Israeli settlements and annexation threats ‘morally, legally, and politically intolerable,’ says Guterres
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres slammed Israel’s continued illegal settlements in the Palestinian West Bank
NEW YORK, United States (MNTV) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned Israel’s settlement expansion and annexation threats in the occupied West Bank, calling them “morally, legally, and politically intolerable.”
“Let’s have no illusions: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gone unresolved for generations,” Guterres said in New York at an international conference on Palestine and the two-state solution, stressing the repeated failure of diplomacy and UN resolutions.
Guterres said the humanitarian disaster in Gaza represents a collapse of international law. “Decades of diplomacy have come up short,” he said, pointing to “the systematic decimation of Gaza, the starvation of the population, the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, most of them women and children, and hundreds of our own humanitarians.”
On the occupied West Bank, he warned that the “relentless expansion of settlements, the creeping threat of annexation, (and) the intensification of settler violence” pose an “existential threat” to any two-state solution. “All of it must stop,” he added.
While condemning the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack, Guterres emphasized that “nothing can justify collective punishment of the Palestinian people or any form of ethnic cleansing.” He welcomed the recent recognition of Palestine by more UN member states, reaffirming: “Statehood for the Palestinians is a right, not a reward.”
Addressing critics of a two-state framework, Guterres asked: “What is the alternative? A one-state scenario where Palestinians are denied basic rights? Expelled from their homes and their land? Forced to live under perpetual occupation, discrimination, and subjugation?” He warned such an outcome would only deepen Israel’s global isolation and fuel extremism worldwide.
The UN chief expressed disappointment over the US decision to deny Palestinian officials visas for this year’s UN General Assembly, preventing them from being fully represented. He thanked France and Saudi Arabia for organizing the conference and urged member states to ensure the two-state solution prevails.
“This conference must be a catalyst, spurring irreversible progress towards ending the unlawful occupation, and realizing our shared aspiration for a viable two-state solution,” Guterres said. He called for “bold and principled leadership” to secure peace “for the people of Israel, Palestine, and all humanity.”
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