Security Council deplores Israeli attack on Qana, urges all sides to grant access
Report, UN News, 30 July 2006
Addressing the Council earlier in the day, Mr. Annan, in a strongly worded statement, urged the members to condemn the attack on Qana and call for an immediate cessation of hostilities. He warned against inaction, saying: “The authority and standing of this Council are at stake.”
Arab states must repudiate ties with Israel now
Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 31 July 2006
Arab states must end their long forbearance which sends the message to Israel that the lives of their citizens are cheap. Action is required no less for the best interests and domestic and international standing of these governments as for the region as a whole. In Jordan’s case it would only be exercising rights and responsibilities that are contained within its 1994 peace treaty with Israel and thus could not even be interpreted as violating the treaty’s spirit or letter. The peace treaty was supposed to be one element in a wider regional peace that has failed to materialize due to Israel’s aggressive construction of new colonies on occupied Palestinian land and refusal to withdraw from occupied Lebanese and Syrian territory. The preamble to the treaty states that Israel and Jordan aim at “a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 in all their aspects.” In Article 2 of the treaty, both states commit themselves to “respect and recognize the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every state in the region.”
Israel’s continued and deepening occupation of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territory, violations of their sovereignty, blatant interference in the internal affairs of Palestinians and Lebanese, and its mounting atrocities which have claimed Jordanian and Egpytian as well as thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian lives are not only crimes against humanity but violations of Israel’s treaty commitments. Jordan and Egypt have a right and obligation to respond.