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Netanyahu to UN's Ban: Unilateral Palestinian moves are only making the situation worse

By JPOST.COM STAFF

OCTOBER 13, 2014 16:15

Israel does not occupy Gaza, therefore the "occupation" can not be the reason behind the abundance of violence coming from the territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told UN Chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday in Jerusalem.

"Israel left every centimeter of Gaza, every inch. We pulled the settlements out and cleared out the residents so there is no occupation of Gaza. The main reason for the violence in the summer was the Hamas rockets on Israeli cities. The rocket attacks often broke the neutrality of the UN by use of their spaces, their schools, as a part of Hamas's terror infrastructure," Netanyahu told Ban.

"When they found rockets in UN schools, UN officials returned them to Hamas, the same Hamas that fired the same rockets on Israeli cities a nd on Israeli citizens..the real reason for the rocket fire from Hamas is their refusal to recognize Israel's existence. Hamas doesn't care about the1967 lines. For them, Israel doesn't have a right to exist, under any borders...just read their manifest, because it is written clearly there."

Netanyahu continued and said that for these reasons, Hamas is "everyone's enemy" and that real peace is only possible through negotiations with those who want it. "The one sided moves of the Palestinians in the UN aren't helping peace, the opposite is true, they are making the situation worse, something no one wants."

Netanyahu also spoke about rioting and violence at the Temple Mount in recent days, saying that Israel is obligated to the status quo as it has been for decades.

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