Jordan, 2024

Mr President,

Mr Secretary General,

Your Excellencies:

Over the past quarter-century, I have stood at this podium amidst

regional conflicts, global upheavals, and humanitarian crises that

have profoundly tested our global community.

It often feels that there was not a moment when our world was not

in turmoil. And yet, I cannot recall a time of greater peril than this.

Our United Nations is facing a crisis that strikes at its very

legitimacy and threatens a collapse of global trust and moral

authority.

The UN is under attack— literally and figuratively.

For nearly a year, the sky-blue flag flying over UN shelters and

schools in Gaza has been powerless to protect innocent civilians

from Israeli military bombardment.

UN aid trucks sit motionless just miles away from starving

Palestinians. Humanitarian workers who proudly wear the emblem

of this institution are disparaged and targeted. And the rulings of

the UN’s International Court of Justice are defied, its opinions

disregarded.

So it’s no surprise that both inside and outside this Hall, trust in

UN’s cornerstone principles and ideals is crumbling.

The harsh reality many see is that some nations are above

international law, that global justice does bend to the will of power,

and that human rights are selective; a privilege to be granted or

denied at will.

We cannot stand for that, and we must recognise that undermining

our international institutions and global frameworks is one of the

gravest threats to our global security today.

Ask yourselves, if we are not nations united in the conviction that all

people are equal in rights, dignity, and worth, and that all countries

are equal in the eyes of the law, what kind of world does that leave

us with?

Your Excellencies,

The attacks of October 7 on Israeli civilians last year were

condemned by countries all over the world, including Jordan, but

the unprecedented scale of terror unleashed on Gaza since that day

is beyond any justification.

The Israeli government’s assault has resulted in one of the fastest

death rates in recent conflicts, one of the fastest rates of starvation

caused by war, the largest cohort of child amputees, and

unprecedented levels of destruction.

This Israeli government has killed more children, more journalists,

more aid workers, and more medical personnel than any other war

in recent memory.

And let us not forget the attacks on the West Bank. There, since

October 7, the Israeli government has killed more than 700

Palestinians, among them, 160 children. Palestinians held in Israeli

detention centres exceed 10,700, including 400 women and 730

children—730 children. Over 4,000 Palestinians have been forced

from their homes and lands. Armed settler violence has surged. And

entire villages have been displaced.

And in Jerusalem, flagrant violations of the historical and legal

status quo at Muslim and Christian Holy Sites continue unabated,

under the protection and encouragement of members of the Israeli

government.

To be clear, this is in the West Bank, not Gaza.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7.

So is it any wonder that many are questioning, how can this war not

be perceived as deliberately targeting the Palestinians?

The level of civilian suffering cannot be written off as unavoidable

collateral.

I grew up a soldier, in a region that is all too familiar with conflict.

But there is nothing familiar about this war and the violence

unleashed since October 7.

In the absence of global accountability, repeated horrors are

normalised, threatening to create a future where anything is

permitted anywhere in the world. Is that what we want?

Now is the time to ensure the protection of the Palestinian people. It

is the moral duty of this international community to establish a

protection mechanism for them across the occupied territories. This

will guarantee the safety of Palestinians and Israelis from

extremists who are taking our region to the brink of an all-out war.

That includes those who continue to propagate the idea of Jordan as

an alternative homeland. So let me be very, very clear—that will

never happen. We will never accept the forced displacement of

Palestinians, which is a war crime.

No country in the region benefits from escalation. We have seen that

clearly in the dangerous developments in Lebanon over the past few

days. This has to stop.

For years, the Arab world has extended a hand to Israel through the

Arab Peace Initiative, offering full recognition and normalisation in

exchange for peace. But consecutive Israeli governments,

emboldened by years of impunity, have rejected peace and chosen

confrontation instead.

Impunity gathers force. Left unchecked, it gains momentum.

Palestinians have borne more than 57 years of occupation and

oppression. During this time, the Israeli government has been

allowed to cross one red line after another.

But now, Israel’s decades-long impunity is becoming its own worst

enemy.

And the consequences are everywhere.

The Israeli government has been accused of genocide at the ICJ.

Expressions of outrage at its conduct are echoing around the world.

Cities everywhere have seen mass protests, and calls for sanctions

are growing louder.

Remarks by His Majesty King Abdullah II at the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly | Royal Hashemite Court

International frustration with Israel has long been mounting, but it

has never been more exposed.

For decades, Israel has projected itself as a thriving Western- styled

democracy in the Middle East.

But the brutality of the war on Gaza has forced the world to look

closer.

Now, many see Israel through the eyes of its victims. And the

contradiction, the paradox, is too jarring.

The modern, advanced Israel admired from afar, and the Israel that

Palestinians have experienced firsthand simply cannot co-exist.

Israel will eventually be entirely one or the other.

That is the choice its leaders and its people will have to make. To live

by the democratic values of freedom, justice, and equality for all, or

to risk further isolation and rejection.

Over and over, we have watched Israel try to achieve security

through military means. Each escalation is followed by a pause,

until the next, deadlier one.

And for years, the global community has taken the path of least

resistance—accepting the status quo of the ongoing military

occupation of Palestinians, all the while paying lip service to the

two-state solution.

But it has never been more evident that the current status quo is

untenable. And, as the International Court of Justice’s advisory

opinion underscored two months ago, it is unequivocally illegal.

The Court’s opinion bears a moral imperative to us all. The

obligation it carries is one that our nations cannot afford to ignore

—for the sake of our world, as well as the future for Palestinians and

Israelis alike.

Because both peoples deserve to live their lives in dignity, free of

violence and fear.

And the only way to achieve that is a just peace, one grounded in

international law, justice, equal rights, and mutual recognition.

That is something we, as nations and people everywhere, can and

must unite around.

Your Excellencies,

The world is watching, and history will judge us by the courage we

show.

And it’s not just the future that will hold us accountable, so will the

people of the here and now.

They will judge whether we, as the United Nations, will surrender to

inaction, or will fight to uphold the principles that anchor this

institution and our world.

Right now, they are asking whether we will stand by as parents

watch their children waste away, as doctors watch their patients die

for lack of basic medical supplies, and as more innocent lives are

lost, because the world failed to act.

This war must end. Hostages and detainees must return home. But

every day we wait is one day too long for far too many.

So I call on all countries to join Jordan in enforcing an international

Gaza Humanitarian Gateway—a massive relief effort to deliver food,

clean water, medicine, and other vital supplies to those in desperate

need. Because humanitarian aid should never be a tool of war.

Whatever our politics, one truth is undeniable—no people should

have to endure such unprecedented suffering, abandoned and alone.

We cannot surrender the future to those who thrive on division and

conflict.

I urge all nations of conscience to unite with Jordan in the critical

weeks ahead on this mission.

Almost a year into this war, our world has failed politically, but our

humanity must not fail the people of Gaza any longer.

Echoing the words of my father from 64 years ago, at the 15th

session of the General Assembly, I pray that this community of

nations may have the courage to decide wisely and fearlessly, and

will act with the urgent resolve that this crisis and our conscience

demand.

My father was a man who fought for peace to the very end. And, like

him, I refuse to leave my children, or your children, a future we have

given up on.

Thank you.