“On this International Day of Solidarity, I call on the parties to step back from the brink. An end of the conflict will only come through a negotiated and just political solution, based on the relevant United Nations resolutions,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was quoted as saying in a statement published on the organization’s website.
“I also have repeatedly denounced Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem,” Ban Ki-moon added in the statement, calling on Israel to end “half a century” occupation of Palestinian land in Gaza.
However, the tensions in the West Bank region recently escalated after Israel announced its plans to construct new settlements in East Jerusalem.
“The Israeli and Palestinian people face a shared fate on shared land," Ban Ki-moon was quoted as saying in the statement.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates on Thursday issued a statement to the UN General Assembly ahead of the International Day of Solidarity, urging the international community to take effective measures in protecting the Palestinian people.
November 29 commemorates the adoption of the United Nations Partition Resolution 181 (II) in 1947 calling for the establishment of both a” Jewish State” and an “Arab State” in the Palestinian region. But so far only Israel became a state in 1948.
