Israel’s UN envoy: If human rights orgs cared about human rights they would look to PA and Hamas
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a special debate on the Middle East on Wednesday, during which the Palestinian Ambassador accused Israel of being an “apartheid” numerous times, and Israel’s envoy responded by accusing the Palestinian Authority of hypocrisy and of human rights abuses.
The PA’s Ambassador Riyad Mansour wore a mask with the slogan “Stop Apartheid” as part of the Palestinian campaign that Israel was aware of and came prepared for.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan opened his rebuttal by mentioning that Wednesday would have been the sixth birthday of Ido Avigal, an Israeli boy who was killed by a Hamas rocket during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May.
Erdan criticized the Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council for the “hypocritical and biased” Commission of Inquiry investigating Operation Guardian of the Walls. The commission “is ignoring Hamas’ crimes during the conflict, even though Hamas’ sole purpose was to harm Israeli citizens, which led to the death of Ido,” he charged.
Responding to Mansour’s claims, Erdan pointed out that “you can see the campaign that started here today on the mask of my counterpart. But make no mistake, this is a joint campaign between these organizations and the Palestinians with the mission of delegitimizing Israel as a Jewish democratic state.”
“Can anyone honestly look me in the eye and tell me that Israel, a country that protects the social and political equality of all of its citizens, is guilty of systematic injustice? A country in which Arab doctors, Arab members of parliament and Arab ministers serve alongside their Jewish counterparts,” he stated.
On the other hand, the pro-Palestinian so-called human rights organizations, in addition to UN bodies, “spend countless hours and resources demonizing Israel, to find true discrimination and human rights violations they do not have to look far. All they have to do is look at how the Palestinian Authority and Hamas treat political dissidents, minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community. Where are the reports condemning the Palestinian law threatening life imprisonment for selling land to someone only because they were born a Jew? Where are the humanitarian organizations decrying the PA’s pay-for-slay policy?” he demanded.
Erdan also criticized the Council for the “puzzling timing of the debate” and for the decision to turn a closed and routine periodic debate into an open debate on the Palestinian issue.
“As we sit here debating legal disputes and false allegations, the clouds of unrest, violence, and war cast long shadows across the world. One might wonder what the urgency was to turn a closed monthly debate into an open one while such critical matters to global security are being discussed in the General Assembly as we speak,” he noted.
“That being said, if we are here today to discuss the situation in the Middle East, then the real threat to the region must be the focus of this meeting,” he declared, turning to Iran, “the world’s number one state-sponsor of terror,” which “spreads chaos and death across the region. It funds an army of six terrorist proxies dedicated to establishing a Shiite hegemony throughout the region.”
“If this is how Iran acts now, it is frightening to imagine what the region will look like when Iran becomes a nuclear threshold state. The predicted outcome of the current negotiations in Vienna will, unfortunately, lead to an agreement that will create a far more volatile and violent Middle East,” he warned.
“A nuclear threshold Iran is an existential threat to Israel, and while this council repeatedly refuses to address it, Israel will act to ensure the safety of its citizens. Israel will not be bound by the outcome in Vienna and will continue to maintain full freedom to act anywhere, at any time, and with no constraints in order to defend our security. We will do whatever is necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear drive, and counter the threat from its armies of proxies,” he declared.
TPS
