Mount of Olives Jerusalem skyline panorama 390 R.
(photo credit: Ronen Zvulun / Reuters)
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Israeli diplomatic officials slammed UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry on Sunday
for taking part in the “International Conference for the Defense of Jerusalem”
in Doha, a parley the officials described as a two-day Israel-bashing
carnival.
“It is extremely disappointing and infuriating that the UN
secretary-general’s envoy, who never finds the time to properly condemn the
shootings on Israeli territory from Gaza, has all the time in the world to take
part in what is unashamedly an anti-Israel propaganda fest, intended to subvert
and deny the very foundations of Jewish history,” one diplomatic official
said.
“To dignify this kind of shameless bashing sponsored by the Arab
League, and to dignify this with an official UN blessing, is to do a huge
disservice to Serry’s mission, to the role of the UN and to the cause of peace,”
the official said.
The official said the Doha meeting was not a “respectable
conference,” but rather a stage “for the denial of Jewish history and the Jewish
connection to Jerusalem. Is this the role that Serry wants?” The official added
that by taking part in the parley, Serry was “jeopardizing” and “betraying the
good relations” Israel had – and wanted to maintain – with UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, during his
speech to the conference, questioned the Jewish connection to Jerusalem while
saying that Israel was “using the ugliest and most dangerous means to implement
plans to erase and remove the Arab Islamic and the Christian character of east
Jerusalem.”
Serry’s spokesman Richard Miron responded by saying that the
UN envoy went to Doha as the secretarygeneral’s representative to read a message
from him.
Referring to the criticism that Serry did not properly condemn
missile attacks from Gaza, Miron said that both Serry and Ban “have repeatedly
condemned attacks on Israel,” and that Serry has “been actively involved in
trying to bring about calm in the area.”
Serry, who termed the Doha
conference an “important international forum,” told the participants during his
speech there Sunday that the “status of Jerusalem and other core issues” should
be resolved through negotiations. He called on the Palestinians to remain
“constructively engaged” in talks with Israel.
He then censured Israel
for “continued settlement activity in occupied east Jerusalem as well as in the
rest of the West Bank.”
“Home demolitions, forced evictions and the
revocation of permanent residency” in east Jerusalem were “also cause for
continued deep concern,” he said.
“Access into east Jerusalem remains
severely restricted by checkpoints, permits and the barrier, whose route is
contrary to the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice,” Serry
said, without mentioning Israel’s security rationale for those measures.