UNO: At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Israel and the Palestinians argued over the future plans of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's extreme right-wing administration, with the Palestinian UN ambassador citing a statement made by an Israeli minister that "denies our existence to justify what is to come."
The minister had apologised, Israel's UN ambassador responded, and he charged the Palestinian leadership with regularly encouraging terrorism and erasing Jewish history.
The always contentious monthly meeting of the council on the Middle East turned even more sour in the face of statements and actions by Israel's new coalition government, which has come under fire for its plans to reform the judiciary and for lawmakers' repeal of a 2005 law that saw the demolition of four Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank concurrent with the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
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The statement by flamboyant Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich that there is "no such thing" as a Palestinian people wasn't made as part of "a theoretical exercise," according to the Palestinian ambassador Riyad Mansour, but rather as Israel's illegal annexation of territory that the Palestinians insist must be a part of their independent state "is more than underway."
Not all Israeli officials go so far as to deny Palestinians' existence, but some do, as well as their humanity and connection to the land. Says Mansour.
Last year was the deadliest for Palestinians in the West Bank, with the past three months "even worse," he said. According to a tally by the United Nations, Israeli fire has killed 85 Palestinians so far this year, while Palestinian attackers have killed 15 Israelis.
Mansour claimed that the Palestinians nevertheless made the "unreasonably reasonable" decision to stop at nothing to avoid bloodshed as Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, as well as Passover, the Jewish holiday, and Easter approached.
To stop annexation, violence against our people, and provocations, the Palestinian envoy pleaded with the Security Council and the larger international community.
Everyone has a responsibility to act right away "to stop a fire that will consume everything it encounters," he said.
Gilad Erdan, Israel's ambassador to the UN, referred to his nation as "unquestionably the most vibrant liberal democracy in the Middle East" and accused the Palestinians of propagating falsehoods, honouring terrorists who killed innocent Israelis, and "regurgitating fabrications" that have been proven to be false.
"Shame on you, I say to the Palestinian representative. Disgrace to you. In contrast to your president and the rest of (the) Palestinian leadership, who frequently incite terrorism, never denounce the killing of Israeli civilians, praise Palestinian terrorists, and actively work to rewrite facts and the truth by erasing Jewish history, it is so audacious that you dare condemn the words of an Israeli minister who later apologised and clarified what he meant.
While Israel has taken significant steps to de-escalate the current tensions by meeting with Palestinian officials in Jordan in February and on Sunday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Erdan accused the Palestinians of being "dead set on encouraging more violence."
Following the meeting, the two sides agreed to work together to "curb and counter violence" and promised to take steps to reduce tensions before the sensitive holiday season. These steps included a partial freeze on Israeli settlement activity.
East Jerusalem would serve as the capital of the independent Palestinian state that would encompass the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war. Since then, more than 700,000 Israelis have migrated into dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which are viewed as illegal and a barrier to peace by the majority of the international community.
But Netanyahu's administration has prioritised settlement growth, and it has already approved thousands of new settlement housing units as well as nine unauthorised outposts in the West Bank.
Following the agreement on Sunday, the 2005 act on the four West Bank settlements was repealed, and a Palestinian shooting attack in the West Bank that left two Israelis injured highlighted the challenges in putting the joint statement into practise. The repeal was criticised by other nations as well as the United States, Israel's closest ally, which summoned Israel's US ambassador.
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By declaring that his government has no intention of moving back into the four abandoned settlements, Netanyahu appeared to back down on Wednesday.
Israelis will be able to enter areas that are "the birthplace of our heritage," Ambassador Erdan said, adding that "the state of Israel has no intention of building any new communities there." However, he said that the new law "rights a historic wrong."
