Majority of Palestinian people do not want violence, Annan says

Palestinians voting in recent elections are seeking peace, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today in New York, noting that the international community will be closely watching developments in the region.

“I believe that the clear majority of the Palestinian people do not want to pursue violence or terrorism against Israeli civilians,” said Mr. Annan, calling the recent elections a “watershed” event. “I believe they also understand and accept that Israel, which is a Member State of the United Nations, has a right to exist as a State, alongside the State of Palestine that Palestinians deserve and want to achieve.”

Addressing the opening of this year’s session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, he added that the Palestinian people want the agreements and obligations that their elected representatives have already entered into, including the Road Map outline peace plan, “to be carried forward and implemented, not abandoned.”

“This is a sensitive moment indeed,” he observed, recalling that the diplomatic Quartet made up of the UN, European Union (EU), Russian Federation and United States recently emphasized that “the international community will be watching very carefully to see how a new government rises to these challenges.”

He added that the international community is “fully aware of the plight of the Palestinian people.” Occupation, settlement activity, hundreds of checkpoints restricting movement throughout the West Bank, lack of fluid communications between Gaza and the West Bank and the ongoing construction of a barrier, despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice, continue to pose problems. “The Quartet is deeply concerned about these matters, and has reminded Israel that it must meet its obligations,” he said.

On the economic front, he said the most pressing need right now is to stabilize the Palestinian Authority’s finances. “I appeal to donors from the region and the wider international community to provide the support that is required at this critical time.”

Mr. Annan also stressed his personal commitment “to help the Palestinian people achieve, by peaceful means, what is rightfully theirs: a viable, contiguous, independent State of Palestine living at peace with the State of Israel.”

To the assembled delegates, he said: “Let everyone commit unequivocally to this goal, and let us then work together to achieve it.”