AHLC & Socioeconomic reports

Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister, for your words and for your warm reception here in Ramallah.

I want to express very strongly the total commitment of the United Nations, and my personal total commitment, to do everything for a two-state solution to the materialize. I’ve said several times that there is no plan B to the two-state solution.

A two-state solution that will end the occupation and, with the creation of conditions, also the suffering even to the Palestinian people, is in my opinion the only way to guarantee that peace is established and, at the same time, that two states can live together in security and in mutual recognition, and we do everything we can to work in that direction.

That means, naturally, that it is important to remove the obstacles for that solution to be implemented. We recognize that the settlement activity that, as I’ve said several times, is illegal under international law, that the settlement activity is an obstacle that needs to be removed in relation to the possibility of two-state solution to be adequately implemented.

Of course, there are more difficulties, more obstacles. It’s important to create the conditions for leaders on both sides to appeal for calm, to avoid forms of incitement, for violence to settle down… There are many things that need to be done, but obviously, the settlement activities represent a major obstacle in relation to the implementation of the two-state solution.

It is my deep belief that it is essential to restart a serious and credible political process of negotiation aiming at that objective – the two-state solution – as it is also important to create conditions on the ground to improve the situation of Palestinian populations. But it is also important to recognize that improvements of economic and social nature and mobility on the ground are not a replacement for the two-state solution or for the serious political process of the negotiation. They are just a necessary complement of these negotiations to strengthen its viability and to make sure that there is a peace dividend felt by populations that help enhance also the commitment of populations in relation to peace.

I would also like to say that we remain very concerned with the humanitarian situation in Gaza. We are totally committed to support UNRWA’a activity as well as the activities of reconstruction that are taking place in Gaza. We will do also everything possible to support the effort that President Abbas is making in order to create conditions for a unified leadership both in West Bank and Gaza, with the dialogue for peace behind it. I want to express also my wishes of the best success in all your efforts to improving the governance, improving the action that you have been undertaking with us, Prime Minister, to the benefit of the people of Palestine.

Question: Mr. Guterres, Mr. Jimmy Morales ordered the expulsion of the UN anti-corruption commissioner in the country, my question, did he ask or at least suggested you to remove him? The second question, are you concerned for his security, is there any plan for his protection? Has he reached Mr. Morales to change his mind? Thank you.

Secretary-General: I would also like to express my total support to the work of the Commissioner. I believe that CICIG [International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala] has done a very important job in creating conditions for good governance and to fight corruption in Guatemala. I expressed how shocked I was with the order that was given in relation to his departure from the country. There was never a formal request for me to dismiss him, even if the President expressed concerns, but that is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that the order is an order that shocked me and we have been in contact with different authorities in the country in order to make sure that his security is not put into question.

As you know, there was a decision of the Constitutional Court and we hope that this decision will be upheld.

Question: To the Secretary General, you reiterated your commitment to a two-state solution and the issue of settlements being potential bar to that, you are aware of the Prime Minister of Israel last night made comments about being here to stay forever and there will be no another Israeli settlement uprooted from the West Bank, what’s your reaction to the content of that message and also its time given you are here talking about two state solution, talking about settlements, and also listening to criticism of what Israel is calling anti-Israel bias at the UN?

Secretary General: I think it is clear that there is a disagreement on that matter. We believe that settlement activity is illegal under international law. We believe it is an obstacle to the two-state solution and so we obviously are in disagreement with what was said.

When visiting this museum, there are of course many emotions and many feelings, but the most important of them is the feeling of the suffering of the Palestinian people. Since many years, when in different capacities as Prime Minister of Portugal and as president of an international political organization, I was following very closely the peace processes in its hopes and in its frustrations.

I have a dream, a dream to see in the Holy Land two states: A Palestinian state and Israeli state, living together in peace and security, in mutual recognition and allowing for this kind of suffering not to be possible anymore.

Whatever I can do as Secretary General of the United Nations to support what I believe is necessary - a serious political process aiming at creating the two state solution and at the same time a serious process to improve the living conditions of the Palestinian people, everything that I will be able to do, I feel deeply motivated to do my best.

Thank you very much.

This visit to Yad Vashem is a tribute to the Jewish people, victims of the most hideous crime against humanity in the history of mankind and a tribute to the courage of the survivors whose testimony we all have the obligation to repeat to make sure that the future generations will never forget the Holocaust.

I was particularly impressed by the first room. The first room gives clearly the idea that the Holocaust was not a crazy initiative of a group of paranoid Nazis but it was the combination of millennia, of persecution and discrimination of the Jewish people of what we today call anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism; my own country also lived it and I would recall the most tragic moment of them all with the expulsion of the Jews in the beginning of the 16^th century. I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that anti-Semitism should now be dead forever but, unfortunately, we see it alive and well.

I was shocked a few [days] ago to listen to the chant of a group of neo Nazis in developed country in the world chanting “blood and soil”- slogan of the Nazis. That is a dramatic demonstration that it is our duty to do everything possible and as Secretary General of the United Nations I fully assume that commitment to do everything possible to fight anti-Semitism in all its expressions. As I said I’m truly committed to fight anti-Semitism, as to fight racism, xenophobia, anti-Muslim hatred and all other forms of bigotry that unfortunately we are not yet able to make our world free of.

Allow me also to congratulate all those that have conceived, built and work in this remarkable memorial that so strongly impresses us all.

Thank you very much.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your warm welcome and I want to say that I started my visit this morning at Yad Vashem and it was clearly not only an occasion to fully appreciate what was the most horrendous crime against humanity that has been produced in the history of mankind, but also to see how much it was linked to forms of prosecution and discrimination of the Jewish people for millennia – what we now call anti-Semitism – and, indeed, it is for me clear that to express that the right of existence of the state of Israel doesn’t exist or the wish to destroy the state of Israel is unacceptable form of modern than anti-Semitism. You can be absolutely sure that, as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, I am totally committed to be in this regard adamant: the right of existence of the State of Israel is clear and the right of existence in security of the State of Israel is clear.

As you mentioned, Mr. Prime Minister, Member States are sovereign states. Member States define their positions based on their interests, their values and their convictions. As Secretary-General of the United Nations, I believe it is my duty to be simultaneously an honest broker and the messenger for peace and to be an honest broker means to be impartial.

To be an honest broker means that all countries must be treated equally both by the Secretary-General and the Secretariat that the Secretary-General directs. This is for me very clear and you can be sure that these values will be upheld.

But I always feel that it is my duty as Secretary-General to be the messenger for peace. I had the privilege in past capacities as Prime Minister of Portugal and President of an international organization, a political organization, to witness very important moments in the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. I recall one meeting long ago during the Government of Ariel Sharon in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat met in my office as Prime Minister of Portugal secretly – I think now it can be revealed because time has passed – for four hours and they took me in confidence and I could witness at the same time the commitment for peace and the difficulties of that commitment. I have to say in total candor that I’ve always had a dream, a dream that one day I will be able to see in the Holy Land, a Holy Land in which Jerusalem is clearly a city linked, deeply linked, to three religions – that cannot be denied – two states able to live together in mutual recognition but, also, in peace and security.

It is my feeling that for that to be possible, and that is probably the culmination that was never put fully in place, it would be necessary, and the Secretary-General and the United Nations will always be at the disposal of the parties, but with humility to recognize that I have not the influence or the leverage to be determinant on that, but I think it is necessary to have, on the one hand, a political process and objectives with all the complexities and difficulties and the different positions in the beginning, but that would accompany a meaningful improvement of the economic and social commissions of life of the Palestinians, to create a dividend for peace to make people believe that peace is worth it. This is very much linked to the comments you made.

It is true that I have, in the past capacity in what I today express as the Secretary-General, expressed clearly my feeling that there are a number of obstacles, a variety, different kinds of obstacles not just one kind of obstacle. I’ve been expressing my opposition for instance to the settlement activity but clearly the combination of terrorism, violence and incitement and the understanding of the difficulties created by the separation between the West Bank and Gaza.

So there are here a number of complexities that require a strong wish for peace, but understanding that it will be a complex political process, and, once again, my feeling that it would be good in parallel to that political process to have a dividend for peace in which of course Israel has achieved in its economic development extraordinary results, in which the Palestinian people could also be able to live better in the economic and social dimensions.

I want to express to you my enormous admiration for the achievements of Israel in innovation, the achievements of Israel in technology and how important it is in this period of climate change and desertification, especially the cooperation that Israel can provide to different countries in the world, in which drought is condemning more and more populations to despair and forcing many people to flee. I think Israeli technology and the Israeli cooperation can give an extremely important impulse in our capacity to resist climate change and in our capacity to realize our sustainable development goals, especially in the most vulnerable areas of the world and maybe in Africa, and I have accompanied your effort in this regard and I want to say how much we can see that this is an extremely important dimension.

Finally, Mr. Prime Minister, you’ve mentioned it, I want to say that and in the letter that I recently wrote this is clearly expressed, I will do everything in my capacity to make sure that UNIFIL fully meets its mandate, and I understand the security concerns of Israel, and I repeat that the idea or the intension or the will to destroy the State of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective.