Danon at UN
Danon at UNUN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon called on the UN Monday to condemn Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, a day after Abbas claimed that Israel was a tool of “colonial” European powers.

On Sunday, Abbas addressed a gathering of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s 121-member Central Council in Ramallah.

During his speech, the PA chief excoriated President Donald Trump over his December 6th recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, calling it a “slap in the face” to the PA, warning that the PA “will slap back”.

Abbas also demanded that Britain apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, and alleged that the State of Israel was a European “colonial” plot to control the Middle East.

Europeans, Abbas claimed, “wanted to bring the Jews here [to the Land of Israel] from Europe in order to protect European interests in the region. They asked The Netherlands, which then had the largest navy in the world, to relocate the Jews.”

Abbas then quoted an Egyptian writer who claimed that “Israel is a colonial project with no connection whatsoever to the Jews.”

Ambassador Danon penned a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Monday, calling on the international body to denounce Abbas for his efforts to delegitimize a UN member state.

“Among the many vile fabrications in his address,” wrote Danon, “Chairman Abbas repeated the lie that the reestablishment of the nation-state of the Jewish people in our historic homeland is ‘a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism.’ Chairman Abbas also accused European powers of ‘moving Jews from Europe to the Middle East’ as part of a plan to further their economic interests. These statements sadly remind us of the racist words of the worst regimes of the previous century.”

“It is unfortunate that, with his latest statements, Chairman Abbas has yet again responded negatively to serious initiatives for dialogue by Israel, the United States and other members of the international community. The hateful words of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, which seem to question the very right of a United Nations member-state to exist, are completely unacceptable and must be unequivocally condemned.”

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also denounced the speech, saying it had revealed Abbas’ true colors.

"I heard what Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] said. He has revealed the truth. He has torn off the mask and shown to the public the simple truth that I have been working to instill for many long years: The root of the conflict between us and the Palestinians is their steadfast refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any borders whatsoever."

Earlier on Monday, President Reuven Rivlin condemned Abbas, telling a delegation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Board of Directors that the PA leader had rejected the Jewish return to its historic homeland.

“What we heard yesterday from Mahmoud Abbas was terrible. He returned to ideas he expressed decades ago, when they were no less terrible. To say Israel is the result of a Western conspiracy to settle Jews in land belonging to Arab populations? To say that that the Jewish people has no connection to the land of Israel?”

“He forgot to mention a good many things, and said exactly the things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

“These are precisely the things that block us. In his words, he is rejecting our return to our homeland, even though Abbas knows very well that the Quran itself recognizes the land of Israel as our land. Without this basic recognition, we will not be able to build trust and move forward.”