Netanyahu blasts UN chief for saying it’s ‘human nature to react to occupation’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hits back at UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for saying “it is human nature to react to occupation.”

Ban’s comments “stoke terrorism,” Netanyahu says in a statement. “There is no justification for terrorism. The Palestinian terrorists don’t want to build a state; they want to destroy a state, and they state that proudly. They want to murder Jews everywhere and they state that proudly. They don’t murder for peace and they don’t murder for human rights.”

“Stabbings, vehicle attacks, and shootings by Palestinians targeting Israeli civilians – all of which I condemn — and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, have continued to claim lives,” Ban had said earlier in the day at a session of the UN Security Council. “But security measures alone will not stop the violence. They cannot address the profound sense of alienation and despair driving some Palestinians –- especially young people. The full force of the law must be brought to bear on all those committing crimes –- with a system of justice applied equally for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

“Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process,” Ban continued. “Some have taken me to task for pointing out this indisputable truth. Yet, as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism.”

In his reaction, Netanyahu says the UN has “lost its neutrality and its moral force, and these statements by the secretary general do nothing to improve its situation.”