New York, September 22 (Petra) His Majesty King Abdullah II on
Tuesday participated in the 81st Session of the United Nations
General Assembly in New York, accompanied by His Royal Highness Crown
Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II.

Following is the full text of Jordan’s address delivered by His
Majesty at the General Debate session of the 81st UNGA:

“In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Mr. President,
Mr. Secretary General,
Your Excellencies,

Every generation believes the challenges they face are unmatched.

Perhaps for us that is true.

We are at a unique moment in history; the scale of knowledge and the
speed of change are unprecedented. Every day brings another crisis,
another tragedy, another emergency, demanding our attention.

One study shows that average screen attention has fallen from 2.5
minutes in 2004 to just 47 seconds today.

Of course, a screen is not the world, but that says something about
our world today: that attention has become a scarce asset, and where
we choose to direct it has never mattered more.

And in this chamber, attention is more than a cognitive resource. It
is a geopolitical one.

It determines which conflicts receive sustained diplomacy and which
fade from the agenda.

Whether a ceasefire holds after the cameras leave.

Whether humanitarian suffering remains intolerable, or becomes
familiar.

And whether the world steps up, or scrolls and strolls away.

History rarely catches us entirely by surprise. More often, it
catches us focused elsewhere.

Economic disparity, food insecurity, climate change disasters. None
of these challenges emerged overnight.

The warning signs have been there. The question is whether our
attention lasts long enough to act.

And what we neglect has a habit of shaping our future.

Your Excellencies,

We see the cost of that neglect every day.

In my region, from Lebanon to Yemen, to Sudan, protracted conflict is
deepening humanitarian suffering.

And if anyone had any doubt that a crisis in our part of the world
stays there, just look at the energy and grocery bills of ordinary
families, from Mumbai to Madrid to Minnesota.

The Iran war has shown how quickly instability can disrupt trade,
investment, and lives beyond the region.

Then there is Gaza.

For decades, I have stood before this Assembly and warned of the
dangers of leaving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict unresolved.

But the international community chose to manage the conflict, not
confront it.

And every new Israeli violation was treated as “temporary”, diverting
attention from the reality being created on the ground. Until
temporary became permanent, and permanent became policy.

Of course, this is not the world’s only injustice. But one of the
world’s longest-running occupations forces a basic question: If
international law can be ignored for decades, then what exactly is
that law worth?

And how can we enforce it if we won’t even call out its violations?

In Gaza, the evidence is overwhelming: In the first 300 days of the
so-called ceasefire, at least 300 Palestinian children were killed.
Jordan’s field hospitals have also been targeted. President Trump has
pushed hard for peace and a path to end this war. But this Israeli
government keeps moving the goalposts, continuing its attacks and
destruction of civilian infrastructure, refusing to withdraw, and
squeezing Palestinians into barely a third of Gaza.

This can no longer be dismissed as temporary military measures, or a
consequence of war. Accountability begins when we call things what
they are: an attempt to erase Palestinian life and impose a new
territorial reality in Gaza.

And while the world has been focused on Gaza, something
extraordinarily dangerous is unfolding in the West Bank.

Some may think we have seen this before.

Settlements. Violence. Displacement. More of the same.

But it is not. Nor is it simply an escalation. This is a fundamental
shift.

What was once a creeping process has exploded into something far more
aggressive.

Settler violence is rampant. Palestinians are being beaten, shot and
terrorised. Homes torched. Property destroyed. Families driven from
their land.

And Israel is tightening its grip on more of the West Bank, seizing
land, expanding settlements and pushing Palestinians out.

It is time to see what is happening for what it really is. Because
when the language is sanitised, the actions become normalised.

Demolishing Palestinian homes to expand illegal settlements is not
“law enforcement.” It is forcible transfer.

Appropriating occupied land is not “land registration.” It is
de-facto annexation.

A choking network of checkpoints and barriers is not “security”
infrastructure. It is a system of subjugation.

Systematic attacks on Palestinian communities are not “settler
unrest.”

The Israeli government ‘criticises’ the violence before international
audiences. They call those responsible a “handful of rioters.” They
assure us that Israel is a country governed by law.

Yet, what’s happening on the ground says otherwise: Israeli soldiers
stand by as settlers attack Palestinians, often protecting the
attackers or joining them. They have blocked ambulances from reaching
the injured. They have targeted international journalists who are
trying to say the truth.

And when soldiers watch, enable, and sometime even participate in
violence against civilians, this is no longer about “a handful of
rioters.”

And the question is no longer whether a few extremists are breaking
the law. The question is, is this the behaviour of a democratic state
governed by law?

What is unfolding across the West Bank is not a series of isolated
acts. It is elements of a single policy to compel an entire
population to leave their land.

And there is a name for that: forced displacement.

And that is a war crime.

Your Excellencies,

If we are to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the world must
abandon some illusions:

The first is that Gaza and the West Bank are separate stories. They
are not. They are two fronts of the same Israeli strategy. In both,
Palestinians are being killed. In both, the reality on the ground is
being remade. Gaza through destruction. The West Bank through
de-facto annexation.

The objective is the same: To make a viable Palestinian state
impossible.

Another illusion is that this Israeli leadership’s rejection of
Palestinian statehood is a position that might yet change. It is not.
It is being cemented on the ground.

This government has been accelerating settlements and land seizures.

But it began long before. Since Oslo, the map has changed piece by
piece, settlement by settlement.

And the most dangerous illusion:

That the Arab world never sought peace.

The Arab Peace Initiative in 2002 offered Israel normalisation with
57 Arab and Muslim states, including Iran and Iraq at the time, in
exchange for peace and Palestinian statehood.

For over twenty years, that offer has stood. The obstacle hasn’t been
the absence of a partner for peace, but the absence of an Israeli
government willing to accept it.

This Israeli government understands the power of attention. And
lately, it has not liked the attention it’s been getting.

When confronted with evidence of wrongdoing, rather than change
course, it opts for distraction, discrediting its critics.

It has also tried to cast this conflict as a war of religions; Islam
on one side, Judaism and Christianity on the other. It is not. This
is about whether Palestinians Muslims and Christians are entitled to
the same rights as everyone else.

Distractions will not fly anymore; people across the world are paying
attention.

The question now is: will we act?

Because the world’s political inaction is not for lack of options.
So, let’s call it what it is: a choice.

We have tools:

Sanctions, asset freezes, embargoes, diplomatic isolation. And we
have a record of using them elsewhere.

Yet with Israel, resolutions end where they begin: on paper.

The result is a state without restraint.

This government’s sense of impunity has reached terrifying levels: It
no longer feels compelled to ask, “Can we get away with this?” It
already knows the answer.

And that is precisely why no one in this Assembly should assume its
ambitions stop at Palestine.

This Israeli government’s expansionist appetite is now a regional
threat. And today, Syria is the warning the international community
is choosing not to see.

Repeated incursions. Creeping territorial expansion. New facts
imposed on the ground, including around vital water resources.

Step by calculated step, Israel is testing how far it can go. And
every time the international community looks away, Israel learns that
it can go even further across border lines and legal limits.

For Jordan, there is no ambiguity. Any threat to our northern border,
or our water security, is a threat to our national security. Jordan
will not look away; we will protect our security, our water, and the
interests of our people.

And the question here is: If Israel continues its antagonistic
approach in Southern Syria, will the international community stand
by, and let that happen?

Your Excellencies,

Some things demand our immediate attention. Others demand sustained
attention. Injustice demands both.

Jordan understands this all too well.

We know what it means to live in a region where one crisis arrives
before the last has receded.

And we know that we cannot choose between responding to the emergency
before us and building the future beyond it.

So, we are doing both.

We are strengthening connections from the Gulf to the Mediterranean
as a hub for trade, industry, and technology while responding to
humanitarian crises.

We are confronting terrorism in the region and beyond while
developing our own defences and remaining a frontline against threats
like narcotics.

We are protecting Christianity its communities and heritage in its
native and historic land, while promoting the true image of Islam
against the voices of hate.

And through it all, we will not abandon our commitment to a just
peace.

We will continue to support Palestinian resilience.

We will continue supporting UNRWA.

And we will continue to uphold the Hashemite Custodianship and
historic and legal status quo at Muslim and Christian holy sites in
Jerusalem.

Most importantly, Jordan is striving to build a different model:

Principled, open and steady.

At a time when certainty is rare and politics can shift by the day.

A country the world can count on: true to our principles, true to our
word, ready to talk to everyone, and ready to work with anyone
seeking peace.

However, our bias towards diplomacy will never supersede our
commitment to human values, and should not be taken for granted or
mistaken for weakness.

My friends,

Whether in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, or anywhere people live with war,
displacement, and fear.

Whether a crisis began weeks ago, or has endured for decades.

Our principles cannot change with the world’s attention.

Military force cannot deliver meaningful solutions. It cannot feed
the hungry, return the displaced, or build peace. Nor can it repair
our planet, manage mass migration, or guide technological progress.

That requires institutions that command legitimacy. And it requires
trust. Trust between nations. Trust in agreements. Trust that rules
will actually be enforced.

Destroy that trust, and every challenge becomes harder.

Preserve it, and cooperation becomes possible.

And in a world competing for our attention, we must be deliberate
about where we direct it, and vigilant about what seeks to distract
it.

The future is shaped not only by what we do, but by what we choose to
ignore.”

The Jordanian delegation at the 81st Session of the UNGA included
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of
the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, and Jordan’s Permanent
Representative to the UN Walid Obeidat.

//Petra// AK