Speaking at a United Nations (UN) Security Council meeting on the situation in Palestine, the diplomat assured that “Palestinians are taught to hate, they are trained to kill Israelis.”
“Construction (in the occupied territories) will not stop. And I will also say that construction in pre-existing communities (settlements) is certainly not the first obstacle to peace,” said Erdan, before assuring that the first obstacle to possible negotiations is that “the international community falsely blames Israel”.
Erdan, who referred to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria (the biblical name used by the Israeli nationalist right), stated that “the Jewish people have historical, moral and legal rights over” that area.
“Despite being constantly referred to as occupied Palestinian territory, the land has never been the sovereign territory of any Palestinian entity. It is a disputed territory and the Jewish people cannot be the inhabitants of their own homeland, their own land,” said he. defended.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN stressed that the cause of the conflict or the worsening of the situation is not the building of more illegal settlements, but “the fact that Palestinians are taught to hate, trained to kill.”
According to Gilad, “this cancerous hatred has poisoned the minds of children and adults alike”.
“Now there are entire generations of Palestinians who have no interest in peace, but only in the shedding of Jewish blood and that, members of the (Security Council), that is the root of the conflict,” he added.
Gilad made these statements after UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, stated that he was “particularly troubled by the extreme levels of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers” in the Palestinian territories, submitting a new situation to the Security Council .
In addition to the usual calls for calm to both Israel and Palestine, Wennesland this time also focused on settler activity in the most recent spiral of violence in the West Bank.
“I am particularly disturbed by the extreme levels of violence by settlers, many armed, who are systematically attacking Palestinian villages, terrorizing communities, sometimes close to each other and/or with the support of Israeli security forces,” he said.
In that regard, Gilad stressed that neither the “rare” acts of violence by “despicable Israeli extremists who will be brought to justice” nor the issuance of more settlement building permits are the reason for the new escalation of violence.
“The violence is purely the result of the toxic brainwashing of Palestinians, sponsored and organized by their leaders, be it the Palestinian National Authority, Hamas or Islamic Jihad,” he stressed.
Most of the countries that spoke after Wennesland emphasized in their speeches the danger of settler violence and the support they receive from the Israeli government itself to build new settlements.
On Monday, the Israeli government approved construction of 5,700 new homes in West Bank settlements, despite global calls to avoid it.
Source: DN
