Jordan’s King Abdullah II said that the international community had chosen to manage the Palestinian-Israeli conflict rather than resolve it, allowing violations to become entrenched.
“For decades I stood before this assembly and warned of the dangers of leaving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict unresolved. But the international community chose to manage the conflict, not confront it,” Abdullah said in a speech on Tuesday at the 81st UN General Assembly in New York.
He said successive Israeli violations were initially treated as temporary, “until temporary became permanent, and permanent became policy”.
The forced displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank amounts to a “war crime”, Abdullah said, describing developments there as a “fundamental shift” rather than simply an escalation.
He said Israel continues to expand its illegal settlements in the West Bank and subject Palestinians to “subjugation”, arguing that settlement expansion, violence and displacement were “elements of a single policy” aimed at forcing Palestinians to leave their land.
Abdullah said at least 300 Palestinian children had been killed during the first 300 days of the Gaza ceasefire.
He also said Jordanian field hospitals had been targeted, underscoring what he described as the continuing impact of the conflict on civilians and humanitarian operations.
