UN Officials Asked About Forming 'Special Envoy' For Journalists After Israel Kills 5 In Gaza

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During a press briefing on Tuesday, Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour was asked about the killing of five Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza in a targeted strike by Israel.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Ambassador. I have a question on the journalist issue. Maybe Ambassador

00:06Hasim and Ambassador Tariq can answer that. Why not put pressure on the, to call for a

00:13special meeting of the Security Council on the protection of journalists, and why

00:17not also pressure to create the post of a special envoy on the protection of

00:23journalists? Thank you.

00:25I would put it more broadly. I think the, as Ambassador Riyad Mansour was explaining,

00:35Israel's continued and persistent blatant violations of international law and its total

00:46disregard for UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on the question of Palestine

00:53and the impunity that it has enjoyed so far are being increasingly questioned by the

01:02international community. And I think you have seen the international conference on the

01:08two-state solution and the question of Palestine. The will of the international community was

01:14clearly expressed. I think as Ambassador Riyad Mansour was saying, now it has to be the

01:20whole of system approach and response to this. The General Assembly has pronounced its position.

01:26It's now the big responsibility of the Security Council to also undertake and shoulder its responsibility.

01:36So you have heard the meeting that took place on Sunday. It was almost unanimous. The call

01:44that the Security Council must act. And I think for us, for Pakistan as a member of the Security Council,

01:53we cannot accept that we are later, years later, going to be blamed that the Security Council did not act.

02:01So we are determined. There are provisions in the Charter that enable the Security Council to take this action,

02:11that enable the Security Council to demand that Israel is stopped from taking those steps that

02:19it has announced. And we will be working together with other members of the Security Council to transform

02:26that collective expression that you heard in the Security Council on Sunday in terms of something more concrete.

02:34Tarek, if you want to say something about the journalists.

02:37Thank you. Well, I couldn't agree more with Ambassador Asim and of course,

02:42Dr. Riyad and my colleague from Turkey about what is happening now. I think international law,

02:49the protections provided by international law for journalists is there. Having an extra

02:54meeting for it does not really necessarily add to this. Resolutions of the Security Council exist,

03:00protecting journalists, humanitarian workers, hospitals, infrastructure for humanitarian work.

03:09Resolution 2417 on using starvation and hunger as an act of aggression is there. Everything exists.

03:20It's about implementing it. It's about holding Israel to account. It's about the impunity that has

03:27persisted for 80 years now. There comes a time when this needs to be stopped and the time is now. We have

03:34reached a point where the world's conscious has awoken. It is also your duty. I know many of you have been

03:43raising this issue in the press and in your organizations, but it's also the duty of you.

03:50Your colleagues are being murdered in cold blood in front of your eyes, in front of the whole world.

03:56It is you that need to keep this issue in the media, in the consciousness of the world. So everybody has a

04:04responsibility here, including Member States, including the Security Council of course, but also the media,

04:09international organizations, NGOs, everybody has a responsibility and we need to live up to that

04:15responsibility.

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