Ashraf AboArafe
His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) gave a speech at opening the session of the Economic and Social Council on the ministerial level of the tegular session (114) as follows:
His Excellency Mr. Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri
Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates
Chair of the current session of the Economic and Social Council
Your Highnesses and Excellencies, Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased at the outset to extend to you, Mr. President, my sincere congratulations on your country assuming the presidency of the current session of the Economic and Social Council, wishing you all success and good luck… I also extend my thanks to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and to His Excellency Mr. Yousef Al-Shamali – Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, for chairing the previous session of the Council and the wise management of its work.
Mr. President,
Today we are approaching the first anniversary of the beginning of the brutal Israeli aggression on Palestine’s… This aggression was not the first of its kind, but it is certainly the most violent, the most barbaric, and the most devoid of law, morality, and humanity… We have all followed its atrocities and crimes… We also monitor with great concern Israel’s ongoing attempts to expand the circle of conflict to neighboring countries under pretexts and arguments whose internal dimensions and personal political calculations that drive them have become exposed to all… It is no secret what real risks result from this in the outbreak of a regional war that will undoubtedly have dire consequences for the region and the entire world… Its impact will be severe on peoples seeking development and progress, as it will set this region back years. The past period has been difficult for the Palestinian people… who lived through this tragedy and coped as much as they could with its burdens… and endured harsh conditions that far exceeded the capacity of human beings to endure… patient, content, generous and with their heads held high… their faith in the justice of the cause they defended in the face of the enemy’s bombs, marches and missiles did not waver one iota… and all of this happened in the shadow of the international inability to stop the aggressor… and even grant him, at times, a safe haven to continue committing atrocities without punishment or accountability.
Today, we open the work of the 114th session of the Economic and Social Council, which discusses a number of important topics, foremost among which is the topic of “supporting the Palestinian economy”… a topic that has been presented periodically to this esteemed council in the September session of each year, for about thirty years, but today it has acquired special importance and clear priority. ¬ This year’s report highlights, in numbers, the enormous human and material losses suffered by the Palestinian people as a result of the brutal Israeli aggression against them since October 7th… in light of the comprehensive and deliberate destruction caused by this aggression to all means of life in all its sectors throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.
These numbers and statistics confirm that the volume of bombs and explosives dropped on the Gaza Strip has exceeded tens of thousands of tons, which is much more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
You all realize that these crimes have left behind huge human and material losses from which recovery will not be easy… and will not happen – unfortunately – in a short time.
The occupation has boasted, since the beginning of its brutal aggression, of bombing Gaza with thousands of bombs daily… hundreds of which did not explode and are at risk of exploding at any moment… which adds another disaster to the total tragedies that have befallen the Strip for nearly a year… and there is an entire generation of children who have lost their normal school life… not to mention the horrific health situation… which is witnessing the return of diseases that disappeared a quarter of a century ago.
I confirm here that this crime that Israel is carrying out relentlessly has targeted entire generations of the Palestinian people, not just the current generation… These crimes will not go out of fashion and the harsh scenes of killing, torture, displacement and starvation will remain before our eyes and will not be erased from Palestinian, Arab and human memory.
Mr. President,
The past years have not been the best in the world in terms of human development indicators… For the first time, the number of people escaping poverty is declining… The problems of globalization are no longer hidden, from the huge disparity within a single country and between countries… to the fragility of supply networks, to environmental decline and climate change that raises a major question mark over the concept of sustainable growth… Our Arab region is not far from these problems, but it also bears the burden of rampant conflicts and unstable conditions that affect the region’s image and attractiveness as an investment destination.
I refer here, with great regret, to countries whose development path has been disrupted – as is the case in Sudan, Yemen and Libya – due to internal conflict. Promoting sustainable economic growth in our region requires a qualitative shift in our dealing with hotbeds of crises and instability as an urgent priority… Global challenges also require a new outlook on economic integration efforts… The trend today – in all regions of the world – is towards further strengthening economic relations and trade exchange at the level of geographical regions… after the problems of globalization and the danger of relying on it strategically have emerged.
Arab economic integration efforts need to be accelerated and intensified to meet the existing challenges… We also need to activate existing Arab mechanisms in various fields to benefit from them, including developing the performance of specialized Arab organizations, which is the topic on the agenda of today’s meeting, at your initiative, Mr. President. 
Before I conclude my speech, I wish you, Mr. President, success in chairing the current session of the Council, and I wish your meeting success and prosperity.
Thank you very much, and peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you.
