From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 22, 2024
Israel envoy to UN calls PA ambassador ‘a terrorist in a suit’ at Security Council meeting
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon calls the Palestinian Authority envoy “a terrorist in a suit” at a Security Council debate in New York.
“You have spent two decades in this place proposing resolutions which: stir chaos, sow division and avoid any hope,” Danon says to Riyad Mansour during a debate on the Middle East. “You have accomplished nothing but incite hatred and violence while claiming to be an advocate for peace.”
Danon asks Mansour why he has yet to condemn Hamas in his speeches since the terror group’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
“Mr. Mansour, if you cannot condemn them, you are one of them,” he says. “You do not represent the Palestinian people. Mr. Mansour, you are a terrorist in a suit.”
I told the Palestinian representative at the Security Council that he is a terrorist in a suit! Since October 7th, he has delivered hundreds of speeches, yet not once has he condemned the atrocities.
If he cannot condemn this murderous terrorist organization, he is a part of it!… pic.twitter.com/nVzS9jnpoM— Danny Danon ???????? דני דנון (@dannydanon) August 22, 2024
Danon, who started his second tenure as Israel’s representative at Turtle Bay this month, also blasts the Security Council for failing to condemn Hamas for its attacks on October 7.
“Here we are 320 days since the slaughter and what have we heard? Silence. No condemnation of Hamas. No recognition of the atrocities committed,” he says, a day after the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute for Victims of Terror.
“I hold no illusions. I expect nothing from this Council today. It has already made it clear that this International Day of Remembrance and tribute does not apply to Israeli victims of terror.”
Danon also says that Israel will act to end the near-daily Hezbollah attacks on the northern border with Lebanon, ongoing since October 8, if it must: “We have our limits. We are not interested in escalation, but Israel will do whatever is necessary to restore security to the northern border, return northern residents to their homes, and remove the threat posed by Hezbollah.”
