Mr President, members of the Security Council,
The Palestinian people have a right to hope and the Israeli people have a right to security. This is the path to peace and is what brings us here today. I am convinced that there is an alternative path to the permanent violence and endless pain between peoples called upon to coexist.
Last Saturday, Iran's unacceptable attack on Israel, which we strongly condemn, brought us one step closer to the abyss. In the coming weeks, all sides must show restraint to stop the violence and lay the foundations for the peaceful future that brings us to this Council. The risk of regional escalation is more real than ever. There is no alternative but to channel our efforts towards a political solution.
To secure peace, everyone around this table knows what we must do: implement the two-State solution. Making this solution irreversible means making peace in the region irreversible. And there is one way to achieve this: to recognise Palestine as a member of this United Nations Organisation. Therefore my voice, and the voice of Spain, today joins those calling for it and supporting it.
The only way to end this loop of recurrent violence is the two-State solution, embraced by the international community as a whole. Now is the time to make it happen. May what we all recognise as the solution - a Palestinian State living side by side with the State of Israel, in peace and security - become a reality at last. May peace between Israelis and Palestinians finally become a reality.
The establishment of a Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel is undoubtedly a matter of justice, but also the only viable option for peace.
Spain has therefore decided to join the 139 countries that have already done so and it will recognise the Palestinian State, and is supporting its entry into the United Nations in this Security Council today.
Spain will recognise the Palestinian State because the Palestinian people cannot be condemned to being refugees, because this is the way to peace in the Middle East, because this is good for Israel's security.
Spain will recognise the Palestinian State because Palestinians have the right to a future with hope just as the Israeli people have the right to a future with peace and security, and after so many decades of pain we know that there cannot be one without the other: security in Israel and regional peace are intertwined with the hope for the Palestinian people to have a State. Both have the right to this, exactly the same right.
Spain has proposed holding an International Peace Conference as soon as possible, with the goal of making progress towards achieving this solution. The European Union has endorsed our proposal, as have the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Over 80 countries in total. I invite this Council and the United Nations Secretary-General to endorse the proposal, so that multilateral diplomacy in action can contribute to opening a new page of history in the Middle East: that of definitive peace.
And the best way to protect and guarantee that this two-State solution will be implemented is to admit the State of Palestine as a full member of this United Nations Organisation now. This implies its recognition by all, as the vast majority of its members have already done, and as Spain will do.
We cannot wait any longer.
In May 1948, three years after the San Francisco Conference that gave rise to this organisation, the United Nations launched its first peacekeeping operation. The first in history. 76 years ago. And that first peacekeeping mission was precisely in Palestine.
This organisation has not faced an older problem. How much longer must we wait for a solution?
Hundreds of thousands of people —whole families, children— are currently deprived of food, water, medicine and shelter. How much longer must they wait?
Over 100 hostages are being held by Hamas. How much longer must they and their families wait for them to go home? Since that horrific 7 October, violence has claimed the lives of 1,200 Israelis and more than 32,000 Palestinians. How many more innocent lives must be lost?
Today, moreover, there is a risk of wider conflict and regional destabilisation, with unpredictable geopolitical, economic and humanitarian consequences.
The escalation must stop.
The spiral of violence must stop.
The Palestinian people must have their place in this assembly and their own State. And Israel's place and existence must also be recognised by all those yet to do so.
This is a matter of justice for Palestine. This is the best security guarantee for Israel, and the first and fundamental condition for a peaceful future in the region.
Peace, justice, hope and future are values worth defending and supporting for this Security Council. This is what Spain is doing and will do, for peace, for justice and out of sheer humanity.
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