Joint Statement: UNSC Arria-Formula Meeting – The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

Joint Statement by H.E. Mr. Christian Wenaweser, Permanent Representative of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, Security Council: Arria-Formula Meeting – The West Bank, including East Jerusalem

8 May 2026

Chair,

I am speaking today on behalf of Iceland and my own country Liechtenstein.

Our thanks to the co-sponsors of this Arria-Formula meeting for giving us the opportunity to discuss the extremely concerning situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In particular, we are pleased that it is the 5 European States on the Council who have proposed today’s meeting. It is important for the sake of international law that we all take these opportunities to support peace in the Middle East region and in particular, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where the deteriorating  situation has been over-shadowed for a long time now by developments in Gaza and now the overall situation and conflict in the wider region.

Chair,

We continue to endorse the New York Declaration that resulted from last year’s high-level international conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution. Yet, while the deterioration in Gaza has been somewhat arrested, we lament the continued and compounding violations of international law in the West Bank.

Chair,

As stated many times before in resolutions of the General Assembly and elsewhere: the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal. They amount to a practice of annexation, which is an infringement of a fundamental principle of the international legal order, and which may amount to war crimes. We note in this respect the ongoing investigation of the International Criminal Court. Settler violence persists with impunity; the lack of accountability by Israeli government institutions directly undermines the rule of law in the region. It is for these reasons that we continue to join all EU restrictive measures in response to the violence of extremist settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The demolition of UN facilities by the Government of Israel in East Jerusalem and the West Bank violate the UN’s privileges and Immunities. We note in this respect that Section 30 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations provides for a request to be made to the International Court of Justice, in order to settle differences arising from the interpretation or application. It is now clear to us that such a difference of interpretation exists in this case.

Chair,

It is not simply that these violations are contemptuous of the law and of international agreements that all parties have signed. They also act as an accelerant for distrust be-tween Israel and Palestine, and between Israelis and Palestinians. Although the two-State solution is internationally recognised and supported as the most viable path to peace and reconciliation, it is impossible for the people of the region to realize that solution if there is no trust that any agreement will be implemented. In the meantime, the practices we are discussing today are clearly aimed at making a two-State solution unviable.

Chair, this is not a moment to give up, but the moment to recommit to a political solution. We take note of the statements made in today’s meeting by all participants and look forward to working with all States to make peace in all of Palestine a reality.

I thank you.