Bolivia delivered a scathing condemnation of Israel's continued occupation of Palestine, and reiterated support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people, at the United Nations Security Council Tuesday, June 20.

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In a statement during a Security Council debate on Palestine, Bolivian ambassador Sacha Llorenti, who is currently the President of the Council for June, expressed “great concern about the grave political, economic, social, humanitarian, and security situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, as a result of ongoing and loathful policies by Israel, the occupying power.”

Tuesday's U.N. session on Palestine was convened by the Bolivian ambassador. As President of the Council for June, Bolivia is able to set meeting agendas and convene sessions.

Llorenti used the opportunity to warn the international community not to turn its back on Palestine.

“Bolivia reaffirms its support for the self-determination of the Palestinian people, and their right to a state providing freedom and sovereignty,” he said in his opening remarks to the council.

Referencing what he called the “widespread human trauma and humanitarian disaster” caused by the military actions taken by Israel in Gaza in 2014, the Bolivian ambassador said that his government “condemns Israels continuing military occupation of the Palestinian territories in breach of international law... including... reported war crimes by use of excessive, indiscriminative force, that over the years has killed and injured thousands of Palestinian civilians, including children.”