From scant details reported on the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People’s meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, it would seem as if the representatives arranged a meeting to thank and praise each other. The Palestinian people were just an exploited backdrop to the reported charade. 

The Committee’s Chair Cheikh Niang was reported to have “praised the Secretary-General’s principled and strong positions in defence of the rights of the Palestinian people and their fill realisation as soon as possible.” However, Guterres’s track record shows otherwise, with his insistence on the two-state paradigm and absolute refusal to consider decolonisation. 

Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer to the State of Palestine to the UN also heaped accolades on Guterres “for his positions and steadfast defence of Palestine”, this time purportedly on behalf of the Palestinian people and leadership. Mansour cannot speak of the Palestinian people’s gratitude for a UN diplomat who upheld Israeli colonialism and........

© Middle East Monitor