Ambassador Danon addresses UN General Assembly on November 29, 2016
Ambassador Danon addresses UN General Assembly on November 29, 2016No credit

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, on Tuesday addressed the UN General Assembly as the UN marked “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”, which takes place annually on November 29, the day in which the UN in 1947 approved the Partition Plan, which recommended the partition of then-Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.

During “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People”, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) delegation to the UN initiates a special session which it uses as an annual occasion to pass a number of anti-Israel resolutions.

In his remarks on Tuesday, Danon responded to the PA resolutions with a particularly forceful speech.

In addressing the UN member states, Ambassador Danon asked, "Do the Palestinians even want a state? History tells us that the answer is no. If the Palestinians really wanted peace, we could have had peace decades ago. The Palestinians reject every Israeli offer and every plan and respond with waves of violence and terror."

As proof of his remarks, Danon held up during his speech the front page from the New York Times on November 30, 1947, the day after the Partition Plan vote. The headlines on that day read: "Assembly Votes Palestine Partition," "Arabs Walk Out… Disavow Any Partition Role."

He also noted two unprecedented peace proposals offered to the PA by both former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, both of which were rejected.

In 2000, Barak made then PA chairman Yasser Arafat an unprecedented offer including Israeli redeployment from 95% of Judea and Samaria and 100% of Gaza and the creation of a Palestinian state in the areas of Israeli withdrawal.

Arafat rejected the offer outright and proceeded to begin the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, in which more than 1,000 Israelis were killed in murderous terrorist attacks.

In 2008, Olmert offered current PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas a PA state on nearly 95% of Judea and Samaria, and also agreed to the return of 5,000 Arab refugees from the 1948 War of Independence over five years.

Last year, Abbas publicly admitted for the first time that he rejected Olmert’s proposal out of hand.

"This is the whole story," summarized the Ambassador.

Danon continued by asserting that "the Palestinian Authority pays lip-service to these initiatives because it pays well. The real goal of the PA is to continue to exist as a corrupt entity living off the goodwill of the international community without the responsibilities of governing. And they know the only way to do so is to continue the conflict."

This year's session of “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People” took place as calls increased for the Security Council to take unilateral action against Israel in the coming weeks. During the session, the PA delegation succeeded in passing six resolutions condemning Israel.

"It is time to put an end to this lie, once and for all," Ambassador Danon told the Assembly. "If you really want to show solidarity with the Palestinian people then end this charade, and demand that that the Palestinian leaders finally return to the negotiating table.”