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United Nations Security Council has once again been put on notice that Israel “will never accept the delegitimization of our legal, historical and national rights in Jerusalem, by the Security Council or any other international body.”

UN Security Council Invites Pro-Palestinian Left-Wing NGO From Israel to Speak



UN Security Council Invites Pro-Palestinian Left-Wing NGO From Israel to SpeakAt the United Nations Security Council’s quarterly open debate on the Middle East, which focuses on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, a radical Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO) known as Ir Amim was given a global platform on July 28th to spew its pro-Palestinian propaganda. Yudith Oppenheimer, Executive Director of Ir Amim, blamed Israel for the latest war between Hamas/Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists and Israel that broke out in May of this year. Oppenheimer claimed that the main triggers were the possible evictions of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and unrest in and around the Temple Mount that she attributed to the Israelis. Oppenheimer spent most of her remarks mischaracterizing the ongoing property disputes, involving homes in East Jerusalem, that are presently under review by Israel’s independent judiciary.

The Palestinian terrorists committed war crimes, crimes against humanity by deliberately launching their rocket barrages against Israeli civilians, using their own people as human shields

Whatever the ultimate outcome of the property disputes turns out to be, neither these disputes nor the intermittent unrest around the Temple Mount justify the Palestinian terrorists’ launching of more than 4,000 rockets aimed from Gaza at Israeli population centers, including in the Jerusalem area. Israel did not initiate any attacks of its own in Gaza. Israel only responded to the terrorists’ aggression with proportionate defensive air strikes in Gaza on targets deemed to support the terrorists’ military and intelligence operations. The purpose was to thwart and deter further terrorist rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Israel conducted its operations in accordance with applicable international law. It acted in self-defense with proportional force and with measures intended to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. The Palestinian terrorists, on the other hand, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by deliberately launching their rocket barrages against Israeli civilians and using their own people as human shields. But Oppenheimer said nothing in her remarks to the Security Council about the terrorist rocket attacks that led to Israel’s military response. Oppenheimer’s silence implies that she saw nothing wrong with the rocket attacks if the pretext was to supposedly vindicate the Palestinians’ “rights” in Jerusalem. She implicitly pushed Hamas’s narrative that Israeli actions in Jerusalem somehow excused the terrorists’ rocket attacks on Israel civilian population centers. Ir Amim poses as an Israeli human rights group that claims it “seeks to render Jerusalem a more equitable and sustainable city for the Israelis and Palestinians who share it.” In reality, however, Ir Amim is nothing more than a shill for the Palestinian Israel-haters. The European Union, Norway, Sweden, France, and Germany are rewarding Ir Amim’s Israel-bashing with major donations.

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The Norwegian ambassador has her head on backwards. Palestinian civilians are suffering primarily because of the actions of their own leaders

NGO Monitor reported that for the period 2019-2022, “Ir Amim is an implementing partner on a €299,977 project funded by the European Union to ‘hold Israel as the occupying power accountable to respect, protect and fulfil the socioeconomic rights of the Palestinian population in East Jerusalem.’” Norway alone contributed more than $400,000 to Ir Amim in 2020. Norway was by far Ir Amim’s largest single country donor. Norway is currently a member of the UN Security Council. Norway is also serving as Chair of the donor group for Palestine — the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee for the Coordination of the International Assistance to Palestinians (AHLC). Norway’s UN ambassador Mona Juul made a point during the July 28th Security Council meeting to thank Ir Amim’s Executive Director Oppenheimer for her “insightful remarks” to the Security Council. Ambassador Juul followed in Oppenheimer’s footsteps by criticizing only Israel and omitting any mention of Palestinian terrorist attacks which have continued even during what is supposed to be a ceasefire. Ambassador Juul said that “as long as there is no political process and no end to the occupation, civilians will continue to suffer.” The Norwegian ambassador has her head on backwards. Palestinian civilians are suffering primarily because of the actions of their own leaders. The Palestinian Authority (PA) uses money that it receives in tax revenues and donations to subsidize terrorists and their families as well as to line the PA leaders' pockets. That money could have been used instead to better the lives of Palestinian civilians. The PA's leaders refuse to negotiate directly with Israel without any preconditions to try and put an end to the conflict on terms acceptable to both parties. PA leaders have time and again rejected major concessions offered by the Israelis.

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Gaza is not an “occupied territory”

Gaza is not an “occupied territory.” Israel withdrew all of its military forces and citizens from Gaza in 2005. Since 2007, Gaza has been under the control of Hamas. This terrorist organization has made life miserable for Palestinian civilians over whom it rules. Hamas has diverted resources that could have been used to peaceably build up the economy of Gaza to instead fund weaponry used to kill and maim Israeli civilians. Israel's Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations Gilad Erdan explained to the Security Council the real reason for Hamas’s recent rocket barrages. “Hamas launched thousands of rockets against millions of Israeli civilians” because it “was seeking to increase its political power and popularity on the Palestinian street at the expense of the Palestinian Authority," Ambassador Erdan said, "and, so, looked for an excuse to attack Israel. It found an excuse. A very, very weak one.” “Bringing Hamas’s lies about Jerusalem to the Security Council strengthens the terrorist organization and weakens the Palestinian Authority,” Ambassador Erdan remarked. That is precisely what Ir Amim and its primary donor Norway have done. Ambassador Erdan added that “the Council acts as if the most important and pressing security issue in the Middle East is the false Palestinian claims regarding Jerusalem. Why else would the Council need to be briefed by a one-sided speaker from a political Israeli NGO affiliated with the far left? An NGO with a long history of spreading distorted claims regarding Israel’s legitimacy and presence in Jerusalem, while ignoring inconvenient facts.” Take your pick of such “inconvenient facts” cited by Ambassador Erdan. For example, “more than half of Jerusalem’s Arab residents would prefer Israeli citizenship to Palestinian citizenship,” Ambassador Erdan pointed out. Also consider the inconvenient fact that “during Eid Al-Adha, 100,000 Muslims prayed peacefully at the Al Aqsa Mosque while Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount are never allowed to pray, never.” The United Nations Security Council has once again been put on notice that Israel, in Ambassador Erdan words, “will never accept the delegitimization of our legal, historical and national rights in Jerusalem, by the Security Council or any other international body.” That also goes for pro-Palestinian shills in civil society, including left-wing Israeli-based NGOs such as Ir Amim.


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Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist -- Bio and Archives

Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.


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