Madam President,
I have a few comments on the circus that has been staged today in this chamber.
B’Tselem is an Israeli organization that is funded by the EU and European governments. It was invited to the Security Council today by Bolivia – a country with a terrible human rights record – to defame our strong democracy.
But it has actually had the exact opposite effect.
By bringing B’Tselem, Bolivia has in fact proven the strength of Israel’s vibrant democracy.
I challenge you all to find a Palestinian, or a Bolivian, who could dare defame his government at the Security Council. At best, he might be thrown in jail. But he would more likely end up dead.
.מר אלעד, אתה אזרח מדינת ישראל שמשרת את האוייבים שלנו
.הם משתמשים בך נגדנו
.חיילי צה"ל שומרים עליך ואתה בא לפה כדי להכפיש אותם
!תתבייש לך, משת"פ עלוב
Madam President,
I would like to read the English translation of a short passage from an official Palestinian Authority textbook. It says: “There is an important place for heroes in every nation. They have sacrificed everything. They should be remembered forever, and we must be proud of them. A nation becomes even more proud as it gains more and more heroes…. For if it were not for our heroes, we would not have a nation.”
The next page of the textbook lists a number of these so-called heroes. Heroes like Dalal Mughrabi, the terrorist responsible for a massacre that killed 38 innocent people. For her killing, she is described in the book as, and I quote, “a crown of her nation.”
This is a textbook Mahmoud Abbas has authorized for the current school year. This is Abbas’ culture of hate – right in front of you. This is the reason Palestinian schoolchildren learn that it is better to kill a Jew than keep a job.
You will not hear this from Mr. Mansour, or Mr. El-Ad, but Mahmoud Abbas is to blame. In his thirteen years of rule, Abbas has done nothing but inspire this rampant culture of hate. He is enabling an imminent war between Hamas and Israel. He preaches tolerance in English and terror in Arabic.
If you are really interested in the truth, read the translations of Abbas’ Arabic speeches. He does not recognize Israel; he calls us “racist;” and he is trying to bring us to court. He has led his people down a path of self-destruction and misery, stealing their chance at a good life.
Far from a peace partner, Mahmoud Abbas is the obstacle to peace.
If you hope to see a better future for Palestinians and Israelis, you will join us in indicting Abbas.
Madam President,
We are on the brink of a major escalation in Gaza. Last night, two rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel. One hit Be’er Sheva, and the other was aimed at Tel Aviv.
Hamas has set over 8,000 acres of Israeli agricultural land on fire. It has launched at least 300 rockets into Israel just this year alone. It sends thousands of rioters to commit violence on our southern border almost every day. It steals foreign aid funding to expand its weapons arsenal and uses the cement for schools and hospitals to construct terror tunnels. Israel just discovered and destroyed the fifteenth terror tunnel found since October of last year.
Israel continues to send a strong message to Hamas that nothing will justify terror, and it will pay a heavy price for attacking Israel.
But we have not forgotten about Abbas.
Abbas is taking active measures to radicalize the people of Gaza and prolong their suffering.
For his own cynical, political purposes, Abbas is pushing Israel and Hamas toward a war that could begin any day. For months, Abbas has withheld critical international funding from the people of Gaza – we heard [it from] Mr. Mladenov.
Today, over 40,000 Palestinian workers in Gaza do not receive a paycheck from Abbas, and half live below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 53%. Families live with little electricity or fuel and even less clean water.
When an Arab country offered $60 million to help pay for electricity in Gaza, Abbas’ reaction was “no.” He even threatened to make it worse for the people of Gaza if countries ignored his orders and delivered funds.
Abbas has now refused help from Israel, from the United States and even the United Nations. He is exploiting the dire situation in Gaza in order to stay in power.
Madam President,
In Judea and Samaria, Abbas is guilty of a different type of exploitation. The infamous “pay to slay” policy that remains the crown jewel of Abbas’ incitement campaign.
In the PA’s 2018 budget, Abbas has allocated $355 million toward the pay to slay policy. That’s seven percent of the total PA budget! Seven percent!
Let me put that in perspective.
Bolivia – seven percent of your budget last year was over $1 billion dollars.
Sweden – seven percent of your budget was $19 billion.
And the Netherlands – seven percent of your budget was $24 billion.
Imagine all that money spent to encourage the killing of Jews!
This crime of a policy is killing people. Ten days ago, it did.
It was just the beginning of another ordinary workweek. Kim Levengrond Yehezkel and Ziv Hagbi entered their offices as usual, like every Sunday in Israel. They worked at the Barkan Industrial Area, a complex of factories in which thousands of Israelis and Palestinians work side by side.
Kim was 28 years old. She was a mother with a one-year old baby. Ziv was 35, and a father of three.
The ordinary workweek quickly turned into a massacre. A Palestinian coworker of Kim and Ziv – someone they knew – turned into a terrorist that day. He used his work permit to enter the factory, as he would any other day.
But this time, he had a rifle hidden in his bag.
He made it through security and entered the room where Kim and Ziv sat in their office. Then he had them tied up, and he shot them in cold blood.
Just like that, four children lost a parent. Two spouses lost their partners. And Israeli society suffered yet another wound from terrorism.
The killer is still at large, but he cannot hide forever. We will catch him, and he will pay for his crime.
But Abbas will pay too. Abbas will pay him a total of three million dollars to this animal during his lifetime in prison.
That is the legacy of Abbas: slaughter innocent Israelis and be rewarded for life.
The same $355 million Abbas pays to terrorists is also over 45% of the foreign aid the Palestinians are receiving in 2018. That means that nearly half of every dollar you – all of you – give to the Palestinian people to build roads and schools is put in the pockets of those who murder Jews.
Therefore, if you do not pull your funding, you are complicit in the “pay to slay” policy.
Earlier this year, the US and Israel passed legislation to freeze payments to the PA until it ends its pay to slay program. Australia has also cut aid funding to the Palestinians, for fear that they were financing terror.
In response, Abbas ensured that he would continue these payments, even if, and I quote, “we only had a single penny left.”
Abbas’ priority is clear: his aim is to incite, so ours must be to indict.
Madam President,
If there was no culture of hate, no incitement, no payments to terrorists, and no glorification of murder, just imagine where Israel and the Palestinians would be today.
If there was a Palestinian leader that actually cared about his people, perhaps we would have a solution to this conflict.
So let me remind the members of this Council of some simple logic: you cannot expect different results when you do not change the equation.
If you really want to change the reality for Palestinians and Israelis, you must change the equation.
Remove the source of the culture of hate and textbook terrorism. When that source is removed – when Abbas is gone – only then will we see a brighter future.
I thank you.