Danon to UN: Stop excuses for the Palestinians

Israel's new envoy also told the Security Council that Palestinian children have been “receiving lessons in hatred from their leaders, in their schools and on children's television programs."

By DANIELLE ZIRI, JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: OCTOBER 23, 2015 03:15
Danny Danon addressing the UN Security Council, October 22, 2015 (photo credit: UN PHOTO/KIM HAUGHTON)
Danny Danon addressing the UN Security Council, October 22, 2015
(photo credit: UN PHOTO/KIM HAUGHTON)
NEW YORK – Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon gave his first speech in front of the UN Security Council on Thursday, in which he called on the international body to “stop making excuses for the Palestinians, and start holding them accountable.”
“The place where the status quo needs to change is here at the UN,” Danon said. “The UN must end its usual practice of calling on both sides to show restraint, and state clearly: there is one side that is instigating a wave of terror.”
The ambassador asked the Security Council to demand that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas cease his incitement and insist that he answer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call to return to the negotiating table.
“Only then, once the Palestinians see that distorting the truth and promoting violence will get them nowhere will the reality on the ground change and the prospects for peace return,” he told the forum.
Regarding the Temple Mount, Danon reiterated Israel’s full commitment to maintaining the status quo, despite Abbas and the Palestinian leadership’s desire to affirm the contrary, which he called a “deliberate and malicious lie.
“The Palestinians are employing old tactics and are trying to score easy victories without having to negotiate, or to recognize the Jewish State,” he said. “We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Israel will not agree to an international presence on the Temple Mount.”
The ambassador also told the Security Council that Palestinian children have been “receiving lessons in hatred from their leaders, in their schools and on children’s television programs.
“It’s no wonder that in this current wave of attacks, at least nine of the attackers have been Palestinians under the age of 18,” he said.
“When children are taught hostility and hatred instead of math and science, when teenagers are encouraged to grab a knife instead of a book, when the youth are shown images of violence instead of a vision for peace, then they too are victims.”
Danon told the Security Council that by ignoring “this deliberate corruption of the minds of children,” it is not acting as part of the solution, but part of the problem.