‘Israeli blood is no cheaper than French blood,’ Danon tells UN

Danny Danon addressed the UN General Assembly as it marked International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

JPOST

Israel’s envoy to the United Nations on Monday called on the international community to “rip off the Palestinian mask of lies” and condemn what he called “the lies and incitement” which fuel violence against Israelis.

Danny Danon addressed the UN General Assembly as it marked International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

“Israeli blood is no less valuable than French blood,” the ambassador said as he held up a collage of photographs of Israelis killed by Palestinians in recent weeks.

“It is not logical to waste time in negotiations for the sake of negotiations; it is urgent to act now to salvage the prospects for peace,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations on the occasion of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, marked on Monday.

In his speech to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of Palestinian People, Abbas accused Israel of using many rounds of negotiations to gain more time in order to build more settlements, perpetuate apartheid on Palestinian land and steal Palestinian’s natural resources.

“This has only further entrenched the occupation and undermined the realization of the two-State solution,” he said. “We once again reiterate the urgent need for efforts to expand and intensify international engagement to achieve peace.”

These international initiatives include, according to Abbas, the adoption of a resolution by the Security Council, which “would include clear parameters to achieve peace on the basis of the two-state solution, on the basis of the pre-1967 borders in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid principles and the Arab Peace Initiative, and would set a timeframe for ending the Israeli occupation.”

The Palestinian president also reiterated that the Palestinians consider themselves no longer bound by agreements signed with Israel in the past due to “Israel’s destruction of the foundations upon which the political, economic and security agreements were signed,” as he had already stated during his address to the UN General Assembly on September 30th.

“We will continue our accession to international conventions and membership of international organizations, in order to safeguard our rights, and will move forward in the defense of our people through all of the legal and peaceful means available to us,” Abbas added.

One 18-year-old Israeli was killed and five others injured in four separate attacks carried out by Palestinians on Monday in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Abbas told the United Nations that the “angry uprising” of Palestinian people is the result of “diminishing hopes, the continued situation of strangulation, siege and pressure, and the lack of sense of security and safety” that they feel.

According to Abbas, these factors generate “tremendous frustration” and that the stabbing attacks against Israelis are “an inevitable result” of Israel’s “incessant violations and crimes against the Palestinian people.”

The UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson also spoke at the forum on behalf of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who was traveling on Monday.

Despite several statements made by Israeli representatives, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Danon, Eliasson continued to stress the need to preserve the status quo on Temple Mount.

He said Netanyahu’s promise to do so “needs to be accompanied by actions to defuse the situation and to restore confidence.”

While he said he recognizes the security problems which Israel faces, the deputy secretary-general nonetheless wished to “remind Israeli authorities that the use of excessive force feeds anger and frustration” and urged Israeli security services to “exercise maximum restraint.”

Danon said the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People is “a shameful day for the United Nations” which is used “as a platform to attack Israel.

“Palestinians venerate terror instead of the value of life, it is time to end the ongoing Palestinian terror against Israel,” he said.

According to him, “the international community needs to tear the web of lies Palestinians.”

The UN will mark International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November, 29th, the day the General Assembly adopted the resolution on the establishment of the State of Palestine, in 1947. On November 29th 2012, the State of Palestine joined the United Nations as a non-Member Observer State.