grant all Palestinians the right to return to their homes and receive
compensation for lost or damaged property. This provision is embedded in UNGA
Resolution 194.


Suffice to say, Israel has never lived up to those terms, and never intended to. For
60 years Israel has violated its terms of admission, and for 60 years the UN has
done nothing about it. It has watched as Israel heaped misery upon misery on
Palestine, and violated international law with impunity.


After “Operation Cast Lead,” no person, no country, no democracy can look at
Israel without thinking of the inhuman slaughter and destruction committed by the
axis powers in World War II, though one could have said the same about numerous
past massacres. What atrocities might the world have been spared if the UN had
refused to admit Israel 60 years ago?


Of course, the immediate post-war world was a different time. The world had just
witnessed the horrors of Hitler’s racist excesses, and collective Western guilt for
the Holocaust dictated attitudes toward the idea of a Jewish state. Even the UN
could not withstand the moral pressure. On Nov. 29, 1947, it passed General
Assembly Resolution 181, “The Partition Plan,” to carve a Jewish state out of Arab
Palestine. However, it was never ratified by the Security Council, and so does not
exist in law, which means the UN played no role in the creation of Israel.
Nevertheless, “The Partition Plan” was utterly illegal and a violation of the UN
Charter, because the UN had no right or power to take land from one people and
give it to another.

If it hopes to play a meaningful role in the 21st century, the UN must do more than
simply promise to enact reforms. It must search deep within its soul to redress the
fundamental violations of its founding principles, which have long since ceased to
have any force. That recommitment must begin now, for it was 60 years ago
today, May 11, 1949, that Israel became a member of the UN. The UN cannot hope
to achieve any measure of peace or justice as long as it condones war crimes,
which it does every day that Israel is allowed to flout its terms of admission.

The past cannot be undone, but the future can change. As its newly elected
Secretary-General, I promise that the UN will no longer be a passive enabler of
genocide. Therefore, I will ask the General Assembly to meet in special session at
the earliest possible time to strip Israel of its membership. Ordinarily, a motion to
expel a member nation would have to come at the recommendation of the Security
Council, but this is not an ordinary motion. Because Israel is in violation of its
terms of admission, it is not a member in good standing, so the UN has every right
to declare General Assembly Resolution 273 null and void. Since Israel’s
membership depends on adherence to that resolution, its expulsion is automatic.

Essentially, the unavoidable, lamentable truth of the last six decades is that the UN
has been a moral and political failure because it has refused to enforce its own
rules and defend the Charter. Nothing the UN does will have any value as long as
this illegitimate member occupies a place in the General Assembly. I want the UN
to have value.

I count on your support.

Thank you very much.