This morning, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan addressed the UN Security Council during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East. In his speech, the Ambassador attacked the lies the Palestinian Authority and its supporters present at the UN. He said, "Over and over again, we have heard how the past year has been the deadliest year for the Palestinians…Yet these numbers and statistics are not facts. Not even close. They are based on a fundamentally flawed and biased methodology. A methodology of discrimination, which Israel refuses to accept.
"Let me explain what I mean. In his letter yesterday, the Palestinian Representative told the story for example Hamdi Shaker Abu Dayah. How Hamdi was supposedly shot and killed in cold blood. Yet what my colleague forgot to mention, was that Hamdi, a terrorist that Hamas posthumously glorified, was an imminent threat. Hamdi was actively shooting at soldiers in the moments that he was killed, and this occurred only one day after he opened fire at an Israeli bus.
"The vast majority of Palestinian fatalities and casualties are not innocent civilians minding their own business, they are terrorists neutralized in the midst of acts of violence."
Ambassador Erdan added, "According to the UN report presented to you, here, only twenty Israelis were murdered by terrorists in 2022, when in reality thirty-one Israelis were murdered. Same goes for injured Israelis. The UN number 253 for injured Israelis, whereas the true number is 418. Discrepancy between the reports and the facts are in the hundreds. Israeli deaths and injuries supposedly do not matter….This may have been the deadliest year for Palestinian terrorists, but it was also the year with the most terror attacks committed against Israelis in a decade."
The Ambassador also referenced the Palestinians' decision to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice in The Hague, "Let’s not forget that here in September 2021, while speaking in the GA, President Abbas brazenly threatened Israel on the global stage. In the same vein of consistent Palestinian rejectionism, he set forward an ultimatum. Either Israel gives in to one-hundred percent of the Palestinians’ demands – forget negotiations or mutual concessions – or he will turn to the UN in order to abuse the power of the ICJ. If threatening Israel with an ultimatum is not a unilateral step, I don’t know what is."
Ambassador Erdan mentioned the steps taken by Israel's Security Cabinet following the unilateral Palestinian Authority move to again abuse UN mechanisms in their appeal to the ICJ, "When Israel is faced with a threat of terror, like any country would, Israel acts to defend itself. So, when we were faced with the Palestinians latest one-sided act of multilateral terror, we refused to stand idly by. Each measure that was taken by Israel in response to this destructive resolution, wasn’t only justified and legal, but should have been taken long time ago…Nevertheless, the only reason Israel held off on implementing these measures, was because we did not want to harm chances for dialogue. Yet with the adoption of this resolution, the Palestinians stabbed a knife in the heart of any chances for dialogue or reconciliation. They proved that they are not interested in dialogue."