Datuk Ramlan Ibrahim said the UN Security Council should no longer accept excuses that any action against Israel — even if it was to uphold international law and human rights standard — was either anti-Semitic or would jeopardise the possibility for peace talks. — Reuters pic

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 27 — Malaysia has called on the international community to pursue all legal, diplomatic and economic channels to step up its pressure on the Israeli government to stop its illegal settlement policy.

Malaysia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Datuk Ramlan Ibrahim said the Security Council must stop turning a blind eye to violations and start holding Israel accountable based on the international standard of human rights and international law.

He said the council should no longer accept excuses that any action against Israel — even if it was to uphold international law and human rights standard — was either anti-Semitic or would jeopardise the possibility for peace talks.

He said the international community needed to seriously consider option for international protection for the Palestinians, pending a final and comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian question.

Ramlan said this at the Security Council Quarterly Open Debate on the Middle East, in New York yesterday.

In the long run, Ramlan said the council still aspired for a two-state solution — for the states of Israel and Palestine to live side-by-side in peace and security based on the pre-’67 borders.

Ramlan noted that last year was yet another lost opportunity for the council to make progress on the Palestinian question as Israel’s insatiable appetite for land grabbing, seized even more lands from the Palestinians, snubbing the two-state solution.

He added this month alone, the Israeli authorities continued to demolish housing structures belonging to Palestinian Bedouins in the Occupied East Jerusalem, rendering over 40 Palestinians homeless, half of them children.

He said since the start of the latest wave of violence last October, children comprised almost a quarter of the total Palestinian casualties.

He said according to Unicef, in last month alone, nine Palestinian children were killed and more than 205 were injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In comparison, Unicef reported no Israeli child fatality or injury during the same period. — Bernama